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I will always prefer to work from home

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Re: I will always prefer to work from home

#261

Post by acuozzo »

acherion wrote: post #243
LRVNHQ wrote: post #213

I much prefer working at the office. There's less distraction and better divide between work and private time. When I leave the office, I'm done for the day. I find somewhat ironic that people use an alleged higher productivity at home as justification for remote work, but but doing chores around the house throughout the day always comes up as a perk of WFH. Doing chores and being productive are antithetic. Anecdotic…

> There's less distraction and better divide between work and private time. When I leave the office, I'm done for the day. I am glad I have the luxury of having a separate room as my home office. When I’m done for the day, I leave that room and close the door, and don’t go back in unless it’s the next day or an emergency.

Luckier than you think! Having a door to shut isn't all that helpful when you have a crafty and desperate special needs kid.

Re: I will always prefer to work from home

#262

Post by cereal_cable »

ghaff wrote: post #120
rootusrootus wrote: post #50

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't even need a private office. One of the best environments I've ever worked in was a hybrid office/open model. Basically a bunch of conference rooms where each team got a room, and within the room the desk walls were low. Decorate it however you want, if you agree on style then you can have ambient music, etc. It was pretty great. But then they knocked all the walls down and put in rows of desks because they co…

People here talk a lot about being able to have closing doors. My experience with private offices was, barring confidential conversations or rarely going really heads down for a few hours, the unwritten policy was you kept your door open. I've never worked anyplace where private offices generally had their doors shut.

Agreed, but having a door meant you could put the "do not disturb" sign up. Of course that's pretty specific to your companies culture, but if someone closed their door at my office, I'd stroll around later.

One of the biggest benefits of course is that you have a lot less sound travel. Doors open and you'll still be able to have a neighbor that has an open door meeting, phone call, etc and it won't interrupt you.

After moving from a private office with a door to a team space, I missed it severely. Now I'm WFH and when my kids aren't home generally my door stays open.

Re: I will always prefer to work from home

#263

Post by stefandesu »

Volundr wrote: post #250
goalieca wrote: post #249

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I used to be more exhausted from 5-6 hours of in person meeting than 5-6 hours of camera off zoom meetings. Sometimes I do things like fold laundry or eat lunch during meetings where I dont need to talk and this gives me time to have an actual break later.

Off camera meetings are great. Especially when I don't need my computer and can sit I the yard watching the bees work.

I sometimes go for walks during off camera meetings where I know I won't need to talk. It's amazing.

Re: I will always prefer to work from home

#264

Post by acuozzo »

pojzon wrote: post #80

With current gas prices in many countries you would have to pay me 500$ more for me to even consider driving to work and spending 1h in traffic jam every day. The times when ppl considered commute time as opportunity cost are long over. If my work does not require me to be “there” to do my work, no way Im going to waste my time.

> and spending 1h in traffic jam every day

I see mention of traffic a lot, but I work on the east coast in the defense industry where flexible schedules are the norm.

Traffic completely dies down out here by 10AM and 6PM, so I work 10-6, sometimes 10-7.

Is traffic just not as bad in Maryland or are flexible schedules not the norm outside of my industry?

Re: I will always prefer to work from home

#265

Post by cereal_cable »

scruple wrote: post #157
the_snooze wrote: post #4

I feel these discussions always go the same way. Working at an office sucks because of some combination of {long commute, open office plan, team not being there}. I quite like going to the office myself because my situation is the opposite: I bike to work, where I have my own office, and my team likes to come in too. Hating the office is totally justifiable given that my setup isn't common; most people are forced to…

I'm a remote working veteran, having worked in that arrangement for over a decade. Recently I changed employers, to a place down the street, and I loved going to the office before RTO (we're expected to be in the office 3 days a week). Most of the team voluntarily came in every Tuesday and Thursday. We had a lot of fun. Then RTO came, and it seemed to coincidence with every other large employer in the area forcing RT…

I love the mandates to RTO to only get onto Zoom or Teams meetings with people in multiple timezones and offices all traveling to the office to fulfill the RTO mandate and yet...the only thing that changed was the blurred backdrop.

Re: I will always prefer to work from home

#266

Post by acherion »

acuozzo wrote: post #261
acherion wrote: post #243

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> There's less distraction and better divide between work and private time. When I leave the office, I'm done for the day. I am glad I have the luxury of having a separate room as my home office. When I’m done for the day, I leave that room and close the door, and don’t go back in unless it’s the next day or an emergency.

Luckier than you think! Having a door to shut isn't all that helpful when you have a crafty and desperate special needs kid.

Actually I do have a special needs kid (my daughter is deaf). I do keep my door open during work hours.

Re: I will always prefer to work from home

#267

Post by aijoe5pack »

I manage multiple teams all across the world. Other than being able to lock ourselves in a room to fight a fire, why do I need to have my onshore people in the same building as me? Its nice to have them close for when things get sporty, but at the end of the day, its all about theory X managers wanting to get their Taylor on.

Re: I will always prefer to work from home

#268

Post by aijoe5pack »

fnordpiglet wrote: post #101
tqi wrote: post #33

Who is this meant to convince? Has anyone ever changed their mind as a result of reading a listicle of complaints? This seems more like something for people who already agree with the author to read and self righteously think "yeah, this is THE way" There isn't some objective right answer here. Different people value different things, and that's ok. Companies can set their RTO policies as they see fit, and that's ok.…

Someone once nailed a list of complaints to a church door and it seems to have convinced quite a few folks.

I think I get your theses.

Re: I will always prefer to work from home

#269

Post by aijoe5pack »

harryquach wrote: post #2

Agree on all points in the article. One of the most underrated features of WFH is my own private bathroom. This is something I would never have at the office.

Boss makes a dollar, I make a dime. That's why I poop on company time...Love to have someone else clean up the empty bathrooms at work every day or so; shame that job was almost two hours away for the 2 days a week I had to go.

Re: I will always prefer to work from home

#270

Post by flurdy »

hombre_fatal wrote: post #64
throw__away7391 wrote: post #29

Under-appreciated: not wearing shoes all day. Anytime I need to spend a day in an office now, when I finally get home and pull off my shoes and sweat soaked shoes I'm so glad I don't have to do this on a regular basis anymore.

Try wearing socks with those $45 foam Birkenstocks as your daily driver. Black on black doesn't look bad. When I lived on a beach I didn't wear shoes for years. The combo above was the only way I could reenter society.

Yeah, I used to have black office sandals that I wore with my black socks. No one noticed that they were not black shoes. I stuffed them in my office locker overnight. Worked a treat, no longer sweatty office feet...

Though it was a toss if I changed them when going out for lunch, usually I did not even in winter time (London). Though as my last non-WFH gig the team had a habit of having "lunch" standing outside a pub it was sometimes a little chilly in January..

(I still have my last pair in black, which I am not sure they sell anymore https://www.crocs.co.uk/p/mens-swiftwater-mesh-deck-sandal/2... )

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