Note to self - scratching CloudFlare off the list of companies I'd want to work for.
Paul Graham on Remote Work
21–30 of 66 posts
Re: Paul Graham on Remote Work
#22Like all generalisations, this one is wrong. What companies need to do is work out a hybrid approach or prove to their employees that it is necessary to come to the office. If you are working on a prototype robotics project you do need to be in the office, but if you are writing microservices you do not need to come to the office to watch the chest thumping antics of your CEO or sales people. I don't write better cod…
Agreed. The issue is that currently most hybrid approaches seem to be a basic "you work in office 2 days a week", which is not useful for, say, software devs: There is no benefits to anyone in coding in office vs. at home. Instead, days in office should be special, meaning days of personal interactions.
Re: Paul Graham on Remote Work
#23[flagged]
Re: Paul Graham on Remote Work
#24The main challenge seems that leadership is so poor at making the case for what they believe will be gained. It's always vague things like networking, training or energy.
Add to that the point that the few stated examples are usually available if staff come in even a modest amount of the time, ie they are an argument against full remote rather than an argument against majority remote.
Re: Paul Graham on Remote Work
#25Paul, Do you commute to an office every day, sit at a desk in a 4 person shared cubicle, have monthly "performance reviews" by someone unqualified to manage your subject area, have to deal with 3 children's weekly scheduled school-caused sickness, own an old car and only 1 so it is out of service when it needs repair? I worked from home for years ... scratch that, I "lived at work" while at home for years. If you bel…
We have to face realities. It's obvious that companies have found that working from home negatively affects productivity. Companies are all about saving money and maximizing productivity. If working from home had been at an even level, or even a bit less, to working from the office then they would had chosen it over having people go into the office since maintaining an office, and all that goes with it, is very expen…
> It's obvious that companies have found that working from home negatively affects productivity. Companies are all about saving money and maximizing productivity. If working from home had been at an even level, or even a bit less, to working from the office then they would had chosen it over having people go into the office since maintaining an office, and all that goes with it, is very expensive.
Or middle management forces this on everyone so they can keep pretending they're useful, while most of middle management is absolutely useless. Most managers are there to ask something one person and forward the answer to another person, or gather multiple ones to sum them up in a single sentence. That's literally the job. People who have actual business influence sit at 'the top', people who have technical influence sit near 'the bottom', most people in between are just... there. I know, I worked with middle management heavily in my last corporate gig, those people usually barely even know what we do, they are incapable of making any decision without 'running it through upper management', most of them are not even trained properly to resolve interpersonal issues or work with people in general. Going to the office just so you can sit in your cubicle or on a random desk in the open space and spend whole day on calls with other people is just... pointless.
> It's not what we want or wish for but, if we are lucky, it's what we can get.
This sentence reads like corporate management is your overlord and you're happy if they let you do something. Working in IT you're privileged enough to be able to actually choose who you work for, thinking you're 'lucky' because you can work 2 days from home, is kind of... sad really.
Re: Paul Graham on Remote Work
#26Like all generalisations, this one is wrong. What companies need to do is work out a hybrid approach or prove to their employees that it is necessary to come to the office. If you are working on a prototype robotics project you do need to be in the office, but if you are writing microservices you do not need to come to the office to watch the chest thumping antics of your CEO or sales people. I don't write better cod…
The problem is not that work like micro services can be done remote. The problem is remote workers end up doing other things than working. It makes a mess for meeting scheduling and collaboration. Effectively slowing the progression of the project down. I work at a company who his hybrid and has remote. Every remote engineer is damn near impossible to work with, a forget anything happening on Mondays or Fridays. “Oh…
Surely if that's happening regularly then it's up to the manager to sit down individually with such employees and make it clear that it's no more acceptable to be regularly unavailable during the work day when remote than it is when at the office.
FWIW, it's not a problem I ever noticed particularly. There are always occasions when the exact person you might need help from or to collaborate with at some particular moment isn't available, and undoubtedly some things are better done working together in person, but I've never experienced the situation of "damn-near impossible to work with" with any work colleague, even during extended periods of working remotely (which I've been doing on & off since about 2005, sometimes in entirely different time zones to my coworkers!).
Re: Paul Graham on Remote Work
#27The biggest loss from homeworking is the learning element for newer or more junior staff. Many of the learn the job by watching, listening or being shown in person. You can still do it remotely but it's way more difficult. The benefits of bouncing ideas off one another is also gone, that can affect creativity. Talking to each other, arguin, breaking down ideas or processes, drawing quick diagrams or knocking up a pro…
I agree with your first part. Your proposed solution, I disagree with. > I don't think a blanket return to work is what's needed, a more targeted appropriate one might be though, identify who's presence is required and pay them commensurately to be in the office. Working from home gets you less but you get the flexibility. And how exactly do you do this? What if the person who's presence is required in the office dep…
It comes with the job description. People will be intelligent enough to recognise that they need to be in the office, and they'll be rewarded more for it. I think it was the boss of Goldman that told remote workers don't expect a New York salary if your not working in New York.
Re: Paul Graham on Remote Work
#28Paul, Do you commute to an office every day, sit at a desk in a 4 person shared cubicle, have monthly "performance reviews" by someone unqualified to manage your subject area, have to deal with 3 children's weekly scheduled school-caused sickness, own an old car and only 1 so it is out of service when it needs repair? I worked from home for years ... scratch that, I "lived at work" while at home for years. If you bel…
Your list of first-world grievances also describes: healthcare workers, literally anyone in the trades, grocery store employees, retail, etc. At some point tech employees have convinced themselves that they are likewise "essential" employees and deserving of special exceptions. But the fact of the matter is most tech jobs, apps, etc. could go away tomorrow and life would continue unabated (in contrast to the list abo…
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Re: Paul Graham on Remote Work
#29[dead]
Re: Paul Graham on Remote Work
#30Like all generalisations, this one is wrong. What companies need to do is work out a hybrid approach or prove to their employees that it is necessary to come to the office. If you are working on a prototype robotics project you do need to be in the office, but if you are writing microservices you do not need to come to the office to watch the chest thumping antics of your CEO or sales people. I don't write better cod…
"But remote-first won't be the default." doesn't sound like much of a generalisation to me, and indeed is arguably saying the same thing as you - that a hybrid approach is likely the best fit for most tech companies.