651–660 of 734 posts
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"Elegant, inspiring, soaring prose often makes for incredibly shitty real-world advice." - hn_throwaway_99
Well, if you don't want your life to turn out Bukowski, don't take advice from Bukowski. As Modest Mouse said, "God, who'd want to be / Such an asshole?"
Warning: Hot Take. I genuinely believe many people who prefer working in an office versus at home have unfulfilling social lives or bad home lives. The social dynamics, competition, in physical offices fills the void in their lives. Also seems like most of the people clamoring for a return to the office are also climbers & middle managers. For some work a physical presence is required not just preferable, but for mos…
I definitely fall into this camp. I’m introverted, so the forced social interaction at work was perfect for me and sufficient to keep me socially gratified. I’ve tried to make up for it in the pandemic by being more socially active but it hasn’t been working. I’ll definitely be looking for an in-office position soon since some companies are returning. I think my mental health will greatly recover.
That's not healthy and it shouldn't be the basis for company policies in general.
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> The one group of people I don’t get are the ones who suggest people should be forced to work from the office, and not able to decide for themselves. I guess I can give a bit of perspective. I don't think people should be "forced" into 100% office work, but I can say that as a junior engineer, I am wildly more productive when I'm in the office with my co-workers compared to at home alone. I graduated into the pandem…
> I am wildly more productive when I'm in the office with my co-workers compared to at home alone. I get next to nothing done during a whole day in the office. Over 2 1/2 hours commute a day, and then I have to sit there with (my own) ANC headphones on because people talk all day. Then there's coordinating where and when to go eat which can take up to half an hour. People come around to talk. I'm basically at 10-20%…
Other than the commute, I think those are all things that a cohesive team should be able to resolve. It's definitely important to set boundaries in a shared space. I don't agree that the answer is to entirely retreat from the office though, as much as I do understand that inclination.
Also, just a thought: your colleagues might find the discussions they have with you to be really valuable to their own productivity / job satisfaction.
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Why? You'll spend a huge time of your life working, why is it not worth it to build relationships? You don't have to meet them in your free time to consider them friends.
In the US you may have to change jobs frequently or accept pitiful raises. If your healthcare and social circle become too tied to one employer then leaving or being fired could be a huge change. Building a professional network is important, and some bonding is natural, so I don't mean to discourage them. Though I do prefer seeking most social fulfillment through other means.
I don't live in the US, and almost all of my friends I meet on my free time are not through work, but I do have colleagues who I consider friends and it makes work a lot more enjoyable. That being said, there's only very few of them who I would be likely to keep in touch with if they or I quit.
You might agree or disagree with RTO but at least they aren't bending the rules for execs.
In non-finance US corporations, "director" is middle-management and not an executive.
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> It's spec'ed for 3 years of experience but salary is about the median for a new graduate w/o professional experience. How does the company's revenue per employee compare to the offered salary?
Back of the envelope, the offered salary is roughly $5000-$10,000 less than the average revenue per employee. I'm not familiar with thinking about salaries in these terms though, how is this relevant?
Yes, there are variations and management can go a bit on the higher side of that number - though also note that that is revenue and doesn't take into account operational costs, taxes, and the like.
In many cases, the company just can't reasonably pay what the "market" suggests the role should get. In these cases, it is a question of trying to point out that the value that the role brings is much more than what they're paying and that the company, upon recognizing that, should offer more.
The other alternative for the company is that they aren't losing money compared to the current set of accounting books. They may be leaving money on the table that they could get from expanding, but that's a risk.
Speaking of risk, there are a lot of risky candidates out there. It is far too easy to hire a person who fails to perform at the expected level or to train the person up for a few months in the tech stack and domain only for them to leave for a different company.
As it is, an unfilled role that has what is perceived as low compensation, to the company, is the less risky than a role filled with someone who is paid more but may not be performing - or even if they are performing aren't bringing the value to the organization compared to the revenue that is needed to justify that role.
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I'm very upfront when I schedule the interview, give them a range when we set the time and if they're still interested we proceed. It's education analytics, so there's a little bit of "doing it for the mission" that gets people who are willing to make a little less because the job really has a very direct impact on students' success and lives. My work reduces student debt and increases success rates and identifies th…
> The work environment is laid back, 40 hour weeks & rarely any expectation of going over that so there can be a very good work/life balance There are quite some countries where Jo Average would see 40h working week as monsterous. Or were 40h workweek might even be outlawed.
Warning: Hot Take. I genuinely believe many people who prefer working in an office versus at home have unfulfilling social lives or bad home lives. The social dynamics, competition, in physical offices fills the void in their lives. Also seems like most of the people clamoring for a return to the office are also climbers & middle managers. For some work a physical presence is required not just preferable, but for mos…
Warning: Hot Take. I genuinely believe many people who prefer working in an office versus at home have unfulfilling social lives or bad home lives. The social dynamics, competition, in physical offices fills the void in their lives. Also seems like most of the people clamoring for a return to the office are also climbers & middle managers. For some work a physical presence is required not just preferable, but for mos…
> Warning: Hot Take. I genuinely believe many people who prefer working in an office versus at home have unfulfilling social lives or bad home lives. The social dynamics, competition, in physical offices fills the void in their lives. Warning: Hot Take. I have similar logic, but reach an almost opposite conclusion. I genuinely believe many people who prefer working at home rather than an office have unfulfilling work…
People who fill a void through work are the unhappy ones. Even when I was in the office I made meaningful connections with Indian coworkers who I never met but spoke to almost daily for years.
Instead of talking to coworkers I get to see my 2 young kids grow up.
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But if you want to separate life from work, you can work in whatever place you'd like. Coworking space, cafe, personal office etc. Then you don't need to live near your company's office, and can choose the best possible place to live and work for you and your family.
> Coworking space, cafe, personal office etc. or you can chose to work for a company whose offices are not two hours away. coworking, cafes, etc are not really suited to actually work, especially of your work requires some kind of concentration or secrecy (an NDA for example) Personal office in house is the worst combination of them all IMO. Not that I do not work from home, I did it for good part of my life, it's ju…