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I am tired of hearing banalities about remote working

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Re: I am tired of hearing banalities about remote working

#11
post #10

From the article's author: >I am just coming back from a very intense company retirement with activities that helped me reach my limits Yeah, no thanks, I don't want to "reach my limits" by being pressured into childish team building activities with random people from work I've never met IRL. Not my thing. I have my own groups of friends for that. >Hei man, if you would see our slack channels, where hundreds of peopl…

> Would your new remote work colleague "friends" that you met once in a company retreat fly over from their countries and take care of you? Probably not. Who said you can only have IRL friends through work? It's possible to have interactions outside the work context and to make friends outside of work.

You probably misunderstood my comment. I never claimed you couldn't have IRL friends outside of work. In fac that's exactly my point. Read my comment again please.

Re: I am tired of hearing banalities about remote working

#12

Is there an official party line that wfh is in every way for every person everywhere always better, and it’s best not to kick that hornet’s nest? Asking for a friend.

The option to WFH, and avoid commuting, congestion, pollution, higher costs, disruptions, be closer to your spouse/kids, and don't lose an additional 2 hours every day is indeed inherently better for anyone, everywhere.

If someone likes socializing, they can do more of that when WFH too (especially since WFH really means: working from anywhere, be it a cafe, a coworking space, a village, or wherever they like).

Except it their have issues at their home. But going to an office is not a solution to that, is sidestepping their real problem...

The only place where that's not good is when you need expesinve resources to work (e.g. access to labs and machines).

Re: I am tired of hearing banalities about remote working

#14

"We want to laugh at the coffee machine." I actually, initially thought the author meant "ridicule the coffee machine". How rude. ;)

Funny, I've laughed at the coffee machine at my previous job, because I am a coffee snob. For the past year I've been at a new job with no threat of ever going back to the office, and I get to drink all the coffee I want from a machine that cost me so much I can only smile.

If the goal is to laugh with you coworkers, you can still do that. I have all kinds of conversations with coworkers about life, politics, silly things, pets, coffee.. etc

And if the goal is to have coffee with your coworkers, meet them and talk and laugh.

WFH benefits everyone, even the people with jobs that cannot be done remotely. Think about traffic, and rent, the environmental benefits.

Re: I am tired of hearing banalities about remote working

#15
Those who advocate for on site work are like people of the old age that advocated for in store shopping. They thought no one would ever shop online because they’d need to touch and feel the products before buying. Same kind of people who thought blockbuster is better than netflix because people want the experience. The reality tho is the world is changing and so is how we work in it.

Re: I am tired of hearing banalities about remote working

#16

"We want to laugh at the coffee machine." I actually, initially thought the author meant "ridicule the coffee machine". How rude. ;)

Funny, I've laughed at the coffee machine at my previous job, because I am a coffee snob. For the past year I've been at a new job with no threat of ever going back to the office, and I get to drink all the coffee I want from a machine that cost me so much I can only smile. If the goal is to laugh with you coworkers, you can still do that. I have all kinds of conversations with coworkers about life, politics, silly t…

Speaking about coffee machines i have one of those pods machines and make my own starbucks at home. A delight. Decafo tho. Have 4-5 a day.

Re: I am tired of hearing banalities about remote working

#17

Those who advocate for on site work are like people of the old age that advocated for in store shopping. They thought no one would ever shop online because they’d need to touch and feel the products before buying. Same kind of people who thought blockbuster is better than netflix because people want the experience. The reality tho is the world is changing and so is how we work in it.

I thill think online shopping is a very poor substitute for in/store shopping. I bemoan the loss of physical media.

Re: I am tired of hearing banalities about remote working

#18
post #12

Is there an official party line that wfh is in every way for every person everywhere always better, and it’s best not to kick that hornet’s nest? Asking for a friend.

The option to WFH, and avoid commuting, congestion, pollution, higher costs, disruptions, be closer to your spouse/kids, and don't lose an additional 2 hours every day is indeed inherently better for anyone, everywhere. If someone likes socializing, they can do more of that when WFH too (especially since WFH really means: working from anywhere, be it a cafe, a coworking space, a village, or wherever they like). Excep…

From an environmental impact perspective alone, the opportunity to free the planet from emissions, lower the demand for vehicles, improve pedestrian safety by staying off the road, and lower commute-induced stressors on our bodies should be enough of a reason to WFH whenever possible. And those are only the first benefits of the practice.

Re: I am tired of hearing banalities about remote working

#19

Is there an official party line that wfh is in every way for every person everywhere always better, and it’s best not to kick that hornet’s nest? Asking for a friend.

If you have 3 roommates who are also WFH, is WFH better for all of you?

Part of the reason why WFH seems so much better is that companies made working in the office so horrible. Anyone who promulgated open floor plans should have been summarily fired.

Alas. Here we are.

Re: I am tired of hearing banalities about remote working

#20

From the article's author: >I am just coming back from a very intense company retirement with activities that helped me reach my limits Yeah, no thanks, I don't want to "reach my limits" by being pressured into childish team building activities with random people from work I've never met IRL. Not my thing. I have my own groups of friends for that. >Hei man, if you would see our slack channels, where hundreds of peopl…

> Would your new remote work colleague "friends" that you met once in a company retreat fly over from their countries and take care of you?

You seem to have confused the definition of "true friendship" with "free nursemaid", and are still living in a pre-Internet age where physical proximity is a limiting factor on your friendships. I'm genuinely happy for you and your IRL friendships because everyone needs friends but ever since the Internet, physical proximity is no longer a limiting factor for what constitutes friendship. Some friends are just harder to access than others. That doesn't mean they're any less your friends. You've never had a friend move away for college or work or family?

Think about getting injured while on vacation in a foreign country. How many of your "true friends" can also just fly to said foreign country to take you to the hospital? vs if you're injured while on a work retreat three countries away from home; do you think your work friends are going to dump you at the curb and blindly hope you're still able to make commits come Monday?

The problem, really, is that the word friends is a very limiting word because there are just so many different kinds of friends. Some of them can take you to hospital, some of them can help you debug a particularly thorny piece of code, and others will watch your cat while you're away or send you food if you're hungry. If you're limiting your friendships to only those people who can take you to the hospital, you're missing out.

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