221–230 of 263 posts
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If employers offered the same working environment as a home office, it would be much more expensive. Open plan is only cheap on the books. It costs a lot in decimating the focus of people working there.
Ymmv, but for me work from office is far more productive than from home. It also allows a very effective context switch so you don't feel like working when you are at home.
I think Scott Adams figured this out in 2005: https://dilbert.com/strip/2005-06-11
This reminds me of a story I heard about Steve Wozniak's time at HP: They were going to lay off 10% of the staff, but instead they decided to reduce everyone's pay by 10% and give them an extra day off every two weeks.
Your best employees can leave and you are left with the “Dead Sea Effect”
10% comes from the ancient Roman tradition of Decimation https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Decimation_(punishment) >> The dual purpose intended was to stiffen discipline amongst the army at large and to demoralise the enemy
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Many or a few? Most software engineers find themselves most effective in work from home. This breaks in favor at 3:4 or higher. The software engineers that want to work in office are the odd-balls. I am interested in the break down when one factors in whatever concept of '10x developers' -- which do the most productive of us prefer?
I haven’t met any SWE that want to go back to the office. Heck, even my managers manager has said she never wants to go back, and she is a complete extrovert. These developers online that claim they want to go back must be as rare as hen’s teeth.
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We're just gonna gloss over, "quick your employees don't have leverage, make changes they won't like" like that isn't indicative of a capitalist hellscape? If shit like this doesn't radicalize you into democracy in the workplace then we're fucked. Especially since right now that lack of leverage was literally manufactured on purpose by the fed.
Different employers offer different compensation packages. That package includes salary, but it also includes things like the extent of 'democracy in the workplace'. To a certain extent, as an employee I'm happy to trade off some 'democracy' for more money in that package. As an employer, I would be happy to give people more 'democracy' if that's cheaper to provide than more money.
Do you not hear yourself? For the average American, your employer has more control over your individual liberty than your government and we look at like that’s somehow a good thing. Like sure, if you land a cushy office job then you can forget the abuses the rest of the job market has to suffer. The railroad strike that happened this year was fought over fucking sick days and the government almost stepped in to force the workers to accept whatever their owners gave them.
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I think on remote it’s worth reframing the argument a little. If you’re totally pro-remote, I’d like to hear your thoughts on this formulation. Consider an early stage startup of six employees. Working full remote - everyone at home, communicating via slack and zoom, working hours roughly the same. Vs 9-6 ish hours, some flexibility, where they all come into an office. That office is a small, modern, comfortable offi…
No, your vaporware office scenario still isn't going to get me to come into the office. :-) And I find it very hard to believe. When I started working in the 1980s, everybody got a cubicle, we didn't even like cubicles!, but you had walls and it was quieter and people treated it like your personal space. In my last job, I could've stood up and put my hand on seven different people's shoulders without moving my feet.…
- no deliveries (i only order to a dropoff or buy in person)
- no pets
- able to exercise and clear my mind during small breaks
- able to have a homecooked meal or go to my favourite places for lunch
- __not__ talking about work on breaks is actually a huge plus for me
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I’d really like to know what the numbers are for the company I work for. Even if they rent a building in a business park (because there is not enough room on campus for a group), they will completely revamp the building from top to bottom and make it completely bespoke. The last time I worked in one of these buildings, they brought in artists who spent a week stenciling words and artwork over a concrete wall. How muc…
But, don't you feel engaged to come to a place with such inspirational artwork? Truly, a company that cares. /s
If the place feels dingy or like the owners don't care to make it look nice, I doubt it has a positive effect on productivity and employee retention.
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SWEs that want to force everyone back to office have no life or a personality outside of their job.
For real. Make some friends outside of work. Or enjoy time with your family. Or take time to make a family.
It is a strawman argument to claim that people who want to go to the office have no social life. It is in fact easier to claim that "only antisocial people want to hide at home like a hermit with their webcam shut off."
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There’s a lot of 50-100 person offices used by 5-10 people a day right now because the friendly nudges and incentives to bring people back to the office are falling flat.
If there's only 5-10 people a day, they should be getting nice offices rather than the typical open plan. That might actually entice others to come in. In lots of tv shows the high-social-value characters have very nice offices (ie, it has a door and a couch). I'd go in-person for one of those.
I am no fan of that. If I come to the office I want to see real people.