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I went to the office for the first time. I fucking hated it

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Re: I went to the office for the first time. I fucking hated it

#131

Post by rococode »

I predict the balance we're heading towards for many office jobs is going to be something like 2 mandatory office days a week, 1 optional day, and 2 mandatory WFH days, with "mandatory" really meaning "highly encouraged". Like Monday and Wednesday are in-office, Tuesday and Thursday are WFH, Friday is optional.

Preference for WFH depends on so many individual factors, not just personality but also your commute length, home size, children, neighborhood, friends, etc. Although a lot of discussions on HN seem to be dominated by "I prefer WFH", I reckon in reality the divide is probably pretty close to 50/50, just like with introverts and extroverts. Companies will find strong candidates in both types of people and find out they can't fully satisfy them all, and the end result will be everyone compromises.

Encourage some days to be WFH so that WFHers won't feel career pressure from missing out on office politics. Encourage some days to be in-office so that office-lovers won't go to the office to socialize and find it half empty. Have a flexible day or two where people can do whatever they want. Maybe throw in some flexibility on start and end hours so that people can avoid peak traffic.

Re: I went to the office for the first time. I fucking hated it

#132

Post by dkdbejwi383 »

amdelamar wrote: post #44

> The best part is that the cubicle doesn't have tall walls so I can literally see/hear everything, including other people's monitors. Open offices are awful. In my experience most people end up wearing headphones all day, and I did too. My ears would get red and irritated after a while. But I'd keep them on because it was like an unspoken social rule; that if you looked busy and had headphones on, people won't inter…

I have a mild case of tinnitus which I attribute to headphone use for 9 or so hours a day (commute plus time trying to work in the office).

At home these days I rarely have music or anything on, I can work for the most part in comfortable silence.

Means that music is saved for when I actually want to listen to it and can give it my attention, instead of while I'm trying to debug or avoid someone's armpit on the train.

Re: I went to the office for the first time. I fucking hated it

#133

Post by papaf »

I have hopes for hybrid working but I think that it needs to be targeted.

A team should be in the office together on the same day. This day should have a schedule like a mini conference with talks, pair programming and architecture sessions.

We have done similar things in the past when two teams that are remote from each other come together and it works well. All the activities were optional and we went to a Beer garden at the end.

Simply going back into the office for a day and working as normal is wasting the personal contact time.

Re: I went to the office for the first time. I fucking hated it

#134

Post by ALittleLight »

galdosdi wrote: post #36
kumarvvr wrote: post #8

The sense of sitting in office is a tremendous waste of time and potential is inescapable. I work in the engineering industry and am lucky enough that I get to have privacy and my manager is good. I ensure I do my work and well at that. But I know friends in IT who absolutely loathe the feeling of being in a monitored jail cell.

Yeah but the real root cause (of that awful "I am wasting my time and life right now" feeling) is that modern office work often involves getting M hrs (M IMHO it can actually be more frustrating because one feels more on the hook for keeping an eye on notifications. At least at the office I can zone out or focus on something personal or work related, safely assured if a boss really needs me I can be found in person,…

You need a chatbot that replies to messages with "I'm heads down on a task right now. I'll read your message when I have some time. If you need to interrupt me please reply with 'interrupt'." And if you get that keyword your chatbot plays a sound or texts you.

Re: I went to the office for the first time. I fucking hated it

#135

Post by cgsmith »

tehjoker wrote: post #111
Datagenerator wrote: post #72

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Also some people like to do real work and deliver value instead of stealing time.

Time is something being stolen from employees. We have one life to live. A company isn't even alive.

Are you retired? Employees pay you for the time it takes on a job.

If you're retired then maybe you are waxing philosophically about the fleating nature of time.

Re: I went to the office for the first time. I fucking hated it

#136

Post by benrbray »

sam0x17 wrote: post #94
Wowfunhappy wrote: post #4

> If you like/prefer going to the office that is fine. I am not trying to say we should all be remote. Companies should offer FLEXIBILITY to let employees choose where to work from. That doesn’t work. I prefer working in the office, but only if the rest of my team is actually there with me. If some people are remote, then we have to do Zoom meetings, so I may as well be remote too.

I hate that people keep framing it as a "preference" issue. There are HUGE economic and environmental costs that go along with working in and (often) commuting to an office. Not to mention the consistent 20-30% productivity drain working in an office seems to have across the board at most tech orgs. We don't need to destroy our planet, dramatically increase costs, and dramatically lower productivity just to appease t…

You are correct about the problem, but your solution is backwards. The solution is not for us to retreat to the suburbs and WFH forever. The solution is to build dense, walkable cities with good public transit, allowing for sustainable in-person work and strengthening local communities.

Re: I went to the office for the first time. I fucking hated it

#137

Post by themolecularman »

joelbluminator wrote: post #68

If anyone can do your work remotely...ANYONE can do your work remotely. Do you guys think maybe when the next recession happens we will see unprecedented offshoring due to companies not being able to pay 160K to a developer with 3 years experience? Its all nice and well when every startup can raise as much money as it wants. What happens when/if that pops?

Yes, definitely.

The tech company I work for was all SF based for it's engineering. Now they're open to hiring from anywhere.

They haven't entirely committed to hybrid/remote. They have however expanded beyond the Bay Area based on their experiences during covid. And that's meant new offices in the Philippines and Mexico City.

Re: I went to the office for the first time. I fucking hated it

#138

Post by chrsig »

cgsmith wrote: post #117
Nbox9 wrote: post #37

Wow, that seems like a terrible place to work. Why is he going to a daily meeting if he doesn’t have to pay attention to the meeting? Why is there not an incentive to complete more than one card a day? If one card can take as little as two hours it seems like a massive waste to expect someone to only do one card. Why doesn’t he have proper equipment? If you spend XXX,XXX a year for an employee it makes sense to spend…

I realized that the OP can correct these actions himself. If he is in a useless meeting then he should speak up and work towards changing that policy. If he doesn't have good equipment he could work with management to lobby for better equipment or bring his own there. Instead of working for 4 hours then "doing whatever" he could make meaningful changes in the organization but he chooses not too. Maybe it isn't a terr…

Why is that a better option for the OP than finding a job that better aligns with how they would like to work? It's really better for everyone in the long run. Company has fewer malcontent workers and can replace the headcount with people that do want to be in the office, and OP isn't suffering in an environment they can't tolerate.

Maybe neither are terrible. Maybe they're just poorly suited for each other.

Re: I went to the office for the first time. I fucking hated it

#139

Post by gregoriol »

It seems to me that this person doesn't hate the office but actually hates the company. It seems that the meetings, the style, the colleagues, nothing fits for him.

I also don't understand why he would discover the cubicle only now: didn't he interview with the company? didn't he ask the questions?

I believe this person should urgently go work for another company that better fits him, and not because he has to go to an office.

Re: I went to the office for the first time. I fucking hated it

#140

Post by [deleted] »

sam0x17 wrote: post #94
Wowfunhappy wrote: post #4

> If you like/prefer going to the office that is fine. I am not trying to say we should all be remote. Companies should offer FLEXIBILITY to let employees choose where to work from. That doesn’t work. I prefer working in the office, but only if the rest of my team is actually there with me. If some people are remote, then we have to do Zoom meetings, so I may as well be remote too.

I hate that people keep framing it as a "preference" issue. There are HUGE economic and environmental costs that go along with working in and (often) commuting to an office. Not to mention the consistent 20-30% productivity drain working in an office seems to have across the board at most tech orgs. We don't need to destroy our planet, dramatically increase costs, and dramatically lower productivity just to appease t…

[deleted]
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