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I've always preferred working from home (couch, bed, or floor - I don't do tables and chairs) simply because programming was my hobby before it was my job, and

I've always preferred working from home (couch, bed, or floor - I don't do tables and chairs) simply because programming was my hobby before it was my job, and I always associated peak productivity with being able to be relaxed and enjoy my surroundings rather than feel like I need to put on a physical performance of working. My take on it is that people will adjust, and that the most productive environment is the one you're most familiar with. Many professions like sales, legal, and investment banking rely on putting on a professional "front" to make a good first impression. This is much harder to do when you're sitting on a couch at home and have a couple kids screaming in the background. IMHO this is a good thing, because the constant impression-management needed in these professions is a huge distraction from the actual substance of these jobs, and anything that punctures the impression-management bubble and forces people to deal with real human realities is an improvement. Already I'm seeing a big normalization of things like childcare, screaming toddlers, two-parent schedules, breastfeeding, and so on - this can't be shunted off as "woman's work" and relegated to the home anymore, when the home becomes the workplace and both parents generally need to trade off to make it work. Basically I think our society before coronavirus was broken and coronavirus lockdowns are simply forcing us to deal with the ways in which it was broken. The old society isn't going to last much longer, and it's better to deal with that and build a more resilient, more honest one than to try to preserve the rituals that many industries had developed in 75 years of peace.

dtech 7y ago
I'm very happy for you that you can work like that, but if I work in a bad posture like on a couch for an hour I will have back pain the rest of the day. Do it for a full working days and I will have pain for a week. I have always been prone to it but many more of my colleagues are developing similar problems after working from home for a few weeks without good setups.
- SuoDuanDao 7y ago
  Funny thing, working from home finally let me get a standing desk where it felt too conspicuous at the office. I don't have as much space in my living room any more, but I feel much better when that afternoon slump usually hits.
  - isoprophlex 7y ago
    I'll admit to hoarding before the lockdown started.... i rushed down and got the second to last standing desk from ikea
- nostrademons 7y ago
  I move a lot. My posture in general is terrible. I'm slouched in the corner of a couch right now, with my laptop on a half-lap, and when I worked in an office I would usually drape myself over the back of a high-backed chair and kneel on it. However, I don't stay in any one position for longer than about 15 minutes - after that I stand up, or shift to a different position, or swivel the chair around, or go lie down. Never had back pain or other joint problems other than tendonitis in my fingers. I've found that moving around and standing up every 15 minutes or so outweighs all the other shitty stuff I do to my body. Humans weren't made to sit still.
  - tasuki 7y ago
    I'm still young (35) and same - my posture is terrible, but it's different kind of terrible every 10 minutes. Also haven't had problems yet. The one thing I can't stand for even 2 minutes is the recommended "proper sitting" posture. 90 degrees here and 90 degrees there - impossible!
NikolaNovak 7y ago
That is impressive; I could not possibly work like that though :< 1. Never mind posturing, it's the posture - I get back and neck pain just thinking of working from a couch or floor :( 2. I like my multiple 27" monitors. Going back to just a single 14" feels like a huge productivity hit. 3. Same thing with proper keyboard + mouse, vs just a touchpad or even the trackpoint. So I'll agree that there's a lot of posturing and professional front in this and many professions; but even without that, I've always far far preferred my home office to either proper office, or working from living areas. ------------ The other aspects are more age dependent (though I believe so is the posture / back pain;). It helps to distinguish "working area" and "non-working area", triply so once you have family. There's a million things that I do better at when I'm "in the zone" - ingested the background, focused on the problem at hand. Distractions reset that counter - I love my kid, I love my wife, but there are aspects of my work that don't benefit from their presence :-). This is probably part of why my personal most productive times tended to be late at night when the world has settled down and distractions are at a minimum...
- ornornor 7y ago
  This is a problem I have too. I don’t have a home office so I have to work from the couch hunched over my laptop. It hurts. I’ve been doing it for a month. I get tingles in my pinkie after a couple hours they last for the day (ulnar nerve compression I think) I don’t know how to cope. I can’t take the time off and not work for another month, but I also don’t want to wear my body down and have pain all day every day. I hated working in my office because it’s open space and noisy but I’d love to go now that it’s deserted. I have two large displays there, a mouse, a keyboard.
  - rubber_duck 7y ago
    Unless you are super cash strapped you can get a second monitor, mouse and keyboard + some basic chair and desk for I'm guessing 300$ if you are resourceful. Buying used is risky now otherwise you could probably get even cheaper
    - kovac 7y ago
shrimp_emoji 7y ago
But laptop keyboards suck. D: And no multiple monitors?! How do you track the logic of an async call that sends shit across five different files in this n-tier architecture webapp and see the app update in real time and see what your coworkers are saying??? Also, >The old society isn't going to last much longer, I seriously hope you're right. I'm cynical to how sweeping or durable the changes that corona catalyzed will be, but I can hope.
- jdnenej 7y ago
  I'm surprised so many people here don't have a desk/keyboard/mouse/multi monitor at home as well. I thought that was a pretty common setup.
  - ChuckNorris89 7y ago
    Because most office workers outside of hardcore techies have no need for full-on computers at home since they can have most of their on-line needs met on mobile devices which can be used one handed on the couch, bed, kitchen, etc. so it makes no sense for them in investing in furniture and peripherals that will stay unused.
    - arvinsim 7y ago
      But surely some of those equipment(monitor, mouse, keyboard) can be brought home from the office.
harisund 7y ago
This is actually a bad example, in that "cloud, bed, floor" aren't really productive environments for most people. That said, I also disagree with the parent poster. Yes, there are things we take for granted , but with a little thought we can replicate the surroundings at home too. Of course, if you are productive only when surrounded when people who are always talking, that's a different story. In my office, everyone around me in open cubicles is always on a call with someone. Some personal, some team mates in a different geo. The only time I do real work is when I take WFH
dTal 7y ago
>Basically I think our society before coronavirus was broken and coronavirus lockdowns are simply forcing us to deal with the ways in which it was broken. The old society isn't going to last much longer, and it's better to deal with that and build a more resilient, more honest one than to try to preserve the [old] rituals I think this point is much broader and meatier than the rest of the discussion, and will be the defining cultural consensus coming out of this whole mess. The virus seems to have a peculiar way of highlighting our sins in a grimly ironic, almost poetic way.

dtech 7y ago

I'm very happy for you that you can work like that, but if I work in a bad posture like on a couch for an hour I will have back pain the rest of the day. Do it for a full working days and I will have pain for a week. I have always been prone to it but many more of my colleagues are developing similar problems after working from home for a few weeks without good setups.

SuoDuanDao 7y ago
Funny thing, working from home finally let me get a standing desk where it felt too conspicuous at the office. I don't have as much space in my living room any more, but I feel much better when that afternoon slump usually hits.
- isoprophlex 7y ago
  I'll admit to hoarding before the lockdown started.... i rushed down and got the second to last standing desk from ikea
nostrademons 7y ago
I move a lot. My posture in general is terrible. I'm slouched in the corner of a couch right now, with my laptop on a half-lap, and when I worked in an office I would usually drape myself over the back of a high-backed chair and kneel on it. However, I don't stay in any one position for longer than about 15 minutes - after that I stand up, or shift to a different position, or swivel the chair around, or go lie down. Never had back pain or other joint problems other than tendonitis in my fingers. I've found that moving around and standing up every 15 minutes or so outweighs all the other shitty stuff I do to my body. Humans weren't made to sit still.
- tasuki 7y ago
  I'm still young (35) and same - my posture is terrible, but it's different kind of terrible every 10 minutes. Also haven't had problems yet. The one thing I can't stand for even 2 minutes is the recommended "proper sitting" posture. 90 degrees here and 90 degrees there - impossible!

NikolaNovak 7y ago

That is impressive; I could not possibly work like that though :< 1. Never mind posturing, it's the posture - I get back and neck pain just thinking of working from a couch or floor :( 2. I like my multiple 27" monitors. Going back to just a single 14" feels like a huge productivity hit. 3. Same thing with proper keyboard + mouse, vs just a touchpad or even the trackpoint. So I'll agree that there's a lot of posturing and professional front in this and many professions; but even without that, I've always far far preferred my home office to either proper office, or working from living areas. ------------ The other aspects are more age dependent (though I believe so is the posture / back pain;). It helps to distinguish "working area" and "non-working area", triply so once you have family. There's a million things that I do better at when I'm "in the zone" - ingested the background, focused on the problem at hand. Distractions reset that counter - I love my kid, I love my wife, but there are aspects of my work that don't benefit from their presence :-). This is probably part of why my personal most productive times tended to be late at night when the world has settled down and distractions are at a minimum...

ornornor 7y ago
This is a problem I have too. I don’t have a home office so I have to work from the couch hunched over my laptop. It hurts. I’ve been doing it for a month. I get tingles in my pinkie after a couple hours they last for the day (ulnar nerve compression I think) I don’t know how to cope. I can’t take the time off and not work for another month, but I also don’t want to wear my body down and have pain all day every day. I hated working in my office because it’s open space and noisy but I’d love to go now that it’s deserted. I have two large displays there, a mouse, a keyboard.
- rubber_duck 7y ago
  Unless you are super cash strapped you can get a second monitor, mouse and keyboard + some basic chair and desk for I'm guessing 300$ if you are resourceful. Buying used is risky now otherwise you could probably get even cheaper
  - kovac 7y ago

shrimp_emoji 7y ago

But laptop keyboards suck. D: And no multiple monitors?! How do you track the logic of an async call that sends shit across five different files in this n-tier architecture webapp and see the app update in real time and see what your coworkers are saying??? Also, >The old society isn't going to last much longer, I seriously hope you're right. I'm cynical to how sweeping or durable the changes that corona catalyzed will be, but I can hope.

jdnenej 7y ago
I'm surprised so many people here don't have a desk/keyboard/mouse/multi monitor at home as well. I thought that was a pretty common setup.
- ChuckNorris89 7y ago
  Because most office workers outside of hardcore techies have no need for full-on computers at home since they can have most of their on-line needs met on mobile devices which can be used one handed on the couch, bed, kitchen, etc. so it makes no sense for them in investing in furniture and peripherals that will stay unused.
  - arvinsim 7y ago
    But surely some of those equipment(monitor, mouse, keyboard) can be brought home from the office.

harisund 7y ago

This is actually a bad example, in that "cloud, bed, floor" aren't really productive environments for most people. That said, I also disagree with the parent poster. Yes, there are things we take for granted , but with a little thought we can replicate the surroundings at home too. Of course, if you are productive only when surrounded when people who are always talking, that's a different story. In my office, everyone around me in open cubicles is always on a call with someone. Some personal, some team mates in a different geo. The only time I do real work is when I take WFH

dTal 7y ago

>Basically I think our society before coronavirus was broken and coronavirus lockdowns are simply forcing us to deal with the ways in which it was broken. The old society isn't going to last much longer, and it's better to deal with that and build a more resilient, more honest one than to try to preserve the [old] rituals I think this point is much broader and meatier than the rest of the discussion, and will be the defining cultural consensus coming out of this whole mess. The virus seems to have a peculiar way of highlighting our sins in a grimly ironic, almost poetic way.