Time to quit
Apple asks staff to return to office 3 days a week starting in early September
631–640 of 1001 posts
Re: Apple asks staff to return to office 3 days a week starting in early September
#632Earlier quoted context omitted.
Commutes also cost the one thing we can't get back; time.
If you use public transport, you can regain that time. In the UK you can get a seat on most rush hour trains, and even standing up on the Tube you can read a book, listen to a podcast, do your email etc. It's also good thinking time. Driving a car yep you're absolutely right, but if you commute via car a long distance for a considerable amount of time I think you're crazy.
No commute made me unsubscribe from almost all podcasts and read fewer books indeed.
Re: Apple asks staff to return to office 3 days a week starting in early September
#633Earlier quoted context omitted.
> There are also plenty of people who like their coworkers and enjoy spending time with them each day Of course. Especially those that hate their families (or themselves and can't spend time alone).
Not everyone is painfully asocial - and I say this as a rather asocial person myself who's only ever held remote or remote-friendly roles. I couldn't imagine wilfully remaining at a job with coworkers so toxic that regular interaction with them is an ordeal.
>I couldn't imagine wilfully remaining at a job with coworkers so toxic that regular interaction with them is an ordeal.
For my argument to work, it doesn't need to be an ordeal though: just less preferable to family, kids, and friends.
Re: Apple asks staff to return to office 3 days a week starting in early September
#634Earlier quoted context omitted.
The vast majority of IT people in Silicon Valley can yell on the street and get a job. So then it becomes which company has the best culture, values, people, environment etc.
Why do so many people work at ad and spyware companies then?
Assuming you mean Google and Facebook et al for "ad companies" then I guess it's the very high compensation and nice work environment as well as the chance to work on super cool tech with really smart people if you're lucky or sufficiently motivated?
Of course most folks there probably work on super uncool tech with very average people, but those are also getting paid a whole lot of money and can enjoy the nice work environment, etc.
Morality, even if it were universal, is not a prime motivator in career choices for most people.
Re: Apple asks staff to return to office 3 days a week starting in early September
#635Earlier quoted context omitted.
> Why does everyone here just assume that everyone’s commute is as bad as theirs? Because statistically it would be representative. Also because even if the office is next door, you need to get dressed properly, prepare, etc., which eats at least half hour every morning.
I just hope you shover despite working from home.
WFH I can shower whenever I want, not necessarily in the morning -- as would be the case when I have a morning commute.
And another key benefit is that, even for those who don't shower, nobody else is hurt...
Re: Apple asks staff to return to office 3 days a week starting in early September
#636Earlier quoted context omitted.
> Why does everyone here just assume that everyone’s commute is as bad as theirs? Because statistically it would be representative. Also because even if the office is next door, you need to get dressed properly, prepare, etc., which eats at least half hour every morning.
You should get dressed properly and prepare even if you're working from home.
Come and force me
Re: Apple asks staff to return to office 3 days a week starting in early September
#637Earlier quoted context omitted.
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…
Jesus Christ. I eat well and spend maybe $400 a month on groceries and food. I’ve heard that Google recruiters attempt to con potential employees into some ridiculous assessment of the “free” food as a compensation benefit with numbers like those that you posited above. I can’t imagine valuing daily meals that highly.
My wife and I were spending maybe $1000/mo on takeout -and- we had free lunches at offices until the pandemic.
Once I committed to WFH life, it became a logical next step to double down on the freedom aspects and start my own consulting firm.
That meant I needed long term thinking. I learned to cook more often and turned my entire front yard into a garden.
Overall I would say WFH has been net healthier on my mind and wallet.
Re: Apple asks staff to return to office 3 days a week starting in early September
#638Earlier quoted context omitted.
> * I had a stronger work/life separation. I rarely turned on my work laptop at home. This is imho the worst part of WFH. Some people come to work at 6:00 and go home at 14:00, some come at 10:00 and leave at 18:00, and some even later. If you're in an office, the latecomer can just check the early birds office, "oh, you're here, can we ..." / "he's not here anymore, this will wait 'till tomorrow". With WFH it's cons…
The unfortunate part of this is that once people start responding to e-mails at 12AM, suddenly everybody is expected to respond at 12AM. It's a race to the bottom when separation from work and home life isn't really mandated. I've faced this first hand as I switch from one company to another. In my previous place, we enforced a hard limit on when we could be expected to respond, and nobody ever messaged me on slack/…
There are German companies where the email server doesn’t deliver Emails until the next morning. This obviously works best if all are in one time zone, but it’d be amazing if one could set: working from X to Y and emails just stop arriving after Y.
Re: Apple asks staff to return to office 3 days a week starting in early September
#639Earlier quoted context omitted.
Well, for one thing only _one_ of you needs to commute. Secondly, you can work towards a situation where you don't have that commute, or it's cheap / clean / easy / you don't lose all the time. Spoiler: live on a trainline or buy a bicycle. Third, I don't believe this is the main reason for commuting. I think it's because people want to live in one place and work in another, which is usually a bad idea - especially f…
> people want to live in one place and work in another, which is usually a bad idea do you suggest moving every time you change jobs? I suppose that can be done as a single person or a couple, but moving homes every 4-6 years with children who have to change schools, etc is (I'm sorry) an insane proposition.
I suspect they don't have children, as finding a suitable and affordable family home in the city is also incredibly hard.
If you are single and can just up sticks from one apartment to another then yeah, it's pretty trivial.
Re: Apple asks staff to return to office 3 days a week starting in early September
#640I 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…
> * I had a stronger work/life separation. I rarely turned on my work laptop at home. This is imho the worst part of WFH. Some people come to work at 6:00 and go home at 14:00, some come at 10:00 and leave at 18:00, and some even later. If you're in an office, the latecomer can just check the early birds office, "oh, you're here, can we ..." / "he's not here anymore, this will wait 'till tomorrow". With WFH it's cons…
> With WFH it's constant emails and work calls...
I'm not sure i can agree with that. Most of the communication in my office is a quick message in Slack, or a comment in Jira.
I feel like this is perhaps more of a matter between synchronous and asynchronous communication, GitLab has wrote a bit about this in their guide to remote work: https://about.gitlab.com/company/culture/all-remote/guide/