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This is an interview with Matt Mullenweg, the founder/CEO of Automattic, which, according to the article, has 1,000+ fully distributed employees now, 15 years a

This is an interview with Matt Mullenweg, the founder/CEO of Automattic, which, according to the article, has 1,000+ fully distributed employees now, 15 years after its founding. This was a fun insight from him to close out the "Corner Office" column: "This column is called Corner Office, and most people who choose to have offices are usually the bosses. And I’ve been to the offices of billionaire C.E.O.s that have their own private bathroom, beautiful art and couches. But these are all things that you can have in your house. What I love about distributed organizations is every single employee can have a corner office." Of course, the assumption here is that you live/work somewhere in which you can have a separate, closed-door, home office. This is true for most people who did distributed work pre-Covid (for example, 100% of my fully distributed team of ~25 engineers/PMs/designers has this setup or something close to it) but this may not be true for those who had to adapt quickly in small urban apartments, as is common in NYC or SF, post-Covid. That said, given how software engineers are usually comp'ed and given how much a software career relies on autodidacticism and flow, I think every software engineer should strive to have a serene home office from which to work. It's a good investment in your career and your sanity.

irrational 6y ago
We are looking at selling our house and moving precisely because I do not have anywhere to have an office. I’ve been working from a chair in the corner of the living room (not even a table, laptop earning its name) for the past 3 months.
- jjeaff 6y ago
  I had to get creative with our small space. We live in a walk up that has a big vaulted ceiling over the foyer entry and stairs so we built sort of an enclosed loft area over the entry to use as an office. It has been amazing to get my desk out of the living area. The only thing we had to trade for it was a 20 foot tall ceiling and empty space with a chandelier for a 9 foot tall entry area with recessed lights. It's a small office, 5x10ft but just having anything out of the way with a door that closes is just miles better. My point in sharing this is that lots of space, especially in our American homes and condos is poorly allocated. There might be a creative way to add on or convert some existing space in the place you live now.
- ta17711771 6y ago
  Kitchen table, and everyone else fucks off somewhere else unless they're bringing in more.
  - irrational 6y ago
    Nah, my kids use the kitchen table for their school work. That is more important to me than my own comfort.
ghaff 6y ago
In all fairness, people do choose smaller city apartments so that they (normally) have nearby amenities that they wouldn't have from a house in the suburbs/exurbs. And dedicated space is less affordable even at software engineer salaries if you have an apartment in an expensive city. But quite a few people I know have decided or are considering that more space may be a worthwhile tradeoff--especially if they were getting to a point in life where urban living didn't have as many attractions any longer.

irrational 6y ago

We are looking at selling our house and moving precisely because I do not have anywhere to have an office. I’ve been working from a chair in the corner of the living room (not even a table, laptop earning its name) for the past 3 months.

jjeaff 6y ago
I had to get creative with our small space. We live in a walk up that has a big vaulted ceiling over the foyer entry and stairs so we built sort of an enclosed loft area over the entry to use as an office. It has been amazing to get my desk out of the living area. The only thing we had to trade for it was a 20 foot tall ceiling and empty space with a chandelier for a 9 foot tall entry area with recessed lights. It's a small office, 5x10ft but just having anything out of the way with a door that closes is just miles better. My point in sharing this is that lots of space, especially in our American homes and condos is poorly allocated. There might be a creative way to add on or convert some existing space in the place you live now.
ta17711771 6y ago
Kitchen table, and everyone else fucks off somewhere else unless they're bringing in more.
- irrational 6y ago
  Nah, my kids use the kitchen table for their school work. That is more important to me than my own comfort.

ghaff 6y ago

In all fairness, people do choose smaller city apartments so that they (normally) have nearby amenities that they wouldn't have from a house in the suburbs/exurbs. And dedicated space is less affordable even at software engineer salaries if you have an apartment in an expensive city. But quite a few people I know have decided or are considering that more space may be a worthwhile tradeoff--especially if they were getting to a point in life where urban living didn't have as many attractions any longer.