Remote Work LOST Here Is The Numbers

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By: Jennifer Collins

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[FordHenley]

I drive an 1hr 1/2 to work to sit in an office by myself. I'm basically a remote commuter.

[danielcalvo]

"Remote work failed" says Prime, working from home.

[creighton]

My biggest problem with an office workplace is the commute. That’s 2 to 3 hours where you can’t do anything. You’re stressed, have bad emotions about a traffic jam, and you don’t get paid for your commute or get to count it as work time. It’s lost lifetime, and you don’t get anything back for it. Sure, you can listen to music, a podcast, or an audiobook, but the way home can ruin your day more than anything else.

[patricklong]

Return to office would be a deal breaker for me, no lie

[Shamaroth]

I think Prime is missing the fact that some people never leave High School and bring those tendencies to the workplace. I've been at a workplace where clique formation and even outright bullying was a real problem, in which case someone who wasn't in the "in-group" probably would feel more "included" if they were allowed to be remote and weren't experiencing those constant non-verbal rejections we all expected to leave behind in our teens.

Not to mention if your team is already composed of people working in other global locations, your day is already 100% video meetings. That must feel like its own layer of hell, having to commute 90 minutes into a noisy open-plan office just to have zoom meetings with people in other cities.

[TheFrankyboy]

I will never return to full time WFO. It's too distracting, it's a waste of time commuting, hot desks suck and lack my preffered periphals and comforts, meetings run longer in person and have greater spinup/spindown time, lunches ABSOLUTELY run longer when you're with colleagues, there's catchups and social stuff and pingpong and guest speakers and on and on and on....

Fuck all that noise. I'm a better worker with less distractions working from my home. If you want social connections get it down at the pub with your mates after work, I'm not here to hang out and contribute to some ephemeral concept like "WORK CULTURE".

[---...---...---...---...]

Most office environments are productivity killers, too much noise and too many interruptions, not to mention temperature issues resulting in some people sweating and some freezing.

[kuakilyissombroguwi]

Corporate propaganda, period. Developer surveys left and right always indicate the vast majority of developers prefer to work remotely.

[bkucenski]

I'll compromise. If a boss demands I come into my office, then the work day begins when I leave my house and I'll use Google Maps to be home 8 hours later.

[adambickford]

Prime can't accept that his 'collaboration' argument is entirely an extrovert take. Having people interrupt my flow with their 'advice' is a NEGATIVE.

WFH is great because merit takes center stage over politics and schmoozing.

[joeylockie]

Never going to work at an office again, I do more work at home

[marty]

There have been several studies over the years specifically A/B testing companies for remote work. Most studies find that remote work is more productive for experienced workers, but more challenging for junior employees.

Common findings also show that collaboration in office generates more ideas, but less actionable/good ones, where as remote work generates less ideas, but usually results in a more actionable / realistic path forward.

[theondono]

You can totally recreate spontaneous meetings remotely, just videcall a colleague with no specific topic to be covered, open a beer, and freaking talk.

There’s nothing magic about the watercooler, people are just afraid to have to tell their managers they’re having a friendly conversation over a call.

[HumanAction]

The worse part of RTO is the commute. Waste of time, I arrive aggravated, and it takes chunk of time at start and end of the day to either get over the commute or preparing for the commute. Not to mention the added cost of commuting is an instant pay-cut.

[tsajmbh]

"bad manager" and "work life balance" is a meaningless comparison. It's a matter of degree.

[Griffolion]

I love how Prime looks at data showing something that he doesn't ideologically align with and just says "yeah no shot on that".

[svjness]

L take.

Everything you are mentioning as positives are things that only an extroverted people-person looks forward to. I have social anxiety, and interacting with people is incredibly draining.

The cube mate frustration example you gave was my living hell. The guy sitting in my area used to just huff and puff and cuss at his screen and angry type and it'd just make me feel anxious and aggressive. And of course, I'd feel obligated to ask him "what's wrong" to get him to be in any state other than the one he was in. And of course, he'd just gripe for 30 min about something that he disliked, and wouldn't be receptive to any advice or help.

Also, I'm not sitting in Austin traffic for 2 hours each day to drive 6 miles to an office where we just zoom meetings. That's unnecessary pollution for the drive, unnecessary addition to traffic, unnecessary strain on public services (I saw a wreck literally every day), unnecessary cost for the business for the office space that constantly uses energy, and whatever charm this town used to have has been pushed out by more office buildings that aren't needed.

I don't need more collaboration. I need to be able to work without being interrupted, and no context shifting.

Luv u still.
Senior SRE been doin the thang since 2013.
Arch user BTW

[ErazerPT]

The "feel more included in remote" is easy to explain. It's when you are EXCLUDED in office. By others or self-excluded. Remote is less taxing on the "fits in"/"doesn't fit in" part of things.
Anyway, hybrid is the most likely long term. But there's LOTS of "if's". I can go hybrid no sweat, it's a 30m subway trip. But i have colleagues that are 3h away. I'm single. But many have kids. Etc etc etc... Too many variables to have a "one size fits all" approach to it.

[paegr]

>despite WFH increasing performance and costing less, it gives the managers anxiety
So that's why they want to get rid of it

[nickmaxx]

"In person is better, it just is, I can't quantify it but I'm confident in it" - Prime

Sounds like the same logic that executive leadership uses to justify RTO as well....