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Working from home is powering productivity

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Re: Working from home is powering productivity

#191

Post by [deleted] »

mewpmewp2 wrote: post #170
brandonmenc wrote: post #150

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

[deleted]

Re: Working from home is powering productivity

#192

Post by mgfist »

erik_seaberg wrote: post #169
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."

It's a mental separation kind of thing. When I've had jobs where I work at an office, I am able to mentally leave work at work. When I've worked from home, I struggle to do that and end up thinking about work when showering or doing dishes.

Re: Working from home is powering productivity

#193

Post by appendix-rock »

jagged-chisel wrote: post #189
jnordwick wrote: post #173

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm going to need some data to prove this. I keep seeing this claim, but have not seen anything more than conjecture. There are just too many factors for this, and you would have to believe that a company is willing to throw away money for this to happen.

They already threw away the money by purchasing real estate and falling for the sunk cost fallacy. Or they’re on the hook for a lease for the next five years and it will cost more to break the lease. Companies waste money all the time. I don’t think it’s a stretch to think they did or would waste oodles of money on purchasing or leasing their offices.

That’s not evidence. It’s as baseless as the other side’s arguments. You’ve just heard it on HN enough times and are parroting it. I assure you that there’s not a person on this website that hasn’t read essentially your exact comment 100 times. OP is saying that one nerd’s reckoning doesn’t constitute evidence.

Re: Working from home is powering productivity

#195

Post by dangerlibrary »

jnordwick wrote: post #178

The title of the article doesn't match the rest. Productivity is getting more from the same inputs, not getting more with more inputs. First, there is very little data and just a couple conjectures thrown around. There isn't much substantive evidence of what it claims. Second, even if people aren't commuting, it just assumes people work the same hours, but many people are probably working longer hours so you can't te…

> This is more an opinion piece with some hand waving than actual proof

Pot, meet kettle. Kettle, this is pot.

Re: Working from home is powering productivity

#196

Post by perryizgr8 »

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.

This argument can be made for in-office work too. Offices in the "global south" are much cheaper to operate than in the first world. If the work involves interacting with computers connected via the internet, it can be done from any office.

Re: Working from home is powering productivity

#197

Post by ants_everywhere »

nine_zeros wrote: post #20
ryandrake wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> First-line managers have a similar role, but they are treated like garbage by their superiors, and consider their position a "necessary evil," towards higher ranks. This is because most companies don't have a promotion track above "Senior Software Engineer" that doesn't involve people-management, which is an entirely different job. It's as if you ran a restaurant and in order for your highest rated chef to get prom…

> And even at the BigTech companies who claim to have "parallel" technical promotion tracks that don't involve people management, And the promotion to upper technical levels involves - once again - larger influence over people as opposed to technical growth.

It seems reasonable that eventually it's easier to parallelize instead of having a single unit just do more stuff.

Re: Working from home is powering productivity

#198

Post by [deleted] »

lolinder wrote: post #139
hotspot_one wrote: post #124

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I see this alot. Has always struck me as very unfair.

I'm in a company that doesn't do this—everyone gets paid the same amount, which is way above average for most of the country—and some of the Californians are actively lobbying for location-based pay. I don't think they realize that they're actually lobbying for most of the company to get a pay cut so they can get a greater percentage of the total salary budget, but that's what it would amount to if they got their way…

[deleted]

Re: Working from home is powering productivity

#199

Post by tiborsaas »

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?

Office is an external discipline forced on you while WFH is an internal discipline no one watching over your shoulders, that's the difference.

For an undisciplined person anything can be distracting: birds chirping, picking up a delivery, cooking, a friend dropping by, daily chores like washing, organizing things, etc... it's an endless list really.

Re: Working from home is powering productivity

#200

Post by erik_seaberg »

lolinder wrote: post #139
hotspot_one wrote: post #124

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I see this alot. Has always struck me as very unfair.

I'm in a company that doesn't do this—everyone gets paid the same amount, which is way above average for most of the country—and some of the Californians are actively lobbying for location-based pay. I don't think they realize that they're actually lobbying for most of the company to get a pay cut so they can get a greater percentage of the total salary budget, but that's what it would amount to if they got their way…

They expect you to compete with nearby employers. If not, you should hire from less active markets and probably go more remote.
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