3 ms·

if there is local issue stopping work(no electricity for example) That seems like a better case than the same issue stopping work at the office so instead of o

if there is local issue stopping work(no electricity for example) That seems like a better case than the same issue stopping work at the office so instead of one person out of commission, there's 100 people out of commission and even though they can all go home and work it's basically going to shut down work for an hour or so as they all pack up and head home. Our office has a generator, but it only powers some lights and elevators, the network goes offline after about 20 minutes when the UPS batteries run out. So it doesn't seem like much of an argument against remote work.

wtracy 7y ago
I think the implication is that if an issue blocks work in the workplace, management tends to notice and intervene. This could be by directing people to assist in resolving the issue faster, or by assigning another task not impacted by the issue. ("If you can't finish your bug fix because the test server is down, you can work on documentation instead.") There's fewer opportunities for that to happen with remote work.
- Johnny555 7y ago
  There aren't really many failures of my home office that can't be solved with a 10 minute drive to Starbucks or my local library. Except a regional power failure or a disaster like an earthquake, but the office building would be struck by the same failure. But when 100 people at the office lose internet and are sent home, they can't all converge on Starbucks across the street.
  - wtracy 7y ago
    Okay, think less "my home internet connection went down" and more "the build server fell over" or "I need confirmation from Bob and he's not responding on Slack." It's a learning-to-work-without-direct-supervision problem, not a technical problem. Also since you raised the issue: keep in mind that some people simply don't have internet infrastructure at home that's prepared for this kind of use. Think of rural DSL lines or satellite internet. (Some old, poorly maintained phone lines drop DSL packets like crazy whenever it rains. Don't ask me why.) Or someone who has a teenager that plays Fortnite and who doesn't know how to implement traffic shaping on their home network. :-)
ajdlinux 7y ago
I'm a fire warden in my office that doesn't have a generator, and if the power goes out for more than about an hour or so, the building chief warden is authorised to direct an evacuation to get people out before we lose emergency lighting. In any case, at least in the Western world, at reasonably well run companies, infrastructure issues and other major obstructions to the entire team getting work done isn't really a problem for more than a few hours a year? I hope GP has better examples to illustrate this point. (And anyway, here I am, sitting in the office, wasting time commenting on HN instead of doing work. It's not like workers in the office are always 100% focused.)
handojin 7y ago
Well... your perspective is valid but not comprehensive. On the lawn of the building are two rather industrial sized generators. When the power goes out, they go on and they keep going. I don't work at a startup. Nor do I work at 3M. There's a lot of space in between. That space is where a lot of the world works. YMMV.
- Johnny555 7y ago
  Yes, I'm sure there are some, maybe many offices that have redundant power, but I've worked for 20 person companies and 20,000 person companies, and they all sent people home when the power went out. Even when I briefly worked in a colocation center, I got sent home during a regional power failure as they wanted to give my desk to a large customer that needed a place to work from to keep their business running. At one company, I was in charge of IT and finally got signoff to run emergency power from the generator to the data center and IDF's to keep the network online in a power failure. Facilities put an end to that plan when they said that without HVAC, the building would quickly become uninhabitable in the summer or winter. We ended up powering the main datacenter to keep servers online, but not the rest of the network.
DocG 7y ago
This is mentality issue, what we found when we dropped some people into remote work. They didn't link themselves up that they are now responsible for their workplace and not employer. It is solvable, with active management and active workers, but these are the things we found that needed to be addressed.

wtracy 7y ago

I think the implication is that if an issue blocks work in the workplace, management tends to notice and intervene. This could be by directing people to assist in resolving the issue faster, or by assigning another task not impacted by the issue. ("If you can't finish your bug fix because the test server is down, you can work on documentation instead.") There's fewer opportunities for that to happen with remote work.

Johnny555 7y ago
There aren't really many failures of my home office that can't be solved with a 10 minute drive to Starbucks or my local library. Except a regional power failure or a disaster like an earthquake, but the office building would be struck by the same failure. But when 100 people at the office lose internet and are sent home, they can't all converge on Starbucks across the street.
- wtracy 7y ago
  Okay, think less "my home internet connection went down" and more "the build server fell over" or "I need confirmation from Bob and he's not responding on Slack." It's a learning-to-work-without-direct-supervision problem, not a technical problem. Also since you raised the issue: keep in mind that some people simply don't have internet infrastructure at home that's prepared for this kind of use. Think of rural DSL lines or satellite internet. (Some old, poorly maintained phone lines drop DSL packets like crazy whenever it rains. Don't ask me why.) Or someone who has a teenager that plays Fortnite and who doesn't know how to implement traffic shaping on their home network. :-)

ajdlinux 7y ago

I'm a fire warden in my office that doesn't have a generator, and if the power goes out for more than about an hour or so, the building chief warden is authorised to direct an evacuation to get people out before we lose emergency lighting. In any case, at least in the Western world, at reasonably well run companies, infrastructure issues and other major obstructions to the entire team getting work done isn't really a problem for more than a few hours a year? I hope GP has better examples to illustrate this point. (And anyway, here I am, sitting in the office, wasting time commenting on HN instead of doing work. It's not like workers in the office are always 100% focused.)

handojin 7y ago

Well... your perspective is valid but not comprehensive. On the lawn of the building are two rather industrial sized generators. When the power goes out, they go on and they keep going. I don't work at a startup. Nor do I work at 3M. There's a lot of space in between. That space is where a lot of the world works. YMMV.

Johnny555 7y ago
Yes, I'm sure there are some, maybe many offices that have redundant power, but I've worked for 20 person companies and 20,000 person companies, and they all sent people home when the power went out. Even when I briefly worked in a colocation center, I got sent home during a regional power failure as they wanted to give my desk to a large customer that needed a place to work from to keep their business running. At one company, I was in charge of IT and finally got signoff to run emergency power from the generator to the data center and IDF's to keep the network online in a power failure. Facilities put an end to that plan when they said that without HVAC, the building would quickly become uninhabitable in the summer or winter. We ended up powering the main datacenter to keep servers online, but not the rest of the network.

DocG 7y ago

This is mentality issue, what we found when we dropped some people into remote work. They didn't link themselves up that they are now responsible for their workplace and not employer. It is solvable, with active management and active workers, but these are the things we found that needed to be addressed.