Fujitsu announces permanent work-from-home plan • Hacker News Board

Re: Fujitsu announces permanent work-from-home plan

#121

Post by pbhjpbhj » Mon, Jul 06, 2020, 3:37 PM UTC

Accacin wrote: post #86

noir_lord wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They largely won't unless forced to. Management in the UK by and large sucks.

I always wonder how people come up with these statements, is it just anecdotal? To add my own, my company was shifting to working remotely for the development team gradually, but now our CEO has been impressed with how well we adapted to working from home and has told us that our office will not be open until September at the earliest.

From CEO perspective they shift all accommodation [overhead] costs to employees with no increase in wages. Even with slightly lower productivity then financially surely wfh for dev roles and the like is going to get them a bigger bonus and/or more profit.

Sure it might just be cleaning/utility costs/stationary for now, but longer term expansion won't have stepped accommodation costs. And if locations can be done away with ...

I can't see why workers would be happy without higher wages? I want at least to afford a house big enough to have an office space (I'm working out of my bedroom, my line-manager is in their kids bedroom, their line-manager is in a utility room (storage and laundry room)). 5-10% increase in wages should do it.

Re: Fujitsu announces permanent work-from-home plan

#122

Post by ghaff » Mon, Jul 06, 2020, 3:41 PM UTC

C1sc0cat wrote: post #98

ghaff wrote: post #48

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I have never heard of a health and safety inspection for a home office. I'm quite sure mine would fail in multiple counts. But, yes, a small urban apartment is not going to be great for working from home. Especially without coffeeshops etc. open. Longer term, people who WFH indefinitely will either need to move to larger places or they'll want a co-working space that either they or their company pays for.

Its the law in the UK and from what others have said the USA as well

Pretty much everyone I work with in the US worked from home at least some of the time even before this. I'd place a sizable bet that not one of them has ever had an OSHA inspector come to check out their home workplace.

Re: Fujitsu announces permanent work-from-home plan

#123

Post by mrep » Mon, Jul 06, 2020, 3:42 PM UTC

ed25519FUUU wrote: post #110

jdhn wrote: post #53

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>Scrounging up a down payment when even a 2 bedroom apartment is $1-$1.5 million is not the easiest task. This is why I don't live in the Bay Area, and have no plans to. I was casually surfing Trulia, and found new construction in my area starting at $170k for a 3 bed/2 bathroom. The idea of paying that much for an apartment(!) is simply foreign to me.

My generation (millennials) really do think life only exists on a handful of very expensive urban centers. Most of the country is very affordable, but I guess they don’t have advertising tech companies saving the world so it’s not as desirable.

That's not the case at all for me and my millennial friends who have spread out to over a dozen different cities. Even my CS friends didn't move out of the midwest and are still in Chicago, Fort Wayne, and Indianapolis.

Re: Fujitsu announces permanent work-from-home plan

#124

Post by y-c-o-m-b » Mon, Jul 06, 2020, 3:45 PM UTC

kubatyszko wrote: post #40

zkid18 wrote: post #8

Wow, that huge for Japan I believe. I live at Kichijoji and it takes me 1 hour to get to work in Akasaka. I love my place and somehow get used to this routine, but honestly I wish I could rent a place in Japanese countryside.

You can actually get a house for free in some areas, mostly central Japan. Many cities are becoming deserted and houses are left alone, governments offer incentives to take them over. Might come with a catch such as committing to maintenance of farming.

My wife did a little light reading on this subject and found it's more complicated than that. It turns out that finding the owner of these properties is an enormous challenge because due to the high level of taxes and fees associated with these buildings, the owners are reluctant to claim them (to avoid paying the taxes/fees). I would like to see someone living in Japan confirm this, though.

Re: Fujitsu announces permanent work-from-home plan

#125

Post by xtracto » Mon, Jul 06, 2020, 3:57 PM UTC

runawaybottle wrote: post #38

I’d love to see companies convert ‘Unlimited vacation time at your discretion’ over to ‘Unlimited remote at your discretion’.

"Unlimited vacation" is a deception. Real perks are to have 15 or 20 days of vacations, increasing with seniority at the company, and forced vacations (i.e., the company forces you to take the vacations every year). It is also good for the company health (ensure that no 1 person missing has a large impact).

Re: Fujitsu announces permanent work-from-home plan

#126

Post by kirykl » Mon, Jul 06, 2020, 3:57 PM UTC

chrisseaton wrote: post #103

cdavid wrote: post #97

I am quite bearish about the impact of WFH, especially for software engineers, but if there is one country where I think the coronavirus can have a huge positive effect for the economy, it is Japan. Japanese companies are generally extremely inefficient. Outside of a few powerhouses, partially thanks to a protected and large domestic market, Japanese labor practices are antiquated. There is a culture of overwork that…

How does this square with for example the Japanese car market, which I thought led the world in labour practices and efficiency? They've invented many labour practices that are considered the best we have today. And their cars are so cheap - how are they doing this if they aren't being efficient? For example are Toyota's engineering and factories running on wasted meeting time, fax machines, and hand-written letters?…

Toyota tends to subordinate technology to process

Re: Fujitsu announces permanent work-from-home plan

#127

Post by throwaway0a5e » Mon, Jul 06, 2020, 3:59 PM UTC

chrisseaton wrote: post #103

cdavid wrote: post #97

I am quite bearish about the impact of WFH, especially for software engineers, but if there is one country where I think the coronavirus can have a huge positive effect for the economy, it is Japan. Japanese companies are generally extremely inefficient. Outside of a few powerhouses, partially thanks to a protected and large domestic market, Japanese labor practices are antiquated. There is a culture of overwork that…

How does this square with for example the Japanese car market, which I thought led the world in labour practices and efficiency? They've invented many labour practices that are considered the best we have today. And their cars are so cheap - how are they doing this if they aren't being efficient? For example are Toyota's engineering and factories running on wasted meeting time, fax machines, and hand-written letters?…

>And their cars are so cheap

Have you cross shopped vehicles lately? Your statement is arguably true about Nissan and Nissan only.

Japanese light vehicles typically carry an initial price premium that self perpetuates for a whole host of reasons beyond the scope of this discussion.

Re: Fujitsu announces permanent work-from-home plan

#128

Post by zeeZ » Mon, Jul 06, 2020, 4:01 PM UTC

lnsru wrote: post #90

snarfy wrote: post #66

Any Japanese care to chime in on how WFH is accepted culturally? When I worked for a Japanese tech company I was surprised by how old school they were. Landlines, business cards, reams of paper, week long meetings about policies, and this was a software company. WFH was forbidden unless it was an emergency.

Add fax machines and it will be perfect picture of current situation in Germany.

Naturally. You can't do business in Japan without a fax machine.

Re: Fujitsu announces permanent work-from-home plan

#129

Post by thesumofall » Mon, Jul 06, 2020, 4:04 PM UTC

Not commenting on this specific case here, but I believe we currently see the pendulum swinging from one extreme (WFH only at a very exclusive subset of companies) to the other extreme ("WFH first" policies)

I'm convinced the true winners will be those companies that find a smart mix of both worlds. This includes recognizing that both concepts have their strengths (e.g., people are a lot more disciplined about meetings in a remote context) and weaknesses (e.g., a further breakdown of the separation between work and live). WFH needs more than just giving people the green light to work from home on selected days. It also, for example, needs a radical rethink of office infrastructure (most offices are not designed for 10 people sitting side-by-side and being on the phone most of the day), management culture, and shared best practices how to approach non-transactional work (e.g., how to tackle complex topics with people who do not know each other remotely?)

Re: Fujitsu announces permanent work-from-home plan

#130

Post by 0xCMP » Mon, Jul 06, 2020, 4:07 PM UTC

cdavid wrote: post #97

I am quite bearish about the impact of WFH, especially for software engineers, but if there is one country where I think the coronavirus can have a huge positive effect for the economy, it is Japan. Japanese companies are generally extremely inefficient. Outside of a few powerhouses, partially thanks to a protected and large domestic market, Japanese labor practices are antiquated. There is a culture of overwork that…

When I visited Japan I couldn't help repeating over and over to myself that it's a country with one foot firmly in the future and another foot stuck firmly in the past.

It's one of the most fascinating things I love about Japan.

[edit: typo]