But if software engineers can work from home, they surely can work from Mumbai?
If they speak japanese and are happy to adjust their working day to the japanese timezone I can't see why not.
Fujitsu announces permanent work-from-home plan
211–220 of 287 posts
Re: Fujitsu announces permanent work-from-home plan
#212Earlier quoted context omitted.
Seriously!? I thought, Germany was unique with this fax machine thing.
A surprising amount of American personal business is still dependent on a fax machine. Especially in dealings with government, if you can't physically hand it in, it may need to be faxed. Always a terrifying feeling when you send a document containing all your personal identifying information to the fax nether, hopefully you dialed correctly.
At a large Seattle-based technology company ~10 years ago, the only way to submit an expense report was via fax "for security", but there were no fax machines in the office, only multifunction printers that could send virtual faxes (not via a phone line)
Re: Fujitsu announces permanent work-from-home plan
#213Can Japanese residents comment on how this works WRT office space in the home? Do people typically have space in their homes to have a proper home office setup? My wife and I are both WFH right now, and we had to buy a second desk and chair and repurpose what was previously our 2nd bedroom. The 3rd bedroom has always been a home office. If we lived in a downtown apartment, I'm not sure what we'd do, as we're both in…
I mean FWIW I’m American and your explanation sounds very foreign to me. I’m a millennial though, so owning a house at all is quite obstacle. Scrounging up a down payment when even a 2 bedroom apartment is $1-$1.5 million is not the easiest task. Renting an extra 2 bedrooms to have lying around in case we suddenly need 2 offices would also cost an extra couple thousand dollars a month. My wife and I are both working…
I grew up in Silicon Valley and worked there until a few years ago when I moved to the Midwest to do a PhD. My wife and I are millenials and she is also from a big city area. The plan was to move back to Silicon Valley, where I can easily get a lucrative job in my field. But when we did the math, it was an easy decision to stay in the Midwest.
I miss the weather, but we're so much better off financially. Plus we bought a 2,400 sqft home with 3/4 acre in an amazing area for $300k. I have a huge home office, and two extra bedrooms. I don't need this much land, but to be anywhere near this comfortable in Silicon Valley would be years off and would require several things to work out perfectly.
Re: Fujitsu announces permanent work-from-home plan
#214Earlier quoted context omitted.
This is what benmw333 is referring to. The Panasonic Let's. Despite how bulky it looks, it weighs about the same as the macbook air. It's basically used by anyone who isn't a manager, designer or software developer. You see them everywhere . https://biz.panasonic.com/jp-ja/products-services/letsnote/l...
Wow - look at this picture: https://content.biz.panasonic.com/jp-ja/fai/15800/raw This is not from a wayback machine copy of dynamism.com - this is a new, Windows 10 laptop in 2020 (!)
HDMI, VGA, 3 USBs, ethernet, and apparently 20 hours battery life! What's not to like?
Re: Fujitsu announces permanent work-from-home plan
#215Earlier quoted context omitted.
What struck me was the seemingly 1995 era laptops people were working on in the trains.
This is what benmw333 is referring to. The Panasonic Let's. Despite how bulky it looks, it weighs about the same as the macbook air. It's basically used by anyone who isn't a manager, designer or software developer. You see them everywhere . https://biz.panasonic.com/jp-ja/products-services/letsnote/l...
Wow! 12", 19.5h battery, under 1kg and still got VGA and an optical drive?
Were can i buy one??
Re: Fujitsu announces permanent work-from-home plan
#216Earlier quoted context omitted.
Perhaps one of the biggest barriers to fast moving SV style startups would be how difficult firing is in Japan. You need around 18 months to fire an ineffective employee. (And in contested cases I've heard of an employee who stayed on payroll for 4 years while the firing was finalised). It's one reason why people often face being harassed to the point of resignation rather than formally fired.
Indeed. It is particularly depressing to handle as a manager, because unless you have top notch HR, your only recourse to deal with somebody who does not perform is passive agressiveness, or at best plain ignorance. Imagine the effect on the morale for other people.
IIRC a few of the Japanese megacorps are known to just move underperformers to a do-nothing role where they at least can't cause harm. They hope they'll get tired of doing nothing and quit; but even if they don't, the company just moves on—treating their future salary as a write-off expense, and hiring someone else to fulfill their original role as if they had already left.
Re: Fujitsu announces permanent work-from-home plan
#217The one big downside I have noticed from WFH is that any efficiency I introduce in my own work becomes reclaimed time. If I can crank through a days work in 4 hours in the morning I can reasonably take it easy in the afternoon. This is great but it has created some stress around things like code reviews and impromptu mentoring etc. If I am sitting in the office I may as well spend 20 minutes on a code review trying t…
I think it's even more difficult when you factor in kids at home. We've had to deal with that at our home which means our ability to get work done has been cut in half. It also puts a lot of burden on co-workers. The biggest issue with this has been people without kids wondering why coworkers WITH kids aren't getting as much done.
Re: Fujitsu announces permanent work-from-home plan
#218I’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).
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Re: Fujitsu announces permanent work-from-home plan
#219Earlier quoted context omitted.
Seriously!? I thought, Germany was unique with this fax machine thing.
A surprising amount of American personal business is still dependent on a fax machine. Especially in dealings with government, if you can't physically hand it in, it may need to be faxed. Always a terrifying feeling when you send a document containing all your personal identifying information to the fax nether, hopefully you dialed correctly.
When I legally changed my name in 2014, I had to fax my name change paperwork to a ton of different institutions. Fax or snail mail were the only methods they would accept.
Re: Fujitsu announces permanent work-from-home plan
#220Earlier quoted context omitted.
How are two of the most advanced manufacturing countries so backwards?
It is a pendulum swing: these countries advanced a lot after WW2, then they believed they found the ideal way and got stuck there. In the meanwhile time flows linear, other countries were left behind but caught up and moved on. This way Japan and Germany still work well due to their excellent history, not recent trends.
I would say more like they found a local maxima and stayed there, never going even slightly less efficient in order to find a higher maxima than the one they had.
Kind of reminds me of which countries have the fastest/cheapest Internet access now. The countries that had Internet first tend to have shitty copper infrastructure and expensive plans, while the newer countries are all up with the latest fibre infrastructure and fast/cheap plans.