Working Remotely vs at the Office: Informal Thoughts

Some informal thoughts on working remotely versus at the office. What are your thoughts on this issue?

------
FREE NEWSLETTER

PODCAST

SOCIAL & WEB
------

[dozaarchives]

Mike, good stuff as always.  However, I'm not sure I'd agree with all of your points.  I do want to list some thoughts I had and share an anecdote:

1.  Groupthink and (generally speaking) the marginalization of new ideas seems to be less of an issue over Zoom and WFH overall.  In large meetings people tend to talk over everyone, while zoom people tend to let others finish before joining in.  Collaboration isn't done at the water cooler by "clicks", but rather online chats or zoom where personal relationships and like thinkers have less of an impact. Additionally,  in general terms, communication is more efficient remotely - meetings are shorter,  check-ins faster, and more preparation is done before the meeting rather than in it.  I understand this seems counter intuitive. (i haven't even touched on impromptu desk meetings, the bane of any software developer)
2. Worker productivity is at an all time high.  Granted this is due to a multitude of factors, but one of which is definitely flexible working hours and the ability to work from home.
3. Several studies indicate that people who work from home actually work more hours total then do people who work in the office full time.  I can speak for this myself.  (citations can be provided)
4. A happy worker is a better worker.  
5. I think the concept of "facetime" is very dated, and has since been replaced by more goal oriented objectives.  It also puts more accountability and responsibility on the employee to reach their goals,  and gives them more control to do so.  Rather than "just show up", I'll look over your shoulder to make sure you "do it my way".   Office facetime doesn't equal productivity, effort or value.

Reminds me of a story in my last full time position.  There was an employee who worked next to me who was approximately early Gen X age, and was very old school as far as working hours.  He went great lengths to be the first one in and worked until close, sometimes arriving at 6:30 am and leaving pretty late.  He'd let you know it too, often remarking on slack on how he had to turn on the lights when he came in or how he had to clean the coffee maker.  He never called in sick,  and always attended meetings (never really participated in them though).    
When Covid hit we all moved to a WFH schedule, and we rarely heard from him.  He was eventually let go in mid 2020, and never finished the project he was hired to do after working there for nearly 3 years.

I could go on here, but it's dinner and I cooked a mean chicken tikka masala, something I could not do on a Monday if I had to endure a one hour commute.

[TheWheeeeee]

1. Working from home is allowing to have time with their families that they never had before.

2. Working from home allows for more flexibility for the worker in terms of time saved on a daily basis.

3. Maybe your workplace is crazy toxic where sexual harassment or bullying in general was common.

4. Many companies want to bring people back to the office purely to avoid making a lot of managerial positions redundant, and they are scared.

5. Many companies have hard investments in real estate and buildings which are now sitting empty, if everybody haul their bodies back to the office the asset price of commercial real estate could collapse.

6. Forcing people back to the office for high performing people working at home is pointless and quite possibly damaging to the company, as you will have an angry employee whose work will suffer and will likely will work elsewhere.

7. The people who tend to want to go back to the office tend to be people with low technology comprehension, the conversion to working from home for many Millennials was easy, but insanely difficult for the older generation.

8. When it comes to creating wealth for the company and working at home not being possible... in my case.. Software Developer so I know your incorrect. I constantly am making feature sets for software that I know are billed out 20X my salary.

9. The company for years have cycled through people constantly, they would fire and hire people constantly. They would fire you without notice and chop off all your accounts, lock your laptop, grab your belongings so you can't do supposed damage. Benefits were always getting cut, and companies are not willing to pay a livable wage to the younger generation while they listen to soap boxing boomers about back in the day.

I apologize, but this came across like every single older employee management meeting that I have attended, and it always comes from people with the absolute peak of privilege. Companies think they can buy your body and soul, and take you away from family and friends for a pittance. Don't get frustrated when the younger generation doesn't fall for the same thing you may have, they can longer afford the core assets you have and could afford in your youth with the average wages that are available in most industries.

[prhasn]

I am against all the crazy policies and the previous "new normal" narrative. However, having been working remotely for a few years, it is indeed more efficient. Despite having to travel for meetings every now and then, it is much better than a daily commute. As for the transactional aspect it depends. Most freelancing can be transactional yes, but when it is about managing transformational project it is probably similar to working in the office with a high engagment level.

[JohnPaulHerold]

Appreciate your thoughts. I too value in-person collaboration, enjoy remote work now for many of the stated reasons in comments, and do think there is something fantastic about flexible workplace policies where you can do both. Sounds like you agree, just emphasizing the value of in-person transformational as a requirement in the mix? I would argue that remote can facilitate both transactional and transformational work, it does not negate entirely the latter. Simply, transformational work has it's own spectrum of work within. Example:
- A developer working on adding new functionality to an important feature linked directly to increased revenue should be able to work however they'd like, ideally with as few context switches as possible. Remote works great here and I'd consider the work transformational.
- Same developer collaborating with team and customer around the architecture or acceptance criteria of a solution needed by an important feature linked directly to increased business value could be both remote or in-person. In-person often is phenomenal if financially and logistically possible, but remote can substitute (or be default) with a distributed workforce beyond single timezone. Whether in-person or remote, I'd also consider the work transformational.


Last thought, instead of focusing remote vs in-office, or transformational vs transactional, I try to focus on balance of synchronous vs asynchronous work in all locations. Good reading in the above handbook about the concept.

[d_lourenzo]

I'm a 100% remote consultant in TECH, I would quit if I was ask to come into office. Some people are just more productive when not around the chit chatting and office politics.

[davefischer]

Remote work > Office hands down lol, screw the traffic, and no you do get out, you have the time now to do it because you aren’t stuck in a building all day and you can have more meaningful interactions with people when you are out on your off time from work 😂 you can literally work efficiently and faster as well. 7:23 I mean you can be transformational lol, you just have to be aware of both things.

[JMS]

It is not just one way, because we are here and we can comment. :)

Nothing can replace some human interactions like a hug or a handshake, thanks God. But they demand some effort, even if sometimes minimum (but not so minimum nowadays when it demands time, which is more and more what we don't want to give).
That said, I think there could some compromise somewhere in some of the issues. Offices shouldn't be ugly for example even if they won't be home, there shouldn't be 60 hours spent on the office, etc. Working from home can be ugly to, there's sometimes a lot of time spent in unmeaningful remote meetings and also sometimes time becomes hard to manage, etc.
So, there are good things about remote working and good things about working in person. Both in a good might be the best to aim to.
When in doubt though, I would say in person work is usually the best, with greatest accomplishments.

[ashtaroth]

I'm gen x Also and i think i don't need to go to the Office too. I'm more productive at home than at the Office.

[prhasn]

Btw, try to upload on Odysee too. It can be automated to have your videos synced their automatically.

[NikolaGluvakov]

It's called a monologue or a speech. It's not a conversation.