I think I'd be utterly depressed if I worked from home. Every day without any human interaction. Plus I really love the clear boundary between work and home. Wouldn't want to pollute my home with work.
Programmers are most likely to work from home
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Re: Programmers are most likely to work from home
#112But in general I would rather work in a quiet office near my colleagues. There is a clear separation between work and non-work. Communication is faster and easier, less prone to misunderstandings. This however means something like an actual office or a quiet spacious cubicle with high sound absorbent walls.
In his book Deep Work, Cal Newport argues in favor of a "hub and spoke" office layout where knowledge workers can work in quiet in offices on the spokes, but meet and collaborate at hubs, such as common areas with food, coffee machines, printers etc. This seems like a much better way to balance the need for deep concentration on the one hand with "collaboration," annoying MBA buzz-word at present.
Re: Programmers are most likely to work from home
#113Earlier quoted context omitted.
This comment doesn't read like it was written by a "humbleMouse" :) I don't think this is a healthy attitude to have towards less experienced developers. Literally every experienced developer was once inexperienced, and I think for the vast majority of people, it's hard to become a senior or even intermediate developer without some mentorship along the way. I believe this is especially true for aspects outside of wri…
I completely understand where he's coming from in writing that. Sometimes it feels like my entire day is spent training new hires, repeating the same things over and over again. In jobs where being an expert is a requirement, it's very frustrating to see the company hire employees fresh out of college and expect the senior employees to feed them 10 years of experience in a matter of weeks. And then either they take t…
Re: Programmers are most likely to work from home
#114I get cabin fever working from home more than a few days a week. I need human interaction and video chat and Slack don't cut it.
I found working from home I cooked a lot less (went out to eat instead just to get out of the house) and the days tended to blend together.
Re: Programmers are most likely to work from home
#115There is a dirty secret that nobody talks about and the real reason that companies want programmers in the office. Companies want their top performers in the office so they can serve as trainers/mentors/teachers to the new college kids and the incompetent older people they hire. I think this is the real reason companies crack down on working from home. It's infuriating as a top performer - I just want to get my assig…
This comment doesn't read like it was written by a "humbleMouse" :) I don't think this is a healthy attitude to have towards less experienced developers. Literally every experienced developer was once inexperienced, and I think for the vast majority of people, it's hard to become a senior or even intermediate developer without some mentorship along the way. I believe this is especially true for aspects outside of wri…
If someone is paid to literally write code, it's perfectly healthy for them to want to only write code and not provide free labor in a different domain.
I'd go so far as to say we currently have an unhealthy culture if we're expected to provide free training to everyone.
Job training used to be, and still should, be an explicit responsibility of the employer. Not an underhanded sneak expectation that's unofficially forced on people who were hired for other job descriptions.
Re: Programmers are most likely to work from home
#116I'm more of a "cat herder" than programmer these days, and I probably would have great difficulty doing my job from home, or with others working from home. Face-to-face conversations and in-person meetings are tools that have their uses, just as E-mail and asynchronous chat, phone calls and video conferences are tools that have their uses. To me, the cost of tossing out those "in person" tools does not make up for th…
Re: Programmers are most likely to work from home
#117Re: Programmers are most likely to work from home
#118I work in a big company. It's easy to see all the useful things I would have missed out on if I worked remotely. Examples: - Networking: Serendipity plays a bigger role than anything else. And you get a lot less of it the fewer people you interact with. Simply bumping into people at the cafe is quite valuable. - Career coaching: Lots of classes, talks, invited speakers, etc. Some can be done remotely, but roughly hal…
As he put it, the people who worked with the door closed got more work done in the short term, but in the long run had fewer serendipitous strokes of brilliance.
Re: Programmers are most likely to work from home
#119There is a dirty secret that nobody talks about and the real reason that companies want programmers in the office. Companies want their top performers in the office so they can serve as trainers/mentors/teachers to the new college kids and the incompetent older people they hire. I think this is the real reason companies crack down on working from home. It's infuriating as a top performer - I just want to get my assig…
If you really are a top performer, a big part of the justification for your high pay is because you multiply your impact by mentoring more junior employees.
Re: Programmers are most likely to work from home
#120The article does not discuss the impact of the open office movement. I've worked from home, in actual offices, in cubicles both cramped and spacious, and open offices. It can be quite difficult to focus at home due to various distractions, especially if you do not have a separate room or area for work. It is difficult to separate work and non-work with a home office. There are a variety of communications issues with…
Many of us are choosing between working at home and working in a loud and noisy environment. If programmers generally worked in the environment you described, our answers might be very different.