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Why Five Days in the Office Is Too Many

nytimes.com

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Re: Why Five Days in the Office Is Too Many

#21

Post by jmspring »

flurdy wrote: post #8

I would have even looser guidelines, but still suggest some facetime in the office if possible. Mostly the team themselves should be able to mandate their own locations and hours to fit their needs. If they are productive... Some teams may prefer heavy pair programming and thus may need to be most of time in the same location. Others(most) would use some sort of hybrid where the 5 hours 3 days a week probably works w…

It should be up to the team, that is what is key.

Way too many times management will try and dictate based on what they think is right without taking in the desires and the makeup of the team. This usually is shown in the form of all hands meetings on a very regular basis -- more than one startup I've been at have fallen into this trap.

Re: Why Five Days in the Office Is Too Many

#22

Post by methehack »

The very term "work from home" suggests separation. That's the wrong model. This is not about introverts and extroverts.

Working with a remote team is not a choice about whether to collaborate or not. When a team is set up properly, remote work is no less collaborative than any other kind of work. The tools are there, widely available, and free. Everyone on a team needs to be using them, yes, but duh.

As near as I can tell, there is a shortage of talent. Smart companies will exploit the newly available infrastructure and realize that they can have "face time" remotely. Then, they'll have access to a much wider pool of talent. Win!

Is it me or are silicon valley companies -- startups, in particular -- really not into hiring remote people? Seems like, with the cost of living in the valley and the dramatic shortage of talent, and the volume and enormity of ideas, they'd have the most to gain. If I'm right about not liking remote hires, anyone have any ideas why? Provincialism? If you were worth hiring, you'd live here already? Hahahahaha.

Re: Why Five Days in the Office Is Too Many

#23

Post by quaunaut »

com2kid wrote: post #2

In contrast, I am energized by going into the office and working side by side with my peers to solve hard problems. I dislike programming by myself, it is dull, boring, and much more error prone than when I have someone to bounce ideas off of. (Rubber Ducking only goes so far!) Really every time this topic is brought up the overall consensus seems to be "it varies for different people." Some people seem to really ben…

I'm new into the industry, but I thought working from home would be a blast. But surprisingly, I'm finding I hate just having nowhere to go during the day, no reason to go outside, see the world, aside from exercise. It saps me of my energy.

Sadly, the company I work for is based in a place I couldn't stand to live, but it's telling that even despite that, I'm genuinely thinking about moving there.

Re: Why Five Days in the Office Is Too Many

#24

Post by AndrewKemendo »

Prerna is a good CEO and did some great things at Khush which helped her acquisition. Even still this intro is maddening:

>The freedom to work outside a traditional office was one of the main reasons I left the corporate world eight years ago, at age 23, to start a software company.

Maddening because she spent about a year in that "corporate world." Hardly a good sampling period.

I don't disagree with her conclusions, however to cast that wide of a net seems a little cheap considering not all business structures and markets are conducive to the same flexibility "knowledge workers" have.

Re: Why Five Days in the Office Is Too Many

#25

Post by marquis »

AndrewKemendo wrote: post #24

Prerna is a good CEO and did some great things at Khush which helped her acquisition. Even still this intro is maddening: >The freedom to work outside a traditional office was one of the main reasons I left the corporate world eight years ago, at age 23, to start a software company. Maddening because she spent about a year in that "corporate world." Hardly a good sampling period. I don't disagree with her conclusions…

I spent less than 3 months total in the corporate world at her age and quickly knew I wanted out. I haven't been back in over 10 years and don't believe it makes my thoughts on the matter irrelevant.

Re: Why Five Days in the Office Is Too Many

#26

Post by vacri »

com2kid wrote: post #2

In contrast, I am energized by going into the office and working side by side with my peers to solve hard problems. I dislike programming by myself, it is dull, boring, and much more error prone than when I have someone to bounce ideas off of. (Rubber Ducking only goes so far!) Really every time this topic is brought up the overall consensus seems to be "it varies for different people." Some people seem to really ben…

I'm much the same, plus I don't have the discipline to work from home. What's on the tv? What's online? Hey, I nearly finished that level in that game! What can I find in the fridge?

Plus if you have decent colleagues, it makes the job more enjoyable.

Re: Why Five Days in the Office Is Too Many

#27

Post by [deleted] »

com2kid wrote: post #2

In contrast, I am energized by going into the office and working side by side with my peers to solve hard problems. I dislike programming by myself, it is dull, boring, and much more error prone than when I have someone to bounce ideas off of. (Rubber Ducking only goes so far!) Really every time this topic is brought up the overall consensus seems to be "it varies for different people." Some people seem to really ben…

[deleted]

Re: Why Five Days in the Office Is Too Many

#28

Post by obviouslygreen »

quaunaut wrote: post #23
com2kid wrote: post #2

In contrast, I am energized by going into the office and working side by side with my peers to solve hard problems. I dislike programming by myself, it is dull, boring, and much more error prone than when I have someone to bounce ideas off of. (Rubber Ducking only goes so far!) Really every time this topic is brought up the overall consensus seems to be "it varies for different people." Some people seem to really ben…

I'm new into the industry, but I thought working from home would be a blast. But surprisingly, I'm finding I hate just having nowhere to go during the day, no reason to go outside, see the world, aside from exercise. It saps me of my energy. Sadly, the company I work for is based in a place I couldn't stand to live, but it's telling that even despite that, I'm genuinely thinking about moving there.

I don't mean to be condescending, but the only "telling" thing about that is your inexperience. If you already know it's a place you couldn't stand to live, it's an extremely bad idea to move there. Do not second-guess yourself like this! You will end up regretting it.

Telecommuting is not for everyone, but being new to the industry, your perspective is likely to change over the next few years if you stick around. I'm not saying it'll reverse -- you may find that your first impression was right -- but your point of view will be altered by your experiences, and without those experiences to draw on, you cannot expect to have a well-formed impression of this arrangement.

Not liking working at home is not a good reason to move to a place where you won't like going outside.

Re: Why Five Days in the Office Is Too Many

#29

Post by thinker »

AndrewKemendo wrote: post #24

Prerna is a good CEO and did some great things at Khush which helped her acquisition. Even still this intro is maddening: >The freedom to work outside a traditional office was one of the main reasons I left the corporate world eight years ago, at age 23, to start a software company. Maddening because she spent about a year in that "corporate world." Hardly a good sampling period. I don't disagree with her conclusions…

It really doesn't take that long to figure out if you are the corporate type or not. I spent 10 months at a large tech consulting firm and knew that wasn't the work life I wanted.

Re: Why Five Days in the Office Is Too Many

#30

Post by trhtrsh »

jmspring wrote: post #21
flurdy wrote: post #8

I would have even looser guidelines, but still suggest some facetime in the office if possible. Mostly the team themselves should be able to mandate their own locations and hours to fit their needs. If they are productive... Some teams may prefer heavy pair programming and thus may need to be most of time in the same location. Others(most) would use some sort of hybrid where the 5 hours 3 days a week probably works w…

It should be up to the team, that is what is key. Way too many times management will try and dictate based on what they think is right without taking in the desires and the makeup of the team. This usually is shown in the form of all hands meetings on a very regular basis -- more than one startup I've been at have fallen into this trap.

"all-hands" meetings are an artificial attempt to instill a social-heirarchy, by elevating the presenters over the rest of the staff. Being invited to speak at an all hands is attempt to award social currency, by telling the presenter that they are special. All-hands have no value, with one exception:

If they provide an open mic for questions, it's a rare opportunity to put an exec on the spot in front of everyone.

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