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I Miss Working from the Office

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Re: I Miss Working from the Office

#381

Post by ricardo81 »

fennecfoxen wrote: post #379
Jaruzel wrote: post #372

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> An office district allows people to get to the office expediently from homes all over town You've clearly not commuted in and out of London at rush-hour/peak-time then. I REALLY don't miss that. Most days an advertised 30 minute train journey would take 50 minutes and unless you got on the train at it's starting point, that's 50 minutes of standing with your face in someones armpit.

> You've clearly not commuted in and out of London at rush-hour/peak-time then. Not only have I done that, I've put up with the Southern strikes. Still far better to go into the center of town than to go to some random spot on a different edge of town.

Not sure if you misunderstood my point as I meant people would work from their own neighbourhood, not specific ones for specific companies.

Re: I Miss Working from the Office

#382

Post by pacomerh »

I don't miss the office mainly for the following reasons:

- Too many distractions, between the noise, other conversations and shoulder taps

- Waste time commuting.

- No place to close your eyes without being "looked at funny".

- Can't really go home and eat with my family, no time.

- Eating is a struggle, since all the options to eat around my office are expensive and not too healthy.

- I can't listen to my music without headphones.

- mindless hallway chit chats (they're not for me).

So I guess I'm not an office person in general.

Re: I Miss Working from the Office

#383

Post by FalconSensei »

dandellion wrote: post #117
st1x7 wrote: post #48

I think that what isn't discussed enough is the variance in quality of your office environment and of your home office and how that quality affects your preferences about working from home. It sounds quite obvious but in these arguments people often just state what they personally like and leave it at that. Your office can be place where you still have the option to work uninterrupted but also get the benefits of fac…

That's a very good point, I'm really enjoying working from home and I attributed it mostly to not having to do the one hour commute each way, but there's so many more things that add up: - At home I have the most comfortable chair I could find on the market that fits me perfectly. At work there are very basic adjustable chairs and they use some slippery fabric. - At home I have an ergonomic mechanical keyboard vs. a…

For me, I had 2 external monitors at the office vs 1 at home.

Snacks, fruits, beverages, espresso machine at work vs buy and prepare what I want at home (which has a cost, and demands time)

Ironically also, office was quieter. I can always hear (and feel) the upstairs neighbour walking around, even with noise cancelling headphones. The little noise at the office was way easier to ignore.

And using the bathroom at home, means I have to clean the bathroom more often.

Re: I Miss Working from the Office

#384

Post by FalconSensei »

m463 wrote: post #358
diarrhea wrote: post #154

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Your work just sounds very subpar. Crippling developers with that sort of equipment and environment is a poor move and also an awful trade-off, business-wise.

I have to say employees are just as silly sometimes. All my life I've always just bought the stuff I need and took it to work. No matter where I've worked it was 1/100th the hassle to do that rather than figure out how to go through channels. I've also tried stuff and ditched it a few weeks later and tried something else. this applies to lots of things at work -- who cares if the office pens are free - they suck.

I have to agree with you. I mean, I won't buy a computer to use at work, but if I don't like the office mouse and keyboard, I'll just order on Amazon and be done with that.

Re: I Miss Working from the Office

#385

Post by belval »

I miss working at the office, yet I hope to stay remote forever.

The fact is, I had a 45 minutes commute (so 1h30 every day!) before the pandemic. That quickly adds up to almost 8 hours per week in the bus/metro.

Why not move closer to the city? Well for one I don't like living in high density urban areas. The noise level, construction work and high price makes it uninteresting to me.

So I would love the hybrid 2 days in the office, 3 days remote to have real meetings without having to go back wasting ~10% of my waking time in public transports, but I absolutely understand that some (especially with children!) might want a clean separation between home and work.

Re: I Miss Working from the Office

#386

Post by FalconSensei »

sharken wrote: post #211
Symbiote wrote: post #170

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why not take a keyboard and mouse into the office? That issue at least is easy to fix. (I have a couple of colleagues who brought their own keyboards. We'd buy a decent keyboard for anyone who wants one, but they already had them from previous jobs with people who wouldn't do this.)

Indeed, bringing your own keyboard and mouse if necessary should be a nobrainer. Though having the employer pay for those things would be even better, but it’s not always the case.

Like, everyone has their own preferences, so besides getting some that are not shitty, it's hard to choose something that everyone will like.

I, for example, absolutely hate mechanical keyboards with those tall keys, as I get hand/wrist/elbow pain from using them. And the mouse has to be as weightless as possible.

Considering companies usually have to decide on only 1 or 2 options to negotiate buying in bulk, it's hard to offer multiple options. Unless they give you like $100 when you start to buy whatever you want.

Re: I Miss Working from the Office

#387

Post by krzyk »

petra wrote: post #242
Xevi wrote: post #166

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yet it feels very common to see employers buy subpar equipment, because they either don't understand how much of a difference it makes, or it "costs too much" to give every developer higher quality tools. I'm also in the camp of preferring to work from home with my triple high-res monitor setup, good chair, height adjustable table, ergonomic keyboard/mouse, and so on. I dread the day I'll have to go back to the offic…

Why is it so hard to explain to employers the value of using 2 displays ?

My company provides 2 displays. But I'm the only dev that doesn't use the second display. I tried it for a month and it was tiresome. I had to move my head to often, I also always maximize my windows so maybe it is useful to those that don't.

I would much more prefer a big screen (30 inch?) instead of two 24 inch. But unfortunately my Corp doesn't have such options. I would much more prefer

Re: I Miss Working from the Office

#388

Post by FalconSensei »

bradlys wrote: post #373
balfirevic wrote: post #194

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm in an apartment near a busy street and it's pretty quiet when the windows are closed.

Single pane life over here. It’s never quiet. And I don’t live on a busy street. I live in a relatively quiet suburb in the bay. However, there is a war being raged by crows and squirrels right now. It’s quite obnoxious. Cheap landlords...

I'll trade that for my upstairs neighbours that walk on their heels. I can feel them walking

Re: I Miss Working from the Office

#389

Post by swatson741 »

One of the biggest problems I've found with working from home is that your work life and your professional life start to blend together in unfortunate ways. Working without office space is common in pre-startups and it's dreadful. I've been told that blending your work and professional life is simply foolishness on an individual level. Usually this isn't the case. The circumstances tend to be different and there's a lot of pressure to compress your life like this. It's dreadful. Everything feels like work after awhile. Other people I've spoken to in the startup/entrepreneur scene who work from home have conferred this sentiment. It's often the case that the lifestyle work from home produces is unsustainable in the long run. In this way it is a degenerate lifestyle. It's challenging to turn a home into a proper workspace.

A rebuttal to those who dislike the office. I would argue that the many of the downsides of the office tend to be blessings in disguise. You aren't meant to be totally comfortable at work. Going to the office is like a performance. You aren't meant to be totally comfortable while performing a duty. It's like doing a presentation. You shouldn't go up on stage and let it all hang loose. The office space tends to cultivate the right things for working which are not the right things for relaxed living.

Re: I Miss Working from the Office

#390

Post by atemerev »

juusto wrote: post #3
atemerev wrote: post #2

He is a software engineer in the Bay Area, I presume? I think he can afford to buy a big monitor (I use a 55” LG OLED TV which I have bought at discount for less than $1400. Compared to a shitty Dell at my workspace, it’s a bliss). I, personally, hope to never return to the office. I was working mostly from home even before the pandemic, but now it’s official.

Excuse me for going off topic but what you think of possible burn-in possibilities with an OLED panel and static elements on the screen. I am also eyeing the same TV but I am worried about the issues popping up.

Well, it can happen. Mine has a slight (barely noticeable) burn-in from the time when Windows desktop was by some mistake left without turning the display off for two days in a row. Still works fine, everything is impressive. If you avoid such mistakes, I think it can work flawlessly for many years.
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