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People love working remotely

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Re: People love working remotely

#221

Post by vfc1 »

If nothing else, remote work means much less sleep deprivation for a lot of people, because they can wake up a bit later.

If you have kids to take to school it might not change that much, but if you can take them close to the start of classes it might mean an extra 30 minutes to one hour of sleep a day.

No wonder people work and feel so much better, even if its due to that simple factor alone.

But of course, there are other things that come to play like the ability to concentrate, limited interruptions, being able to eat proper food, etc.

Re: People love working remotely

#222

Post by calebm »

ken wrote: post #19

Elephant in the room: how many of these people would prefer it to having a private office ? Strangely, this article/survey/infographic never mentions that option. I'd prefer remote work, too, over sitting in an open floorplan office, but I'd much prefer an actual office to either one. The easy "why" is: despite all the drawbacks, a lot of us will do pretty much anything to get out of an open floorplan.

I'm a very social person (so much so that I wouldn't prefer a private office if I worked in an office), but I still prefer remote work.

Re: People love working remotely

#223

Post by rolltiide »

g051051 wrote: post #16

I was full-time WFH for 6 wonderful years. I was happy, my productivity was off the charts, I was saving tons of money because I didn't have to spend it on my car and clothes, I had extra time that I wasn't wasting on my commute, etc. Then, we had a big shake-up. A bunch of senior people left, and new "leadership" came in to "transform" our workplace. All WFH was cancelled in our division (in spite of still being off…

> We're also "Agile" now, so we spend a ton of time in useless meetings.

Haha about sums it up

Its not supposed to be that way though

Re: People love working remotely

#224

Post by rofo1 »

wolco wrote: post #104
g051051 wrote: post #16

I was full-time WFH for 6 wonderful years. I was happy, my productivity was off the charts, I was saving tons of money because I didn't have to spend it on my car and clothes, I had extra time that I wasn't wasting on my commute, etc. Then, we had a big shake-up. A bunch of senior people left, and new "leadership" came in to "transform" our workplace. All WFH was cancelled in our division (in spite of still being off…

Happened to me. What I did was go into the office and constantly talk to the vp's and ceo. Not about anything important really boring weather/how are you doing? The more removed the person from my department the more I would go out of my way to talk to them. Start asking difficult questions at the all staff forums. Always threw in doubts in meetings with non-tech people. I asked for a special chair for my back. Start…

Ah, the noble psychopath way.

Re: People love working remotely

#225

Post by alkonaut »

I have done full time WFH for several years. My takeaways are now.

- It’s not all positive, but the upsides can be bigger than the downsides.

- If you have kids age 1-9 say, that need to be dropped off at school/daycare then WFH is fantastic. The commute time I instead spend working means I can drop kids off at 8 and pick them up and have dinner on the table at 5.

- I’d not want to do it full time if I did not have family. The isolation is real even though I do video calls a large part of the day.

- If had a choice I’d do 1-2 days in an office, but unfortunately it’s too expensive to pay a full time desk in a co working space and use it just part time. If I didn’t need a big screen etc I’d probably go for a part time seat in a coworking space.

Re: People love working remotely

#226

Post by g051051 »

radlad wrote: post #99
g051051 wrote: post #48

Earlier quoted context omitted.

We recently spent weeks doing a backlog grooming meeting every day to get work lined up, only to have our priorities completely changed and all of the work discarded.

Why would you spend weeks doing backlog grooming meetings every day? We do a single one-hour backlog grooming meeting before each sprint, to plan the work for that sprint. If you're planning out much further than that, that's not agile.

We had had our priorities completely shifted, we changed POs twice in just a few weeks, and our previous work plans were tossed out. We met daily to build up the backlog, then had our priorities changed completely again, and invalidated all of the planning.

I agree 100% that it's not Agile.

Re: People love working remotely

#227

Post by snlnspc »

ken wrote: post #179
chewbacha wrote: post #44

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Many would for sure like a private office! But, there are big advantages of remote work over private offices: 1. Lower cost to the company. Private offices are expensive to build and maintain. 2. Less commute time to the employee. Private offices still require commuting which impacts the environment and the employees personal time. 3. Job flexibility. Home workers have (or will have) more options for employment. 4. N…

> 1. Lower cost to the company. Private offices are expensive to build and maintain. You're just pushing that cost to the employee. Are you paying them the amount saved, to furnish their own private offices? Or are you just penalizing the worker to save a buck? > 3. Job flexibility. Home workers have (or will have) more options for employment. I have not seen this. Most companies still don't offer remote work. > 4. N…

> 1. Lower cost -> You're just pushing that cost to the employee.

This one does seem to be a relatively common thing, at least in recent job posts I've seen. I can imagine it's not all that common if you take a step back, but quite a few companies have given what I consider very generous monthly stipends for use in personal offices or (co-)workspace expenses.

I agree with the rest.

Re: People love working remotely

#228

Post by logfromblammo »

jofer wrote: post #119
coolvision wrote: post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>white noise over the speakers I'm fine with open spaces, but this would be the final straw for me

I know it seems crazy, but I've been in several offices that had this. It most cases it worked well and I never noticed it until it would occasionally quit working. The offices where it's worked best were not open, though. They had thin doors/walls and a small speaker (also doubled for the fire alarm/etc) in the ceiling of each office. The white noise was unnoticeable until it was off or you really looked for it. The…

My partial hearing loss is such that I can understand conversations in an otherwise quiet room, but if someone turns on a fan, or intentionally plays white noise through overhead speakers, the conversation needs to be about twice as loud in order for me to understand it. Normal speaking volume isn't quite enough any more. That tiny bit of white noise overwhelms those frequencies that I can still hear to differentiate between similar speech sounds.

For me, blowing fans are unpleasant. Piped in white noise would be torture. Like gratuitously flashing strobe lights into the eyes of someone with night-blindness.

Maybe this could be used as the basis for ADA complaints against open offices? I can't understand why anyone would think that's a good idea, but then again, I don't understand open offices either.

(I also prefer 2-day email chains to face-to-face conversations, because I can both understand what I read much faster than I can understand listening to speech, and refer back to it later.)

Re: People love working remotely

#229

Post by ilaksh »

chad_strategic wrote: post #173
wolco wrote: post #104

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Happened to me. What I did was go into the office and constantly talk to the vp's and ceo. Not about anything important really boring weather/how are you doing? The more removed the person from my department the more I would go out of my way to talk to them. Start asking difficult questions at the all staff forums. Always threw in doubts in meetings with non-tech people. I asked for a special chair for my back. Start…

Well played! In the TV show "What we do in the shadows" this is called an energy vampire. (you suck out other energy) Also a great show.

Wow I only knew about the movie. Now I have a new TV show I have to watch.

Re: People love working remotely

#230

Post by peterhil »

ken wrote: post #19

Elephant in the room: how many of these people would prefer it to having a private office ? Strangely, this article/survey/infographic never mentions that option. I'd prefer remote work, too, over sitting in an open floorplan office, but I'd much prefer an actual office to either one. The easy "why" is: despite all the drawbacks, a lot of us will do pretty much anything to get out of an open floorplan.

I have worked remotely since February, and the startup also rents a shared office, which is mostly unoccupied. However, I have used it only when there is a meeting.

I rather not use my time to commute, and prefer working at home, some cafe, or even nearby park or restaurant terrace on sunny days.

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