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

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

#291

Post by messe »

safety1st wrote: post #289
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…

In Deep Work, Cal Newport posits that even the most disciplined, high performers can do work that requires really focused attention for a max of four hours per day. He's a computer science professor, not exactly "management." And these days, for a lot of knowledge workers there's a pretty strong case that anything which isn't this "deep work" can probably be automated. So yeah if I'm paying you a full time salary I w…

And you think you're more likely to get those four hours in an open office environment with distractions aplenty, as opposed to my effectively noise-proofed home office where I can actually focus?

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

#292

Post by thinkingemote »

Was the work from home ever presented as only temporary? Initially it was for sure because of health.

Seems like many companies and government agencies thought it permanent and sold their office spaces. Perhaps we will see them buying more offices to house their valuable workers once again.

Perhaps our cities will feel more lived in again.

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

#293

Post by rob74 »

p_l wrote: post #265
notnaut wrote: post #222

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Is it not likely that people are more motivated to collaborate, talk about their work, plan together, feel a sense of excitement about work, etc. when they are communing in person? The ol watercooler mindset or whatever. I mean - there’s this popular topic of the issue of loneliness lately. People are less motivated to do things that would maybe normally bring them social joy and get them out of their own homes and b…

Maybe if the office was not a hellscape? Not just the commute, the offices themselves. I didn't work in a properly colocated team since 2017, and that was mostly by accident. The norm is zoom/teams calls, often taken from the desk (which is 3-4 in a row with rows densely packed) because there's never enough space for meeting rooms so it becomes norm to not give a fuck that nobody can concentrate because someone is ta…

Well yeah, and that's actually the point: if you don't like it, you're free to leave! Headcount reduction without severance payment and getting rid of an unmotivated employee, win-win! At least for federal employees they had the decency of spelling it out clearly: https://traumaawareamerica.org/2025/04/28/deliberate-strateg... - the rest of us have to keep listening to the "it's all for your best" BS...

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

#294

Post by calgoo »

p_l wrote: post #265
notnaut wrote: post #222

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Is it not likely that people are more motivated to collaborate, talk about their work, plan together, feel a sense of excitement about work, etc. when they are communing in person? The ol watercooler mindset or whatever. I mean - there’s this popular topic of the issue of loneliness lately. People are less motivated to do things that would maybe normally bring them social joy and get them out of their own homes and b…

Maybe if the office was not a hellscape? Not just the commute, the offices themselves. I didn't work in a properly colocated team since 2017, and that was mostly by accident. The norm is zoom/teams calls, often taken from the desk (which is 3-4 in a row with rows densely packed) because there's never enough space for meeting rooms so it becomes norm to not give a fuck that nobody can concentrate because someone is ta…

Exactly this, its great that the person next to me can stand and talk to someone 2 desks down, over my shoulder while I'm on a teams call with someone from the other side of the floor, as there are only 3 conference rooms, and managers have priority. If you want people back in the office, redesign the whole space to small working areas where people can actually focus. Open office environments are the worst office experience possible, but i guess it makes the C-suite feel powerful or something having all these people sitting outside their office.

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

#295

Post by Wilder7977 »

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.

I feel what you are proposing is the worst of both worlds.

The company still needs to pay a full office (decreasing chances that money will be used for home office benefit or raises), people are still forced to live somewhat close to the office, not realizing the biggest benefit of remote work: living where you want, close to the people you care and freeing up money and time.

If working together really helps, it's enough that those who think that coordinate and agree on days to go to the office. If nobody agrees, than maybe the benefits are only perceived or subjective?

I will be honest, I believe that lots of people go to the office because their 9-5 (+ commute) job made it impossible for them to maintain and cultivate social relationships outside work, which means they see the office as their attempt to escape loneliness. I am not saying that's everyone, but that for many people is the case and that explains people non-stop interrupting, walking in on others, chatting etc., which is quite common in office environments.

That said, I think that remote work needs also a few key elements to succeed:

- a remote culture in the company (e.g., everyone understands flexibility in terms of working time, meetings are online-first, documentation and async work culture, etc.) - a good space to work at home. I can't imagine working on a stool and a laptop like some people were forced to do during covid. - discipline (e.g., not let work time bleed into personal time, blocking time etc.) - good social relationships with friends/family. It can be very alienating otherwise.

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

#296

Post by jimkleiber »

fijiaarone wrote: post #216
AngryData wrote: post #209

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I dunno where you live but in my part of the country getting into union work is the best way to prosper and succeed as just an average person. Maybe that isn't true for tech work at the moment, but union carpenters, plumbers, HVAC, pipe fitters, arborists, linemen, auto and factory workers, all make significantly more doing union work with better and safer work conditions.

Tech workers used to not be average people.

The film industry has a lot of unions as well, including for their "above average" people (writers, actors, etc.)

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

#297

Post by irusensei »

vladvasiliu wrote: post #255
amrocha wrote: post #250

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

> 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.

The company I work for has a reservation system for desks.

More than not the desks are disgusting. I'm talking about some suspicious matter that might be food or nose bigger on the greasy keyboard. Keyboard and mouse are flimsy office staple crapware and we have to use Citrix even though we are within the company network.

For fuck sake either go back to the old days where a person had their own desk they can personalize or let me work from my place.

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

#298

Post by petterroea »

In general having a chief "order" employees sounds like a red flag to me. Isn't ordering a bit authoritarian and used in leau of being able to change things in a more civil manner? If you aren't able to get people to work more at the office through more civil manners, maybe you should reflect on why?

Surely this is just to get people to quit without needing to give them expensive severance packages, that seems pretty common nowadays?

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

#299

Post by sharperguy »

thinkingemote wrote: post #292

Was the work from home ever presented as only temporary? Initially it was for sure because of health. Seems like many companies and government agencies thought it permanent and sold their office spaces. Perhaps we will see them buying more offices to house their valuable workers once again. Perhaps our cities will feel more lived in again.

Surely selling off office space and turning it back into family appartments would make it feel more "lived in"?

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

#300

Post by Hammershaft »

kaliqt wrote: post #207
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…

As Office Space says: it is a question of motivation. If you care, it'll get done. If you don't, you'll find a way to slack off, even if you're at the office.

I value remote work but undoubtedly people are more capable of silently slacking at home.
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