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> Working remotely has a very high cost, but it only gets visible in the long term. True, but it's not clear that cost is higher than working in an office over

> Working remotely has a very high cost, but it only gets visible in the long term. True, but it's not clear that cost is higher than working in an office over the long term. In true internet-discussion fashion, there's lots of absolutes people talk about when discussing remote-first, remote-only, and dynamic working. As ever, the answer is "it depends". Some people will benefit massively, some people will have to sacrifice massively, and most people will live with less extreme and different pros and cons. > It is important and it has tons of benefits for the team Depends entirely on the team. I know "it depends" is always a cop-out, but truthfully, any working system is going to depend massively on the work and the team dynamic. Having any of these grandiose statements on how work should be done fall down almost immediately when trying to extrapolate them to more than an individual company (or even beyond a single team in a company).

zhdc1 6y ago
"It depends" isn't a cop-out when it's true. Some situations benefit a lot from remote work. There's a reason why a lot of startups were going remote work first before COVID was even a thing. The issue is that IT is one of the few fields where a large portion of the work can be remotely created and evaluated, and a large percentage of the people on HN/Twitter/Tech Blogs happen to work in or around this industry. Programming, at least, is like writing with much better pay. You can't remote work restaurants. Or any job where you have be somewhere to do something, or where interpersonal relationships are a key success factor. Remote work is even a challenge in IT, where it's theoretically easier to evaluate and promote talent and where there are proven ways to properly implement telecommuting.
- C1sc0cat 6y ago
  As opposed to at best a smaller desk in a spare room. More likely your having to work by converting a kitchen table (wrong height) or your bed room if say you live in a 1 bed flat. Its even worse if your in a couple or a flat share where several people are competing for space and wifi
  - wastedhours 6y ago
    > More likely your having to work by converting a kitchen table (wrong height) or your bed room if say you live in a 1 bed flat. > Its even worse if your in a couple or a flat share where several people are competing for space and wifi Again, we refer back to "it depends". My partner and I live in a 2 bedroom apartment, we now have dedicated proper-sized desks in the living room and in the spare room. Appreciate not everyone has the space to do that, but that's kinda the point. I'm not really an advocate for full time remote myself, I think agile working is the best of both worlds. The company has an office with maybe 50% desk capacity for employees, then employees cycle in and out throughout the week on a cadence that suits them. Everything's still set up to be remote-first (virtual meetings, no massive in-person all-hands etc...) but you can choose to use an office or your home. Or a coffee shop, or an airport lounge, or a park, or... (and in before "what if everyone comes in on the same day" - I used to work in a place that had 60% the number of desks for employees, I never once struggled to find a place to sit. To the extent they're subletting a whole floor due to lack of usage). There's also nothing stopping companies paying a coworking stipend to those that want it in lieu of an office. And booking out a large conference hall once a year for everyone to come together. Essentially, most things are at least semi-solvable and no decision on the future of work should be taken based solely on how we've currently set ourselves up.

zhdc1 6y ago

"It depends" isn't a cop-out when it's true. Some situations benefit a lot from remote work. There's a reason why a lot of startups were going remote work first before COVID was even a thing. The issue is that IT is one of the few fields where a large portion of the work can be remotely created and evaluated, and a large percentage of the people on HN/Twitter/Tech Blogs happen to work in or around this industry. Programming, at least, is like writing with much better pay. You can't remote work restaurants. Or any job where you have be somewhere to do something, or where interpersonal relationships are a key success factor. Remote work is even a challenge in IT, where it's theoretically easier to evaluate and promote talent and where there are proven ways to properly implement telecommuting.

C1sc0cat 6y ago
As opposed to at best a smaller desk in a spare room. More likely your having to work by converting a kitchen table (wrong height) or your bed room if say you live in a 1 bed flat. Its even worse if your in a couple or a flat share where several people are competing for space and wifi
- wastedhours 6y ago
  > More likely your having to work by converting a kitchen table (wrong height) or your bed room if say you live in a 1 bed flat. > Its even worse if your in a couple or a flat share where several people are competing for space and wifi Again, we refer back to "it depends". My partner and I live in a 2 bedroom apartment, we now have dedicated proper-sized desks in the living room and in the spare room. Appreciate not everyone has the space to do that, but that's kinda the point. I'm not really an advocate for full time remote myself, I think agile working is the best of both worlds. The company has an office with maybe 50% desk capacity for employees, then employees cycle in and out throughout the week on a cadence that suits them. Everything's still set up to be remote-first (virtual meetings, no massive in-person all-hands etc...) but you can choose to use an office or your home. Or a coffee shop, or an airport lounge, or a park, or... (and in before "what if everyone comes in on the same day" - I used to work in a place that had 60% the number of desks for employees, I never once struggled to find a place to sit. To the extent they're subletting a whole floor due to lack of usage). There's also nothing stopping companies paying a coworking stipend to those that want it in lieu of an office. And booking out a large conference hall once a year for everyone to come together. Essentially, most things are at least semi-solvable and no decision on the future of work should be taken based solely on how we've currently set ourselves up.