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Working from home is powering productivity

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Re: Working from home is powering productivity

#201

Post by iamthemonster »

THENATHE wrote: post #182

I love work from home, but I can’t help but feel like its only real benefit is removing a lot of the overhead from jobs that are already considered overhead. Agree with this next part or not, it isn’t really debatable: to the average person (which we aren’t), basically anything that can be done on a computer from home is overhead. Coding in the office? Takes up a lot of office space and commute time and energy. Finan…

I'm an engineer in the process industries (oil/gas) and we are constantly collaborating and running stuff by other engineering disciplines with different knowledge to us, and coordinating with management, logistics, maintenance, operations, commercial and contractors. Isn't there a similarly high level of interdisciplinary communication involved in coding? How do you keep up the quality of communication?

(in my industry in Western Australia we essentially never did work from home because we were Covid-free)

Re: Working from home is powering productivity

#202

Post by gruez »

JoshTriplett wrote: post #34
nmstoker wrote: post #16

It's good to see some serious arguments for WFH. Globally much of the pro-office camp's public position is driven by personal leanings of CEOs who genuinely seem to have made the decisions without evidence, often it's something they're very grumpy about (hardly the best state of mind for good judgement) and often based on the assumption that company productivity is based on workers doing what they do (usually far fro…

> Globally much of the pro-office camp's public position is driven by personal leanings of CEOs who genuinely seem to have made the decisions without evidence In some cases, the pressure is also coming from external to the company, from cities and VCs and similar who care about the commercial real-estate value of now-abandoned offices.

>In some cases, the pressure is also coming from external to the company, from cities and VCs and similar who care about the commercial real-estate value of now-abandoned offices.

That logic seems... questionable. Even if CRE firms are in VCs/investors' portfolios, it doesn't make sense to divert money from your SaaS companies to prop up your CRE firms. In the best case (ie. both sides are owned by you), such transfers are zero to slightly negative sum (from opportunity costs and costs associated with operating an office). In the typical case where you're renting from another CRE company, such transfers are definitely negative. It doesn't make sense to go spend your money to prop up the broader CRE market as a CRE investor, just like it doesn't make sense for you to go out to buy iPhones to prop up Apple shares as an Apple investor.

Re: Working from home is powering productivity

#203

Post by [deleted] »

jnordwick wrote: post #173
JoshTriplett wrote: post #34

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Globally much of the pro-office camp's public position is driven by personal leanings of CEOs who genuinely seem to have made the decisions without evidence In some cases, the pressure is also coming from external to the company, from cities and VCs and similar who care about the commercial real-estate value of now-abandoned offices.

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.

[deleted]

Re: Working from home is powering productivity

#204

Post by winwang »

THENATHE wrote: post #185
ChrisMarshallNY wrote: post #6

> is highly dependent on how well it’s managed. That's the kicker, right there. I am kind of in despair, at the quality of tech managers; especially "first line" managers, these days.

My boss recently sent me from 5 days in office to 3, and on those two days WFH I get basically nothing done. Not because I don’t try, but my position in a small company is structured in such a way that I essentially work with my boss as her right hand, so if she isn’t there to guide me or give me tasks I essentially don’t work. I am not sure if that is a failing of her management, the job we are doing, or the industr…

Typically WFH would expect you (or your boss) to have availability similar to being in person, though?

Re: Working from home is powering productivity

#205

Post by erik_seaberg »

Clubber wrote: post #161
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.

They tried remote body shops, which was a disaster (we had "tested deliverables" that didn't compile). This time there seems to be more emphasis on opening your own remote office and hiring the strong candidates there.

Re: Working from home is powering productivity

#207

Post by EasyMark »

jnordwick wrote: post #173
JoshTriplett wrote: post #34

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Globally much of the pro-office camp's public position is driven by personal leanings of CEOs who genuinely seem to have made the decisions without evidence In some cases, the pressure is also coming from external to the company, from cities and VCs and similar who care about the commercial real-estate value of now-abandoned offices.

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.

There are tons of articles out there about mayors/council members/ etc pressuring execs to get butts in office seats for the past few years. I don’t know if that counts as data to you or not, but they are relatively easy to find in a google search.

Re: Working from home is powering productivity

#208

Post by gruez »

coliveira wrote: post #175
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?

The pressure is not from smaller RE companies, is from the biggest banks who control the comercial debt and see the writing on the wall. The banking industry can exert indirect pressure on lots of tech investors. Similarly for politicians in large cities and states who can control the tax side of the equation.

> is from the biggest banks who control the comercial debt and see the writing on the wall.

Okay but surely given all the pro-wfh people, you'd think at least someone would leak memos of banks pressuring lenders to institute RTO policies?

Re: Working from home is powering productivity

#209

Post by gruez »

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.

>Go watch any daytime cable news investment shows and you'll see it.

As in "we need to RTO to prop up commercial real estate" specifically, or something more general like "we need to RTO to increase collaboration" or whatever?

Re: Working from home is powering productivity

#210

Post by [deleted] »

mgfist wrote: post #192
erik_seaberg wrote: post #169

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> 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.

[deleted]
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