At first glance I thought that this was an article for moving to 4 day work week.
Why Five Days in the Office Is Too Many
51–60 of 71 posts
Re: Why Five Days in the Office Is Too Many
#52In 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…
TIL about "rubber ducking"
Re: Why Five Days in the Office Is Too Many
#53In 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.
Yes. and it sucks even more when the city your living is a crowded one.
Re: Why Five Days in the Office Is Too Many
#54In 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 think the bigger problem is most working environments are not conducive to productivity or pleasant places to be.
You see awesome offices in places like Google, Facebook et al where workers have plenty of space around their desk, and other areas in the building where they can work/socialise/relax.
Unfortunately most businesses are not like that, they cram as many people as they can into vast open plan offices where desk space is at a premium and you can forget having a quiet space to work.
Re: Why Five Days in the Office Is Too Many
#55I find it disgusting that people are forced to commute at great expense to our planet's dwinding natural resources, their finances, time and stress so that they can physically congregate for an 'inspiring water-cooler moment' that may catalytically lurch their company towards an original, otherwise undiscoverable, profitable path or endless corporate meetings to please unnecessarily multi-layered paranoid management when we have telecommuting, telepresence and the good old fashioned telephone in technology-centric industries.
I could understand 'going to work' if 'work' was a Foundry, or a Mine, but if we are sitting in traffic jams and on crowded trains for hours every day, unpaid, just so we can sit in front of a computer and program software when it is clearly more likely that we will be interrupted to 'sign a card for Jane from accounts who is leaving to have her baby' and lose our flow as a result then the corporations of the future will be leaner and more agile by being virtual.
Re: Why Five Days in the Office Is Too Many
#56In 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 don't have to work from home, depending on where you live you can find coworking spaces from where you can telecommute instead. Maybe the company can even help with the coworking space costs, if you make it clear that it's a much better option for you than moving.
Re: Why Five Days in the Office Is Too Many
#57The 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 ca…
I'm all in favor of letting people work from home and facilitating remote work for certain kinds of projects, but if you seriously think remote work is no less collaborative or technology can replace "face time", I assume you're missing a lot of human communication skills. Not only does physical interaction have a much higher bandwidth, it goes well beyond just the work. The more you interact, at lunch or in the hall…
This sounds very disrespectful. I would flag this comment, if I could :-/.
Re: Why Five Days in the Office Is Too Many
#58[deleted]
Re: Why Five Days in the Office Is Too Many
#59Earlier quoted context omitted.
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).
In the open floor plan offices I've been in, those "focus rooms" quickly become de-facto offices for whoever can stake a claim to them first.
Ideally, every pair gets their own space to work -- I'm not a big fan of open-plan offices. But, if you have to go down that road, you need to put some strict policies in place to ensure that the small meeting rooms don't become offices:
1. Rooms are strictly first-come, first-serve.
2. At the end of the week the room is cleaned and everything in it other than the base furniture is thrown out. Period.
3. The focus rooms provide no storage (no drawers or shelves). Just a desk, a whiteboard, two chairs for pairing, and either a display or a workstation.
Re: Why Five Days in the Office Is Too Many
#60The 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 ca…
I'm all in favor of letting people work from home and facilitating remote work for certain kinds of projects, but if you seriously think remote work is no less collaborative or technology can replace "face time", I assume you're missing a lot of human communication skills. Not only does physical interaction have a much higher bandwidth, it goes well beyond just the work. The more you interact, at lunch or in the hall…
Let's just say I'm not rushing to hire you either :)
Seriously though, I agree that -- obviously -- there are aspects of human interaction that collaborative tech can't touch, as it were. My primary point is that working at home is not working alone. Further, the collaboration tools (including video conferencing which helps more than you might think) have become very good.
How much physically together time a team needs seems to me to depend quite naturally on what they're doing together, for how long, the individuals involved, etc, etc. Maybe its once a week, once a quarter, or never. But, it is most definitely possible to work closely together without ever being physically together. ymmv.