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Return to Office Is Bullshit and Everyone Knows It

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Re: Return to Office Is Bullshit and Everyone Knows It

#131

Post by paxys »

ramraj07 wrote: post #34

If I start a company tomorrow, this is what I would want to do: 1. Hire within a general metropolitan area (2 hour commute max). 2. WFH for 28 days a month. 3. 2 days a month the entire org convenes in a ballroom or something and works together, have some progress reports, happy hours and hackathons. In this model, everyone’s remote most of the time. Yet everyone gets FaceTime with each other IrL. Seed ideas and brai…

If you are building a remote-first company why would you restrict your talent pool to a single metropolitan area?

Re: Return to Office Is Bullshit and Everyone Knows It

#133

Post by amanaplanacanal »

Fyrezerk wrote: post #55
mysterydip wrote: post #28

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What makes it stressful? I haven't seen this take before so I'm really curious about this perspective.

I know several friends who prefer to be in the office because they need some amount of time away from their young kids. It's the equivalent of "them" time where they get an escape from child care for a few hours.

If they have a child care option when they are in the office, why would the same child care option not be available when working from home?

Re: Return to Office Is Bullshit and Everyone Knows It

#135

Post by Whatarethese »

jetcopter wrote: post #115

While employers can ultimately do whatever they want, people hired remote prior to covid should remain remote. I think its sad when remote hires are caught up in the return to office drag net. These individuals were typically hired due to a lack of a local skill pool so the employer hired remote to find the talent. Its simply counter productive to try and make them move local and will result in the same problem event…

I know of some workers that were hired remotely in states that dont have offices that were then required to either move to an office or quit during the return to office.

Re: Return to Office Is Bullshit and Everyone Knows It

#136

Post by fullshark »

SSJPython wrote: post #30

I don't understand why there can't be compromise on this? If you want to go to the office, go. If you want to work from home, then work from home. Why is it that remote workers never insist on everyone working from home, but RTO people want every single person to RTO? Just leave it up to the individual worker.

In office people don't care about just themselves being in an office, they want everyone in an office. Being in an office to take video conferences is pointless, they want that collective environment that they thrived in pre-pandemic.

Re: Return to Office Is Bullshit and Everyone Knows It

#137

Post by Spivak »

DiggyJohnson wrote: post #90
x86x87 wrote: post #4

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is not only about before pandemic remote workers. Once people enjoyed the flexibility they aren't going back.

I enjoyed the flexibility of WFH but I still prefer working with local teams in the office. There are pros and cons to both, but it's silly to assume everyone has the same preference as you just because your preference is strongly held. This is my response to both your comment and TFA. There is less consensus on this topic than the very-vocal WFH crowd would have you believe. I know plenty of other talented engineers…

I don't know anyone that is advocating for forcing everyone to work from home but instead "office available for anyone who wants it."

There's a mile wide difference between "my preference is to be vegetarian" where people will get out the stops to provide accommodations and "my preference is everyone must keep vegetarian."

Re: Return to Office Is Bullshit and Everyone Knows It

#138

Post by cmrdporcupine »

SSJPython wrote: post #30

I don't understand why there can't be compromise on this? If you want to go to the office, go. If you want to work from home, then work from home. Why is it that remote workers never insist on everyone working from home, but RTO people want every single person to RTO? Just leave it up to the individual worker.

The reason there's little compromise is that there's only so many profitable workplaces to go around. So how they get managed is a resource decision allocation problem like most other things.

I think for people in the Bay Area maybe this might not be the case. But other places in the world don't have the same kind of plethora of options.

For me, it's work remote, or take a massive paycut and work on far less interesting and satisfying work. But I also don't like working remote. So, yeah...

Re: Return to Office Is Bullshit and Everyone Knows It

#139

Post by SV_BubbleTime »

bloopernova wrote: post #125

WFH: No commute. Disabled people can work. Less micro plastics in the environment from car tires. Potentially lower greenhouse emissions. No office means no costs from rent, heating/cooling, cleaning, furniture, etc etc. Spending time around your family. (Although on that last one, I really dislike kids screaming in the background of conference calls) Edited to add: I wonder how to compare energy usage or emissions?…

Why didn’t you list the negatives?

And in a John Stewart Mill way, list the negatives in their most sincere and effective forms by the people that truly believe them. Not just your take that you happen to easily to refute.

Steelman RTO from the point of a company dealing with WFH abuse and I’ll think you are more serious.

Re: Return to Office Is Bullshit and Everyone Knows It

#140

Post by hypeit »

DiggyJohnson wrote: post #90
x86x87 wrote: post #4

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is not only about before pandemic remote workers. Once people enjoyed the flexibility they aren't going back.

I enjoyed the flexibility of WFH but I still prefer working with local teams in the office. There are pros and cons to both, but it's silly to assume everyone has the same preference as you just because your preference is strongly held. This is my response to both your comment and TFA. There is less consensus on this topic than the very-vocal WFH crowd would have you believe. I know plenty of other talented engineers…

It's the "Return" part of RTO that people have a problem with. Have an office if you like, but don't expect me to go there. I work from home.
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