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Instagram chief orders staff back to the office five days a week in 2026

businessinsider.com

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Re: Instagram chief orders staff back to the office five days a week in 2026

#251

Post by stavros »

amrocha wrote: post #249
stavros wrote: post #234

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Whenever I'm in the office, I get zero work done. It's great for socialising and catching up with colleagues, but abysmal for productivity.

That’s only because you go to the office once in a blue moon. If it was your daily routine you’d get used to it and be productive there too, just maybe not as much as when you’re home. Did you work in an office before covid? I’m sure your productivity wasn’t abysmal or you wouldn’t still be working in tech

I go to the office around one week out of every four, it's not that rare. Sure, there's some catching up, but not that much. Mostly it's the continuous interruptions that are never time boxed, the way they are when remote.

Re: Instagram chief orders staff back to the office five days a week in 2026

#252

Post by rester324 »

johnxie wrote: post #244

Remote is awesome until you hit the limits of it. We tried building with 3 founders across 3 timezones. On a good day it felt magical. On a bad day it felt like the kind of lag you remember from SC BW, CS 1.6, or classic WoW raids where one spike wipes the whole run just so everyone has to start over. Async is great for shipping, but not when you are moving fast on hard problems where alignment is the whole game. The…

You can't bring people in the same office from three different timezones. Most probably your setup was the problem, not the productivity of the people working remotely. Remote people working in the same timezone are usually very effective in their job.

Re: Instagram chief orders staff back to the office five days a week in 2026

#253

Post by nodoodles »

rustystump wrote: post #228
makingstuffs wrote: post #194

Reading all of these takes stating WFH leads to poor productivity simply doesn’t make sense to me. If your employees cannot be trusted to fulfil their responsibilities (whether in an office, their home or a tent in a woodland) that is not a geographical issue. It is a mentality issue and you are always going to face productivity issue from that employee regardless of from where they work. I’ve been told time and time…

I am pretty sure that 99% of the anti rto is exclusively due to the god awful soul crushing commute. 5 days a week an hour each way 10 hours of death each week. There is no authoritarian “shift” this has been business as usual for the last 100 years. Stupid business but business nonetheless

Only a 100 years — the whole history before that was working in the vicinity of a home, it does feel natural to return to that. Instead of anvils, we hit keyboards and instead of swords produce alignment, but either way it brings food to the table and allows flexibility in work-life?

Re: Instagram chief orders staff back to the office five days a week in 2026

#254

Post by legostormtroopr »

imcrs wrote: post #241
ChadNauseam wrote: post #236

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> It's not about productivity at all. > WFH forces employers to compete. It gives a lot of power to employees, because they can [...] work fewer hours, moonlight for multiple companies, etc Probably "working fewer hours" and "moonlight for multiple companies" has negative effects on productivity that employers would like to avoid.

I've already kind of made it clear here where I stand on this, but I gotta tell you, you really do sound a lot like management. Do you really think your superstar programmers are well and truly doing intellectual work, the kind of work that produces business value, from the time they hit the coffee machine at 9AM to the time they grab their briefcase to go home at 5PM? If you believe this, I think you might be intere…

I don't expect someone to do deep focused work from 9am to 5pm.

But at the same time, I don't expect them to spend their 9-to-5 working for another company at the same time.

As a founder, who respects the 9-to-5 and supports WFH, if I'm paying for 8 hours of work, I want 8 hours of output. Not 4 hours of output, and then you working 4 hours for another job.

If multi-jobbing becomes a thing, then WFH becomes untenable because at least in the office you can be monitored.

Re: Instagram chief orders staff back to the office five days a week in 2026

#255

Post by vladvasiliu »

amrocha wrote: post #250
ciberado wrote: post #240

Earlier quoted context omitted.

At work, we have the opportunity to choose. Many people are like you and find that going to the office helps their productivity and mental health. Most of us (including me) visit the office only a few times a year. I think having the choice is great. Although it comes with its own challenges, it works really well when you establish the right culture.

imo that’s the worst of both worlds. That’s what my company does, and none of the engineers ever come in. My manager comes in when he has meetings, and I’ll go in sometimes, but I’m usually alone. None of the benefits of collocation with all the of downsides of an office. I find that office days work a lot better. Everyone comes in Tuesdays and Thursdays or something.

Your initial post was about there being choice. Now it appears that the upside of the office is the others being there.

I can understand that some people like the physical distinction between "work" and "home". My boss is like that, and he would actually go to the office during covid when no one else would be there. He lived alone in a comfortable apartment, so there wasn't even a question of loud kids / no space for a desk. It obviously never came up that we should also show up. He sometimes wants us to come in the office, all the at the same time, for some form of all-hands meetings, but he doesn't just drop them out of the blue: we plan these together, and they don't happen on a fixed, tight schedule.

The company has now moved to a "flex office" scheme. I was already not very happy having to go in, but you can imagine I now abhor it. Having to share desks with people who don't give a shit about office equipment, having to clean up the screens because they figure it's fine to stick their fingers on them and having to use shoddy peripherals... And it goes on and on, you've read it on every HN post on the subject.

Luckily for me, they don't really enforce this, and I can still spend most of my days WFH and still have a semi-dedicated desk.

But your post is the reason why many people are up in arms against this whole "the office is better". Apparently, it's only better if you force everybody back in. So it's not really about "choice", but about having one's preferences be the "right" ones.

Re: Instagram chief orders staff back to the office five days a week in 2026

#256

Post by rightbyte »

yuye wrote: post #175
dexwiz wrote: post #55

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I work in a post Covid office and even with about 1 to 6 ratio of desks to rooms, along just as many fart pods, it can be a struggle to find space during peak hours.

>along just as many fart pods You mean phone coffins?

Fart pods seem like a more accurate nomenclature to me.

Re: Instagram chief orders staff back to the office five days a week in 2026

#257

Post by CountVonGuetzli »

yuye wrote: post #175
dexwiz wrote: post #55

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I work in a post Covid office and even with about 1 to 6 ratio of desks to rooms, along just as many fart pods, it can be a struggle to find space during peak hours.

>along just as many fart pods You mean phone coffins?

You mean rack mounts for humans?

Re: Instagram chief orders staff back to the office five days a week in 2026

#258

Post by jedberg »

rcbdev wrote: post #217
subw00f wrote: post #139

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I would take a lower comp for remote work and a better work environment. They will never pay me the amount that would make me choose 2h in traffic everyday instead of having enough time to cook breakfast to my family, take my kids to school, have lunch with my wife, etc.

Every time I hear U.S. commute times, I keep thinking they must be grossly overstated. How is your infrastructure so inadequate for... living?

They're overstated. The median commute time in the USA is about 27 minutes each way. NYC is the highest at 33 min.

Re: Instagram chief orders staff back to the office five days a week in 2026

#259

Post by wkat4242 »

JuniperMesos wrote: post #238
wkat4242 wrote: post #158

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I notice US tech companies have also become really tough on white collar workers in order to suck up to Trump and his country goons. No more diversity programs, work life balance no longer promoted, that kinda stuff. This fits in with that trend.

Diversity programs do not universally benefit white collar workers.

Not directly but they do create an open and fair working environment for all.

Once you leave room for discrimination and bullying, everyone suffers because it makes company culture harder.

And it's not just about "quotas". That's an extreme-right talking point. Diversity done properly doesn't involve quotas. Those are just a way for companies that don't actually care about it to have an easy 'fix' to get their numbers to look ok but it's not actual diversity.

I'm part of a diversity team myself as a side role. In Europe luckily.

Re: Instagram chief orders staff back to the office five days a week in 2026

#260

Post by imcrs »

legostormtroopr wrote: post #254
imcrs wrote: post #241

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I've already kind of made it clear here where I stand on this, but I gotta tell you, you really do sound a lot like management. Do you really think your superstar programmers are well and truly doing intellectual work, the kind of work that produces business value, from the time they hit the coffee machine at 9AM to the time they grab their briefcase to go home at 5PM? If you believe this, I think you might be intere…

I don't expect someone to do deep focused work from 9am to 5pm. But at the same time, I don't expect them to spend their 9-to-5 working for another company at the same time. As a founder, who respects the 9-to-5 and supports WFH, if I'm paying for 8 hours of work, I want 8 hours of output. Not 4 hours of output, and then you working 4 hours for another job. If multi-jobbing becomes a thing, then WFH becomes untenable…

Do you pay your programmers hourly or on salary?
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