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Why Do We Still Commute?

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Re: Why Do We Still Commute?

#31

Post by crdoconnor »

BjoernKW wrote: post #14

I think that the 'importance of face-to-face interaction' argument is a helplessly contrived one, an attempt to avoid the elephant in the room. There are plenty of examples that show that working remotely without daily face-to-face interaction can work very well. What's markedly different about environments that successfully adopted remote work are aspects like: - a lack of cargo cult work organisation and office pol…

Right, except the elephant in the room isn't laziness or the value of face to face interaction, it's trust.

The driver of this lack of trust is the rise of managers (e.g. MBAs) who have limited expertise in the fields which they manage.

For jobs where there are measures of performance that are accurate and not gameable (e.g. certain call center workers) and/or it is a job executives probably reckon that they could do themselves, they are generally happy to let employees work from home.

IMO this is why Github and Mozilla are remote-first - by and large they're managed by developers.

Re: Why Do We Still Commute?

#32

Post by blunte »

dagw wrote: post #9

Because 'we' prefer it? I like going into the office. The morning walk to the office with its clear demarcation between work and not work, the ritual of grabbing a coffee in the morning with some colleagues and catching up on what's happening in their projects even if they're not directly related to anything I'm working on, having a dedicated space and a dedicated computer that's just for work, all those little thing…

I don't believe your "commute" constitutes a commute in the sense of what this article is about. Your commute is just a walk.

People traveling for 30-90 (or more!) minutes to and from work, particularly the ones driving in traffic, are the commuters. And the ones I know that fall into that category hate it.

Good for you that you have such a nice situation, though!

Re: Why Do We Still Commute?

#34

Post by blunte »

mruniverse wrote: post #25

We have open offices because we need to be close. We have remote workers because we don't need them close.

Nope. Nope. We have open offices because some genius did the simple math and realized that you can cram more people into a smaller space if you remove the walls.

Then somewhere along the way, some marketing guy came up with the spin, "It fosters communication!". Open office does indeed make people close in proximity, but it's not a necessity.

Re: Why Do We Still Commute?

#35

Post by cup-of-tea »

dagw wrote: post #9

Because 'we' prefer it? I like going into the office. The morning walk to the office with its clear demarcation between work and not work, the ritual of grabbing a coffee in the morning with some colleagues and catching up on what's happening in their projects even if they're not directly related to anything I'm working on, having a dedicated space and a dedicated computer that's just for work, all those little thing…

Indeed. I have also come to like it for the same reasons you describe. I like getting home, taking off my work clothes and doing what I like. I also get to see people other than my wife every day. But, like you, I walk to the office. If I was travelling a long way on congested roads or public transport I don't think I would prefer it.

Re: Why Do We Still Commute?

#36

Post by jwl »

While working from home can be nice and more productive if you have some well defined task that needs to be done, I still feel I need the daily social interaction with my coworkers. Slack and Skype is just not enough. I would get depressed if I worked alone from home every day.

Re: Why Do We Still Commute?

#37

Post by blunte »

bartq wrote: post #26

Because technology shouldn't surpass real human interaction. Wanna world from Matrix movie?

Who's to say that we aren't living in such a world? :)

And as with anything else in life, we must weigh the options. Face to face can indeed be better than remote. It can also be worse, because some people just irritate others by their presence and little behaviors. But more significantly, some of us do work which requires a good amount of thought - uninterrupted, quiet thought. Shared offices make this more difficult (compared to a quiet home office).

Re: Why Do We Still Commute?

#38

Post by walshemj »

BjoernKW wrote: post #14

I think that the 'importance of face-to-face interaction' argument is a helplessly contrived one, an attempt to avoid the elephant in the room. There are plenty of examples that show that working remotely without daily face-to-face interaction can work very well. What's markedly different about environments that successfully adopted remote work are aspects like: - a lack of cargo cult work organisation and office pol…

unfortunately there are many more examples where it is proven that collocated teams work far better

Re: Why Do We Still Commute?

#39

Post by dingo_bat »

fwsgonzo wrote: post #2

I work from home as much as I can, but nothing trumps seeing your colleagues face to face. Text can also cause misunderstandings, and apparently no one likes video, at least in my company. I don't like video much either, though.

I also hate video. Ugh. I don't know why I love face to face but hate video :/

Re: Why Do We Still Commute?

#40

Post by Tade0 »

have_faith wrote: post #24

Has anyone studied if people outside of cushy tech jobs want to commute? particularly people with lower wages and things at home they would rather escape for 9 hours a day. Most people can't afford a home office too.

A few of my friends(working in non-IT fields) have coworkers who do everything to stay as long as they can in the office because their home life is hell.

Aside from them most of the people I asked about this would either want to have a very short(20 minutes max.) commute, or work from home, since it's usually the most comfortable environment for them.

Nearly everybody I know who spends at least two hours daily in traffic would love to change that in any way possible - including switching to remote work.

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