4 ms·

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.

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.
- ckdarby 6y ago
  Just book meetings with others in the company. I think school has trained us for structure and rarely are we willing to initiate without formal processes in place. Send a meeting invite for 30 minutes to someone in the org with: "Hi. I'm new and I try to meet one new person every week in areas I'm not familiar." Pro tip: Either pick someone who seems to have a cult following, looks to be untouchable in the org and or very active on internal company GitHub/Gitlab.
WrtCdEvrydy 6y ago
re: 3, it is completely acceptable to require a plan before joining a zoom meeting. If you put something on my calendar without telling me, it gets declined. I've been told "You have no instinct of self preservation at this job" but being stuck in meetings and not being able to get things done is not what I was hired to do. Tuesdays and Mondays I concede to meeting hell because those are regular team meetings but your little attempt at showing the marketing department is still doing work by scheduling meetings is not that fun :(
barrucadu 6y ago
> 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. But... why? Just don't look at work messages outside of work hours. Is that so hard?
- canofbars 6y ago
  Exactly. This line has always puzzled me. My work laptop is the only one with IM/Email on it. When I close the lid at the end of the day people can email me all they want, I won't see it.

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.
ckdarby 6y ago
Just book meetings with others in the company. I think school has trained us for structure and rarely are we willing to initiate without formal processes in place. Send a meeting invite for 30 minutes to someone in the org with: "Hi. I'm new and I try to meet one new person every week in areas I'm not familiar." Pro tip: Either pick someone who seems to have a cult following, looks to be untouchable in the org and or very active on internal company GitHub/Gitlab.

WrtCdEvrydy 6y ago

re: 3, it is completely acceptable to require a plan before joining a zoom meeting. If you put something on my calendar without telling me, it gets declined. I've been told "You have no instinct of self preservation at this job" but being stuck in meetings and not being able to get things done is not what I was hired to do. Tuesdays and Mondays I concede to meeting hell because those are regular team meetings but your little attempt at showing the marketing department is still doing work by scheduling meetings is not that fun :(

barrucadu 6y ago

> 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. But... why? Just don't look at work messages outside of work hours. Is that so hard?

canofbars 6y ago
Exactly. This line has always puzzled me. My work laptop is the only one with IM/Email on it. When I close the lid at the end of the day people can email me all they want, I won't see it.