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Working from home is powering productivity

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Re: Working from home is powering productivity

#261

Post by hackernewds »

notyourwork wrote: post #73
Terr_ wrote: post #45

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> real-estate value Separately but simultaneously, there are often local tax-benefits which depend on the company "creating jobs", and that's often defined in a way that means butts-in-offices downtown.

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

not really. there used to be a system where the SF government of course provided tax benefits for Twitter (now X) and Square (now Block) to open offices to enliven Market Street. Jack Dorsey fell into this trap and actually did establish his office there, until the SF government decided to cash their Golden goose and take these tax breaks away.

and so right after, Square has gone fully remote as well as X has mostly left the Bay area

Re: Working from home is powering productivity

#262

Post by JoshTriplett »

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.

https://www.gartner.com/en/articles/the-data-is-in-return-to...

It's a layoff, but a really poor one losing exactly the people you don't want to lose.

Re: Working from home is powering productivity

#263

Post by tsimionescu »

User23 wrote: post #32
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…

Now I know little about kitchens, but I’m under the impression that the entry level job is pretty much just following instructions, chopping things up, etc. And as you rise from there, yes you get responsibility for those beneath you doing their jobs. The sous chef is responsible for seeing that whatever you call the choppers are doing their job, and the head chef is basically boss of the kitchen (and often also an o…

Having a single person do both a technical job and people and project management only scales up to size of company. There's only so much time in a 40h week, and dealing with certain problems means you can't deal with others, and as the size of the project and the size of the team increases, it will rapidly become impossible to do all of these if it's not your 100% full-time job.

Re: Working from home is powering productivity

#264

Post by ohmahjong »

The_Colonel wrote: post #227
appendix-rock wrote: post #193

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Exactly. The home office debate is a great example of motivated reasoning - many people really like the personal benefits of home office which makes them look for things which confirm their view (with the bar for "evidence" being very low). The more passion you have, the more ridiculous form it takes. In normal debates, intelligent people usually admit that there are various trade-offs, and there are different POVs w…

It does feel like a debate that is mostly qualitative, and from two different sides (employee and employer).

My anecdotal experience has been that most employees I speak to are pretty clear about certain elements at the individual level but vary along many key axes: home office allows them to focus OR is too distracting; they miss the office culture OR hate the inefficiency of office smalltalk; they thrive on in-person connections OR thrive in focused isolation. There is also the topic of commuting, which most people don't love doing.

Employers should largely be motivated by more quantitative thinking, although in practice this varies and the metrics themselves are notoriously difficult to quantify.

Re: Working from home is powering productivity

#265

Post by vundercind »

Clubber wrote: post #160
lokar wrote: post #58

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yeah, exactly, there is a path, but it sort of involves quitting the army

I believe most contracts are 4 years active, 4 years reserves, so you can easily get a degree in the 2nd 4 years without leaving the military.

Online degree programs are very popular among active duty military, and have been for about as long as such programs have existed.

Re: Working from home is powering productivity

#266

Post by stonethrowaway »

As others mentioned, the shakiness of whatever this is (an opinion piece) doesn’t really convey much effort into a rock solid argument.

Put another way, if you are going to look at pro-RTO under a microscope and critique every single thing about it, you have to do the same for pro-WFH.

Thus far, I’ve yet to hear anything solid for either. Just flaky nonsense and non sequiturs and jumping from topic to topic.

Re: Working from home is powering productivity

#267

Post by colechristensen »

bruce511 wrote: post #249
colechristensen wrote: post #240

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Working in the office could be pretty nice with reasonable commute times and actual office space for employees. Like earning a top 10ish percent salary but the parking lot is full and people use bike locks on their office chairs so they don’t get stolen because they aren’t enough chairs. Give me an office with a door and a reasonable commute and I’ll be happy to go in to work every day. “Cost optimize” your office sp…

Yes, all this. I have a 5 minute commute, an office with a door, and plenty of parking. Going back to the office is no big deal (and has some major advantages.) But of course context will vary from one person to the next. Which is why sweeping generalizations is mostly fruitless. There are endless factors in play here on both sides of the table.

If we could all be like executives and only come into the office when we feel like it unless it’s a rarely important occasion and have actual offices, it would be a much different game.

Re: Working from home is powering productivity

#269

Post by baxtr »

chii wrote: post #242
baxtr wrote: post #238

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It’s unfortunate that it has gotten so black and white. I’m a big fan of WFH. But I also think it’s beneficial to see people in the office and interact on a regular basis. Why can’t we have both?

> Why can’t we have both? having both is equivalent to having WFH (but without the cost savings to the business regarding office rentals). People who want an office are likely doing so in the expectation that there'd be people there. What actually happens is that the office is semi-empty on most days, and you'd get a few ghosts here and there (unless there's mandated office days). So in the end, hybrid (without manda…

Ok thanks for breaking this down.

I’m actually rooting for hybrid with mandated office days (eg Tue-Thu) but without being super strict about it. If people can’t make it on a day or even two that’s fine.

Re: Working from home is powering productivity

#270

Post by Brajeshwar »

geocrasher wrote: post #268

I wrote this back in 2013, and I think much of it is still relevant. 11 years later I'm still WFH, and there's a fat chance you could ever get me into an office again. https://www.tidbitsfortechs.com/2013/08/experiences-and-real...

Nice article. Small nitpick I saw, your articles has date of MONTH/DAY without the YEAR. I’d have love that to be the full date. Yes, I did see the URL but would still love a full date.
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