Working From Home is Like Saying No to Drugs • Hacker News Board

Re: Working From Home is Like Saying No to Drugs

#81

Post by Executor » Wed, Mar 13, 2013, 5:13 PM UTC

philwelch wrote: post #16

This article is garbage. It can be boiled down to one sentence: "if working from home makes me happy at the cost of productivity, forcing me to come into the office just because it's more productive is the moral equivalent of requiring me to take Adderall." To which the appropriate response is: "bullshit". Requiring someone to take physically harmful and addictive drugs is not even remotely in the same galaxy as requ…

This is a very rude comment. You are implying that you must sacrifice happiness in order to be productive. But many people are able to be both productive at home AND be happy.

Why doesn't HN have a downvote...

Re: Working From Home is Like Saying No to Drugs

#82

Post by smurph » Wed, Mar 13, 2013, 6:40 PM UTC

Employers in knowledge fields have a tough time scaling pay with performance or productivity (pg's essays cover this), so we see them exploring other methods like remote work and free food, etc. I guess when the employer agrees to let you work from home, your perceived value is high enough that satisfying you with money only would be painful. But as you spend more time at home, they start noticing your value less, which leads to the whole "people are more productive at the office" mentality.

Re: Working From Home is Like Saying No to Drugs

#83

Post by milfot » Wed, Mar 20, 2013, 10:05 AM UTC

aetherson wrote: post #70

MicahWedemeyer wrote: post #39

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I guess I've been doing it so long that I don't really think of it as allowed anymore. It's just something that I feel is my choice. I've gone so far as to co-found my own consulting company so that no one will get to make that decision for me in the future. I will make my own decisions about how and where I should work.

Well, if you own your own company, I'm not sure who you're justifying yourself to. If, however, you are in a situation where you have an employer, I'm sorry; you're just wrong. Working from home is not a fundamental human right. You are, or are not, allowed to.

This idea cuts straight to the heart of the argument.

If you view your employer as a master who gets to tell you how and where and when to work, for the pittance he affords you so you can live to work another day, and so he can take all your extra productivity and initiative and IP and profit from it as he wishes, then I guess you are right.

If you view your contract with your employer as a mutual agreement where you provide a set amount of work for a set amount of money, then your productivity is your own. You can use it for a better life or more money.

I guess this is why I contract. I happen to think my pay should be directly linked to the value I create, rather than an arbitrary amount based on how much it costs me to live, and how long it takes me to find work.

Re: Working From Home is Like Saying No to Drugs

#84

Post by webmonks » Wed, Mar 20, 2013, 3:17 PM UTC

themckman wrote: post #3

I don't know if I get more or less done when I work from home, but I do know that when I have down time at home, I find myself doing things I needed to do anyways (e.g. laundry, dishes, etc.) and that makes me feel better. While at work, I end up reading a bunch of Hacker News articles I don't really care about just because I'm stuck or bored. I also find myself working a little later when at home since I don't need…

Kevin Purdy has written a nice article on working from home... http://www.fastcompany.com/1806307/how-work-home-you-mean-it