6 ms·

To play devil's advocate: - no routine that gets you going - less time with your friends and colleagues - less team lunches/nice dinners - getting dressed c

by lukasm 11y ago

To play devil's advocate: - no routine that gets you going - less time with your friends and colleagues - less team lunches/nice dinners - getting dressed can help you mentally make the switch to start your workday and can translate into higher productivity - you have to spent money for office equipment - more interruptions (you are at home, surely you can do x) - you have more sick days, since kids are bags of disease - no eureka moments after water cooler chats - extra cost PS I'm a fan of remote work

true_religion 11y ago
I'm a fan of remote work too, and your devil's advocates list is pretty much an example of remote-work gone wrong. It's happened to me, and I found that I needed to: - Have a routine, or else one day blends too seamlessly into the other - Always go out with my friends on the weekend - Make good food (Blue Apron was a huge help in this respect) - Get dressed & do it well to make the context switch to being at work - Set it you up so if i'm at work, I only do work things and not other chores As for the rest, happily I don't yet have to worry about kids and my only office equipment has always been my computer.
- StavrosK 11y ago
  I agree with you, but you surely agree that the two main disadvantages are lack of time with your coworkers (many of whom have become friends). I would say "more interruptions" too, but the office has its own interruptions (someone walks by your desk and starts chatting), which may be even more than home.
  - tonyarkles 11y ago
    Maybe this is because I'm in my 30s, or because I'm an introvert, but I don't particularly want to spend a bunch of time with work people; I want to get work done at work, and whether we're in the same room or on Slack or whatever, I still feel like I'm accomplishing a shared goal with other people. And after work, I have plenty of friends that I don't spend all day working with. I'd rather get supper with a friend I haven't seen in a while, rather than spending more time with the people I already spent the day with. Lunch? It's really great to break up the work day by taking my dogs for a walk. And I do totally agree about coworkers becoming friends. Most of the people I consider my closest friends are either old classmates or old coworkers. I generally do remote contract work, but currently have a local gig for 1-2 days/week. There are undoubtedly more interruptions at the office, but fewer temptations (e.g. turning off the clock and having a nap). I dramatically prefer the home office environment though, most of all the fact that I can work with my own flow. If I'm feeling foggy after lunch, I'll totally have a nap and work a little in the evening to make it up. Or work a 16 hour day and sleep in tomorrow. Or whatever works best that day.
    - kayoone 11y ago
      If you are post college and move to another city, naturally people at work you connect well with will eventually become friends. I am kind of an introvert too and since i spend most of my freetime with my girlfriend it is hard to meet new people outside of work and spend so much time with them so they become real friends. But isn't it the same as in college or school ? Most of your friends are people you spend considerable time with and that is often work/school/studying.
cballard 11y ago
I guess to counter Satan's views... - no routine that gets you going Well, you still shower in the morning, right? And eat breakfast? With the commute time eliminated, you could add the gym to the morning routine, if there's one you can walk to in a few minutes, or failing that, some bodyweight exercise or yoga videos. The only time I'd see this as a downside would be if you bike to work, but you could just go bike for that amount of time if you want, just ending up at home. - less time with your friends and colleagues Seems like this should be "more time with your friends, less time with your colleagues"? Unless your friends happen to live near where you work and you can meet up easier afterwards. Very situational. - less team lunches/nice dinners I guess on the lunches, but you shouldn't be having dinner with your colleagues anyways, since you shouldn't be at work at dinner time. Also, working remotely allows you to make more nice dinners, because you can take 5 minutes to do some minor prep that requires the ingredients to rest afterwards - allow dough to rise, marinate things, etc. If the company is spending money on nice dinners, I would prefer to receive the cost as additional salary - that applies to beer fridges and ping-pong tables as well, is this a frat house or a serious engineering company? - getting dressed can help you mentally make the switch to start your workday and can translate into higher productivity Well, you can still do that if you want to. I usually dress better on weekends because the office is kept at what seems to be 80°, so it's impossible to wear my sport jackets or sweaters in the winter <_< - you have to spent money for office equipment Much less than the commuting costs anyways, assuming you already have the computer and you're just using a little paper for sketching. They probably provide a computer anyways, so you're just looking at paper and pens? - you have more sick days, since kids are bags of disease Well, that only applies to people with children. - no eureka moments after water cooler chats I find it much more likely that someone else's chat will destroy my flow, although that problem is fixed by providing private offices with doors that close. However, I work on a team where I am solely responsible for my piece of software, so YMMV in larger teams with more direct code collaboration. (I used to work remotely. I don't anymore. When I leave this job, that will hopefully flip back!)
- schwap 11y ago
  > Seems like this should be "more time with your friends, less time with your colleagues"? Unless your friends happen to live near where you work and you can meet up easier afterwards. Very situational. > but you shouldn't be having dinner with your colleagues anyways, since you shouldn't be at work at dinner time. You've never become friends with any of your co-workers? I mean I've worked places where we've gone out for dinner on our own dime after work simply because we enjoy spending time with each other.
junto 11y ago
I'm a remote worker, but I rent a desk just around the corner from my house (5 minutes by bicycle). I get the best of both worlds. I still get the important social effects of working in an office space, but I do it on my terms and without the long commute. For the usual day in day out coding, I think that this should be the future of workplaces. People who work together have little need to be in the same physical location these days.
- cableshaft 11y ago
  I seriously think instead of centralized office space there should just be a bunch of coworking spaces. You pick one that's convenient for you, and your employer subsidizes it instead of paying for the giant office space for you to come in to work. But I think part of the problem is that giant office space is psychologically useful when you're bringing in potential clients for business (or judging how successful of a company you are). The managers want an office full of busy worker bees so they can show off their workspace to clients and the world. Even small startups are guilty of this, although usually they want to show their workplace off as being cool and having fun things like game consoles, ping pong tables, and bean bag chairs. Basically we need a different way for managers to show off. Maybe they can just create some giant park with amazing sculptures as they grow to show off how impressive they are. Maybe have a single conference room in the center of a hedge maze for when those important clients come visit the office.
  - nickpsecurity 11y ago
    "Basically we need a different way for managers to show off. Maybe they can just create some giant park with amazing sculptures as they grow to show off how impressive they are. Maybe have a single conference room in the center of a hedge maze for when those important clients come visit the office." I couldn't help laughing imagining this one. Thanks for that. "Over there are the computers connecting our 2,000 strong workforce around the world. Over here is a sculpture I made of them out of GI Joe's and Lego's. It took nearly 7 hours of an 8 hour workday for several months straight to build this. Next year, I'm going to re-do it in Minecraft and display it on a wall-sized TV in the lobby." "Wow. That's really impressive productivity you people have over here. We'll buy your mainframe. Or was it a cloud? Bah, send us the invoice to our new Gmail account as the Yahoo Mail one you have on file was deleted after Microsoft's acquisition of it."
tradersam 11y ago
On the routine point, you only don't have one if you don't make one. Having breakfast or a run at a set time every morning is a simple way to get your brain going.
hobarrera 11y ago
> getting dressed can help you mentally make the switch to start your workday and can translate into higher productivity My gf works from home too (and self-employeed) and does exactly this to get started. It can make the context-switch much more evident, and creates a larger mental barrier between work and not-work time.

by lukasm 11y ago

true_religion 11y ago

I'm a fan of remote work too, and your devil's advocates list is pretty much an example of remote-work gone wrong. It's happened to me, and I found that I needed to: - Have a routine, or else one day blends too seamlessly into the other - Always go out with my friends on the weekend - Make good food (Blue Apron was a huge help in this respect) - Get dressed & do it well to make the context switch to being at work - Set it you up so if i'm at work, I only do work things and not other chores As for the rest, happily I don't yet have to worry about kids and my only office equipment has always been my computer.

StavrosK 11y ago
I agree with you, but you surely agree that the two main disadvantages are lack of time with your coworkers (many of whom have become friends). I would say "more interruptions" too, but the office has its own interruptions (someone walks by your desk and starts chatting), which may be even more than home.
- tonyarkles 11y ago
  Maybe this is because I'm in my 30s, or because I'm an introvert, but I don't particularly want to spend a bunch of time with work people; I want to get work done at work, and whether we're in the same room or on Slack or whatever, I still feel like I'm accomplishing a shared goal with other people. And after work, I have plenty of friends that I don't spend all day working with. I'd rather get supper with a friend I haven't seen in a while, rather than spending more time with the people I already spent the day with. Lunch? It's really great to break up the work day by taking my dogs for a walk. And I do totally agree about coworkers becoming friends. Most of the people I consider my closest friends are either old classmates or old coworkers. I generally do remote contract work, but currently have a local gig for 1-2 days/week. There are undoubtedly more interruptions at the office, but fewer temptations (e.g. turning off the clock and having a nap). I dramatically prefer the home office environment though, most of all the fact that I can work with my own flow. If I'm feeling foggy after lunch, I'll totally have a nap and work a little in the evening to make it up. Or work a 16 hour day and sleep in tomorrow. Or whatever works best that day.
  - kayoone 11y ago
    If you are post college and move to another city, naturally people at work you connect well with will eventually become friends. I am kind of an introvert too and since i spend most of my freetime with my girlfriend it is hard to meet new people outside of work and spend so much time with them so they become real friends. But isn't it the same as in college or school ? Most of your friends are people you spend considerable time with and that is often work/school/studying.

cballard 11y ago

I guess to counter Satan's views... - no routine that gets you going Well, you still shower in the morning, right? And eat breakfast? With the commute time eliminated, you could add the gym to the morning routine, if there's one you can walk to in a few minutes, or failing that, some bodyweight exercise or yoga videos. The only time I'd see this as a downside would be if you bike to work, but you could just go bike for that amount of time if you want, just ending up at home. - less time with your friends and colleagues Seems like this should be "more time with your friends, less time with your colleagues"? Unless your friends happen to live near where you work and you can meet up easier afterwards. Very situational. - less team lunches/nice dinners I guess on the lunches, but you shouldn't be having dinner with your colleagues anyways, since you shouldn't be at work at dinner time. Also, working remotely allows you to make more nice dinners, because you can take 5 minutes to do some minor prep that requires the ingredients to rest afterwards - allow dough to rise, marinate things, etc. If the company is spending money on nice dinners, I would prefer to receive the cost as additional salary - that applies to beer fridges and ping-pong tables as well, is this a frat house or a serious engineering company? - getting dressed can help you mentally make the switch to start your workday and can translate into higher productivity Well, you can still do that if you want to. I usually dress better on weekends because the office is kept at what seems to be 80°, so it's impossible to wear my sport jackets or sweaters in the winter <_< - you have to spent money for office equipment Much less than the commuting costs anyways, assuming you already have the computer and you're just using a little paper for sketching. They probably provide a computer anyways, so you're just looking at paper and pens? - you have more sick days, since kids are bags of disease Well, that only applies to people with children. - no eureka moments after water cooler chats I find it much more likely that someone else's chat will destroy my flow, although that problem is fixed by providing private offices with doors that close. However, I work on a team where I am solely responsible for my piece of software, so YMMV in larger teams with more direct code collaboration. (I used to work remotely. I don't anymore. When I leave this job, that will hopefully flip back!)

schwap 11y ago
> Seems like this should be "more time with your friends, less time with your colleagues"? Unless your friends happen to live near where you work and you can meet up easier afterwards. Very situational. > but you shouldn't be having dinner with your colleagues anyways, since you shouldn't be at work at dinner time. You've never become friends with any of your co-workers? I mean I've worked places where we've gone out for dinner on our own dime after work simply because we enjoy spending time with each other.

junto 11y ago

I'm a remote worker, but I rent a desk just around the corner from my house (5 minutes by bicycle). I get the best of both worlds. I still get the important social effects of working in an office space, but I do it on my terms and without the long commute. For the usual day in day out coding, I think that this should be the future of workplaces. People who work together have little need to be in the same physical location these days.

cableshaft 11y ago
I seriously think instead of centralized office space there should just be a bunch of coworking spaces. You pick one that's convenient for you, and your employer subsidizes it instead of paying for the giant office space for you to come in to work. But I think part of the problem is that giant office space is psychologically useful when you're bringing in potential clients for business (or judging how successful of a company you are). The managers want an office full of busy worker bees so they can show off their workspace to clients and the world. Even small startups are guilty of this, although usually they want to show their workplace off as being cool and having fun things like game consoles, ping pong tables, and bean bag chairs. Basically we need a different way for managers to show off. Maybe they can just create some giant park with amazing sculptures as they grow to show off how impressive they are. Maybe have a single conference room in the center of a hedge maze for when those important clients come visit the office.
- nickpsecurity 11y ago
  "Basically we need a different way for managers to show off. Maybe they can just create some giant park with amazing sculptures as they grow to show off how impressive they are. Maybe have a single conference room in the center of a hedge maze for when those important clients come visit the office." I couldn't help laughing imagining this one. Thanks for that. "Over there are the computers connecting our 2,000 strong workforce around the world. Over here is a sculpture I made of them out of GI Joe's and Lego's. It took nearly 7 hours of an 8 hour workday for several months straight to build this. Next year, I'm going to re-do it in Minecraft and display it on a wall-sized TV in the lobby." "Wow. That's really impressive productivity you people have over here. We'll buy your mainframe. Or was it a cloud? Bah, send us the invoice to our new Gmail account as the Yahoo Mail one you have on file was deleted after Microsoft's acquisition of it."

tradersam 11y ago

On the routine point, you only don't have one if you don't make one. Having breakfast or a run at a set time every morning is a simple way to get your brain going.

hobarrera 11y ago

> getting dressed can help you mentally make the switch to start your workday and can translate into higher productivity My gf works from home too (and self-employeed) and does exactly this to get started. It can make the context-switch much more evident, and creates a larger mental barrier between work and not-work time.