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Working From Home is Like Saying No to Drugs

micahwedemeyer.com

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Re: Working From Home is Like Saying No to Drugs

#41

Post by coldtea »

philwelch wrote: post #16

This article is garbage. It can be boiled down to one sentence: "if working from home makes me happy at the cost of productivity, forcing me to come into the office just because it's more productive is the moral equivalent of requiring me to take Adderall." To which the appropriate response is: "bullshit". Requiring someone to take physically harmful and addictive drugs is not even remotely in the same galaxy as requ…

>To which the appropriate response is: "bullshit". Requiring someone to take physically harmful and addictive drugs is not even remotely in the same galaxy as requiring them to come into the office.

Not sure. The things some companies demand of their employees do have a health toll, and it's higher than Adderall. Working 14+ hours for days (EA style) is not better than taking Adderall. And a "death march" type of project is even worse.

Re: Working From Home is Like Saying No to Drugs

#42

Post by johndavi »

MicahWedemeyer wrote: post #11

It's kind of what I expected, but all the comments here are actually debating the Are you more productive? question, and the point of the post is that I really don't care anymore. Try examining the other part of the equation: Are you happier? If the answer is no, then WFH probably isn't for you. But, if the answer is yes, perhaps productivity isn't so important?

I formerly ran a large team and cared about both things for my employees: their productivity AND happiness.

Part of that is that I am a human, and part of that is practical -- namely, productivity is a long game (at least for knowledge-workers). It's not something you measure in work-units-per-hour within the confines of a single day. Same reason you can't have a death-march release cycle and ignore the plummeting "productivity" in the days/weeks/months after... or the lost productivity from employees who seek more manageable work elsewhere and need to be replaced, etc.

Your post is too one-sided and uses Adderall as a straw-man (or similarly fallacious argument). Your personal happiness as others have said isn't the only factor in an employer-employee relationship -- but that said, viewing productivity as a many-factored, nuanced thing that includes overall worker happiness (or, better put: satisfaction) is probably pretty appropriate.

Re: Working From Home is Like Saying No to Drugs

#43

Post by cantankerous »

I sorta read this post and boiled it down as a protracted "I'm doing this because it makes me happier" kinda post. That's great! I'm wary of basing some general policy so heavily on personal happiness, though. It's a highly personal and varying thing. At a personal level, though, happiness/contentment is pretty much paramount. Do what gives you purpose and fulfills you...otherwise what's the point?

I guess what I'm saying is if you want to work from home, do it! Making the leap to enabling/convincing everybody else to do it may be a bit of a stretch for me, though. It might not make sense in the general case.

Re: Working From Home is Like Saying No to Drugs

#44

Post by monk_e_boy »

These sort of posts always amaze me. Nearly everyone I know optimizes their life for more time at home. We eschew bonuses in favour of a shorter work week. Or more holiday or longer lunch breaks or shorter commute.

When, inevetably the overtime requests come pouring in, or the new boss hates people leaving 'early' then people start looking around for new oppertunities.

Taking an hour out of each day usually shortens the commute by 50% - if your day is 9:30 - 4:30 == happy times.

Re: Working From Home is Like Saying No to Drugs

#45

Post by smosher »

philwelch wrote: post #16

This article is garbage. It can be boiled down to one sentence: "if working from home makes me happy at the cost of productivity, forcing me to come into the office just because it's more productive is the moral equivalent of requiring me to take Adderall." To which the appropriate response is: "bullshit". Requiring someone to take physically harmful and addictive drugs is not even remotely in the same galaxy as requ…

Yeah, a more honest comparison between working from the office and taking dangerous drugs is to actually make that comparison: "come into work or stay home and take Adderall."

Bonus: you will find out which of your staff would rather stay home and do drugs than come to work.

Re: Working From Home is Like Saying No to Drugs

#47

Post by Bjorkbat »

I would assume that from a management perspective a slight dip in productivity is worth it if it means that the office atmosphere doesn't stink of upset moods.

If it doesn't bother them, then I would also assume that they're accustomed to such smells and quite a few other messy things.

Re: Working From Home is Like Saying No to Drugs

#48

Post by coldtea »

philwelch wrote: post #36
mylons wrote: post #27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What if requiring coming into the office subtly introduces stress of commuting, dealing with people on a day to day basis that you might necessarily not want, wasting your down time, potentially forcing you into a very sedentary lifestyle for 8 hours a day? Not to mention that the 40 hour work week is a remnant of the industrial revolution. Relative to the speed of tech innovation over the last 20-30 years, it's an o…

Yeah, working in an office is practically the equivalent of coal mining. This prima donna attitude really makes me sick.

>Yeah, working in an office is practically the equivalent of coal mining.

Yes, because coal mining is the absolute criterion of unhealthiness in the workplace.

And given that people do coal mining, "working 10+ hours, 5 days a week in an office" can never be viewed as bad, right?

Re: Working From Home is Like Saying No to Drugs

#49

Post by jedmeyers »

jes5199 wrote: post #35
RougeFemme wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I agree that being happier is important. But it's only natural that responses tend to skew towards the other side of the equation since, in the back of our minds, those of us who enjoy working at home, are almost always thinking of ways to convince management of its value in ways that can't be directly measured. So we're trying to figure out a way to pull "happiness" into the equation in a way that works for manageme…

In Silicon Valley, companies spend a fortune on "happiness" - catered lunches, employee off-sites, release parties, snacks and sodas and beer, interior decorating and office design, pool tables and ping pong, expensive hardware, gym memberships, etc. It might be cheaper to just let people be at home!

Companies want happy employees who work, not happy employees who are doing their laundry.
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