Let employees work from home • Hacker News Board

Re: Let employees work from home

#221

Post by WWLink » Sun, May 21, 2017, 7:58 AM UTC

pdimitar wrote: post #190

dasmoth wrote: post #172

Earlier quoted context omitted.

whereas if I am developing I prefer a more customized setup with multiple screens and stuff so I have that better at work than at home. That may be true at Google, but there are a bunch of supposedly high-tech companies which are happy to give people seriously cruddy workstations. Even though my home setup is actually a 5-year-old monitor on a standing desk I bodged from an off-cut of worktop, it's dramatically nicer…

Off-topic: maybe it's time to abandon ship? A company relying on programmers / devops cheaping out on good workstations is a serious red flag.

sometimes it's purely political. The "I as a high rank manager get along just fine with X and Y, why can't everyone else?" mindset lol.

Re: Let employees work from home

#222

Post by zollidia » Sun, May 21, 2017, 8:16 AM UTC

I have mixed feelings about WFH. I love the idea and it works perfectly for those that don't/can't commute. Can work independently with out direct supervision. Then there are some that need the office structure to get their work done.

But, sadly, there are some that abused WFH privilege. And we, for the most part know what the out come is when a small group of people abuse a privilege - it's gets removed as a whole.

Re: Let employees work from home

#223

Post by brianwawok » Sun, May 21, 2017, 1:56 PM UTC

Blackthorn wrote: post #174

foobarge wrote: post #141

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I work for the big G. and I work from home. There's a couple hundred employees that work full time from home, a minuscule amount in comparison to the work force. I travel to the office every two quarters and I usually get nothing done (meetings, interruptions, etc...) VC, chat and email makes it possible to do work. Folks saying that they can't, err, "ideate" when they're not together making noise and preventing othe…

I do as well. It's very rare, and I've accepted that my career is probably ended at T5 (which is what I'm at). I've had team members promoted to T6 for being individual contributors but I recognize that I've got a very long uphill battle. Furthermore I have to travel to the office for a week every month and a half or so. That amount of travel sucks, but it's the price I pay for being able to work remotely so I pay it…

How high is t5 for an outsider? Senior engineer without any reports?

Re: Let employees work from home

#224

Post by staticelf » Mon, May 22, 2017, 10:52 AM UTC

HeshamA wrote: post #134

staticelf wrote: post #39

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What about IBM? A lot of their workers work remotely.

I guess not anymore. https://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2017/05/ibm-t...

How sad lol.

Re: Let employees work from home

#225

Post by JenMcCown » Mon, May 22, 2017, 1:45 PM UTC

peapicker wrote: post #217

JenMcCown wrote: post #131

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"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

That's marvelous. The point is that many companies don't allow that, and should.

Re: Let employees work from home

#226

Post by JenMcCown » Mon, May 22, 2017, 1:47 PM UTC

sjg007 wrote: post #136

JenMcCown wrote: post #132

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes. I have a colleague whose kids get sick a lot, and they're very concerned that a firing is imminent for that reason.

Family Medical leave might be helpful.. You can schedule it e.g. take 1 day off a week or something. It's protected.

It's a lot harder to navigate that one might think, and FMLA is for serious illnesses, not "one kid got the flu this week and another got the runs last week and before that it was stomach upset and before that..." etc.

Re: Let employees work from home

#227

Post by Arizhel » Mon, May 22, 2017, 2:40 PM UTC

bitL wrote: post #145

korzun wrote: post #142

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You are an exception. I was a huge advocate for working from home because I would get things done and end up saving two hours of commute. Your perception of this approach changes relatively quickly in a managerial role. If you are shaving 1-2 hours off your commute, then the overall output should be in line with whatever it was in the office. I probably met two other engineers that kept that in check.

It's not for everyone. You can often see middle-aged men escaping their homes and working long hours because they feel miserable around their wives; for them office is the only "safe space" they have. But for self-motivated high-performing communicative people WFH might be a much better arrangement. They might have a different problem - not knowing when to stop and risking a severe burnout which would be limited by o…

If you're miserable in a marriage, just get a divorce. Why do people put themselves through that?

Re: Let employees work from home

#228

Post by Blackthorn » Mon, May 22, 2017, 3:41 PM UTC

brianwawok wrote: post #223

Blackthorn wrote: post #174

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I do as well. It's very rare, and I've accepted that my career is probably ended at T5 (which is what I'm at). I've had team members promoted to T6 for being individual contributors but I recognize that I've got a very long uphill battle. Furthermore I have to travel to the office for a week every month and a half or so. That amount of travel sucks, but it's the price I pay for being able to work remotely so I pay it…

How high is t5 for an outsider? Senior engineer without any reports?

T5 is senior software engineer. Some of them have reports, some don't. Some are team leads, some aren't. I'm an "individual contributor" (no reports, not a team lead).