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34% of remote workers would quit rather than return to full-time office work

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Re: 34% of remote workers would quit rather than return to full-time office work

#81

Post by macintux »

spockz wrote: post #54
benbristow wrote: post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's hard enough in software engineering IMHO. What used to be swivel in your chair and ask a colleague or going to whoever you need to speak to is now * Send a Slack message/email and wait an arbitrary amount of time for a response. * Organise a Skype/Teams/whatever call in a few hours time and feel guilty about it, as it feels rude to just ring someone as they could be occupied or busy. I spend a stupid amount of t…

> * Organise a Skype/Teams/whatever call in a few hours time and feel guilty about it, as it feels rude to just ring someone as they could be occupied or busy. Why is it more rude to call someone on teams where they can just decline the call than to swivel in your chair and start talking to them? If anything, I think etiquette has improved in our situation. No more in person interruptions or people just hovering at t…

> Why is it more rude to call someone on teams where they can just decline the call than to swivel in your chair and start talking to them?

In the office, you can generally observe the state of your co-worker. Are they on a phone call? Are they already talking to someone in person?

A phone/Slack/Teams call can be quite disruptive if someone is already in a meeting.

We haven't fully adapted work culture to remote work.

Re: 34% of remote workers would quit rather than return to full-time office work

#82

Post by mulmen »

sokoloff wrote: post #66
benbristow wrote: post #57

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Just asking this as a talking point. Does a quick interruption that unblocks me and allows me to continue working outweigh allowing you to finish your thing first? Because maybe you're unblocked but I'm blocked by you now, and the thing that's actually blocking me. So only 1 person is able to work.

Are specifically they blocking you, or are you stuck in general and they're the closest SWE? In the first case, it does seem a lot more reasonable to interrupt and trade-off the productivity of the blocker in favor of the blockee. At worst, that's an even trade and at best it incentivizes not being a blocker. In the second case, I'd rather not create a distributed denial of concentration scenario for SWEs who are rar…

Disagree. Unless the world is on fire there's no reason to interrupt someone to unblock yourself. Contact them asynchronously or opportunistically. If you see them in the kitchenette getting coffee then sure, ask. If they are walking back from the bathroom, sure, grab them before they resume work. But do not delude yourself into thinking you know more about prioritizing their time than they do.

Re: 34% of remote workers would quit rather than return to full-time office work

#83

Post by Andrew_nenakhov »

I prefer working from the office. And people who code form their laptops from cafés, really? You would spend hours looking at a small 15" screen, straining your neck and back, instead of comfortably using dual-monitor setup and a comfortable chair in the office? Or you like working at home, near your home fridge and playing active kids? Definitely not my cup of tea.

Re: 34% of remote workers would quit rather than return to full-time office work

#84

Post by macintux »

mandelbrotwurst wrote: post #33
Alupis wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Or, perhaps they had a year to clearly see they're perfectly incapable of doing so. Not every office job is software engineering folks... Imagine trying to manage a warehouse remotely... or bounce ideas off each other in real time at a marketing agency... or any of the other normal jobs that thrive with in-person interaction. Not to mention, 34% is a minority... we can't force the other 66% to work remotely just beca…

Warehouse workers were never working remotely, they got laid off. Re: your last point: 1. That 34% would quit rather than return doesn’t mean the other 66% would prefer to, just that they might not quit over it. 2. It’s possible to employ both remote and on-site workers.

> 2. It’s possible to employ both remote and on-site workers.

It is, but it's very difficult to sustain a hybrid work culture. People working remotely tend to get shafted on ad-hoc discussions, even promotions.

Re: 34% of remote workers would quit rather than return to full-time office work

#86

Post by jedberg »

I'll bet 1/3 also said they would walk away if they had to keep working remotely. If we've learned anything from this year, it's that there is no consensus. Some people like to work in an office, some people like to work at home, and most people like the flexibility of doing both when they choose to.

I think offices are here to stay, but maybe in some cases they will change to be more like coworking spaces for just one company, where every desk is "rented", to allow for hybrid situations where different teams can choose if they want to be remote or in person and which days they do that.

Re: 34% of remote workers would quit rather than return to full-time office work

#87

Post by 1-6 »

sokoloff wrote: post #59

Study is published by a staffing firm, who surveyed around 1000 people. It seems like the people who would respond to a staffing firm's survey might not be fully representative of the broader working population. I did not expect to enjoy working from home, but I thoroughly do. I feel like I can be almost as effective, but I sure wouldn't quit over a return to the office. (And I sure wouldn't be reachable by a staffin…

Staffing firms have employees who are less integrated into the work environment of the host company.
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