Return to Office Is Bullshit and Everyone Knows It

Post by ramraj07 » Tue, Oct 03, 2023, 2:12 AM UTC

ledauphin wrote: post #73

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…

critique: (almost) no one wants to work 30 days a month. ;) more seriously: I assume you plan to pay for hotel rooms? also: why 2 hours max? If you're paying for one night in a hotel, then surely you could pay for 2 nights, making 3 or more hours feasible.

Post by ajmurmann » Tue, Oct 03, 2023, 2:17 AM UTC

eropple wrote: post #562

ajmurmann wrote: post #466

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Here are a few things that aren't working out from a management perspective: Social bonding is much harder, but important for reliable collaboration, especially when there are disagreements. I also believe that conversations are more likely to derail when they aren't in person. I've also been part of so many lunch conversations in the office that resulted in someone being able to help out someone on a different team…

IMO: skill issue. Communicating effectively on camera is a learnable skill, it's not one most people in tech have. But making sure people are trained to do a good job is a management challenge and it's incumbent upon management to make sure people are doing it. If, after two years, your team still has trouble having real conversations over a teleconferencing solution? That's a management failure. "Lunchroom conversat…

Post by erik_seaberg » Tue, Oct 03, 2023, 3:00 AM UTC

tgma wrote: post #260

fullshark wrote: post #198

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What's the problem if they get the tasks required of them done? A lot of employers don't want just that, they want a control of the employee's time. Remote means they might not respond to that urgent request immediately like they need to in a face to face conversation. I believe that is the main thing that is so disturbing to these employers that lament remote work, not that productivity is affected.

> What's the problem if they get the tasks required of them done? At least in Software Engineering, tasks are rarely that clear-cut and specific. Yes, as a remote employee you will have enough data to justify "I did what was expected of me," and the employer have no specific performance concerns, but at the same time, I posit that you would have likely done more stuff that was not particularly written handed down to…

Post by aidenn0 » Tue, Oct 03, 2023, 3:20 AM UTC

ehsankia wrote: post #829

aidenn0 wrote: post #418

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Oh, I am very in favor of "everyone should have their own desk, preferably with walls and a door," and I wonder how many of the people who like WFH are because they didn't have that in the office. I really don't get the whole open office idea; I thought it was a cost-saving thing, but where I work they converted a large conference room into small offices and the per-office cost wasn't that bad. If you're really penny…

It depends. If someone is only coming in 1-2 days a week, then I'm fine with them not having a dedicated desk. It does feel wasteful to give every single person a whole desk or even office if they're gonna just use it one day a week. But if someone comes in 4-5 days, they definitely deserve their own dedicated desk. The issue is that they try to treat everyone exactly the same. I don't understand why it's so hard to…

Post by cozzyd » Tue, Oct 03, 2023, 5:32 AM UTC

kjkjadksj wrote: post #94

Fyrezerk wrote: post #55

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Where is the kid then when they are at the office? Probably in childcare then not left alone with a stove if they are at the bug you all day age. You can put them in childcare wile working remote too.