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Generate impressive-looking terminal output, look busy when stakeholders walk by

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Re: Generate impressive-looking terminal output, look busy when stakeholders walk by

#131

Post by pnutjam »

dwedge wrote: post #88
bboygravity wrote: post #69

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I can't help but think that there must be some arbitrage opportunity there: massive companies hire top notch engineers and all make them waste their time in (commute to/from) offices. What if someone comes along and is like "I'm going to provide the exact same service, but without offices and everybody works from home". That company would have a competitive edge, because: people from the established company would hav…

I think that despite what LinkedIn influencers promote, a lot of people take advantage of wfh to be less focused on work. Not all, maybe not even most, but dealing with this (and not knowing who will fit into which camp) eats into the efficiency saving. Also once the majority of a team is WFH, it's very tempting for management to take this one step further and start supplementing, then replacing, with off shore worke…

Nobody is focused on work in the office, it's politics and coaster culture everywhere. WFH allows me to my work efficiently and quickly. I don't need to look busy because I'm delivering.

Re: Generate impressive-looking terminal output, look busy when stakeholders walk by

#132

Post by danaris »

flask_manager wrote: post #103
varispeed wrote: post #92

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Then there’s self-drive requirement that can easily be extinguished It is 99% extinguished by low pay though. Low pay means person can't afford better living environment, can't afford leaving toxic partner, can't afford to go out or hobbies which leads to depression. > Efficient teams are more difficult to create when there is no space for people to bond over non-work (team pizza/social events) That has nothing to…

Burn out is hard to manage; its something that happens in the cruisy 20-something hour a week job as well as the 80+ hour pressure cooker. Probably not to the same degree sure, but its not the only thing going on here. Its a whole lot more sustainable if you can build an identity around "here is my team, we are building {___}", and its a lot easier to get there if you meet in person frequently. Genuinely clear object…

There's actually a fair amount of research on burnout. (Disclaimer: while I have read a bunch of this in the past, I do not have any links handy.)

From what I've read—and my first- and second-hand experience bears this out—some of the most important factors in whether someone burns out on their work (besides straight-up overwork, which should be painfully obvious) are

1. Feeling like their work is meaningful (as opposed to just shuffling numbers from one spreadsheet to another or something)

2. A sense of autonomy and ownership over their work (as opposed to being micromanaged and ordered to do a bunch of work that they don't understand the purpose of—see #1—or actively disagree with)

3. Feeling like they themselves are valued, in the ways that actually matter to them (as opposed to being given "participation prizes", told thank you for your 4-week 100-hour crunch sessions, here's a $10 gift certificate, etc).

(Note that #3 can be the trickiest, because what feels validating for one person might not for another. In particular, from my own experience, one of the things the division someone I know was in liked to do as a "reward" at the end of a particular period of work was to host a social gathering or party...but the person I know working there was introverted and shy, and this felt more like a chore than a reward. For others, though, it was meaningful and fulfilling.)

From everything I've seen, it's true that it's often easier to build these things with an in-person team, but a lot of that is just because that's what most of us are used to and have experience working with. I firmly believe that as we move forward with more remote work, we will, as a society, get much, much better at building the kind of camaraderie and bonding over the Internet that we have well-understood methods of doing in person now.

Re: Generate impressive-looking terminal output, look busy when stakeholders walk by

#133

Post by skeeter_sky »

nuancebydefault wrote: post #115
xlii wrote: post #81

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That’s an unpopular opinion but given more than a decade of remote work experience I’d say: yes, people are less efficient in remote environment (on average). The „on average” is key however. I’d say that most of the people don’t understand the cost of remote work until it hits them and simply not all can bear that cost. It’s not like people are unwilling (occasionally you can find slackers) but it’s more often thing…

I work 2 days from home and 2 days in the office. I couldn't bare full WFH for the reasons mentioned. I would get depressed in the end. I couldn't bare full office, for other reasons mentioned. I would get fully stressed out in the end.

Does 4-day work week feel more productive?

Re: Generate impressive-looking terminal output, look busy when stakeholders walk by

#134

Post by shepherdjerred »

bboygravity wrote: post #69
padolsey wrote: post #47

I remember working for a small agency in London with a bit of a top-heavy management structure. Many times would my shoulder be subtly gazed over to "check on progress". I ended up using IRSSI to chat with friends, wgets to read my fav blogs, and my twitter stream pouring into what looked like an excel spreadsheet UI . I always got my work done in the first couple hours of the day. I will always resent those managers…

I can't help but think that there must be some arbitrage opportunity there: massive companies hire top notch engineers and all make them waste their time in (commute to/from) offices. What if someone comes along and is like "I'm going to provide the exact same service, but without offices and everybody works from home". That company would have a competitive edge, because: people from the established company would hav…

I would rather take a 50% pay cut than work fully remotely

Re: Generate impressive-looking terminal output, look busy when stakeholders walk by

#135

Post by mystified5016 »

_cenw wrote: post #59
padolsey wrote: post #47

I remember working for a small agency in London with a bit of a top-heavy management structure. Many times would my shoulder be subtly gazed over to "check on progress". I ended up using IRSSI to chat with friends, wgets to read my fav blogs, and my twitter stream pouring into what looked like an excel spreadsheet UI . I always got my work done in the first couple hours of the day. I will always resent those managers…

They just don't get that some people can't spread their time into perfectly equal slices of productivity. Remote work and flexible time has allowed me to work a big productive burst in the morning and in the late evening, spaced way more than 8 hours apart, with busywork somewhere in the middle. Probably wouldn't work this well if I had to do that in an office, in a single 8 hour (or 4+1+4) segment.

That's why I'm so happy to have a salaried job with lax office hours. For whatever reason, I'm also really productive before noon and after 6. The middle of the day is mostly a waste. At current job, I work when I'm most productive and more or less goof off the rest of the time. I'm one of the most (if not the most) productive members of the company so boss can't complain.

But also I can't tolerate WFH for more than a few days at a time. I need external structure to tell my brain that it's work time.

Re: Generate impressive-looking terminal output, look busy when stakeholders walk by

#137

Post by gruturo »

valzam wrote: post #109
gruturo wrote: post #93

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Does the fact that WFH is not a thing mean that in the real world, for most people, coming to the office IS actually more efficient? Or does this just need more time? I'm honestly not sure, but I've sure been tempted to start a competitor to very silly old fashion "you shall come here and sit at a computer where I can see you" type companies. Sadly yes. I was grumbling about finding a solution to a problem and a co…

Ok but don't you have engineering wide slack/teams channels where these discussions can happen? If I think to my self 'man this is really hard to achieve for whatever company specific reason' I don't just stew on it for days by myself.

I do. But it wouldn't have occurred to me to discuss this in the channel, it's noisy enough.

Re: Generate impressive-looking terminal output, look busy when stakeholders walk by

#138

Post by jama211 »

i-zu wrote: post #70
jama211 wrote: post #48

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If you were a boss and you were staring at my screen all day, I’d find another job ;). In all seriousness though, we’re assuming in this case that you’re taking a break, and a stakeholder happens to walk past - hopefully not a constant occurrence.

Anxiety wouldn't allow me to go for a break without locking my workstation first.

I meant taking a break from working whilst still at your desk, as that’s the context of this thread.

Re: Generate impressive-looking terminal output, look busy when stakeholders walk by

#139

Post by jama211 »

9dev wrote: post #54

Seriously, they should use something like this in movies when showing hacker screens. Those are so ridiculous, sometimes I think it’s a deliberate inside gag to display an HTML page on a terminal when someone purportedly „hacks“ into a government computer.

They do this on purpose… it’s pointless to try and appease realism pedants, so they just make an aesthetic instead. It’s the computer equivalent of every phone number implausibly starting with 555.

Re: Generate impressive-looking terminal output, look busy when stakeholders walk by

#140

Post by nuancebydefault »

skeeter_sky wrote: post #133
nuancebydefault wrote: post #115

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I work 2 days from home and 2 days in the office. I couldn't bare full WFH for the reasons mentioned. I would get depressed in the end. I couldn't bare full office, for other reasons mentioned. I would get fully stressed out in the end.

Does 4-day work week feel more productive?

Conted per day it is certainly more productive. Where I live, the progressive tax system makes the financial impact of not working full time less severe.
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