Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Want employees to return to the office? Then give each one an office

washingtonpost.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

161–170 of 838 posts

Re: Want employees to return to the office? Then give each one an office

#161

Post by Terretta »

JohnFen wrote: post #65
1970-01-01 wrote: post #3

At home, the benefits are extreme. Full office, private bath, private bed, private kitchen, garaged parking, asset security, and a 30 second commute. The next wave of office workers will want it better than this, or it simply won't work.

I don't think that it needs to be better than home. However, offices have been actively unpleasant places that are difficult to work in for a very, very long time. Now that everyone is reminded (or made aware, for younger workers) of that, people rightfully expect better. That much really does need to change. Everyone getting an office with a door -- even a small one -- would go a long way toward making the office a…

> Everyone getting an office with a door -- even a small one…

Alice looked through the small door...

https://images.genius.com/80f6b055d05188b3ae126e3be56a5134.1...

Re: Want employees to return to the office? Then give each one an office

#162

Post by zer8k »

danaris wrote: post #113
mytailorisrich wrote: post #30

People who like WFH will never want to return to the office unless perhaps the office is a 5 minute walk from home (they may be forced to, but they won't want to). For many people the time and cost savings of avoiding a daily commute cannot be offset by a nicer office. Those who are happy to return to the office in general are those who do not like WFH and prefer more contacts and a change of scenery. A nicer office…

I'm massively in favor of WFH—but I think this is a bit of an absolutist take. I can see plenty of people who are enjoying WFH, but would be willing to return to the office if they no longer had to work in a cube farm, but could have their own private office, that they could decorate to their taste, and where they could play their own music. And, perhaps most importantly, have a door that they could keep closed so th…

> if they no longer had to work in a cube farm,

A cube farm is massively preferable to open offices. I never want to go back to working in an office but I especially never want to go back to an open office. The mixture of seeming too available, loud people all over the place, zero privacy, etc were revolting to me.

Re: Want employees to return to the office? Then give each one an office

#163

Post by kjkjadksj »

wkat4242 wrote: post #93
toddmatthews wrote: post #56

Earlier quoted context omitted.

At one point in time people probably said the same thing about employer provided health insurance, and now it’s expected. Tough to get good talent if other companies are providing better perks

In the US I think it's also a retention strategy. Nobody will just up and leave before they have another job lined up because health insurance is unaffordable. One US colleague mentioned $1000 per month! It's a big deterrent IMO especially compared to Spain where healthcare is free

Honestly, I wonder what sort of aca plans you would qualify for unemployed? Certainly not a $1000 a month one as you’d be reporting no income.

Re: Want employees to return to the office? Then give each one an office

#164

Post by xeromal »

sourcecodeplz wrote: post #43

I always performed better in 2-4 person offices. Not alone, but not open space either. The constant noise and people walking by all the time is terrible for concentration.

Yeah, this seems like a fun idea. You get to make a couple of buddies and you can bounce ideas easily without being overwhelmed or treated like cattle. Team rooms.

Re: Want employees to return to the office? Then give each one an office

#166

Post by pc86 »

rwmj wrote: post #126
hn_throwaway_99 wrote: post #107

Earlier quoted context omitted.

[flagged]

He didn't say it wasn't a difficult job, just that the C-suite were always able to work flexibly, and afford to have a second flat next to the office (or in extreme cases, force the office to move near to their homes).

Not replying to you but the above comment got flagged before I responded and I already typed the comment up so I want to post it :)

--

If we're specifically talking about large enterprises, these CEOs make more in a year than most Americans make their entire life. If you didn't live a Fortune 1000 CEO level lifestyle you could literally do the job for 4-6 months and retire, and that's ignoring the fact that they've typically been in the C-Suite making 20-50% of that salary for decades already. It's not often somebody living paycheck to paycheck is promoted into CEO.

I've worked jobs in public companies where the CEO and half the C-Suite was driven to work every morning. I've worked jobs where a rank and file programmer got denied a raise because he left at 4 every day (despite working 8 or more hours every day) because the policy was to work 8-5, while the CEO worked from a vacation home when the weather wasn't nice where our HQ was. Whether the job is hard is irrelevant, all the GP is saying is that you have ultimate flexibility in that role, and now the poors have a taste of it too, and most of them/us aren't going to give it up without a fight.

Re: Want employees to return to the office? Then give each one an office

#167

Post by joncrocks »

amf12 wrote: post #60
plagiarist wrote: post #7

Give me a laundry and dish service to replace how I am able to start appliances during a break.

Interesting.. laundry/grocery service would be trivial for a lot of employers, and a huge benefit for employees. Why hasn't anyone offered it yet?

Money can be exchanged for goods and services.

Re: Want employees to return to the office? Then give each one an office

#168

Post by xeromal »

quercusa wrote: post #55
jwestbury wrote: post #42

Honestly, I'd even take a cube farm. I've only ever worked at tech companies with fully open offices, or, at best, some cubicle walls up around groups of 10-15 desks.

I have repented of my bitching about cube farms since discovering there are worse things.

Aye, same. My first job was a cube farm and it was much better than sitting at a giant wooden table with 5000 chairs.

Re: Want employees to return to the office? Then give each one an office

#169

Post by cdme »

mytailorisrich wrote: post #30

People who like WFH will never want to return to the office unless perhaps the office is a 5 minute walk from home (they may be forced to, but they won't want to). For many people the time and cost savings of avoiding a daily commute cannot be offset by a nicer office. Those who are happy to return to the office in general are those who do not like WFH and prefer more contacts and a change of scenery. A nicer office…

There's nothing an office can provide me that's better than the moments I have during the WFH day with our infant son as he grows.

Re: Want employees to return to the office? Then give each one an office

#170

Post by steveBK123 »

btbuildem wrote: post #141
steveBK123 wrote: post #96

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Open floorplans are especially problematic if your team handles any mix of development & operational tasks. Wall Street tech it's pretty typical to do your own SRE/L3 and honestly even L2/L1. Everything from business user "hey how do I.." customer service questions down to "the server is on fire, alerts are coming in .. ". Open floorplans mean even if you have an agreed PagerDuty type rotation, everyone gets sucked i…

Open floor plans are even more problematic when the R&D team shares the space with sales / marketing. In that setting only one of the teams is getting any work done, I'll leave you to guess which one.

Yes - There is less than zero thought put into open floorplan seating charts.

We had in sequential rows - Level1 support, R&D, Development. Sat like this for years.

So R&D was sandwiched between the team that was constantly on contentious urgent calls, and the dev team they ran over to ask for help.

Best open floorplan seat I ever had was in a far corner way off from most dev, sat near a trader who spent all day on the phone yakking. Just like a total storyteller kind of guy, incredible yarns were spun .. kind faded into interesting background music for me. Like leaving the History Channel on in the back. Philosophy, science, history, movies, politics.. etc.

Post reply on HN