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Why Five Days in the Office Is Too Many

nytimes.com

31–40 of 71 posts

Re: Why Five Days in the Office Is Too Many

#31
I love working at the office but not the whole 8 hours. I love it in the morning but when it's afternoon, I find myself more productive elsewhere, maybe a cafe.

This is an interesting approach that allows experiments. Would love to see how this will turn out. :)

Re: Why Five Days in the Office Is Too Many

#32
I treat college like a 9-5 job, going to the library to study at 9 am and attending classes throughout the day. I don't need to do this, but there are very specific reasons why I do:

- If I study at home, I have no sense of urgency. Home is the place I associate with relaxation, so it's kind of cruel to expect myself to get work done there. The general public in the library holds me accountable to make it look like I have a purpose to be there.

- There are places I'd rather be than the library, like home. This motivates me to get my work done as quickly as possible and move on to other things that are important to me.

- We are social creatures, and interacting with others is important to our well-being. Given two days where I get the same amount of work done, I'll feel more accomplished on the day where I adequately socialize. This is true even if my interactions are largely superficial.

Re: Why Five Days in the Office Is Too Many

#33
post #6
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…

"In contrast, I am energized by going into the office and working side by side with my peers to solve hard problems." Let me know if you still feel that way in 20 years.

It's been 7 years so far and I'm hanging in there!

I have been fortune enough to have always had my choice of teams to work with, so far that has meant great coworkers and very challenging work.

If I'm not pounding my head against a wall I'm not having fun. :)

Re: Why Five Days in the Office Is Too Many

#34

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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'…

This is incredibly true. Though, the main thing keeping me in line right now, is that I'm just over a year away from moving to where I really want to be- Seattle!

Once I'm there, I don't know what I'm gonna do. Probably program at a cafe every day.

Re: Why Five Days in the Office Is Too Many

#35
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…

What mostly bothers me is the commute, if I can get to the office at any given workplace within half an hour or less door-to-door (preferably 15 minutes & not via car) the barriers to coming to the office are significantly reduced.

At any rate I think the optimal situation for me is a mix of both.

Re: Why Five Days in the Office Is Too Many

#36
post #26
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.

That used to be the situation for me (or at least I thought it was), but after a few years of being self employed (and most of that time having no choice but to make working from home function) I now have no problems being productive at home (or at least not much more so than at the office).

Re: Why Five Days in the Office Is Too Many

#37
post #32

I treat college like a 9-5 job, going to the library to study at 9 am and attending classes throughout the day. I don't need to do this, but there are very specific reasons why I do: - If I study at home, I have no sense of urgency. Home is the place I associate with relaxation, so it's kind of cruel to expect myself to get work done there. The general public in the library holds me accountable to make it look like I…

College was more like a 10AM to 11PM job for me. The library was a place to sleep, the best place to work was the eating areas.

Now, I prefer coffee shops for out of office working. Home is too comfortable, while I can hit Starbucks early and grab a taxi when the roads aren't so crowded after rush hour.

Re: Why Five Days in the Office Is Too Many

#38
post #17

I think the mix of introverts vs. extroverts is relevant, too. Generally, extroverts are energized by being around people, while introverts need some mental downtime to recharge their batteries. And at least for me, downtime is hard to come by while in the office.

I always wondered about offices with "loneliness rooms". Not to sleep, or meditate, but to work. Some place where anyone can go if he/she don't want to be around other people. A mix of open spaces and discreet rooms, where you can go and people won't even notice you are going there. I wouldn't even put doors in there, not to be mistaken to a place where you hide. Just a very small room, with no space for hanging arou…

We have focus rooms in our semi-open plan. They suck, they aren't fairly utilized and usually monopolized, or they are quickly turned into the service of other purposes (like store rooms or guest offices).

Re: Why Five Days in the Office Is Too Many

#39
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.

You might want to look into coworking spaces where people that are not working for the same company, such as freelancers or remote workers, share an office.

Re: Why Five Days in the Office Is Too Many

#40
post #4
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…

Yep! There are times I want to be in the office. There are times I want to be at a coffee shop. There are times I want to be at home. As an executive, I feel like it's my job to provide as much flexibility to my team as I possibly can. Inspiration can strike anywhere, in any environment. I want to capture that for my business. I find that people really appreciate it as well. Really it comes down to meeting management…

Your sound like an executive too, putting emphasis on well-researched words, and mentioning things like capturing inspiration.

As far as I've seen, there is little inspiration involved in most programming environments, just a lot of thinking.

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