I wonder how a VC would feel if a startup said “we have some ideas but our real innovation comes from people just randomly running into each other in the hallway. Will you invest?”
Where do you think VCs get their ideas from?
do you know ?
Apple asks staff to return to office 3 days a week starting in early September
401–410 of 1001 posts
Re: Apple asks staff to return to office 3 days a week starting in early September
#402What’s interesting is that this is NOT a hybrid model, as Google has done[1]. As i understand this _everyone_ is in an office Mon, Tue, Thu. This is a better situation IMO then some people always being remote and others being in person. 1 - Google lets up to 20% of employees permanently work from home: https://www.npr.org/2021/05/06/994123311/google-adapts-to-lo...
Wouldn't most people rather work 3 consecutive days? Then you have 5 consecutive days of not having to be in the office. Wouldn't that give people a ton more option to see family and friends and whatever else?
I suspect that's entirely the point. By not giving people 2 consecutive days, it requires you to still remain close to the campus and prevents you from doing anything interesting like travel for half the week.
Re: Apple asks staff to return to office 3 days a week starting in early September
#403I work for another company that is going to do a partial return to office. I will be looking at options for companies that offer full in person office (or 90% in person office) after things settle down. I have worked full remote for a total of 5 years of my career, and I believe working in the office is a competitive advantage. * Overhearing hallway conversations (and joining them) helps spawn invocation. * I often d…
This is what most of the newcomers to WFH don't understand: There is a big different between WFH for a few months where EVERYONE else is also WFH ... and WFH for YEARS where some, or most, of the others are in office. The latter is years upon years of feeling disconnected, left out, and sidelined. The vast majority of companies even if they allow remote are not remote first. Remote first involves actual structural an…
> WFH for years can result in a serious mental health decline. If you think you're doing fine after 1 year, come see me after 5. You'll realize by the end of it just how important water cooler conversation is for your BRAIN
I've worked from home 100%, worked from an office 100%, and worked a combination. Overall, I think the combination is best. However, having put in somewhere on the order of 15 years fully remote, it has not caused any problems for me. I chat with people via IM, including both purely social and problem solving discussions. I've been on teams where everyone was remote and ones where I was the only remote, and in areas in between.
Overall, working remotely is good for some people and not for others; much like every other arrange. It takes skill and effort to get good at, just as in person social interactions do. Some companies make it easier than others.
It's a complicated topic, and I really don't think it's possible to say "it's good" or "it's bad", only "it depends".
Re: Apple asks staff to return to office 3 days a week starting in early September
#404Earlier quoted context omitted.
This is what most of the newcomers to WFH don't understand: There is a big different between WFH for a few months where EVERYONE else is also WFH ... and WFH for YEARS where some, or most, of the others are in office. The latter is years upon years of feeling disconnected, left out, and sidelined. The vast majority of companies even if they allow remote are not remote first. Remote first involves actual structural an…
I always thought I would be a sure-fit for permanent WFH, but your comment absolutely nails it. My biggest problem is that a large proportion of interactions with remote work is formal, in a sense. No casual chat, no social “grease”. If you started a remote-only job in a pandemic, it is so easy to become disconnected, and disincentivized with colleagues that only exist in 2D asking for PR reviews. Really did a number…
> a large proportion of interactions with remote work is formal, in a sense. No casual chat, no social “grease”.
Why? You have to put in the effort to be social, but you need to do that in person, too.
Re: Apple asks staff to return to office 3 days a week starting in early September
#405Earlier quoted context omitted.
> I often do/did paired programming, and over-the-shoulder code reviews. These are easier in person I’m sure I’m not the only person who has the exact opposite experience with this. I can’t think and get mentally blocked when I have someone peering over my shoulder or I’m staring at their screen. I find this kind of collaboration so much easier if I’m in the comfort of my own desktop setup, sharing the screen over Te…
I think this has to do with seniority. When I was a lot more experienced than my coworker, doing pair programming was insanely fun. Because it felt like solving a puzzle with a friend, or exploring a video game with my sister. Now I'm occasionally pair programming with my manager -- who's like a 1000x me -- pair programming is mentally blocking. It's because my peer thinks so much faster than I do that it feels like…
I find this very interesting, because I'm in a similar boat, pretty senior, but not the top of the ladder. But for me some of my favorite pair programming sessions are with people who are operating on another level. It really gets the brain juices going.
Re: Apple asks staff to return to office 3 days a week starting in early September
#406Re: Apple asks staff to return to office 3 days a week starting in early September
#407Earlier quoted context omitted.
Preferring to spend time with friends and family is normal. It doesn't mean someone's coworkers are so toxic that regular interaction with them is an ordeal.
That very sentence has already suggested that your coworkers are not your friends (or else they'd be in the group of "friends and family" that you enjoy spending time with). I think the very point of GP is that there are many people who do, in fact, develop friendships with their coworkers.
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Re: Apple asks staff to return to office 3 days a week starting in early September
#408Earlier quoted context omitted.
I spend 150$+ per month on AC and heat because of the pandemic. I spent ~30$ in gas a month commuting. I could even walk if my bike didn't work. Personally I like the free AC. Once you optimize your job to be close to your home, many of the benefits of wfh disappear.
$150 extra from 40 hours of AC is insanely high. That's about what I pay total in the middle of summer in Florida for a decent-size SFH. Check the insulation on your house for a leak. Also maybe consider upgrading to a ductless heat pump mini split. That would almost certainly cut your marginal cost to near $30/month.
My electric hits $400+ a month in the summer and it’s just going to get worse when our pool is completed. I live in a new 2500 square foot house in Arizona, our insulation is fine. And we have two pretty nice heat pump/ac units.
Re: Apple asks staff to return to office 3 days a week starting in early September
#409Earlier quoted context omitted.
> I save money by spending less on food, drinks, and electricity. For those of us who have to commute, it's not exactly the norm to be saving money while commuting. Commutes are responsible for a 10% drop in hourly wages[1], and the median commute time results in spending 10 full days commuting a year. The average commuter in one of the largest metro areas in the country will spend over 13 full days commuting a year:…
The food/drink part could be the most of it. A Google employee enjoying free food and drink could save $60/day versus buying prepared food ($10 for breakfast, $20 for lunch, and $30 for dinner). If you drink much coffee or other beverages, that could be another $15/day. If you weigh this against spending an extra hour or two commuting, then it looks like a lousy bargain. But if you are like many people, and ended up…
I think a possible generalization is that each of us optimizes for what's important / possible in our lives and jobs. We never really knew how to impute the economic value of those things in the first place, but simply followed heuristics and cultural habits. And then the pandemic took all of our assumptions, and threw them out the window.
In my case, my family prepares almost all of our own food anyway. And more than a few days of eating prepared food begins to affect my health. But that doesn't mean a worker who lives on prepared food wouldn't value the benefit of free food at work.
Re: Apple asks staff to return to office 3 days a week starting in early September
#410Earlier quoted context omitted.
> I save money by spending less on food, drinks, and electricity. For those of us who have to commute, it's not exactly the norm to be saving money while commuting. Commutes are responsible for a 10% drop in hourly wages[1], and the median commute time results in spending 10 full days commuting a year. The average commuter in one of the largest metro areas in the country will spend over 13 full days commuting a year:…
Commutes also cost the one thing we can't get back; time.
Sometimes people say they're making a time trade off for more money, and plan to use that money to buy more time.
While money is fungible, time is not. You can't buy more time with your kids while they're young if they're already grown. You can't buy more time with someone who has passed away. And you can't buy your way out of missed opportunities in your personal life, once they've gone they're gone.