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Why do so many people want us back in the office?

paulitaylor.com

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Re: Why do so many people want us back in the office?

#31

Post by derwiki »

BillinghamJ wrote: post #13
ckdarby wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Can you discuss why you want to go back to the office?

Not the OP, but in my case it's just down to socialising with the friends I work with, and pair programming. The latter can be done remotely but definitely isn't anywhere near as smooth or natural I find.

Agree on the latter, but VSCode Live Share has made it passable!

Re: Why do so many people want us back in the office?

#32

Post by rubyfan »

The expectation from the fortune 500 company I work at is we will eventually go back to normal. Though we are slowly starting to come around to COVID as being potentially a multi-year situation. We’ve got a small number of people in management roles that will return a few days a week in office soon. I’m personally a bit worried this will create an expectation or disadvantage for others not in office. In my observation there is a political commonality to the management returning to office in our company that may be a driver for them.

Re: Why do so many people want us back in the office?

#33

Post by Nursie »

BillinghamJ wrote: post #17

From a government/economy perspective, office workers do contribute a lot to local businesses when they pop out for lunch, coffee, etc. While furlough schemes are gradually wrapping up (eg in the UK), reducing redundancies does depend on some level of normalcy in people's day to day spending.

But why try to support that, instead of allow the economy to adapt?

I spent £180 per week on transport before this, and another £50+ on coffee and meals.

At the end of the year I will have saved enough to get my bathroom refitted, benefitting local tradespeople. I also go out and buy coffee and food locally more often.

The spending won't be lost, it'll change. And if we're lucky it'll change in a way that spreads the money out beyond London.

The real sector that's f*cked is commercial property.

Re: Why do so many people want us back in the office?

#35

Post by arcticbull »

iforgotpassword wrote: post #7
ThrowawayR2 wrote: post #6

I don't care about "us" going back to the office but I definitely want to go back to the office and I am far from alone in this.

I feel more distracted at home and miss the social interactions with coworkers. Video conferences are tiresome.

I miss the ad-hoc conversations with coworkers that lead to cool product innovation. I also miss being able to mentor junior engineers in person, and receiving in-person mentorship from my seniors.

I personally believe that we're all running on the trajectory and direction we scoped before the shut-down, and as we move into H1 planning next year, things are going to get much slower and more complicated.

Re: Why do so many people want us back in the office?

#36

Post by derwiki »

mcphilip wrote: post #18

I think ideally it should be up to the employee to return when they feel safe. That being said, I look forward to going back to the office. It’ll be nice to see people again —- few people bother to turn on their video on zoom anymore for anything other than one-on-ones, myself included, and that is starting to feel alienating to me. I don’t think it’s wise having a policy that you must have video enabled, though, it’…

Interesting. For whatever reason my team keeps video on for all meeting unless there are bandwidth issues. But I agree now that it would be far worse if folks didn’t show their face regularly.

Re: Why do so many people want us back in the office?

#37

Post by dschuetz »

It's about control. Many managers like to micromanage everything and everybody very much, but that does not work very well remotely. They want to make sure, or at least to be able to make sure, that their workers, well, work. Many are afraid to loose that kind of control, because that's the only thing they can do best.

Re: Why do so many people want us back in the office?

#38

Post by Nursie »

iforgotpassword wrote: post #7
ThrowawayR2 wrote: post #6

I don't care about "us" going back to the office but I definitely want to go back to the office and I am far from alone in this.

I feel more distracted at home and miss the social interactions with coworkers. Video conferences are tiresome.

I'm the opposite. Without having to hear the two women sitting two rows back talking loudly about whatever the hell it is, or be interrupted 8 times a day by people in unrelated areas asking inane questions that are already documented on confluence...

Working from home has been amazing for my concentration levels.

Re: Why do so many people want us back in the office?

#40

Post by gjs278 »

ckdarby wrote: post #8
ThrowawayR2 wrote: post #6

I don't care about "us" going back to the office but I definitely want to go back to the office and I am far from alone in this.

Can you discuss why you want to go back to the office?

they are simply normie trash. just program the code and call it a day or night.
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