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Coinbase will be a remote-first company

blog.coinbase.com

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Re: Coinbase will be a remote-first company

#81

Post by staticassertion »

lstodd wrote: post #69
Cookingboy wrote: post #59

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>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 i…

I can't come up with work that requires being in an office, other than perhaps whiteboarding out ideas.

But my first few years as an engineer, I loved going into the office. We played ping pong, we drank, we socialized, played games. There were even free snacks! Pretty good ones. Maybe for a lot of engineers that all feels silly, but I'd never thought I'd have a job that cool.

You can call that all "bullshit perks" or whatever, but it made the start of my career so motivating and fun.

I work fulltime remote now. I'm the CEO of a company, and we're fully remote. It has huge advantages, but I wouldn't trade that first office experience for anything.

Re: Coinbase will be a remote-first company

#82

Post by lstodd »

Cookingboy wrote: post #72
lstodd wrote: post #66

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

> It was quiet, nice food and much socializing towards the evening. What's not to like? To me the smell of alcohol would be awful? Or maybe I don't like noisy strangers ? Or maybe I can't bring my comfortable chair and twin 30" monitors to a pub with me every day? I think you've fallen pretty deep in the trap of thinking your experience and preference applies to everyone.

Please cut the ad hominems.

I'm merely showing that there is life and work without an office, and better one much of the time.

Yes I prefer twin monitors, two black cats, zero interruptions and some ambient music most of the time. When I get in the other mood, I go sit at the pub. Or I take a walk and meditate on a problem. Or I take a 50 mile ride on a motorbike. Or I fire up the local equivalent of the Uber and give some rides to the people just for the talks. Or whatever else comes to mind.

Those are the choices I would never have had I made a mistake and got another job at the office.

Re: Coinbase will be a remote-first company

#83

Post by cocktailpeanuts »

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…

There's a reason why a lot of freelancers prefer to work from coffee shop or coworking spaces.

I'm pretty sure 90% of the people commenting on this thread have never actually lived through working without an office for years, and these people have no idea what they are talking about.

Here's what happens to so called WFH people:

Phase 1. It's exciting to work independently and productivity rises for a couple of weeks.

Phase 2. Working from home gets old very very fast, and you end up pushing yourself to go work at more public places like coffee shop (otherwise your productivity goes down no matter how productive a person you are).

Phase 3. If you work out of coffee shops for a long period of time, this gets old too. Not everyone reaches this state but many people do. You would rather work from a fixed place with less uncertainties than floating around different coffee shops every day. And this is why coworking spaces exist and people pay a lot of money to work out of coworking spaces.

Re: Coinbase will be a remote-first company

#84

Post by take_a_breath »

saurik wrote: post #79
Cookingboy wrote: post #71

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>What I say is that _if_ they would have changed their lifestyle _then_ they would not have craved the office experience. I can say the same thing about WFH. If you have made the lifestyle adjustment then you wouldn't crave to be working remotely either. Btw I don't know what kind of lifestyle adjust you were thinking about that can magically change someone's personality or family situation. >If they chose not to it'…

> family situation If you have a family, and you are trying to escape them to go to an office or be alone in transit for hours commuting every day (which is simply time lost from your life), something might be wrong with your relationships and you should spend some time fixing that (but like, yeah: if you are essentially feeling trapped or something because you hate your family, I guess it makes sense to do anything…

The discussion on this site has really deteriorated. Lots of people have kids or they have spouses who also work-from-home. That can make it significantly harder to find the space and environment to work in the home.

Re: Coinbase will be a remote-first company

#85

Post by partyboat1586 »

Cookingboy wrote: post #71
lstodd wrote: post #69

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 i…

>What I say is that _if_ they would have changed their lifestyle _then_ they would not have craved the office experience. I can say the same thing about WFH. If you have made the lifestyle adjustment then you wouldn't crave to be working remotely either. Btw I don't know what kind of lifestyle adjust you were thinking about that can magically change someone's personality or family situation. >If they chose not to it'…

Your work buddys today will be gone tomorrow. Most work relationships are shallow and transitory. If that's your thing because you're extroverted then great but a lot of people in tech are more ambiverted or introverted, they value deeper more meaningful relationships.

What I see a lot is introverted or ambiverted people tricked into believing their work buddies will call after they leave the company. Tricked into spending time on this shallowness outside of work hours + commute time over spending time with the people in their lives that really matter and will be there for them in darker times.

Sure there are a minority of extroverted people who want to be in the office because they want social time all the time, shallow or not. There are also parents who want some time away from home. On the other hand there are introverted people who want to be in the office because that's the only place they know how to get their social need filled anymore even though it's not truly fulfilling.

Re: Coinbase will be a remote-first company

#86

Post by funnybeam »

xiphias2 wrote: post #32
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…

For me the biggest problem with working in an office was that tech hubs concentrate men, so it completely destroyed my dating life for years. My low social status of being just an average looking male outside work also made me depressed so much, I never ever want to feel that again. Also working in an office was the best with a small team in a separate room with a nice view, the noise from open office plans is so bad…

For me, noise cancelling ear phones playing pink noise works to blank everything out.

Music I find too distracting and white noise too harsh (makes me feel like I have a hangover) but pink noise is soothing, almost like being in the womb and really helps me focus

Re: Coinbase will be a remote-first company

#88

Post by paulcole »

lstodd wrote: post #69
Cookingboy wrote: post #59

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>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 i…

> Social aspects of offices are overrated.

This might be true for you but it’s not true for everyone.

Re: Coinbase will be a remote-first company

#89

Post by matz1 »

Cookingboy wrote: post #24
noneeeed wrote: post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think flexibility is the key. All the things that are touted as pros and cons of both WFH and office working are highly dependent on the individual, the company, the type of work, people's housing situation, disability, and many small life choices. Whenever this topic comes up I'm always rather disappointed to see how many people struggle with the idea that their situation is not everyone's situation, and make blan…

The problem is that it likely snowballs one way or another if you allow full flexibility. If more people initially chose to work at the office, then the minority WFH people will inevitably be at a disadvantage and they would feel potentially left out of a lot of developments that take place in the office. Then they may end up forcing themselves to go to the office from time to time or move to a different company wher…

But that is just life isn't it ? Whatever choice available there will be trade off, there will be pros and cons.

Re: Coinbase will be a remote-first company

#90

Post by raverbashing »

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…

> 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 be satisfied sy some other means.

> Still, work from anywhere

And this is the contradiction I find hard to manage. Not saying it's impossible, more in the "not sure how to do it"

Good equipment is important. A nice desk is important.

If you're hopping over AirBnbs, it's hard to carry all your stuff with you and have a good desktop experience wherever you go.

Working outside (from a balcony) is usually not great. Screens are not great on sunlight, then there's rain, wind, etc. And concentration suffers a bit

It looks a bit complicated at first glance.

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