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Working from home is powering productivity

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Re: Working from home is powering productivity

#161

Post by Clubber »

l33tbro wrote: post #27

I despair a little at this. If I can do my job at home, then surely somebody can do it in the global south in tandem with AI for peanuts. Client-facing stuff gets centralised to a smaller team of specialists, and the ship gets much tighter. How long until megacorps and SMEs actually execute this reality? The management class and their unnecessary underlings like me have only been so resilient because companies are st…

>If I can do my job at home, then surely somebody can do it in the global south in tandem with AI for peanuts.

>How long until megacorps and SMEs actually execute this reality?

You don't have to wait long, it happened around 20-25 years ago.

Re: Working from home is powering productivity

#162

Post by Clubber »

gnulinux996 wrote: post #155

I'd really like to see how the American libertarian copes with the return to office mandates. I've had a lot of American colleagues that do not wish to return to office, the types that believe in "freedom", "individual responsibility" and "if you do not like the job go work somewhere else". As the employers are closing in on them, they slowly start to understand that unless they collectively punch back they _will_ yi…

>I'd really like to see how the American libertarian copes with the return to office mandates.

The American libertarian will just move to a job that allows remote.

>As the employers are closing in on them, they slowly start to understand that unless they collectively punch back they _will_ yield sooner or later.

Believe me, companies stand to lose a lot more with an empty dev team than any dev stands to lose moving to another company. RTO companies better have some damn good reasons to work there if they require asses in seats. Companies that don't (most) will struggle and wither.

Re: Working from home is powering productivity

#163

Post by sevensor »

alphazard wrote: post #21
sevensor wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I see an absolutely shocking number of managers promoted from the IC ranks, who not only have no preparation for management, but no experience at any other company.

You are describing the best kind of manager for two reasons: 1. They understand what their reports do, can mentor the less experienced ones, and are a competent peer to the more experienced ones, rather than an obstacle. 2. If they turn out to be bad managers, there is a low stakes, no hard feelings, path for them to go back to being an IC. There is a huge aversion to firing people, so bad managers who can't do anyth…

Strange that you’d say that. What I’ve seen is that promoting homegrown ICs to line management is a favored strategy of nontechnical MBAs in upper management. Any large organization is bureaucratic. Given the intensely bureaucratic record of communist governments, your invocation of Marxist rhetoric here is frankly laughable.

What promoting inexperienced managers from within does is place them at a tremendous informational disadvantage. Never having worked anywhere else, they don’t understand the coded language of bureaucracy and they have no perspective on what constitutes normal behavior. This gives the MBA latitude to abuse them as pawns in organizational power games they don’t understand, until they either burn out or wise up.

Re: Working from home is powering productivity

#164

Post by notyourwork »

lowbloodsugar wrote: post #152
notyourwork wrote: post #75

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don’t follow the male, female, disabled person argument at all.

The canonical example would be it's hard to have a serendipitous conversation with your male colleagues in the mens restroom if you're female. That's the obvious one. Then we get to styles of conversation and engagement. I've had to defend promotions for female engineers from criticism based entirely on their communication. "She is not assertive enough." Ok, is she highly effective at her job? Yes. Ok, then what the…

I’m sorry but rude people exist everywhere and it’s not a tech thing. I’ve been in big tech for over a decade and I don’t have conversations in the bathroom. If you think WFH reduces these bro-relationships, you are being naive and they just become less accessible.

Re: Working from home is powering productivity

#165

Post by Spivak »

ahimthedream wrote: post #146
throwaway918299 wrote: post #52

I am literally at least 10x when I work from home. I have ADHD and through years of discipline, cultivating my workspace to suit my needs, and hard work I can be productive most of the day in the zone without (much) sidetracking. Literally impossible for me to do in the modern software dev sweatshop. I also make more money, can spend more time with my family because I don’t commute, and plenty of other positives. I l…

You are the anomaly, not the norm. WFH takes discipline, work ethic and honestly the ability to manage a work life balance. Doing this is hard, like you said. Problem is most people aren’t disciplined:)

I'm not disciplined at all when it comes to my work and I'm still massively more productive at home. What are you talking about?

Having non-work activities that are fulfilling like cooking/cleaning to break up the work to get out of the rut of brain-fry is so nice. Having non-work non-screen things to at work is so necessary.

Re: Working from home is powering productivity

#166

Post by notyourwork »

mvanbaak wrote: post #131
notyourwork wrote: post #73

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Ding ding ding … this is the most overlooked aspect of the RTO/WFH dynamic.

This might be the nr 1 reason. The hidden layoff round is also high on that list if you ask me. They call everyone back to the office, the people that dont want/cant will not adhere, and thus be fired without the companies having to pay severance.

Absolutely and no publicly traded company is going to admit it.

Re: Working from home is powering productivity

#167

Post by JTyQZSnP3cQGa8B »

l33tbro wrote: post #27

I despair a little at this. If I can do my job at home, then surely somebody can do it in the global south in tandem with AI for peanuts. Client-facing stuff gets centralised to a smaller team of specialists, and the ship gets much tighter. How long until megacorps and SMEs actually execute this reality? The management class and their unnecessary underlings like me have only been so resilient because companies are st…

I don’t understand this argument. It was called “outsourcing” 20 years ago when there was no AI.

Re: Working from home is powering productivity

#168

Post by dgunay »

hirvi74 wrote: post #157
ahimthedream wrote: post #146

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You are the anomaly, not the norm. WFH takes discipline, work ethic and honestly the ability to manage a work life balance. Doing this is hard, like you said. Problem is most people aren’t disciplined:)

> WFH takes discipline That is bizarre to me. I find the office takes far more discipline. Do people really get that distracted at home? What is so distracting?

I don't have too much of a problem with it but there are some obstacles depending on your home life.

My wife is hybrid, and on the days she's working from home I have to be firm about boundaries or I'll get significantly less done than on the days where it's just me. If you have kids, or live with your parents, I imagine it presents similar challenges. My sister moved back in with my father in 2020 due to the pandemic, and he was bizarrely disruptive to her work despite _also_ being remote. I'm not saying offices don't have this problem too (many such stories of loud and obnoxious coworkers), but it can be harder to have these conversations with loved ones.

Lots of people live in distracting, annoying places. If I open my window, I will hear some idiot gun it off the line in their straight-piped car from the stoplight near my apartment, several times an hour. There is a constant din of tire noise from the nearby freeway. The firemen at the station down the block do their thing every now and then. If I close my window, it regularly reaches 78F+ in my apartment. I have been battling property management to fix my A/C for months now, and every HVAC technician they send does nothing to fix the problem. My old neighbors used to play shitty music during the day.

Especially in HCOL places with mega-offices where these RTO mandates often stem from, sometimes it really is just easier to work in an air-conditioned office where you can get free coffee, snacks, and maybe some quiet if you're lucky or can slink away to an unused meeting room.

I 100% agree with you though that, at least for me, the discipline of getting up early in the morning, being well groomed and presentable, and battling traffic both ways is greater for me than taking steps to make myself comfortable and productive at home.

Re: Working from home is powering productivity

#169

Post by erik_seaberg »

itohihiyt wrote: post #154

I currently work somewhere where I can't WFH. And as a counterpoint to pretty much everyone here I prefer it. My last role I was able to WFH. Reasons I prefer going into the office: - when work is done, I leave, and it's done. - not using my resources (electricity / broadband / etc) for work. - easier interaction with colleagues. I liked it at the start, and liked the flexibility, but after a while hated that my home…

> when work is done, I leave, and it's done.

To quote Dilbert:

> Now let me get this straight. The time I spend in the shower actually thinking about solving problems is not "work." The time I spend at the office attending meaningless meetings is "work."

Re: Working from home is powering productivity

#170

Post by mewpmewp2 »

brandonmenc wrote: post #150
mewpmewp2 wrote: post #127

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I keep seeing this being brought up, I haven't researched it too much, but it's a bit hard for me to believe that this could truly be the case, that there's such huge influence from commercial real estate owners on CEOs of much larger companies? What causes them to have such power over large companies?

It's not like, a direct marching order. It's just a general attitude that has filtered around C suites or whatever. Go watch any daytime cable news investment shows and you'll see it. Just run of the mill cohort thinking. No big conspiracy.

I'm not from the US, so I don't have direct sight into all of that. Luckily, I think there's many start ups and other companies who are valuing and all in on the remote work. I haven't felt the risk at my company to have a strong urge of getting people return to the office.
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