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I will always prefer to work from home

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Re: I will always prefer to work from home

#81

Post by MattPalmer1086 »

jlund-molfese wrote: post #48

I wonder why companies feel the need to set physical presence policies at the company level. Wouldn’t it be more efficient to do it team-by-team? Is the unspoken admission that nobody would choose to pick a collocated team if they could join a remote one? A team composed of 4 people, where one’s in SF, another in NYC, etc is having a very different experience from one where all 4 people are all collocated.

This question was recently asked at a company meeting when they said they were increasing the number of days in the office.

The response was it "wouldn't be fair".

Which I thought was an interesting response, as it at least demonstrates they have some awareness that the move back to office isn't popular.

Re: I will always prefer to work from home

#82

Post by lostlogin »

kzrdude wrote: post #37
wrp wrote: post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I know a few retired guys who pay their own money to rent office space away from the house. They don't even have kids living at home any more. If you have a nice office, it's...well...nice.

They do it together, so it's a shared space?

If they work at the same place, or own the company, isn’t that just ‘the office’?

Re: I will always prefer to work from home

#83

Post by cardanome »

codegeek wrote: post #7

Yes great points. But most WFH advocates forget to talk about juniors or people who are just starting their careers or people who just cannot wfh effectively. The article talks about Management's arguments against WFH but fails to mention any of the points I mentioned. The best solution in my opinion is hybrid especially for juniors and I will die on this hill.

The only case where being in office is better for Juniors is when the organization is dysfunctional and doesn't know how to properly do remote.

I absolutely have worked in companies where my onboarding was such a mess that the only solution for me was doing hybrid. They sucked at remote work and if you were not in the office you were not seen.

My first Junior job was in a remote-first company and it was an absolute non issue and I don't think being in office would have helped in any form.

The difference is, with remote work you need to have processes in place. You can't just stuff people in an office and hope for the best. You need a mentoring program. You need to encourage pair programming. You need to build digital spaces where socialization can happen and people can just hang out.

> people who just cannot wfh effectively

Yeah but don't forget that for many people with special needs, WFH can be a huge blessing and allow them to work in the first place.

And yes, some people thrive more in a hybrid environment. Though often it because their home situation is non conducive for work, lacking space, too many distraction and so on. I think co-working spaces can be a great solution for that.

Re: I will always prefer to work from home

#85

Post by Jcampuzano2 »

codingdave wrote: post #69
game_the0ry wrote: post #20

If someone were to ask me why I prefer WFH, my answer would be: bc I fucking feel like it. I am not obligated to justify my preferences to anyone. Ever.

Totally true. And yet, if you do explain your preferences, your leadership can know their people and try to build an environment that works for them. Hard to blame them for not giving you a good environment if you've never been willing to tell them what "good" means for you.

They ask because then they bring some of that stuff into an office and then claim the office is better than WFH.

For example: One of the biggest things people pointed out at my current job was the long commute/gas money. So company offered to recompensate gas for anyone up to 50 miles or something and claimed now there was no reason to complain anymore... which is obviously untrue.

I've seen this at 2 of the companies I've recently worked for where they do silly polls as to why people prefer WFH, make some small tweaks to the office that still come nowhere close to the convenience of being remote, and then claim there's no longer a reason to WFH anymore since they have made the office more preferable.

Most people who are remote will never want to go back to an office, regardless of what happens.

Re: I will always prefer to work from home

#86

Post by lostlogin »

tqi wrote: post #33

Who is this meant to convince? Has anyone ever changed their mind as a result of reading a listicle of complaints? This seems more like something for people who already agree with the author to read and self righteously think "yeah, this is THE way" There isn't some objective right answer here. Different people value different things, and that's ok. Companies can set their RTO policies as they see fit, and that's ok.…

> Has anyone ever changed their mind as a result of reading a listicle of complaints?

I thought ‘no’, but then remembered how John Siracusa works.

If he ever reviews something you like, turn away. The previously hidden defects and problems will suddenly be very obvious.

Re: I will always prefer to work from home

#87

Post by morelisp »

lowercased wrote: post #36
the_snooze wrote: post #4

I feel these discussions always go the same way. Working at an office sucks because of some combination of {long commute, open office plan, team not being there}. I quite like going to the office myself because my situation is the opposite: I bike to work, where I have my own office, and my team likes to come in too. Hating the office is totally justifiable given that my setup isn't common; most people are forced to…

I worked at a place years back that was expanding; bought a second building - 2 stories. Downstairs had semi-open cubicles, and a wall of private office spaces (8 IIRC). All empty. Cubes were full. I was in the other building, told we were needing to move over the next couple months. I asked for one of the private spaces. They weren't really that big, and had no natural light, but... they did have a door. I'd been wr…

One side-effect of the WFH period for us (and I assume a number of other EU companies) is that once we went WFH, we also went remote; previously we had two offices and everyone worked in one of those two cities and today we have (IIRC) five and people work all over the country and take rail into the nearest office when necessary.

This has... mostly worked out OK. In any given office there's some spaces dedicated for the people who work there regularly, at least a room or two with a half dozen seats for hotdesking, but then - three dedicated, closed-door single-person offices exclusively for the executives, who of course never show up outside their home office (if even there).

Re: I will always prefer to work from home

#88

Post by civilitty »

tqi wrote: post #33

Who is this meant to convince? Has anyone ever changed their mind as a result of reading a listicle of complaints? This seems more like something for people who already agree with the author to read and self righteously think "yeah, this is THE way" There isn't some objective right answer here. Different people value different things, and that's ok. Companies can set their RTO policies as they see fit, and that's ok.…

It's not meant to convince anyone, it's meant to build the author's brand. They're the hip work-from-home type and they're never going back!

And they really, really need you to know that because otherwise they'd have to admit to themselves that they're shouting into the void.

Re: I will always prefer to work from home

#89

Post by rootusrootus »

joshmanders wrote: post #44
ctenb wrote: post #34

Earlier quoted context omitted.

*on site :)

At this point I've stopped trying to correct autocorrect when it decides a word I spelled correctly isn't the word I wanted and changes it with a different word.

I hate how autocorrect has evolved into something that tries to actually rewrite words that I've written, even after I've moved onto the next word. And sometimes the old trick of just backspacing and typing it again doesn't convince autocorrect that I in fact know what I'm typing and want to keep it.

I'd prefer to just have it highlight the word it thinks as wrong, and leave it alone. Kinda like when I'm on my computer.

Re: I will always prefer to work from home

#90

Post by Cacti »

kzrdude wrote: post #37
wrp wrote: post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I know a few retired guys who pay their own money to rent office space away from the house. They don't even have kids living at home any more. If you have a nice office, it's...well...nice.

They do it together, so it's a shared space?

lol no
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