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I've mentioned this before, but WFH has a huge difference in result depending on who you are, when you are (in your career), and where you are in a company (or

I've mentioned this before, but WFH has a huge difference in result depending on who you are, when you are (in your career), and where you are in a company (or organization). For some people, going back to the office has benefits. -- For the budding young developer who can't wait to show ideas to teammates and demonstrate being a go-getter by asking random questions and finding unaddressed issues to innovate on, WFH might be terrible. You're going to schedule time to fortuitously run into the senior person who takes an interest in your idea? -- For the working parent whose productivity has been slashed by 50% and stress has gone up by 50% due to parenting obligations, WFH might be terrible. -- For the middle manager who can coast along and not need to move greatly in his/her career, WFH might be great. -- For the developer who works by tickets on very concrete things and this is nothing new, WFH might be great. -- For the small company CEO who relies on force of personality and everyone in the same room urgently working to get something done, WFH might be terrible. There's a huge variability in what WFH means, depending on what you want from the situation. For some people, remote working is really not good. And also count your other hidden factors -- when everyone is remote, you're also competing with the world who is also remote. Jobs and job qualifications (and competition) may change. You might still have a job if people have to go back in person... This is not just "those evil exploitative bosses want to get us back in offices". It's not that simple, as with anything.

Nursie 6y ago
For the consultant developer working on green-field prototypes in a small team, it's also been amazing. I've always been competing with developers all around the world - it's not like outsourcing is new.
matthewmacleod 6y ago
For the working parent whose productivity has been slashed by 50% and stress has gone up by 50% due to parenting obligations, WFH might be terrible. But it’s worth bearing in mind that this in particular is an almost completely orthogonal issue.
- sjy 6y ago
  What does this mean?
  - tima11234 6y ago
    WFH during a pandemic is not the same as WFH during normal times. A lot of people conflate the two.
xyst 6y ago
Darwinian fitness was never solely about “braun” but the ability to adapt. If these people cannot adapt, then maybe they weren’t the right people to hire for the job. The hidden factors you mention are based upon conjecture. You are right remote work proves that you can hire anybody in the world. However, that doesn’t mean companies should pay a person that lives in another country a lower wage than the American counterpart. The platitude of “you get what you pay for” really shines in this discussion. I have witnessed amazing talent from all across the globe that produced excellent results for the team and company. At the same time, I have also seen dog shit work produced by Americans and abroad. In the latter group, I noticed the individual was paid much lower than expected or in a bid for contracting companies the company took the lowest bid offered. I have seen numerous projects fall significantly behind schedule due to buggy features or just constant re-work of terribly implemented features because someone at the project management level thought they could convince poorly paid people to push out quality work.

Nursie 6y ago

For the consultant developer working on green-field prototypes in a small team, it's also been amazing. I've always been competing with developers all around the world - it's not like outsourcing is new.

matthewmacleod 6y ago

For the working parent whose productivity has been slashed by 50% and stress has gone up by 50% due to parenting obligations, WFH might be terrible. But it’s worth bearing in mind that this in particular is an almost completely orthogonal issue.

sjy 6y ago
What does this mean?
- tima11234 6y ago
  WFH during a pandemic is not the same as WFH during normal times. A lot of people conflate the two.

xyst 6y ago

Darwinian fitness was never solely about “braun” but the ability to adapt. If these people cannot adapt, then maybe they weren’t the right people to hire for the job. The hidden factors you mention are based upon conjecture. You are right remote work proves that you can hire anybody in the world. However, that doesn’t mean companies should pay a person that lives in another country a lower wage than the American counterpart. The platitude of “you get what you pay for” really shines in this discussion. I have witnessed amazing talent from all across the globe that produced excellent results for the team and company. At the same time, I have also seen dog shit work produced by Americans and abroad. In the latter group, I noticed the individual was paid much lower than expected or in a bid for contracting companies the company took the lowest bid offered. I have seen numerous projects fall significantly behind schedule due to buggy features or just constant re-work of terribly implemented features because someone at the project management level thought they could convince poorly paid people to push out quality work.