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Programmers are most likely to work from home

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Re: Programmers are most likely to work from home

#31

Post by midgetjones »

ooqr wrote: post #14
eddieh wrote: post #12

I like working from my office. I don't understand people that like working from home. Possible confounding variable: I live exactly two blocks from my office and don't have to commute. Perhaps, in actuality, people don't like to commute?

That, and the snacks I buy and put in my fridge are better than the free snacks at work. Also I can take a shower in the middle of the day. Which is the best time.

> Also I can take a shower in the middle of the day. Which is the best time.

I'm intrigued. Why is that the best time?

Re: Programmers are most likely to work from home

#32

Post by jonmb »

I've worked both in offices and remotely. They each have their pros and cons. I prefer remote.

The biggest pros of remote work for me are no commute + not needing to get dressed in business clothes every day. I don't have to fight traffic, I don't have to iron clothes every day, I don't have to find parking and spend 10 minutes walking to and from my car, etc. I don't have to do a whole bunch of little things that going into the office required.

So the biggest advantage for me is saving time. And now I get to use all that extra time for spending more quality time with my wife and dog, side projects, exercise, video games, etc. I get more sleep! That's an important one.

The downsides to working from home is that it is harder to communicate in some situations, especially if you're the only guy working from home. It is easier to be overlooked for promotions since people don't know your face and see it every day. You miss out on the social aspect of work, though this can be mitigated if you're able to drive/fly-in to see your team occasionally. You miss out on the office banter, though some people would consider that a good thing.

Many other points people raise such as having lack of focus, being taken advantage of, and so on apply equally to being remote and working in the office (depending on the office) so I consider those to be moot points. If you can't focus at home, that's a fixable problem with your own mind and your environment.

Re: Programmers are most likely to work from home

#34

Post by humbleMouse »

School-Cotton wrote: post #17
humbleMouse wrote: post #15

There is a dirty secret that nobody talks about and the real reason that companies want programmers in the office. Companies want their top performers in the office so they can serve as trainers/mentors/teachers to the new college kids and the incompetent older people they hire. I think this is the real reason companies crack down on working from home. It's infuriating as a top performer - I just want to get my assig…

If you really are a top performer, a big part of the justification for your high pay is because you multiply your impact by mentoring more junior employees.

I respectfully disagree. The justification for my high pay is because I integrate complex systems with shitty vendor web service api's and automate the transmission of sensitive data. The work I am doing has a huge impact on profitability of my company - much more than the joke of a 6 figure rate they are paying to keep me around.

I avoid being a fulltime employee because I don't want to have some unwritten commitment/fake loyalty to the company I am working for. I am a contract employee - I am here to get the work done you assign me. If you ban me from WFH, it's an insult to my professionalism and work ethic.

Re: Programmers are most likely to work from home

#35

Post by cliffy »

humbleMouse wrote: post #15

There is a dirty secret that nobody talks about and the real reason that companies want programmers in the office. Companies want their top performers in the office so they can serve as trainers/mentors/teachers to the new college kids and the incompetent older people they hire. I think this is the real reason companies crack down on working from home. It's infuriating as a top performer - I just want to get my assig…

This is likely true, and I've actually been told that directly by a company's recruiter. They wanted me on-site to mentor and guide other developers.

A good video chat system and IRC can substitute well enough though.

Re: Programmers are most likely to work from home

#36

Post by SomeStupidPoint »

humbleMouse wrote: post #15

There is a dirty secret that nobody talks about and the real reason that companies want programmers in the office. Companies want their top performers in the office so they can serve as trainers/mentors/teachers to the new college kids and the incompetent older people they hire. I think this is the real reason companies crack down on working from home. It's infuriating as a top performer - I just want to get my assig…

Peer mentoring is part of your job in any field. It's not a secret that your better people are supposed to help train other employees. Senior people train junior people, people with expertise in a domain share it, etc. Some fields even make this formal at the early levels, with apprenticeships, but I've worked in a number of fields and never had this not be the expectation.

It's part of why you (should) get paid more than them.

The real "dirty secret" is if you're not a team player, you're not a top performer because force multiplication through mentoring adds more value than the difference in your individual work.

Re: Programmers are most likely to work from home

#37

Post by xamuel »

eddieh wrote: post #12

I like working from my office. I don't understand people that like working from home. Possible confounding variable: I live exactly two blocks from my office and don't have to commute. Perhaps, in actuality, people don't like to commute?

I like working from my office even though I have a long commute. It's because I have a toddler at home, so it's hard to get work done there. The commute is the most peaceful time of my day and allows me to get a lot of studying or side-project work done.

Re: Programmers are most likely to work from home

#38

Post by antisthenes »

humbleMouse wrote: post #15

There is a dirty secret that nobody talks about and the real reason that companies want programmers in the office. Companies want their top performers in the office so they can serve as trainers/mentors/teachers to the new college kids and the incompetent older people they hire. I think this is the real reason companies crack down on working from home. It's infuriating as a top performer - I just want to get my assig…

With that attitude, you should stay remote.

Re: Programmers are most likely to work from home

#40

Post by CydeWeys »

humbleMouse wrote: post #15

There is a dirty secret that nobody talks about and the real reason that companies want programmers in the office. Companies want their top performers in the office so they can serve as trainers/mentors/teachers to the new college kids and the incompetent older people they hire. I think this is the real reason companies crack down on working from home. It's infuriating as a top performer - I just want to get my assig…

That's a very myopic view of your job responsibilities. Presuambly you had mentors yourself earlier in your career that helped you out greatly. I know I did. If they'd all been working from home, and thus were unavailable for the kind of help that they gave me, I might not be where I am today. Helping along the next generation of coders is part of your job description. Most employers would rather have a good programmer who can build up the effectiveness of the rest of their team than a great solo programmer who doesn't have any knock-on effects in making the rest of the team more productive.

> I just want to get my assigned work done and leave it at that. I don't want to teach all your shitty college grads how to actually code.

That's not a healthy outlook, and if any of my coworkers held such a view, it would be a negative for me.

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