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Working From Home is Like Saying No to Drugs

micahwedemeyer.com

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Re: Working From Home is Like Saying No to Drugs

#51

Post by jiggy2011 »

I think the crux of the question is "to what extent is it reasonable for an employer to expect that an employee will change his life to increase his value to the company".

There are numerous examples of this. I'm sure plenty of people here have gone drinking on a school night and been useless at work next day due to the resulting hangover. If this happens occasionally you may just get light ridicule, however do it too much and you're probably going to get into trouble.

Perhaps you enjoy playing contact sports of some description. Well you might injure your hand and that is going to hurt to your typing speed. At what point is it reasonable for your employer to request you reduce or cease these activities?

These things are probably going to be dictated by supply and demand ultimately, a popular device in fiction is a "maverick" character who breaks every rule but people still keep around because he has some particular skill that is of high demand and short supply.

It's also dictated by how much an employer can force an externality to an employee. For example if it were legal for a company to mandate adderal use and there was evidence to suggest it improved productivity then you would expect rational companies to mandate it unless the very best programmers uniformly refused to use it.

Though adderal may be illegal for this purposes that may not stop it becoming defacto mandated. For example if everyone at work is using and it is known but denied in a nudge wink sort of way. If you are a non using bottom performer who is worried about your upcoming review then there is going to be very strong pressure to use. In other words the company has externalised the legal risk.

The way it applies to working from home is that there is historically and currently an expectation that you "go to work" and therefor working from home is a bonus.

If it was the other way around and there was an expectation of home working, would that change the equation?

Re: Working From Home is Like Saying No to Drugs

#52

Post by adaml_623 »

eterm wrote: post #7

I'm snowed in and working from home right now, but I know I'd get twice as much done in the office and I feel a lot more connected to the product when I'm in the office. Maybe if I worked at home more often I'd have a more stable set-up here with better (multiple + larger) monitors and a workspace I can think in, but as it is, any days I work from home I feel like I'm running about 60%. On the other hand, 2.5hours le…

So basically you're saying that you haven't managed a valid comparison of home vs office?

Re: Working From Home is Like Saying No to Drugs

#53

Post by philwelch »

coldtea wrote: post #41
philwelch wrote: post #16

This article is garbage. It can be boiled down to one sentence: "if working from home makes me happy at the cost of productivity, forcing me to come into the office just because it's more productive is the moral equivalent of requiring me to take Adderall." To which the appropriate response is: "bullshit". Requiring someone to take physically harmful and addictive drugs is not even remotely in the same galaxy as requ…

> To which the appropriate response is: "bullshit". Requiring someone to take physically harmful and addictive drugs is not even remotely in the same galaxy as requiring them to come into the office. Not sure. The things some companies demand of their employees do have a health toll, and it's higher than Adderall. Working 14+ hours for days (EA style) is not better than taking Adderall. And a "death march" type of pr…

Not working from home isn't even the equivalent of working 14+ hour days.

Re: Working From Home is Like Saying No to Drugs

#54

Post by philwelch »

coldtea wrote: post #48
philwelch wrote: post #36

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yeah, working in an office is practically the equivalent of coal mining. This prima donna attitude really makes me sick.

> Yeah, working in an office is practically the equivalent of coal mining. Yes, because coal mining is the absolute criterion of unhealthiness in the workplace. And given that people do coal mining, "working 10+ hours, 5 days a week in an office" can never be viewed as bad, right?

Who said anything about working 10+ hours?

Re: Working From Home is Like Saying No to Drugs

#55

Post by john61 »

philwelch wrote: post #16

This article is garbage. It can be boiled down to one sentence: "if working from home makes me happy at the cost of productivity, forcing me to come into the office just because it's more productive is the moral equivalent of requiring me to take Adderall." To which the appropriate response is: "bullshit". Requiring someone to take physically harmful and addictive drugs is not even remotely in the same galaxy as requ…

Yes, but I live to be happy not to get paid.

Re: Working From Home is Like Saying No to Drugs

#56

Post by jones1618 »

aetherson wrote: post #26
wuest wrote: post #5

The Adderall analogy really drives the point home. This is well put, and a powerful message more people (especially those in a position to effect policy) ought to read.

The Adderall analogy is terribly suspect, though. Why should I believe it's a useful analogy? Are we suggesting that ANY kind of non-productive-but-fun behavior should be permitted, and that trying to say, "No, you can't do that because it's not productive" is like forcing someone to take drugs? What if it's the reverse? Say I'd like to drink, or do heroin, in the office. Yes, sure, I'll be less productive, but I'll…

The Adderall analogy is just a device to underscore his point that judging anything by a single metric (i.e. "productivity") can lead to equally absurd and inhumane work policies.

Also, productivity is nearly impossible to measure yet I'd argue that some of the "feel-good" benefits of work-at-home actually do result in higher productivity. Let's take a few:

1) Commute time: 2 hours that I can be more productive and/or take care of personal business that would have cut into work time 2) Focus: Everybody (not just execs) can have a door, can screen their interruptions, etc. This is vitally important for think-work and creative-work. 3) Other high-end perks that come for more or less free to the employer: healthy meals, exercise options nearby, potential 24x7 support when needed

Frankly, the only two arguments people are making against work-at-home boil down slacking and lack of face-to-face collaboration. Both are fixed by some technology and a measure of feedback and discipline.

Re: Working From Home is Like Saying No to Drugs

#57

Post by jes5199 »

jedmeyers wrote: post #49
jes5199 wrote: post #35

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In Silicon Valley, companies spend a fortune on "happiness" - catered lunches, employee off-sites, release parties, snacks and sodas and beer, interior decorating and office design, pool tables and ping pong, expensive hardware, gym memberships, etc. It might be cheaper to just let people be at home!

Companies want happy employees who work, not happy employees who are doing their laundry.

They seem to want happy employees who are playing ping-pong more than either of those.

Re: Working From Home is Like Saying No to Drugs

#58

Post by 3minus1 »

philwelch wrote: post #16

This article is garbage. It can be boiled down to one sentence: "if working from home makes me happy at the cost of productivity, forcing me to come into the office just because it's more productive is the moral equivalent of requiring me to take Adderall." To which the appropriate response is: "bullshit". Requiring someone to take physically harmful and addictive drugs is not even remotely in the same galaxy as requ…

He's using a reductio ad absurdem arguement. He takes the principle of "a company valuing productivity over happiness" and extends it to an absurd degree to argue that company's shouldn't prohibit telecommuting in order to increase productivity. It's a pretty stupid argument that is equivalent to saying companies shouldn't do things that are in their own self-interest.

Re: Working From Home is Like Saying No to Drugs

#59

Post by jgeerts »

Actually I think this is a very personal matter.

The guy that is saying that he is more productive in the office is probably just as happy with his choice as you are with yours.

Actually going to work and working in group and interacting with eachother makes me happy, I get a lot of satisfaction out of my work and I rather work in a team than by myself. My previous project we were at the office all day every day and even then the level of communication was too low. That was probably the type of people that were in the group.

But still, standing up, talking with people about the business, being able to point at a screen without the hassle of setting up a conference call is pretty easy.

Another thing I like about going to work, when you go home and you had a productive day it's a closed chapter for me. I get in my car, don't think about the project (most of the time) until the next day. It's a good separation between working life and personal life for me.

Re: Working From Home is Like Saying No to Drugs

#60

Post by crazygringo »

> "I’ve finally nailed down what it is: it treats productivity as if it’s the only thing that matters. Frankly, I don’t really care if I am less productive working from home than in the office."

You may profess to not care, but your employer certainly cares how productive you are. That's why they're paying to employ you, after all. And, in the long run, people's salaries depend on their productivity.

If working from home is so important to your happiness, then find an employer who will let you, but be prepared to settle for a smaller paycheck. But beware of saying things like "frankly, I don't really care if I am less productive" -- that's not exactly a professional attitude.

You may choose to be less productive, but to not even care about the effects of your choices on others, sounds like someone who is not exactly cut out for working together with others. In a healthy company, the company cares about the well-being of its employees, and the employees care about the well-being of the company, which is dependent on their productivity.

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