6 ms·

Can you discuss why you want to go back to the office?

BillinghamJ 6y ago
Not the OP, but in my case it's just down to socialising with the friends I work with, and pair programming. The latter can be done remotely but definitely isn't anywhere near as smooth or natural I find.
- derwiki 6y ago
  Agree on the latter, but VSCode Live Share has made it passable!
ketzu 6y ago
Number one reason for me is the separation of work and private life. It's so much easier to keep work from creeping into my private life when it happens in a totally different place. I also miss the social interactions, discussion with colleagues is much easier in person. Lastly, I hope it will reduce the amount of video conferences that crept up considerably. edit: Not OP obviously. edit2: Note: Just to make sure, I know this is personal preference and I am perfectly happy with other people being super happy and productive at home!
- Nursie 6y ago
  At 5.30 I reboot my workstation from linux into windows. Separation complete :)
  - ketzu 6y ago
    I am glad this works for you! Maybe it's because I can't switch my mind so easily, I prefer a physical distance (I don't think a separate room would be enough for me either).
    - pwinnski 6y ago
      If you don't have a separate room, it's hard to see how much difference it can make. I've worked from home since 2008 with a one-year break immediately before COVID-19, and I'm glad to be back, but the separate room was essential for me.
    - Nursie 6y ago
      To be fair I've been working 60% remote for a few years now, so moving to 100% wasn't a huge strain for me. It's actually something I've wanted for a while. I've had time to get my head around the separation you talk about, I guess. Also helps that I'm on a small team and we all slack something like "Signing off now, catch you tomorrow" at around 5.30. Puts an end on the day.
    - watwut 6y ago
      What worked for me best during lockdown was strong ritualized schedule (which is completely at odds with my normal personality). What used to be going to work in the morning became exercise. Then, when it was end of day, we went outside. I have kids which made it making more sense. But you can go outside for walk or read book outside etc. The point is that you leave room and do something that causes mental switch.
  - andi999 6y ago
    AM or PM?
    - anticensor 6y ago
      It works both ways.
- jefflombardjr 6y ago
  That's a great reason. You like to set boundaries between work and private life. But I'm not convinced a corporate office is the only, let alone, best option. Have you considered alternatives?
  - ketzu 6y ago
    No I haven't considered alternatives between a corporate office and a home office. Could you list some? I am fairy uncreative about these things, unfortunately :/
    - balfirevic 6y ago
      Coworking space or a small private office that's separate from your house/aparment.
      - ketzu 6y ago
        Thank you for the ideas, I'll have something to think about now
- rwmj 6y ago
  I've worked at home for 20 years, more or less, and I have a separate space (garden office), $300 conference camera and mic, huge screen, and the best internet connection possible. When this is your life you arrange things differently, and I've no doubt that others who make the change to working from home will make similar adjustments over time.
  - ketzu 6y ago
    I could work with it if I was forced to do it, which I was for a few months. If I had to do it for an even longer period, a separate room would probably be necessary. But having a "black space" room is not exactly something I want in my private space either. (Not to think about my work most likely not willing to pay rent for that room :D ) I know this is a personal preference, but for me, physical distance makes my work more productive and my private time more relaxing.
  - porker 6y ago
    Which camera and mic are you using?
    - rwmj 6y ago
      https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=24459676 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=24459676
  - randycupertino 6y ago
    > $300 conference camera and mic, huge screen Can you recommend your camera, mic and screen setup? And what brand/model they are? TY!
    - ghaff 6y ago
      Not the parent, but I use a Logitech 920s webcam. I could use one of my high-end cameras--I even have an older model Fujifilm I don't use any longer--with an HDMI to USB converter but I decided it wasn't worth the trouble and it's harder to make work in physical space anyway. I use a Blue Snowball mic but any decent USB mic will work. I have a dedicated office and I haven't found using a headset makes it better though YMMV. I'd just as soon not wear a headset unless necessary. Computer is just a 27" iMac with a 2nd monitor. (Though I actually usually work with video on my main screen and do any work with shared docs etc. on a MacBook.) Also have an Elgato keylight to get the lighting a bit more even. ADDED: Probably at least as important is that you're not backlit by a window and you have the camera at maybe a bit above eye level. I've also done a bit of "set decorating" of my background.
munchbunny 6y ago
I’m not the parent poster, but I agree with their preference. It’s psychological. I focus better with a clear delineation of work in a work setting and personal life in a home setting. Even the physical transition of the commute helps me switch over. This is something that has eroded in the last six months even though I’ve tried to substitute it with practices like an “office” room. Additionally, I am definitely a person who prefers in person meetings and conversations. It’s not that I can’t do remote conversations - I’ve even managed remote employees for years - but I value water cooler conversations as a place for spontaneous idea generation or just relationship building, which is just harder remotely. You have to go out of your way to send ideas into the ether, without the physical signs that someone might be receptive to random, possibly stupid musings, or non-sequiter stuff about personal life. Count me among the people who are fine with others choosing to stay remote, but once it’s feasible and safe to go into the office I would want to do it.
- garrickvanburen 6y ago
  I get the want for distinct physical spaces to change contexts, though considering we're 20+ years into a world of employer issued laptop and mobile phones, making the delineation between work and non-work is very much up to each of us as individuals. This is as a small as not checking work email outside of work hours and as large as finding a space that you yourself work best in even if that means not home or your employer's office.
  - gravitas 6y ago
    The issue is while you're on the clock; I don't take those longer breaks to get a coffee, it's right behind me. I take shorter lunches, it's right there behind me. (etc.) People who are not tenured remote employees are still struggling to find a healthy life balance as they've spent 20 years working in an office. My company (~10k, global, mix of hourly and salaried) has multiple times sent out pandemic guidance asking people to take more time off and stop working so much, they see the extra hours in their time tracking tooling upstream (and it's not a financial play, they're targeting the salaried).
- sbuk 6y ago
gjs278 6y ago
they are simply normie trash. just program the code and call it a day or night.
jeltz 6y ago
Not OP, but many reasons. I miss socializing with colleagues, I also like sitting in a room surrounded by other people also working and finally my office has better ergonomics.
nonbirithm 6y ago
Not the OP. In my case: - I get far too distracted by my apartment. The things I hung up on my wall to give myself a sense of personality are the things that I will be distracted by if I have my work laptop open. - I want a clear separation between being at work and being at home. Otherwise I will make excuses that because I happen to be at home I can do X or Y without consequence. At home I have my personal computer and television within walking distance at all times. By being in the office I deliberately prevent myself from having those options. - My job requires me to use a specific model of laptop for remote work. The laptop itself is not an ideal environment for getting things done. It is a Lenovo-era ThinkPad with the chiclet keys and they are awful to type on. I have other hardware in my room to plug in, but on top of that I have to RDP to my machine in order to access corpnet things, and the latency is plainly awful. It takes several minutes to just launch it and render the entire desktop completely, control key combinations will frequently not register because of the latency, I'm unable to use my laptop's microphone half the time over RDP, and there are frequent disconnections. And if I'm working at home, all of these annoyances will just pile on top of each other and make me lose motivation to do work entirely. - On top of that my access credentials expired while I was taking shelter early on, so to use my work laptop from home at that point I had no choice but to go to the office to get them unblocked. I went in and immediately wondered why I hadn't been working from there in months. It was night and day. I got certified to go into the office as "essential staff," because for me being in the office is what determines if I am productive at all or not. In fact the amount of work that ended up piling up because I was unable to work effectively anymore caused an anxiety episode that I had to take off a few months for. It truly felt like I had been pushed into a corner. Thankfully my team was understanding, it being a devastating pandemic and all.
- WWLink 6y ago
  Half of your problem sounds like infrastructure issues and possibly not having a good workspace setup. I am super lucky and have fiber internet at home and we have an awesome VPN at work, so I can get <10ms ping to almost everything lol. I keep my work computer plugged into a desktop setup (mouse/keyboard/monitors) so I don't have to deal with that.
rootusrootus 6y ago
Not OP but I will throw in my 2 cents... 1. Work/life separation. Even with a separate computer, getting it shut away and Slack gone is easier said than done. Now everyone knows you're probably around somewhere and will read their e-mail or see their Slack message, even early in the morning or later in the afternoon. 1b. I work better in a dedicated environment. My home office has all kinda of other distractions. Homework from my OMSCS classes beckons to be done, personal projects, not to mention kids. The psychological difference of being in a dedicated workspace is significant. 2. Social connections. There are many people I was friendly with but only at the office. Now I only interact with people on my own team or in closely related teams when we are working on some project that overlaps. My 'work world' has shrunk dramatically. 3. Zoom. Just make it stop. My company has dedicated Thursday to be 'no meeting day' but it hasn't really stuck yet. I'm brought onto way more calls now than I ever was when we were in the office. It feels like Zoom has become the substitute for the random communications we used to have, except instead of taking 5-10 minutes everyone schedules 30-60 minutes at a time. And they always find a way to use up every minute plus 2 or 3 after the end time. I don't actually want to go back full time. I am thinking seriously of selling my Model 3 because having a 60K depreciating asset in the garage that only gets driven a couple hundred miles a month is not the best use of my money. But when the office opens back up eventually, I do think I'll try to spend at least one day a week there. Maybe two.
- nemetroid 6y ago
  > Social connections. There are many people I was friendly with but only at the office. Now I only interact with people on my own team or in closely related teams when we are working on some project that overlaps. My 'work world' has shrunk dramatically. I echo this sentiment. As a junior engineer in a large office, being able to keep track of other projects, who is working on what, what's coming up in a different business area, etc., has been very important for career development. Working from home, I've been "siloed" into my own team to a much larger extent.
  - canofbars 6y ago
    My company started up an internal newsletter describing what is going on as well as a quarterly meeting about what has happened and what will happen. I honestly feel like I know more about what is going on before even if I don't speak to other teams at all outside of this.
ThrowawayR2 6y ago
I have many of the same reasons as others have outlined already and also have some specialized equipment at the office that is a hassle to work with remotely.

Not the OP, but in my case it's just down to socialising with the friends I work with, and pair programming. The latter can be done remotely but definitely isn't anywhere near as smooth or natural I find.

derwiki 6y ago
Agree on the latter, but VSCode Live Share has made it passable!

ketzu 6y ago

Number one reason for me is the separation of work and private life. It's so much easier to keep work from creeping into my private life when it happens in a totally different place. I also miss the social interactions, discussion with colleagues is much easier in person. Lastly, I hope it will reduce the amount of video conferences that crept up considerably. edit: Not OP obviously. edit2: Note: Just to make sure, I know this is personal preference and I am perfectly happy with other people being super happy and productive at home!

Nursie 6y ago
At 5.30 I reboot my workstation from linux into windows. Separation complete :)
- ketzu 6y ago
  I am glad this works for you! Maybe it's because I can't switch my mind so easily, I prefer a physical distance (I don't think a separate room would be enough for me either).
  - pwinnski 6y ago
    If you don't have a separate room, it's hard to see how much difference it can make. I've worked from home since 2008 with a one-year break immediately before COVID-19, and I'm glad to be back, but the separate room was essential for me.
  - Nursie 6y ago
    To be fair I've been working 60% remote for a few years now, so moving to 100% wasn't a huge strain for me. It's actually something I've wanted for a while. I've had time to get my head around the separation you talk about, I guess. Also helps that I'm on a small team and we all slack something like "Signing off now, catch you tomorrow" at around 5.30. Puts an end on the day.
  - watwut 6y ago
    What worked for me best during lockdown was strong ritualized schedule (which is completely at odds with my normal personality). What used to be going to work in the morning became exercise. Then, when it was end of day, we went outside. I have kids which made it making more sense. But you can go outside for walk or read book outside etc. The point is that you leave room and do something that causes mental switch.
- andi999 6y ago
  AM or PM?
  - anticensor 6y ago
    It works both ways.
jefflombardjr 6y ago
That's a great reason. You like to set boundaries between work and private life. But I'm not convinced a corporate office is the only, let alone, best option. Have you considered alternatives?
- ketzu 6y ago
  No I haven't considered alternatives between a corporate office and a home office. Could you list some? I am fairy uncreative about these things, unfortunately :/
  - balfirevic 6y ago
    Coworking space or a small private office that's separate from your house/aparment.
    - ketzu 6y ago
      Thank you for the ideas, I'll have something to think about now
rwmj 6y ago
I've worked at home for 20 years, more or less, and I have a separate space (garden office), $300 conference camera and mic, huge screen, and the best internet connection possible. When this is your life you arrange things differently, and I've no doubt that others who make the change to working from home will make similar adjustments over time.
- ketzu 6y ago
  I could work with it if I was forced to do it, which I was for a few months. If I had to do it for an even longer period, a separate room would probably be necessary. But having a "black space" room is not exactly something I want in my private space either. (Not to think about my work most likely not willing to pay rent for that room :D ) I know this is a personal preference, but for me, physical distance makes my work more productive and my private time more relaxing.
- porker 6y ago
  Which camera and mic are you using?
  - rwmj 6y ago
    https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=24459676 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=24459676
- randycupertino 6y ago
  > $300 conference camera and mic, huge screen Can you recommend your camera, mic and screen setup? And what brand/model they are? TY!
  - ghaff 6y ago
    Not the parent, but I use a Logitech 920s webcam. I could use one of my high-end cameras--I even have an older model Fujifilm I don't use any longer--with an HDMI to USB converter but I decided it wasn't worth the trouble and it's harder to make work in physical space anyway. I use a Blue Snowball mic but any decent USB mic will work. I have a dedicated office and I haven't found using a headset makes it better though YMMV. I'd just as soon not wear a headset unless necessary. Computer is just a 27" iMac with a 2nd monitor. (Though I actually usually work with video on my main screen and do any work with shared docs etc. on a MacBook.) Also have an Elgato keylight to get the lighting a bit more even. ADDED: Probably at least as important is that you're not backlit by a window and you have the camera at maybe a bit above eye level. I've also done a bit of "set decorating" of my background.

munchbunny 6y ago

I’m not the parent poster, but I agree with their preference. It’s psychological. I focus better with a clear delineation of work in a work setting and personal life in a home setting. Even the physical transition of the commute helps me switch over. This is something that has eroded in the last six months even though I’ve tried to substitute it with practices like an “office” room. Additionally, I am definitely a person who prefers in person meetings and conversations. It’s not that I can’t do remote conversations - I’ve even managed remote employees for years - but I value water cooler conversations as a place for spontaneous idea generation or just relationship building, which is just harder remotely. You have to go out of your way to send ideas into the ether, without the physical signs that someone might be receptive to random, possibly stupid musings, or non-sequiter stuff about personal life. Count me among the people who are fine with others choosing to stay remote, but once it’s feasible and safe to go into the office I would want to do it.

garrickvanburen 6y ago
I get the want for distinct physical spaces to change contexts, though considering we're 20+ years into a world of employer issued laptop and mobile phones, making the delineation between work and non-work is very much up to each of us as individuals. This is as a small as not checking work email outside of work hours and as large as finding a space that you yourself work best in even if that means not home or your employer's office.
- gravitas 6y ago
  The issue is while you're on the clock; I don't take those longer breaks to get a coffee, it's right behind me. I take shorter lunches, it's right there behind me. (etc.) People who are not tenured remote employees are still struggling to find a healthy life balance as they've spent 20 years working in an office. My company (~10k, global, mix of hourly and salaried) has multiple times sent out pandemic guidance asking people to take more time off and stop working so much, they see the extra hours in their time tracking tooling upstream (and it's not a financial play, they're targeting the salaried).
sbuk 6y ago

gjs278 6y ago

they are simply normie trash. just program the code and call it a day or night.

jeltz 6y ago

Not OP, but many reasons. I miss socializing with colleagues, I also like sitting in a room surrounded by other people also working and finally my office has better ergonomics.

nonbirithm 6y ago

Not the OP. In my case: - I get far too distracted by my apartment. The things I hung up on my wall to give myself a sense of personality are the things that I will be distracted by if I have my work laptop open. - I want a clear separation between being at work and being at home. Otherwise I will make excuses that because I happen to be at home I can do X or Y without consequence. At home I have my personal computer and television within walking distance at all times. By being in the office I deliberately prevent myself from having those options. - My job requires me to use a specific model of laptop for remote work. The laptop itself is not an ideal environment for getting things done. It is a Lenovo-era ThinkPad with the chiclet keys and they are awful to type on. I have other hardware in my room to plug in, but on top of that I have to RDP to my machine in order to access corpnet things, and the latency is plainly awful. It takes several minutes to just launch it and render the entire desktop completely, control key combinations will frequently not register because of the latency, I'm unable to use my laptop's microphone half the time over RDP, and there are frequent disconnections. And if I'm working at home, all of these annoyances will just pile on top of each other and make me lose motivation to do work entirely. - On top of that my access credentials expired while I was taking shelter early on, so to use my work laptop from home at that point I had no choice but to go to the office to get them unblocked. I went in and immediately wondered why I hadn't been working from there in months. It was night and day. I got certified to go into the office as "essential staff," because for me being in the office is what determines if I am productive at all or not. In fact the amount of work that ended up piling up because I was unable to work effectively anymore caused an anxiety episode that I had to take off a few months for. It truly felt like I had been pushed into a corner. Thankfully my team was understanding, it being a devastating pandemic and all.

WWLink 6y ago
Half of your problem sounds like infrastructure issues and possibly not having a good workspace setup. I am super lucky and have fiber internet at home and we have an awesome VPN at work, so I can get <10ms ping to almost everything lol. I keep my work computer plugged into a desktop setup (mouse/keyboard/monitors) so I don't have to deal with that.

rootusrootus 6y ago

Not OP but I will throw in my 2 cents... 1. Work/life separation. Even with a separate computer, getting it shut away and Slack gone is easier said than done. Now everyone knows you're probably around somewhere and will read their e-mail or see their Slack message, even early in the morning or later in the afternoon. 1b. I work better in a dedicated environment. My home office has all kinda of other distractions. Homework from my OMSCS classes beckons to be done, personal projects, not to mention kids. The psychological difference of being in a dedicated workspace is significant. 2. Social connections. There are many people I was friendly with but only at the office. Now I only interact with people on my own team or in closely related teams when we are working on some project that overlaps. My 'work world' has shrunk dramatically. 3. Zoom. Just make it stop. My company has dedicated Thursday to be 'no meeting day' but it hasn't really stuck yet. I'm brought onto way more calls now than I ever was when we were in the office. It feels like Zoom has become the substitute for the random communications we used to have, except instead of taking 5-10 minutes everyone schedules 30-60 minutes at a time. And they always find a way to use up every minute plus 2 or 3 after the end time. I don't actually want to go back full time. I am thinking seriously of selling my Model 3 because having a 60K depreciating asset in the garage that only gets driven a couple hundred miles a month is not the best use of my money. But when the office opens back up eventually, I do think I'll try to spend at least one day a week there. Maybe two.

nemetroid 6y ago
> Social connections. There are many people I was friendly with but only at the office. Now I only interact with people on my own team or in closely related teams when we are working on some project that overlaps. My 'work world' has shrunk dramatically. I echo this sentiment. As a junior engineer in a large office, being able to keep track of other projects, who is working on what, what's coming up in a different business area, etc., has been very important for career development. Working from home, I've been "siloed" into my own team to a much larger extent.
- canofbars 6y ago
  My company started up an internal newsletter describing what is going on as well as a quarterly meeting about what has happened and what will happen. I honestly feel like I know more about what is going on before even if I don't speak to other teams at all outside of this.

ThrowawayR2 6y ago

I have many of the same reasons as others have outlined already and also have some specialized equipment at the office that is a hassle to work with remotely.