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Fair response. Can we agree that not everyone gives an hour back to their employer? Or, to go a step further... can we agree that some WFH people give less of t

Fair response. Can we agree that not everyone gives an hour back to their employer? Or, to go a step further... can we agree that some WFH people give less of their time to their employer relative to their previous in-office time? I doubt that those people will respond here, so any anecdotal evidence is just that - anecdotal. The fact that Google is not continuing with WFH must imply that their leadership's sense is that WFH is not helping them.

flukus 5y ago
> Can we agree that not everyone gives an hour back to their employer? Or, to go a step further... can we agree that some WFH people give less of their time to their employer relative to their previous in-office time? Yes and Yes, but acknowledging this doesn't mean we should go back to the previous one size fits all model of mandatory on site working.
justrudd 5y ago
I’ll bite :) If you look at my productive hours for the month, I would say I’m pretty close to 1:1 hours at home vs. hours in an office. If you look at my hours on a day by day basis? Definitely give less of my hours to my employer than I did when I was in an office. When I was in an office and I got stuck, I just sat there. I could (and would) half-heartedly work on other things while inspiration tried to strike. But a lot of time, I was just sitting there scribbling on paper trying to be think of solutions to try out. Since I’ve been WFH (2 and a half years now) if I get stuck, I’ll scribble like before. But I put a time limit on my scribbling. If after 20 minutes I’m not making progress, I’ll go do something - laundry, dust, pull weeds, walk the dog, etc. Sometimes it only takes 10 minutes of not actively thinking to come up with a solution. Other times it might be 2 or 3 hours. On the other end of the spectrum, there are days where I’ll put in 12 or more hours actively writing code because I’m truly inspired and excited about the solution. When I was in an office, I had hard cut offs because of buses. If I missed my express bus (37 minute commute), I had a 3 bus transfer to get home (2 hour 37 minute commute - yes. I could have done an Uber/Lyft. But didn’t want to pay $40+ for a ride). So I had an alarm set. When that alarm went off, I’d leave regardless of where I was in solving a problem. So yes. day to day - I “give” less time to my employer. But for the month and actual output, I’m about the same. N=1 :)

flukus 5y ago

> Can we agree that not everyone gives an hour back to their employer? Or, to go a step further... can we agree that some WFH people give less of their time to their employer relative to their previous in-office time? Yes and Yes, but acknowledging this doesn't mean we should go back to the previous one size fits all model of mandatory on site working.

justrudd 5y ago

I’ll bite :) If you look at my productive hours for the month, I would say I’m pretty close to 1:1 hours at home vs. hours in an office. If you look at my hours on a day by day basis? Definitely give less of my hours to my employer than I did when I was in an office. When I was in an office and I got stuck, I just sat there. I could (and would) half-heartedly work on other things while inspiration tried to strike. But a lot of time, I was just sitting there scribbling on paper trying to be think of solutions to try out. Since I’ve been WFH (2 and a half years now) if I get stuck, I’ll scribble like before. But I put a time limit on my scribbling. If after 20 minutes I’m not making progress, I’ll go do something - laundry, dust, pull weeds, walk the dog, etc. Sometimes it only takes 10 minutes of not actively thinking to come up with a solution. Other times it might be 2 or 3 hours. On the other end of the spectrum, there are days where I’ll put in 12 or more hours actively writing code because I’m truly inspired and excited about the solution. When I was in an office, I had hard cut offs because of buses. If I missed my express bus (37 minute commute), I had a 3 bus transfer to get home (2 hour 37 minute commute - yes. I could have done an Uber/Lyft. But didn’t want to pay $40+ for a ride). So I had an alarm set. When that alarm went off, I’d leave regardless of where I was in solving a problem. So yes. day to day - I “give” less time to my employer. But for the month and actual output, I’m about the same. N=1 :)