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Poll: Do you prefer the office or work from home?

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Re: Poll: Do you prefer the office or work from home?

#281

Post by shashurup »

ketzo wrote: post #233
Salgat wrote: post #210

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think the biggest issue is that people are lonely due to the pandemic, and are conflating that with working from home. You can have a strong social life and working from home. For others, unfortunately the only socialization they can get is forced interaction with coworkers at the office.

I can see what you're getting at, and I thought it was the issue for me, but I've come to realize that it's not a loneliness/lack of socialization thing. It's just that I really treasure in-person interactions with the people I am working on something with. I got into software engineering because I like solving problems, but also because I love solving problems with really smart people. Turns out that it feels really…

Interesting. I've never ask myself this question, but reading your post I have realized that I really don't like solving problem together in person with whiteboard etc. Realizing that this cannot be considered as a good trait from professional perspective I still cannot resist the bitter feeling of hours wasted that way. My memory definitely deceives me - it couldn't always be that bad, but I can't help the impression is still strong.

Re: Poll: Do you prefer the office or work from home?

#282

Post by sdoering »

pc86 wrote: post #72
spurgu wrote: post #51

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> It's a motivational thing for me. I've always loved working from home (and was doing it for almost a year before the pandemic started), I'm quite self-driven, but I do recognize that it can be difficult to get back into the groove once you've been out of it for a while - meeting colleagues in person would help with that aspect. Ideally, if my colleagues weren't some 3000 km away, I wouldn't mind going to the office…

It's hard to find places that have anything in the middle. It's either fully remote, they may or may not even have an office anymore, and they act like you're crazy if you suggest having some sort of standing office space available without special reservations or advance notice. Or on the flip side, they want you in the office 3, 4 days a week, 8-5 or whatever, basically pre-COVID requirements. I agree I think the be…

Our company is heading exactly in this direction. As we have people who don't want to or are not able to regularly work from home we provide office space. And as we have people who are either too far away from the main project team or want to work from home our leadership (more or less successfully) tries to create a working hybrid model.

But that is not without difficulties.

Re: Poll: Do you prefer the office or work from home?

#283

Post by xwdv »

wutwutwutwut wrote: post #223
TOMDM wrote: post #171

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Would probably depend on the role and team culture right? There are good and bad fits for that attitude

When is not wanting to have conversations with colleagues unless there's a prearranged meeting a good fit?

This is how my workplace operates now. If you have to discuss something you throw it in slack and anything real-time requires a meeting set up at a specific time. It works very well and no one just barges in and interrupts my work whenever they feel like it.

Re: Poll: Do you prefer the office or work from home?

#285

Post by executesorder66 »

Personally I don't miss working from the office at all. Working remotely is better in every way when it comes to doing actual work.

What I do miss though, is hanging out with my colleagues. It's nice to go for a coffee break or lunch break with a co-worker and just chat about (mostly non-work) stuff. We can organise socials etc. but it's not the same.

I do have my own friends and family that I hang out with anyway, so it's not really a problem for me.

Re: Poll: Do you prefer the office or work from home?

#286

Post by antoniuschan99 »

It’s not even close!

For “I like a mix of both” I would like to see what that mix is. From 1/5 days office/home all the way to 4/5 office/home mix :P

Also reason why for either side would be interesting (no separation between office/home, want to be away from kids, no commute, etc)

Re: Poll: Do you prefer the office or work from home?

#287

Post by 01100011 »

I desperately want my company to announce their permanent WFH stance so I can find out if I can WF a real house outside of a tech hub instead of WF a tiny apartment that has turned into a cage for the last 2 years.

As it is, I think I have one more year of SiValley before I can't stand the competitiveness or the iciness of the tense, joyless local population. Financially it was a good move for a while, but joy is too precious to sell for a few more dollars.

Re: Poll: Do you prefer the office or work from home?

#288

Post by 01100011 »

ketzo wrote: post #13

At the start of the pandemic, I knew I would miss working with people in person, but thought I would be totally great with WFH. Now, I know that I badly need some amount of in-person time with my coworkers on a weekly basis, or I go crazy. It's a motivational thing for me. I thrive on solving problems for and with other people, and there's an "out of sight, out of mind" effect for me over zoom. It's just harder for m…

I miss people. I don't miss my coworkers. I get plenty of interaction with my coworkers via the web. I miss socializing with normal folks who aren't obsessed with status, salary and career trajectory.

Re: Poll: Do you prefer the office or work from home?

#289

Post by dusted »

In the beginning I enjoyed WFH a lot, I thought it was really neat, but that declined quickly (to be honest, I should have seen that coming, because I've also had a fully remote position before, and it didn't suit me, for the same reasons).

To me, it's just less friction to be in the office, where I don't have to care about anything and can just do my work without distracting tasks like making sure there's coffee and food and avoiding doing chores "oh, I could clean a bit while thinking through this..."

Re: Poll: Do you prefer the office or work from home?

#290

Post by deathanatos »

CephalopodMD wrote: post #226

WFH and prefer WFH with one major caveat. I've said this before, but really, I just want my own office. That's all. I'd be pretty okay with going in if I had my own office with 4 walls. First job of my career, they told me I would have an office of my own. First day I came back in for full time (I had interned there with my own office as well), they tell me they're switching buildings to go open office in about a mon…

Yeah, in all these polls about WFH or work-from-office preference, I'd really like to see it broken out by whether the respondent has an office in their WFH setup. I want to know if that changes the answer.

I know my own opinion of WFH improved once I got a desk (once there was finally stock…) and a chair.

It might be that the grass is always greener, but I feel like having the ability to close the door & have a private room (at home or in the real office…) can be a huge plus if you need some quiet time. Similar to the desk/chair, it's just a better working space.

Open office floorplans were effective paycuts, IMO; nothing more than less space == cheaper, and no thoughts were given to the long-term effects because nobody in our industry thinks long-term about anything. Who would when whole companies turn over every two years?

I'd love a home office… but real-estate prices are ridiculous.

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