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People love working remotely

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Re: People love working remotely

#51

Post by dustinmoris »

g051051 wrote: post #16

I was full-time WFH for 6 wonderful years. I was happy, my productivity was off the charts, I was saving tons of money because I didn't have to spend it on my car and clothes, I had extra time that I wasn't wasting on my commute, etc. Then, we had a big shake-up. A bunch of senior people left, and new "leadership" came in to "transform" our workplace. All WFH was cancelled in our division (in spite of still being off…

> The big boss said "a 15 minute fact-to-face is better than a multi-day email chain"

I can't believe that people who are so out of touch with reality are still given so much responsibility at companies which they effectively unknowingly misuse to make everyone's life miserable.

There's nothing wrong about a multi day email chain. Sometimes it's the best communication tool, because non-critical/important things can be more efficiently being discussed in an email chain which doesn't disrupt everyone's work day. Secondly it is a nice way of keeping a log of ideas, thoughts and compromises which essentially lead to the final conclusion/solution. This gets documented for free and people can reference back to that email chain in the future which is hugely valuable, especially when the "big boss" conveniently likes to forget his own decisions.

Face to face lacks all of those nice features.

Secondly... there's A LOT more alternatives and other options inbetween F2F and long email chains. People can work 99% remotely and travel into an office one every couple weeks or per month for team bonding time.

Video conferencing is another great way of getting a F2F conversation done without the hassle of everyone being in the same physical place. More often video conferencing calls can even be more productive, because people are more conscious about the time spent in the call and also about the people who frequently contribute and those who just got invited along but never really participate. Makes it easier to trim attendees down to the ones who really need to be there and those who just can be sent a summary afterwards.

I can only hope that your new big boss will quickly get sacked and replaced by some young blood who has heard of instant messaging and video conferencing. Good luck!

Re: People love working remotely

#53

Post by nostalgk »

spurdoman77 wrote: post #43
codingdave wrote: post #36

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> a 15 minute fact-to-face is better... Good thing we have better tools for videoconferencing than ever. I can have a 15 minute face-to-face with anyone in my company, no matter where in the world they are.

Videoconferencing is OK, but it is still common to have issues with it. Bad image quality, setup by lowest common denominator etc. Often you use that 15 minutes just by trying to make it work properly.

Yeah, agreed. Even places I've worked with wonderful internal IT still have problem users who can't figure videoconferencing, or have damaged/misconfigured their device in a way that prevents it.

It often comes down to the one person who actually knows the specific flavor of videoconferencing walking around and fixing everything for everyone, and everyone remote just mumbling and leaving the meeting.

As I work at an Apple shop, I wish Apple would come up with some decent videoconferencing application that would work with our Apple TVs and MacOS (no, Facetime does not count, neither does Zoom and it's glaring vulnerabilities)

Re: People love working remotely

#54

Post by kashyapc »

[Disregarding the click-bait title and & related bits in the article...]

Given the Right Set of Parameters™ (omitting for brevity's sake; much has been written about them), Remote Work can be the "panacea", and a path towards a more serene approach to work and life. FWIW, I'm a long-time remote worker myself, and won't nonchalantly say "would recommend it to a friend" without having a serious understanding of the said friend's propensity for it—lest I would lead them down a steep slippery slope.

The boring truth any reasonably experienced remote worker knows is that to be able to sustainably do it in the long run—which is the critical bit—requires a certain "psychological profile": ability to tolerate spells of solitude, having the discipline to do the Right Thing when no one is watching, and so on.

So, saying "everyone loves it" is reckless. Not least because the article's sample size is a paltry 486 people.

Re: People love working remotely

#55

Post by phil_s_stein »

spurdoman77 wrote: post #43
codingdave wrote: post #36

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> a 15 minute fact-to-face is better... Good thing we have better tools for videoconferencing than ever. I can have a 15 minute face-to-face with anyone in my company, no matter where in the world they are.

Videoconferencing is OK, but it is still common to have issues with it. Bad image quality, setup by lowest common denominator etc. Often you use that 15 minutes just by trying to make it work properly.

This has not been my experience for years. The tech has matured greatly.

Re: People love working remotely

#56

Post by muro »

coolvision wrote: post #29
g051051 wrote: post #16

I was full-time WFH for 6 wonderful years. I was happy, my productivity was off the charts, I was saving tons of money because I didn't have to spend it on my car and clothes, I had extra time that I wasn't wasting on my commute, etc. Then, we had a big shake-up. A bunch of senior people left, and new "leadership" came in to "transform" our workplace. All WFH was cancelled in our division (in spite of still being off…

>white noise over the speakers I'm fine with open spaces, but this would be the final straw for me

I like the white (or pink?) noise. I expected to hate it and found the idea ridiculous, but it helped focus in an open space office.

Re: People love working remotely

#57

Post by peteey »

mpweiher wrote: post #27
g051051 wrote: post #16

I was full-time WFH for 6 wonderful years. I was happy, my productivity was off the charts, I was saving tons of money because I didn't have to spend it on my car and clothes, I had extra time that I wasn't wasting on my commute, etc. Then, we had a big shake-up. A bunch of senior people left, and new "leadership" came in to "transform" our workplace. All WFH was cancelled in our division (in spite of still being off…

> We're also "Agile" now, so we spend a ton of time in useless meetings. One of the crazier things that has happened. When the XP folk said "we do a standup", the idea was that meetings are useless and awful, you shouldn't have them, but if you're going to have them, then let's "encourage" brevity by having everyone stand. Add a few decades of agile certified consultants, sc(r)umification and now "agile" means "lots…

Agile and stand up meetings get a bad rap when poorly performing companies adopt the practices. There's no such thing as having just half of your house on fire. If a fundamental business element like customers or leadership is missing, everything else will be bad. Waterfall and agile methods are equally damned when the something else is causing a company to under perform.

Re: People love working remotely

#58

Post by wefarrell »

jbarberu wrote: post #26

For me it's: Office with my own office > Working from home > My own cube > the middle of a busy construction site > open office I'm currently in a cube, which is miles better than open office. I say I like working from home, only because I don't foresee getting my own office anytime soon.

I actually feel strangely productive working in busy cafes. Even though there's a lot of noise and people moving around I'm able to tune everything out. However in an open office because I know the people moving around and the noise has the potential to involve me I have a very hard time concentrating.

Re: People love working remotely

#59

Post by mpweiher »

jbarberu wrote: post #40
mpweiher wrote: post #27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> We're also "Agile" now, so we spend a ton of time in useless meetings. One of the crazier things that has happened. When the XP folk said "we do a standup", the idea was that meetings are useless and awful, you shouldn't have them, but if you're going to have them, then let's "encourage" brevity by having everyone stand. Add a few decades of agile certified consultants, sc(r)umification and now "agile" means "lots…

I'm so glad my team is distributed across different offices and we do our stand-ups at our desks. Having hypermobility in my knees, and most other joints, I get tired from standing still more than 2-3 minutes...

...and only have those stand for whom it's not a burden.

It seems nowadays the "standing" up has become some weird ritual that one must undergo, without questioning, as a sacrifice to the gods of "Agile".

Bizarre.

All the practices have a purpose. If they don't fit, don't do them. Figure out what works for you. Adjust, adapt. Think!

No, the planes of productivity will not come to your fauxgile wooden landing strip.

Re: People love working remotely

#60

Post by spurdoman77 »

nhumrich wrote: post #7

This article doesn't answer the headline statement. It just says people like it, would recommend it, and that record is in the rise. Simple survey stuff. Doesn't actually ever attempt to answer the question "why" people like it. Except at the very end, with the one question "top 3 reasons to recommend remote work"

Looks like an advertisement piece more than an actual research.
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