4 ms·

Give me a dedicated office with a door that can shut, allow me to commute during off-peak rush hours, and raise my pay or shorten my work hours for the same rat

Give me a dedicated office with a door that can shut, allow me to commute during off-peak rush hours, and raise my pay or shorten my work hours for the same rate... then we will talk about coming back in. Currently: I have an dedicated office at home, I can shut my door and work when I need to be distraction free. I don't have my head pinched by headphones for hours, and I can work in silence like I prefer. No coworkers interrupting me when I'm in the zone. I've saved between 8-10 hours per week in not commuting. Worse, I've had bosses who enjoy flexing by having meetings promptly at 8am, where you have to leave extra early because you travel at peak rush hour. I don't have to keep up appearances when I'm done with my work for the day or moment. If I'm waiting for responses or reviews, I can veg out, watch Netflix or play a video game, while staying on top of my email and work load. I've also taken to getting some of my house work done during this time. Laundry, mowed grass, exercise, lots of little things that used to get stacked up on the weekend. I never have to eat off my diet, or feign excuses for not wanting to eat another office provided carb loaded meal. I stock my own foods, and have a hot meal for lunch everyday. Finally, I don't have to smell the 2 smokers that spend a couple of hours smoking every single day nor do I have to sit next to someone with questionable personal hygeine. Yes Richard, you smell awful, and stink up half the office with your body odor and cigarettes.

incrudible 6y ago
> Give me a dedicated office with a door that can shut, allow me to commute during off-peak rush hours, and raise my pay or shorten my work hours for the same rate... then we will talk about coming back in. If you can talk like that post-pandemic, why couldn't you walk like that pre-pandemic? You could've had a remote job then, too. I do like remote work, but it's not all upsides. If there's a big shift to remote work, it will suppress wages because now you can hire from across the country, where living expenses are low.
- silicon2401 6y ago
  Personally I'd gladly take a pay cut for a fully remote job. Even SV salaries can't pay for the option to fully wfh if they choose to
- taylodl 6y ago
  Prior to the pandemic I never liked working at home. I didn't have a dedicated work area and so I ended up working at the dining room table, whose chairs hurt my back when sitting on them for long hours and I hated calling in to meetings. Often you couldn't see what was being projected in the room. Now things are completely different. Once it become apparent that working from home was going to be long-term and not just for a "couple weeks" I started making changes. I now have a dedicated office at home. I have a proper chair that doesn't kill me to sit. Everyone (at my company) now uses WebEx for meetings so meetings are no longer the pain they used to be. The result? My work/life balance has completely changed. I'm no longer spending 1.5 hours/day commuting to work. I'm saving money on parking, saving money on food, saving money on clothing, saving money on gas...no joke, I'm saving $200/month. Easy. On the work side my team and I have never been happier - or more productive. We do have team activities allowing us to get together from time to time. We're more fully engaged with the business and have been delivering better solutions. Bottom line? Spending over a year now working remotely has taught me a lot of things. The most important being I never want to go back to an office on a daily basis.
dokem 6y ago
I switched to a job where I have an office for the first time and it really makes me question HTF open layouts have cough so much traction among employees. I think there was a push away from 'boring' offices and now no one even remembers or knows what having an office is like. I also don't buy the idea that there is really any hindrance to collaboration or casual socialization around the office. And no more packing up all my shit and finding some meeting room I need to schedule through an app just to whiteboard with a co-worker without bugging everyone.
- foobiekr 6y ago
  I’ve had an office and it was a miracle. The best of both worlds. I’ll take full height cubes as a fallback. Open layout is the worst, I actually just go work from the lab.
- ebrenes 6y ago
  That no one remembers what it's like having an office is the system working as intended. The open office layout is meant to reduce costs as it's cheaper to cram more people in fewer square meters of physical space. It's also cheaper to reorganize teams/furniture in an open office layout. Plus, it allows managers to look over their demesne unimpeded.
  - dokem 6y ago
    Yea I get why mgmt is creaming over it, but it also seems like a lot of employees are too for no valid reason.
cyberlurker 6y ago
“ I don't have to keep up appearances when I'm done with my work for the day or moment. If I'm waiting for responses or reviews, I can veg out, watch Netflix or play a video game, while staying on top of my email and work load. I've also taken to getting some of my house work done during this time. Laundry, mowed grass, exercise, lots of little things that used to get stacked up on the weekend.” Agreed on pretty much everything. And this quoted part for many will increase productivity. But management often views this “gasp, going for a walk while I wait for someone to send me something” as time that could have been spent working. The arguments for forcing everyone who is fully functional remotely back into the office are so shallow it pains me. I get it, some people have personal circumstances that make office work better for them. I guess we will just self sort into different companies and see which is better. My money is on smart people with more freedom over smart people micro managed by the clueless.
theshrike79 6y ago
> If I'm waiting for responses or reviews, I can veg out, watch Netflix or play a video game, while staying on top of my email and work load. I pretty much finished all of Spider-Man on PS4 just on my work breaks while letting my brain churn out problems in the background. When my brain goes ding, I can pause the game, walk the 3 meters to my work laptop and keep working until I get stuck again.

incrudible 6y ago

> Give me a dedicated office with a door that can shut, allow me to commute during off-peak rush hours, and raise my pay or shorten my work hours for the same rate... then we will talk about coming back in. If you can talk like that post-pandemic, why couldn't you walk like that pre-pandemic? You could've had a remote job then, too. I do like remote work, but it's not all upsides. If there's a big shift to remote work, it will suppress wages because now you can hire from across the country, where living expenses are low.

silicon2401 6y ago
Personally I'd gladly take a pay cut for a fully remote job. Even SV salaries can't pay for the option to fully wfh if they choose to
taylodl 6y ago
Prior to the pandemic I never liked working at home. I didn't have a dedicated work area and so I ended up working at the dining room table, whose chairs hurt my back when sitting on them for long hours and I hated calling in to meetings. Often you couldn't see what was being projected in the room. Now things are completely different. Once it become apparent that working from home was going to be long-term and not just for a "couple weeks" I started making changes. I now have a dedicated office at home. I have a proper chair that doesn't kill me to sit. Everyone (at my company) now uses WebEx for meetings so meetings are no longer the pain they used to be. The result? My work/life balance has completely changed. I'm no longer spending 1.5 hours/day commuting to work. I'm saving money on parking, saving money on food, saving money on clothing, saving money on gas...no joke, I'm saving $200/month. Easy. On the work side my team and I have never been happier - or more productive. We do have team activities allowing us to get together from time to time. We're more fully engaged with the business and have been delivering better solutions. Bottom line? Spending over a year now working remotely has taught me a lot of things. The most important being I never want to go back to an office on a daily basis.

dokem 6y ago

I switched to a job where I have an office for the first time and it really makes me question HTF open layouts have cough so much traction among employees. I think there was a push away from 'boring' offices and now no one even remembers or knows what having an office is like. I also don't buy the idea that there is really any hindrance to collaboration or casual socialization around the office. And no more packing up all my shit and finding some meeting room I need to schedule through an app just to whiteboard with a co-worker without bugging everyone.

foobiekr 6y ago
I’ve had an office and it was a miracle. The best of both worlds. I’ll take full height cubes as a fallback. Open layout is the worst, I actually just go work from the lab.
ebrenes 6y ago
That no one remembers what it's like having an office is the system working as intended. The open office layout is meant to reduce costs as it's cheaper to cram more people in fewer square meters of physical space. It's also cheaper to reorganize teams/furniture in an open office layout. Plus, it allows managers to look over their demesne unimpeded.
- dokem 6y ago
  Yea I get why mgmt is creaming over it, but it also seems like a lot of employees are too for no valid reason.

cyberlurker 6y ago

“ I don't have to keep up appearances when I'm done with my work for the day or moment. If I'm waiting for responses or reviews, I can veg out, watch Netflix or play a video game, while staying on top of my email and work load. I've also taken to getting some of my house work done during this time. Laundry, mowed grass, exercise, lots of little things that used to get stacked up on the weekend.” Agreed on pretty much everything. And this quoted part for many will increase productivity. But management often views this “gasp, going for a walk while I wait for someone to send me something” as time that could have been spent working. The arguments for forcing everyone who is fully functional remotely back into the office are so shallow it pains me. I get it, some people have personal circumstances that make office work better for them. I guess we will just self sort into different companies and see which is better. My money is on smart people with more freedom over smart people micro managed by the clueless.

theshrike79 6y ago

> If I'm waiting for responses or reviews, I can veg out, watch Netflix or play a video game, while staying on top of my email and work load. I pretty much finished all of Spider-Man on PS4 just on my work breaks while letting my brain churn out problems in the background. When my brain goes ding, I can pause the game, walk the 3 meters to my work laptop and keep working until I get stuck again.