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My company is privately owned and the sole investor is anti-work-from-home, his firm is always sending us emails about how we're supposed to be a family and whe

My company is privately owned and the sole investor is anti-work-from-home, his firm is always sending us emails about how we're supposed to be a family and when you work from home you aren't part of the family. Every 1-2 weeks someone leaves and cites the policy as the sole reason (~130 people work here total). We just got a reminder that while we're supposed to be careful about the virus, sick time will count against PTO and working from home is still banned. I'm leaving in a few weeks and I'm very excited to watch this guy keep losing money.

brianwawok 7y ago
Hopefully the WfH grass is greener for you! In my experience WfH companies have employees that are checked out, and collaboration is much more rare. I think if WfH was really better, companies like Google and Apple would have different policies. Real estate in Cali ain’t cheap!
- gamblor956 7y ago
  Why does it matter if collaboration is rare if the work still gets done? Google does allow some level of remote work. Apple does not, largely for security reasons. Many law and accounting firms have embraced work-from-home policies despite their work involving significantly more collaboration than programming does.
  - brianwawok 7y ago
    Is the job of a company of 100 developers for 100 developers to grind out features in a silo? Or for them to collaborate and create something greater than any one can? I am not saying WFH cannot work. I did a year solo when starting my startup. But I have been a part of a lot of full remote teams, and I did not want to run my team like that. Most developers claim WFH is better and companies win if they do it. Cool. So the market should prove out that the companies that do WFH would win over the companies that require butt in office. So far I do not see this result. For the same reason outsourcing doesn't work great for innovation, WFH is real real hard to innovate. Totally prove me wrong though. Start your own company, work remote, and kill it. I love the idea. It's great for the environment. It's just not how I choose to run my company, nor do I see many other highly successful companies doing it. (Allow WFH once in a while, sure. But apply to Google and ask if you can work 100% remote).
- richard78459 7y ago
  Our company experimented for 4 months and found productivity is much higher and the only people who were unhappy were the managers. Our CEO jokingly said while the devs have become more productive after about 3 weeks he had no idea what managers were doing. Except managers everyone was laughing pretty hard. In my experience working in about 4 companies managers are the gatekeepers for not allowing WFH.
  - brianwawok 7y ago
    In my experience the short term is a great boost as it improves morale, but over the long term the lack of team spirit and the innovation factors go down. But if you guys started in person, that means you all live close. Do you meet up once a week or so? That might be enough to bend the curve to successful.

brianwawok 7y ago

Hopefully the WfH grass is greener for you! In my experience WfH companies have employees that are checked out, and collaboration is much more rare. I think if WfH was really better, companies like Google and Apple would have different policies. Real estate in Cali ain’t cheap!

gamblor956 7y ago
Why does it matter if collaboration is rare if the work still gets done? Google does allow some level of remote work. Apple does not, largely for security reasons. Many law and accounting firms have embraced work-from-home policies despite their work involving significantly more collaboration than programming does.
- brianwawok 7y ago
  Is the job of a company of 100 developers for 100 developers to grind out features in a silo? Or for them to collaborate and create something greater than any one can? I am not saying WFH cannot work. I did a year solo when starting my startup. But I have been a part of a lot of full remote teams, and I did not want to run my team like that. Most developers claim WFH is better and companies win if they do it. Cool. So the market should prove out that the companies that do WFH would win over the companies that require butt in office. So far I do not see this result. For the same reason outsourcing doesn't work great for innovation, WFH is real real hard to innovate. Totally prove me wrong though. Start your own company, work remote, and kill it. I love the idea. It's great for the environment. It's just not how I choose to run my company, nor do I see many other highly successful companies doing it. (Allow WFH once in a while, sure. But apply to Google and ask if you can work 100% remote).
richard78459 7y ago
Our company experimented for 4 months and found productivity is much higher and the only people who were unhappy were the managers. Our CEO jokingly said while the devs have become more productive after about 3 weeks he had no idea what managers were doing. Except managers everyone was laughing pretty hard. In my experience working in about 4 companies managers are the gatekeepers for not allowing WFH.
- brianwawok 7y ago
  In my experience the short term is a great boost as it improves morale, but over the long term the lack of team spirit and the innovation factors go down. But if you guys started in person, that means you all live close. Do you meet up once a week or so? That might be enough to bend the curve to successful.