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I went to the office for the first time. I fucking hated it

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Re: I went to the office for the first time. I fucking hated it

#81

Post by jameshush »

MattGaiser wrote: post #61
inter_netuser wrote: post #55

Earlier quoted context omitted.

i wonder how companies survived until now with all kinds of outsourcing, outstaffing, contractors in 5 different timezones, vendors in 12 different timezones, regulators in 3 different time zones, separate divisions for APAC, EMEA, US and so on...? ...but just can't handle remote employees that they have so much more control over? Sounds like complete nonsense to me. If they can handle vendors located on a different…

A former colleague of mine quit a job over this. They wanted him back into the office. He mostly worked with their Toptal devs from Nigeria and and Hungary.

I worked on a team that was mostly Seattle people while I was based in the Los Angeles HQ. All my team members were in a different city. Needless to say "switching" to remote wasn't a big deal at all for me.

Re: I went to the office for the first time. I fucking hated it

#82

Post by tshaddox »

RHSeeger wrote: post #39
hermitdev wrote: post #27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why should the people preferring to work from home get preference, either? At the end of the day, like it or not, the majority of people working for a company of beyond a small size are going to be in some level of a collaborative environment. Logistically, it's easier to accomplish that in person. No dropped calls or poor connections or VPN drops or whatever. As an engineer, I sympathize with the poster. When I need…

> At the end of the day, like it or not, the majority of people working for a company of beyond a small size are going to be in some level of a collaborative environment. Logistically, it's easier to accomplish that in person. You say this like it's a foregone conclusion, a fact. I disagree with it completely. It's far easier to collaborate remotely. You don't need find a meeting room, you don't need to worry about m…

> You don't need find a meeting room

You have to pay for your own.

> you don't need to worry about making too much noise

Unless other people live in your home.

> you don't need to worry about adding one person from another location suddenly changing the entire dynamic.

That’s comparing all-remote to some-remote, which is a different comparison than all-remote to all-in-office.

Re: I went to the office for the first time. I fucking hated it

#83

Post by vosper »

void_mint wrote: post #3

Some people like things. Some people don't like things. Can we just accept that different people are different and move on?

No, sadly I think we're going to get the endless "remote did/didn't work for me and that's why it's good/bad" posts every single time this is discussed here, forever.

Re: I went to the office for the first time. I fucking hated it

#84

Post by allarm »

Wowfunhappy wrote: post #4

> If you like/prefer going to the office that is fine. I am not trying to say we should all be remote. Companies should offer FLEXIBILITY to let employees choose where to work from. That doesn’t work. I prefer working in the office, but only if the rest of my team is actually there with me. If some people are remote, then we have to do Zoom meetings, so I may as well be remote too.

That does work. Before the pandemics I worked many years with the majority of my team being overseas, in multiple companies. There's nothing wrong with the hybrid approach and never was. For many companies it's always been the default approach, for global companies specifically. I am also not sure why you put "that doesn't work" and "I prefer" together - your preferences are not really relevant to this case.

Re: I went to the office for the first time. I fucking hated it

#85

Post by midrus »

In my company the only ones that want to go back to the office are those engineers and managers that spend most of their day just walking around, talking to everyone about non important stuff, inviting you to have a coffee, and making jokes until 5pm. Just the people that have nothing to show at the end of the quarter.

The most productive engineers, and the ones I enjoy working the most are the remote ones. The only way they have to justify their time is with what they ship.

I don't go to work to be a family, a brotherhood, or whatever....I do that at my pub, at the gym or with my friends. I go to work to work, ship stuff, grow my career, learn and earn money.

Problem is when people mix the office with their entire social Life.

Re: I went to the office for the first time. I fucking hated it

#86

Post by jwilber »

midev wrote: post #17
savant_penguin wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Or that's someone that spends 3h/day commuting

Like I said, it's ok to have a preference. People that whine about it are toxic.

Ironically this is the most needlessly toxic phrasing of an opinion I’ve seen in this thread.

Hypocritically, it’s whining about the very topic it claims it’s toxic to whine about.

Re: I went to the office for the first time. I fucking hated it

#87

Post by inglor_cz »

rodgerd wrote: post #23

The saddest thing is the people giving him a hard time for "being entitled". How fucked have our mindsets been by decades of anti-union, anti-worker propoganda, elevating CEOs to philosopher-kings, that people argue for their own bondage?

"decades of anti-union, anti-worker propoganda, elevating CEOs to philosopher-kings"

It seems you have a political axe to grind.

I think this is just another instance of people being "small c" conservative about what they are used do since they were young. The first Stone Age hunter who used a primitive bow was probably chastised "what's so bad about spears?" by other members of his tribe.

Re: I went to the office for the first time. I fucking hated it

#88

Post by ngc248 »

eknkc wrote: post #18
wtt604 wrote: post #2

I went to the office for the first time last week, and I loved it, but I think where I work has a better attitude towards people than where that guy works. Certainly my department does. I went back voluntarily, mainly to get out of the house, and TO wear real clothes again. Tshirt and shorts, but I feel more human than the pajama man I was for the past year. I hope that guy gets a new job!

I’ve been working remotely more than 10 years now. I get the idea that some people prefer to be around others, to have face to face conversations etc. And some people do not have the best home environment. Maybe they have kids and would prefer an office. And maybe, they just like working at an office. That’s fine. What I don’t really understand is that people complaining about being in pijamas and being in the house…

It just means that for a lot of people "going to work" was the thing which was adding structure to their life and when WFH started they lost that"structure", that is when "not shower for a week and have ketchup stains on your face" these things happen.

Looks like lotsa people build their life around work instead of work around life.

Re: I went to the office for the first time. I fucking hated it

#89

Post by bilog »

joelbluminator wrote: post #68

If anyone can do your work remotely...ANYONE can do your work remotely. Do you guys think maybe when the next recession happens we will see unprecedented offshoring due to companies not being able to pay 160K to a developer with 3 years experience? Its all nice and well when every startup can raise as much money as it wants. What happens when/if that pops?

That goes both ways though. It also means that you can get hired by some company on the other side of the world that possibly offers better conditions than anything local.

Re: I went to the office for the first time. I fucking hated it

#90

Post by jstummbillig »

allarm wrote: post #84
Wowfunhappy wrote: post #4

> If you like/prefer going to the office that is fine. I am not trying to say we should all be remote. Companies should offer FLEXIBILITY to let employees choose where to work from. That doesn’t work. I prefer working in the office, but only if the rest of my team is actually there with me. If some people are remote, then we have to do Zoom meetings, so I may as well be remote too.

That does work. Before the pandemics I worked many years with the majority of my team being overseas, in multiple companies. There's nothing wrong with the hybrid approach and never was. For many companies it's always been the default approach, for global companies specifically. I am also not sure why you put "that doesn't work" and "I prefer" together - your preferences are not really relevant to this case.

> I am also not sure why you put "that doesn't work" and "I prefer" together

Here, "that doesn't work" is short for "that doesn't work for me". It is in fact a statement of preference, colloquially phrased.

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