Live data from Hacker News

Let employees work from home

midnightdba.com

211–220 of 228 posts

Re: Let employees work from home

#211
post #53

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think what the article is trying to say is that employers' arguments are more often bullshit than legitimate (and obviously, both sets of employers think their arguments are legitimate), so usually they should just give it a shot.

Unfortunately, that's not meaningfully different from, "I want X, you should offer X." It is basically the same as saying, "I want X, some companies do X, give it a shot" in persuasive power. I love working from home and have done it for most of my career. The next job I take will probably be in an office though for a change of pace. I honestly find that despite my personal affection for it, most arguments in favor o…

Vacation days weren't compelling either. There is no business case for vacation days like you're asking for, except, similar to WFH options, it makes for happier employees. I'm sure you'd scoff at a company offering no vacation.

Also, it's sad to label employees preferring benefits and choice as selfish, vs huge companies sitting on piles of cash maybe losing .00000005% in productivity, if that's even true.

The same old arguments get trot out, and your arguments show where you are professionally. Business insight? Sorry to say but most people work to collect a paycheck. They don't make decisions, and typically their "insights" are ignored by management anyway. For every "insight" from a group discussion, there are just as many people working on their own, making important discoveries or taking steps forward.

This isn't band of brothers. I don't need subtle discussions or have to pick up on social cues nor am I a manager who has decision making power. I don't need to form lasting bonds with anyone. I just want flexibility with my hours to make my life more convenient-and a place that values that will get a lot more out of me than a place that doesn't. That is what the essay says: if you want to expand your options in hiring, offer at least partial WFH. And put me in the boat that agrees with that.

Re: Let employees work from home

#212

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"Saying "we're only local" or "we're only remote" is a bad idea, you can have both and call it a win on both ends" Honestly, I think it needs to be one or the other. Mixing some remote people into an otherwise local team often doesn't work.

A big thing in this thread is "fully remote." The fact is WFH does not need to be a full time thing for most companies. Just offer it as a benefit-if you want, you can work from home 2 days a week, or WFH if you need to be home to pick up a package or have a doctors appointment. That alone will make your company much more attractive.

2-3 days per week should be a no-brainer. Especially for developers writing code.

Re: Let employees work from home

#213
post #70

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I guess it's different strokes for different folks. Personally, I feel I can communicate much more efficiently via chat/messaging mediums than email. Chatting, in my opinion, at least in a late 20 something (27 year old)'s mind, emulates a real conversation where if you don't respond it's essentially ignoring the other person. If you have a bigger thought, sure you can type it out and get that message to multiple peo…

Chatting favours subjects that only require a short span of attention. At the same time, anything of real value will take a minimum length and complexity to explain. That is why the output of chat/messaging tends to be worth little to nothing. Chat/messaging is something appreciated by demographics who do not have anything useful to say anyway. To an important extent, it is the same kind of people who have a hard tim…

Chats are excellent alternative means of communications for people who can benefit from augmented communication, like the deaf or hard of hearing, or people with social anxiety, or folks who simply lack the ability to communicate verbally but are perfectly competent and able to use their "voice". Besides that, your personal views about how useless chats are may just be an indication that you have deficiencies that prevent you from benefitting fully from text communication. And I don't see how you made any connections with specific demographics who use chats or messaging, other than your personal biases. I frequently use messaging with my coworkers and clients because it's extremely efficient. And look. I'm employed.

Re: Let employees work from home

#214
post #7

>Objections to work from home fall apart Essays from workers like Jen McCown isn't going to work. What works is to have massively successful businesses that beat the competition because their employees work remotely . Since no multi-billion dollar business has demonstrated that specific cause & effect, the idea doesn't gain traction. Yes, businesses like Basecamp and Automattic have remote workers but I'm talking abo…

You could make this argument about any benefit, and it would be equally silly. "Blog posts about company provided snacks arent going to move the needle, we need a company that is massively successful because of free snacks before people take notice!"

I am a bit confused, isn't this what happened?

Re: Let employees work from home

#215

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>It's far too tempting to let one thing bleed into the other when working from home. I worked with a guy once who'd been WFH in a previous job. He would get up, shower, put on a suit and tie, unlock the door to his home office, hang the suit jacket on a peg in the office, and sit down to work. At the end of the day he'd reverse the procedure, locking the office. He said he had to do it to keep things separate.

It seems to imply that people need more regimentation in their lives to make things work a certain way. I wfh and was thinking that it might be good to have a robot in the office that I could control that would be my avatar in the office. And also hilarious.

I worked at a place that sent such robots to clients. They said it worked well. My guess is it was an improvement to no physical presence combined with the novelty factor.

Re: Let employees work from home

#216
post #206
post #168

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm the first person to admit that if I was to run a company, I wouldn't allow people to work remotely only. But as an employee, there's no way I'm going to drag my ass into an office ever again on a regular basis, when I can just as well work from exotic beachfront homes. This is going to work out just like companies who cut compensation work out. You'll be left with the mediocre engineers and everyone who's able to…

> I'm the first person to admit that if I was to run a company, I wouldn't allow people to work remotely only. Why not? I work remotely and if I was to run a company I would hire remotely too. Given that I've coded myself I expect to know how long tasks should generally take. And I would want to give that benefit to my employees and attract talent as well.

Thats not even a viable argument. You know how long things take. Assuming that thats true, what do you do about it? Something took significantly longer. What are you gonna do about it? Fire them?

Re: Let employees work from home

#217

I don't want to work from home, thanks anyway. Except on bad weather days. Then again, I'm at a senior principle engineer level, and need to have face time with my VPs and directors in addition to other devs. I don't believe it would be possible to work at the level I'm at remotely, nor to be promoted to such a level. And my commute isn't horrid at ~25min.

"Except bad weather days." Exactly! Your company has to offer any kind of WFH to allow that!

And I do work from home on bad weather days so this isn't an issue

Re: Let employees work from home

#218
post #216
post #206

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I'm the first person to admit that if I was to run a company, I wouldn't allow people to work remotely only. Why not? I work remotely and if I was to run a company I would hire remotely too. Given that I've coded myself I expect to know how long tasks should generally take. And I would want to give that benefit to my employees and attract talent as well.

Thats not even a viable argument. You know how long things take. Assuming that thats true, what do you do about it? Something took significantly longer. What are you gonna do about it? Fire them?

[deleted]

Re: Let employees work from home

#219
post #216
post #206

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I'm the first person to admit that if I was to run a company, I wouldn't allow people to work remotely only. Why not? I work remotely and if I was to run a company I would hire remotely too. Given that I've coded myself I expect to know how long tasks should generally take. And I would want to give that benefit to my employees and attract talent as well.

Thats not even a viable argument. You know how long things take. Assuming that thats true, what do you do about it? Something took significantly longer. What are you gonna do about it? Fire them?

[deleted]

Re: Let employees work from home

#220
post #216
post #206

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I'm the first person to admit that if I was to run a company, I wouldn't allow people to work remotely only. Why not? I work remotely and if I was to run a company I would hire remotely too. Given that I've coded myself I expect to know how long tasks should generally take. And I would want to give that benefit to my employees and attract talent as well.

Thats not even a viable argument. You know how long things take. Assuming that thats true, what do you do about it? Something took significantly longer. What are you gonna do about it? Fire them?

Yes, if its a consistent problem with no good reason. Very viable.
Post reply on HN