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Working from home is powering productivity

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Re: Working from home is powering productivity

#341

Post by tzs »

dingaling wrote: post #329
dt3ft wrote: post #326

When in office, I typically spend 70% of my time helping coworkers with their issues, since they feel like it's ok to just walk by and ask for help. When I work from home, my output skyrockets. In essence, I'm a mentor, but have expectations to deliver high quality and reach tight deadlines. I hate going to the office, since my commute is 45+45 minutes. The moment I get forced to go to the office full time is the mom…

> Hire expencive, qualified workers > who don't require hand-holding, > and you won't have to care where > they work from. But employees only get to that level of capability through early, engaged mentoring. WFH destroys that personal connection. So then you have new, or inexperienced, employees trawling through SharePoint trying to find some nugget of information about how and why X integrates with Y. Hours and hour…

The person above said they spend 70% of their time helping others. That's great if that is their actual job and they are only supposed to spend 30% of their time on other things. But that's probably not the case at most companies. Employees don't stay around long enough for most companies to be able to afford paying senior level people to spend most of their time training inexperienced people when there is a good chance that many of those inexperienced people will use that experience to get hired somewhere else.

What companies that want everyone to be in the office should be doing is providing actual offices to the senior workers. Then when a senior worker is working on something that they need to focus on they can close their door and people can be told when the door is closed do not interrupt unless it is urgent. When they are doing less demanding stuff they can have their door open and inexperienced workers can come and ask questions.

In your particular example optimal would be to teach the new or inexperienced employees how to update the information in SharePoint so when they do learn how and why X integrates with Y (whether by spending hours digging around to find it or by getting someone more experienced to explain it to them) they can then make it so the next new or inexperienced employee will be able to find that on their own.

Someone more experienced can review their changes to make sure they are OK, but that doesn't have to be done right away so can be done at a time when the more experienced person does not have some higher priority senior level work they need to be concentrating on.

Re: Working from home is powering productivity

#342

Post by mellosouls »

benterix wrote: post #321
jandrewrogers wrote: post #260

I think a lot of people are talking past each other. I’ve mostly WFH since long before the pandemic, in many different capacities at many companies. A lot of people have tunnel vision and the reality is more nuanced than most allow. For IC work that requires minimal collaboration, WFH is often more productive. Fewer interruptions, more focus. However, when the role requires detailed collaboration and regular interact…

> I think a lot of people are talking past each other. Of course. Apart from the WFH majority there also vocal proponents of hybrid (and I believe some who believe in full RTO, although these seem to be very few). The solution to this conundrum is to give people a choice. Yes, I worked for a few companies who do just that and everybody is happy! Those who want it, come to the office, those who don't, work from where…

The solution to this conundrum is to give people a choice.

Except that if most choose full time remote, then those who favour hybrid (like me) or RTO have their choice made for them wrt collaboration and the other reasons given in the parent comment, so unfortunately, no, that's not really a solution.

Re: Working from home is powering productivity

#343

Post by CalRobert »

varjag wrote: post #319
noch wrote: post #303

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> companies with wfh are driven out of business by those without This is unlikely. Notice the parent post said: >> I don't care about company KPI or efficiency, I care about my own well-being first and foremost […] So you have a situation where: - Most of your employees think of your company's success and their lifestyle as competing interests. - Most of your employees are focused on optimizing their lifestyle rather…

It's adorable but my modern German car came plagued by software glitches, from a development team of 6000.

When your project tracking is a fax machine that’s no surprise.

Re: Working from home is powering productivity

#344

Post by ChrisMarshallNY »

tsimionescu wrote: post #257
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…

Isn't this just the nature of the business? I'm sure there aren't many plumbers or factory workers who have a level similar to a senior director in plumbing companies either: as an IC, there is a cap to how much contribution you can bring to a company, limited by the type of job you do. Of course, the same is true for managers as well, and the vast majority of directors are vastly overpaid, but that's a different dis…

I deliberately stayed in a first line management position, for most of my career.

I was quite capable of going quite far up the ladder, but found that I could make a huge difference, at that level.

Also, I was quite aware of the ethos of most managers (both high and low), at my company, and knew that they would be unable to get the results that I did, and they would quickly drive out the team, which I held together, for decades.

I have always enjoyed doing effective work, much more than being BMOC. I found that I could be most effective, at that level.

That said, I hated being a manager. I always did tech work, on the side, and, upon leaving that company, I went straight back to IC work.

Re: Working from home is powering productivity

#346

Post by eastbound »

mewpmewp2 wrote: post #174
mikeweiss wrote: post #172

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I really don't think this is the case... I believe more than anything it's about the kind of personalities that make up people who are in charge of these decisions... Think about the types of people who are c-suite executives. They are likely people who prefer to be in an office setting.. at least most of the time. I don't think they like it very much coming into an office and seeing it mostly empty... Partly because…

I think that's actually plausible, because yeah, if I was to put myself in their shoes. If someone is looking for status, and people looking up to them, etc, it would make sense that they would get much less that sort of attention if everyone is working remotely. Getting that through the Zoom is not exactly what it would be in real life.

While we’re debating whether it’s a conspiracy from the elites or not, that eludes debates on the real important questions for a team lead/founder like me:

Does the office provide a better environment for building things together? How much do people cheat in WFH situations? Do people ask for help at the right time in WFH? What are the right ratios: A few days per week, or a few weeks per year, or everyone at home because we don’t like each other? By the way, do people develop the same sense of workmateness when only meeting colleagues remotely?

It seems all that union-talk “Boss is evil. Boss wants office. Office evil. Bad managers.” is kidnapping a real debate that is extremely important.

Unless I’m proven otherwise:

- People who WFH 2 days per week seem to spend 1hr less per day working,

- 100%-Remote people never seem to belong to the company, and in fact the team of 4 that I’ve recruited still seems to be in the underproductive ramp-up after 8 months, and it only lasts 2-3 months with local people.

Unless we stop debating whether real estate companies form a coup against the workers, I’ll never hear better arguments.

Re: Working from home is powering productivity

#347

Post by marenkay »

The answers here seem to only allow for one solution: where no technical requirements exist in favor of RTO, one should provide employees the choice. Each person has their own place where productivity is good, and it may even change between RTO and WFH.

Force should not be applied, or else one might start wondering if e.g. the commute time should be paid time, or pay should increase in a WFH case since the employee suddenly shoulders more costs.

Re: Working from home is powering productivity

#348

Post by noch »

pjc50 wrote: post #330
noch wrote: post #303

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> companies with wfh are driven out of business by those without This is unlikely. Notice the parent post said: >> I don't care about company KPI or efficiency, I care about my own well-being first and foremost […] So you have a situation where: - Most of your employees think of your company's success and their lifestyle as competing interests. - Most of your employees are focused on optimizing their lifestyle rather…

Why would you prioritize company success in a world where the company has zero loyalty to you ? You trade off your lifestyle in return for no equity and get made redundant at zero notice? Why would you do that? > Most of your employees think of your company's success and their lifestyle as competing interests. There are only so many hours in the day.

> Why would you prioritize company success in a world […]

Exactly. If you don't want to work, or don't care about your work, that's fine. There are other people who care and want to work, and care about their colleagues, and they'll show up or the company will go bust.

> Why would you do that?

Everyone has to figure that out for themselves. It's the same as asking "why do I work here?"

Re: Working from home is powering productivity

#349

Post by A4ET8a8uTh0 »

maxbond wrote: post #130
A4ET8a8uTh0 wrote: post #94

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Honestly, that I can't find that bet on polymarket is beyond me.

How would that contract resolve? Who may authoritatively declare a winner?

I would think Amazon RTO order is withdrawn within 10 days of start.

Re: Working from home is powering productivity

#350

Post by noch »

benterix wrote: post #320
noch wrote: post #303

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> companies with wfh are driven out of business by those without This is unlikely. Notice the parent post said: >> I don't care about company KPI or efficiency, I care about my own well-being first and foremost […] So you have a situation where: - Most of your employees think of your company's success and their lifestyle as competing interests. - Most of your employees are focused on optimizing their lifestyle rather…

> Now if you have another company whose employees believe in the company's mission, prioritize company success, don't see a necessary trade-off between work and lifestyle, and enjoy working with their teams in person This is a nice image you've painted but this company doesn't exist except in the minds of some CEOs and startup founders. You know what actually happens? A CEO announces RTO, people are outraged, everybo…

> You know what actually happens? […] A bunch of disgruntled employees who don't give a fuck about your company because of the way you treated them.

I'm sorry you've had bad experiences. I hope you'll heal and be okay or find work that makes you feel appreciated and rewards you.

I remember being stealth fired simply because I was never in the office and those who were assumed "he doesn't really work here anyway". Out of sight out of mind, and Zoom couldn't fix that. Colleagues just forgot about me despite the Zoom calls.

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