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I will always prefer to work from home

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Re: I will always prefer to work from home

#121

Post by cebert »

aplummer wrote: post #72
makeitdouble wrote: post #65

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why office sucks can be for any number of reasons, I think it's more of a long tail phenomenon with a myriad of distincts personal preferences and special needs. For instance office drinks can suck, and someone drinking 3 to 5 cups of warm drinks a day, being able to prepare delicious beverages with specialized equipement is a godsend. Or people who work sitting on their bed. Or want their pet around. Or don't want t…

> Most will just give up on comfort, where WFH is an option to be in a better situation. It’s also an option to be in a worse situation. My office is all setup for work and has the best perk, I can physically leave work behind each day.

> My office is all setup for work and has the best perk, I can physically leave work behind each day.

You can also have a room setup for work at your home.

Re: I will always prefer to work from home

#122

Post by devnullbrain »

rootusrootus wrote: post #50
lowercased wrote: post #36

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I worked at a place years back that was expanding; bought a second building - 2 stories. Downstairs had semi-open cubicles, and a wall of private office spaces (8 IIRC). All empty. Cubes were full. I was in the other building, told we were needing to move over the next couple months. I asked for one of the private spaces. They weren't really that big, and had no natural light, but... they did have a door. I'd been wr…

I don't even need a private office. One of the best environments I've ever worked in was a hybrid office/open model. Basically a bunch of conference rooms where each team got a room, and within the room the desk walls were low. Decorate it however you want, if you agree on style then you can have ambient music, etc. It was pretty great. But then they knocked all the walls down and put in rows of desks because they co…

Post-covid WFH discussions have led to a collective amnesia about this. We also spent buckets of time complaining about offices before it because almost every employer made decision like yours. Most offices were terrible places to work and non-technical managers ignored common sense and science to cram as many people as possible into their existing real estate costs. We'd gone from yearning for personal rooms from our cubicles to yearning for cubicles from our loud open-plan spaces.

Re: I will always prefer to work from home

#123

Post by lnsru »

BizarreByte wrote: post #93

I thought I would, but I'm no longer sold on full remote work having done it since 2018. I didn't realize just how much of my social interaction came from work and it's something I've not been able to recreate outside of work in my free time. I am hopelessly lonely and the mental health affects have at least in my case been dire. At the same time I'm afraid to RTO because if for some reason I need the flexibility of…

Your colleagues are not your friends. You’re more like passenger in the same bus where somebody will depart in the next stop. It’s dangerous to build relationships with people who are about to leave.

Re: I will always prefer to work from home

#124

Post by ghaff »

cebert wrote: post #121
aplummer wrote: post #72

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Most will just give up on comfort, where WFH is an option to be in a better situation. It’s also an option to be in a worse situation. My office is all setup for work and has the best perk, I can physically leave work behind each day.

> My office is all setup for work and has the best perk, I can physically leave work behind each day. You can also have a room setup for work at your home.

Not everyone has a spare room for that purpose.

Re: I will always prefer to work from home

#126

Post by soneil »

morelisp wrote: post #87
lowercased wrote: post #36

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I worked at a place years back that was expanding; bought a second building - 2 stories. Downstairs had semi-open cubicles, and a wall of private office spaces (8 IIRC). All empty. Cubes were full. I was in the other building, told we were needing to move over the next couple months. I asked for one of the private spaces. They weren't really that big, and had no natural light, but... they did have a door. I'd been wr…

One side-effect of the WFH period for us (and I assume a number of other EU companies) is that once we went WFH, we also went remote; previously we had two offices and everyone worked in one of those two cities and today we have (IIRC) five and people work all over the country and take rail into the nearest office when necessary. This has... mostly worked out OK. In any given office there's some spaces dedicated for…

That's what we've been seeing. My team were all in one corner of one room. Then "one day", we were all sent home.

Someone left, and was replaced by someone in another European country. He's nominally "in the office", but since it's not the same office as the rest of us (and we're not in ours anyway), he's free to come and go as he pleases. It's not like it makes any difference to us.

Then our manager moved on, and was replaced by someone in yet another European country. He was WFH / fully remote before "this" even started.

By time they tried to sell us on RTO, exactly 50% of the team are still here. And going to the office now, just makes it less convenient to call the other 50% of my team. (Yes, call. Call me old fashioned, but I love a good bitchfest, and a good bitchfest shouldn't be in writing.) My manager genuinely advised we ignore the RTO missive and see what happens. (Spoiler: not much.)

Then my boss's boss moved on, and was replaced by another remote position - and now the murmurs of RTO have died down.

Now we're hiring and the net has widened yet again. They need to be in a country where we have a legal presence, and need to be willing to work European hours.

It's amazing how much has changed in relatively little time. It doesn't feel like that long ago I was trying to make the case for WFH on weekends.

Re: I will always prefer to work from home

#127

Post by isanengineer »

As a mechanical engineer, I want to offer some perspective on how specific this is for people working exclusively in software. I would never ever even consider working fully remotely, mainly because my job involves designing physical things. The prototypes and models for them are not and cannot be in my home. A big part of my job involves making sure the technician can actually assemble the things I design, which requires going to the place where they assemble it. My company employs many software engineers, and they work from home more frequently than the mechanical or electrical engineers, but they are much more hesitant to allowing full remote just because the work is so centered on the physical product. Every time I see an article posted here arguing one way or the other this rarely comes up. Regardless of the pros, cons, or preferences this just is not an option for a lot of technical people.

Re: I will always prefer to work from home

#128

Post by lnsru »

agumonkey wrote: post #21

I'm mostly in favor of WFH, but there are a few missing spots: - toxic people ? if you're in a small team, or it's your direct lead, you will endure his toxicity even when remote - dedicated space for calm/silence: unfortunately not everybody has an isolated spare room. And personally I don't mind house noises, but the person there can get pissed if not very angry very often during zoom calls and it may/will eat your…

WFH is much nicer, the toxic person will need to call you and this is extra effort. But in the office you’re few steps away, so the whole day can be poisoned easily. My stupid manager (and former brilliant technical contributor) once sat for tho hours between my and colleague’s tables and watched what we do. Because he had nothing to do between meetings. I understand, that this is not everyday’s normal situation, but still not pleasant.

Re: I will always prefer to work from home

#129

Post by ghaff »

strangesmells06 wrote: post #6
the_snooze wrote: post #4

I feel these discussions always go the same way. Working at an office sucks because of some combination of {long commute, open office plan, team not being there}. I quite like going to the office myself because my situation is the opposite: I bike to work, where I have my own office, and my team likes to come in too. Hating the office is totally justifiable given that my setup isn't common; most people are forced to…

Yes! This! I think anyone would not mind the office if they werent treated like cattle. I dont think people dread going back to the office. People dread going back to the open office.

Some people really dislike open offices (or just spending the day around a lot of people generally) but I'm betting commutes are the #1 reason most people have against going into an office. Unless you can walk or, for some, bike any meaningful commute is basically a not very pleasant hour+ out of your day.

Re: I will always prefer to work from home

#130

Post by brandall10 »

the_snooze wrote: post #4

I feel these discussions always go the same way. Working at an office sucks because of some combination of {long commute, open office plan, team not being there}. I quite like going to the office myself because my situation is the opposite: I bike to work, where I have my own office, and my team likes to come in too. Hating the office is totally justifiable given that my setup isn't common; most people are forced to…

As someone who has been remote since '12, I absolutely agree. Nothing is better than having a cool/fun office environment close to home where you have things set up to an ergonomic ideal. I've been a member of many co-working spaces because of this.

The problem is 95% of the time it's not like this.

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