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> I don't think the fact that humans are social animals needs a citation. Humans can (and should) get their social needs met anywhere, not only at their place

> I don't think the fact that humans are social animals needs a citation. Humans can (and should) get their social needs met anywhere, not only at their place of employment. I've worked both onsite and remote throughout my career. I'd never advocate for forced remote work (because some people want to get their social needs met through their employer). Rather, I'd argue that it should be considered as an option.

minwcnt5 7y ago
For me it's not just about having social needs met, it's also that for a lot of engineering work in-person collaboration is crucial. Serendipitous interactions are important. Passionate discussions involving emotion and empathy are important. Being able to easily grab a co-worker's attention for a minute to show them something on your screen or sketch an idea out on a whiteboard is important. You can technically make some of these things to happen remotely using technology, but in practice, there's just too much friction, and these sorts of interactions don't happen. I agree that not all roles require this sort of thing. There are employees who can come to the office, work 8 hours, and go home, all without speaking a word to another person. There are probably thousands of employees at Google who could probably be just as effective working remotely. That said, having worked there, I think that's not true for the vast majority of SWE work.
- slavapestov 7y ago
  When I worked at an open office in Google, a good fraction of the people had headphones on most of the day. While there was some serendipitous discussion, much of the time we'd book meeting rooms, specifically to avoid distracting those around us.
  - orangecat 7y ago
    Open plan offices are indeed terrible, but that doesn't contradict the benefit of face-to-face communication. For me the best environment has been a large team office with 4-8 people, where everyone has a decent amount of personal space and spontaneous discussions are more likely to be relevant.

minwcnt5 7y ago

For me it's not just about having social needs met, it's also that for a lot of engineering work in-person collaboration is crucial. Serendipitous interactions are important. Passionate discussions involving emotion and empathy are important. Being able to easily grab a co-worker's attention for a minute to show them something on your screen or sketch an idea out on a whiteboard is important. You can technically make some of these things to happen remotely using technology, but in practice, there's just too much friction, and these sorts of interactions don't happen. I agree that not all roles require this sort of thing. There are employees who can come to the office, work 8 hours, and go home, all without speaking a word to another person. There are probably thousands of employees at Google who could probably be just as effective working remotely. That said, having worked there, I think that's not true for the vast majority of SWE work.

slavapestov 7y ago
When I worked at an open office in Google, a good fraction of the people had headphones on most of the day. While there was some serendipitous discussion, much of the time we'd book meeting rooms, specifically to avoid distracting those around us.
- orangecat 7y ago
  Open plan offices are indeed terrible, but that doesn't contradict the benefit of face-to-face communication. For me the best environment has been a large team office with 4-8 people, where everyone has a decent amount of personal space and spontaneous discussions are more likely to be relevant.