Coinbase will be a remote-first company • Hacker News Board

Re: Coinbase will be a remote-first company

#61

Post by cjrp » Thu, May 21, 2020, 9:41 AM UTC

LB232323 wrote: post #20

Cookingboy wrote: post #7

I'm really curious, how many people actually prefer WFH permanently vs. just having the flexibility to WFH when wanted. If I wanted to stay home forever I'd have just taken a remote consulting job a long time ago, but I enjoy going to office and there is a lot of benefits that you don't get from being remote 100%. I've also made very good friends at work and I see my coworkers as much more than just another GitHub ac…

I have been working remote by choice for years. You don't have to stay at home, you just need internet access. This means you have the freedom to work from anywhere on the globe as long as you can access the web. This is a pretty straightforward advantage of the internet. Some jobs have always been "remote". For example, writers still type their manuscripts from anywhere and mail them to editors. However, only some j…

> You don't have to stay at home, you just need internet access. This means you have the freedom to work from anywhere on the globe as long as you can access the web.

This sounds great, unless you have a mortgage on a house which needs paying regardless of whether you're living there, and children in school who can't be moved all the time. Although I'll admit that since my employer is looking at 100% remote, it opens the door to moving to a nicer/cheaper house outside of the office-commutable bubble.

Perhaps a compromise is using shared office space closer to home (short commute, separation of home/work life, social interaction while you're making a cup of tea).

Re: Coinbase will be a remote-first company

#62

Post by Cookingboy » Thu, May 21, 2020, 9:41 AM UTC

cbg0 wrote: post #37

Cookingboy wrote: post #30

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>I do prefer my office space at home to some open space office with lots of noise and people constantly coming by and asking for stuff. Haha so you do dislike human interaction to some degree, or at least human interaction beyond family and friends. There is absolutely nothing wrong with it, but a lot of people thrive, if not prefer those "noisy environment" you described. >Great developers will not work for cheap re…

I realize you really want to drive down this concept of disliking human interaction because you've made your mind that if you want to work from home this must be true, but being bothered by people that interrupt you when you're doing work doesn't mean you dislike human interaction. Also, I don't really know any software engineers that "thrive" in noisy environments. If you need noise cancelling headphones to thrive,…

>Also, I don't really know any software engineers that "thrive" in noisy environments. If you need noise cancelling headphones to thrive,

I'm one of them, and I'm also exceptionally good at multi-tasking. I also never wear noise-cancelling headphones. You call that kind of environment "noisy" I call it "stimulating".

Not everyone works the same way.

Re: Coinbase will be a remote-first company

#63

Post by baxtr » Thu, May 21, 2020, 9:42 AM UTC

I really like WFH. And I’m fortunate to work for a tech company that has been allowing this for years now.

But recently in discussions about this topic it feels like WFH fans want to “convert” Office fans to their preferred model. I don’t think that’s the right approach. Let’s just accept that the world is complex and people are different. I don’t think it’s necessary to convince the other side everyone should work from home from now on.

Re: Coinbase will be a remote-first company

#64

Post by eloisant » Thu, May 21, 2020, 9:44 AM UTC

baxtr wrote: post #63

I really like WFH. And I’m fortunate to work for a tech company that has been allowing this for years now. But recently in discussions about this topic it feels like WFH fans want to “convert” Office fans to their preferred model. I don’t think that’s the right approach. Let’s just accept that the world is complex and people are different. I don’t think it’s necessary to convince the other side everyone should work f…

No, however it's a good thing to convince managers and executives that they should allow anyone who wants to (and has a job that allows it), to work from home.

Re: Coinbase will be a remote-first company

#65

Post by Cookingboy » Thu, May 21, 2020, 9:46 AM UTC

baxtr wrote: post #63

I really like WFH. And I’m fortunate to work for a tech company that has been allowing this for years now. But recently in discussions about this topic it feels like WFH fans want to “convert” Office fans to their preferred model. I don’t think that’s the right approach. Let’s just accept that the world is complex and people are different. I don’t think it’s necessary to convince the other side everyone should work f…

>But recently in discussions about this topic it feels like WFH fans want to “convert” Office fans to their preferred model. I don’t think that’s the right approach.

Thank you for that nuanced view. Many comments here want to drive home the point about how all office offers is "bullshit" and "distraction and toxic culture", and anyone who enjoys working at an office with coworkers don't care about actual productivity and only want to do it because they want have someone to gossip with during the day...

There was literally a top comment here that implies someone isn't even living the life of a "real human being" if he's not WFH. That is such a ridiculous stance to take.

People have different personalties and value different things in life and are in different situations in life, there is no one solution that would make everyone happy.

Re: Coinbase will be a remote-first company

#66

Post by lstodd » Thu, May 21, 2020, 9:46 AM UTC

Cookingboy wrote: post #16

toraobo wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I like going to the office because it offers a very nice solid separation between "home" and "work" life.

That's another good reason. I know of coworkers who are single and really looking back to get back to the office because they are sick of being alone in their small apartments for days at a time. I also know of coworkers who are married with family and can't wait to get back to the office because they need to take breaks from their spouses/kids from time to time.

When I was in the same situation, I was very much enjoying working from a pub which was 20 minutes walk away from the "office". It was quiet, nice food and much socializing towards the evening. What's not to like?

To think how much money the company was wasting on the office... I still cringe today.

Re: Coinbase will be a remote-first company

#67

Post by eloisant » Thu, May 21, 2020, 9:47 AM UTC

cjrp wrote: post #61

LB232323 wrote: post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I have been working remote by choice for years. You don't have to stay at home, you just need internet access. This means you have the freedom to work from anywhere on the globe as long as you can access the web. This is a pretty straightforward advantage of the internet. Some jobs have always been "remote". For example, writers still type their manuscripts from anywhere and mail them to editors. However, only some j…

> You don't have to stay at home, you just need internet access. This means you have the freedom to work from anywhere on the globe as long as you can access the web. This sounds great, unless you have a mortgage on a house which needs paying regardless of whether you're living there, and children in school who can't be moved all the time. Although I'll admit that since my employer is looking at 100% remote, it opens…

Kids have tons of vacations, much more than the typical office worker.

So you can travel for a month or 2 during their summer vacations in what would be like vacations for your kids and "working from a different place" for you.

That's also really convenient if you have family in a far away country, to be able to work from there a much longer time that you could have taken vacations.

Re: Coinbase will be a remote-first company

#68

Post by globular-toast » Thu, May 21, 2020, 9:49 AM UTC

LB232323 wrote: post #20

Cookingboy wrote: post #7

I'm really curious, how many people actually prefer WFH permanently vs. just having the flexibility to WFH when wanted. If I wanted to stay home forever I'd have just taken a remote consulting job a long time ago, but I enjoy going to office and there is a lot of benefits that you don't get from being remote 100%. I've also made very good friends at work and I see my coworkers as much more than just another GitHub ac…

I have been working remote by choice for years. You don't have to stay at home, you just need internet access. This means you have the freedom to work from anywhere on the globe as long as you can access the web. This is a pretty straightforward advantage of the internet. Some jobs have always been "remote". For example, writers still type their manuscripts from anywhere and mail them to editors. However, only some j…

> This means you have the freedom to work from anywhere on the globe as long as you can access the web.

I think this is what people are missing. If you have to go to work then the location of your work is one of the strongest factors in choosing where to live. For me, that means being no more than 30 minutes away from work by bicycle or public transport (I own a car but it's a luxury, not a necessity). If I could live anywhere then for a start I'd be somewhere where housing costs much less. I'd be somewhere near the kind of countryside that I enjoy like the Lake District, rather than the Fens which has some nice qualities but is mostly boring.

Re: Coinbase will be a remote-first company

#69

Post by lstodd » Thu, May 21, 2020, 9:58 AM UTC

Cookingboy wrote: post #59

lstodd wrote: post #58

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> 3) all of them are desperately looking forward to going into the office again for any sort of time. This basically means that they did not modify their lifestyle for remote work. Purging office bullshit from your life requires some changes in lifestyle, no question about it. The workplace has to be established, distractions (much less than what is in the office, but still) have to be managed. Social needs have to b…

>This basically means that they did not modify their lifestyle for remote work. I really can't understand how one can be this shallow minded. Maybe the life style required to make remote work effective is not the desirable lifestyle for everyone? Maybe people value different things in life? Or maybe some people actually enjoy the place of their work and the physical presence of their coworkers? >Purging office bullsh…

What I say is that _if_ they would have changed their lifestyle _then_ they would not have craved the office experience.

There is nothing shallow about this observation.

If they chose not to it's fine. They just missed a different and, in my opinion, a better experience. Their choice.

I cannot in good faith come up with a type of work that genuinely requires being in an office. Not on a workfloor, not in a lab, not in a conference room - an office.

Please enlighten me.

Social aspects of offices are overrated. Less formal association is better if only because no one is forced into them.

Re: Coinbase will be a remote-first company

#70

Post by [deleted] » Thu, May 21, 2020, 10:05 AM UTC

lstodd wrote: post #58

sverhagen wrote: post #44

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I do not want a hip fancy office full of zany perks and a weird cult. Notice taken. Good for you (not sarcastic). This is why you "have been working remote by choice for years". But as the OP said: > If I wanted to stay home forever I'd have just taken a remote consulting job a long time ago ...and he didn't. Neither did I. In the past I have worked remotely for about a year, it wasn't great (admitted that company…

> 3) all of them are desperately looking forward to going into the office again for any sort of time. This basically means that they did not modify their lifestyle for remote work. Purging office bullshit from your life requires some changes in lifestyle, no question about it. The workplace has to be established, distractions (much less than what is in the office, but still) have to be managed. Social needs have to b…

[deleted]