5 ms·

I can't stand fishbowl jobs. Cubicle farms make me depressed. I don't like being on display when I work. Humans are animals. We stretch. We burp. We fart. We s

I can't stand fishbowl jobs. Cubicle farms make me depressed. I don't like being on display when I work. Humans are animals. We stretch. We burp. We fart. We scratch ourselves. We eat. We drink. We dance. We might want to randomly punch something. We nap. We naturally do all sorts of things which are "unprofessional." When we get tired, we need a break to recoup and come back supercharged. None of those interfere with getting stuff done. I hate going to work in any job where I'm on display since I need to suppress all of that for 8 hours a day. More with most jobs. I don't mind going in nearly as much if I have an office with a door which closes. When I was an executive, I'd sometimes hold longer business meetings with people I knew well hiking, walking, on a kayak, or similar. Those were hyper-productive meetings compared to sitting in office chairs across a coffee table. It only worked for meetings which didn't need a whiteboard or computer, but that's a lot of meetings. I won't say whether WFH or in-person is the future, but I suspect many traditional corporate practices won't survive.

jonny_eh 5y ago
We also socialize and travel. I personally miss going to the office and interacting with coworkers.
- sharken 5y ago
  Same here, sure there are downsides as mentioned above, but the interaction creates a strong human connection that is just not there when working remotely. In a team where one member might only be present in the office 1 or 2 days a week, i tend to talk to the other team members instead.
luke2m 5y ago
We walk around on phone calls.
Mediterraneo10 5y ago
When some cubicle-farm jobs go remote, they go remote with the employer requiring you to run surveillance software (webcam observing you, tracking of continual mouse and keyboard activity) to ensure that you are present at your computer all working hours, except authorized breaks. So, even when liberated from the office those workers don’t get all the freedoms that you might hope for.
- carlmr 5y ago
  Luckily this is highly illegal in the developed world.
  - Mediterraneo10 5y ago
    Is it? Platforms like Upwork advertise this software to businesses wanting to hire freelancers as a major advantage of choosing to go through them, and I hear that trucking companies in the US regularly install cameras within their trucks to watch the drivers at all times.
    - deepserket 5y ago
      uh... why? the job of a trucker is to go from A to B as far as i know, isn't gps enough? why would you need to install cameras?
      - Mediterraneo10 5y ago
        Various reasons. One is to check that the driver is not looking at his phone or watching videos while driving (because they have so much downtime, truckers often have a tablet or laptop to watch movies on), i.e. the same reason there are cameras watching the drivers of trains. Truckers occasionally try to bring their spouses along, which is against the company’s rules, or they make use of prostitutes on the road, and a camera lets the company ensure that no one is ever inside their truck but the driver.
  - llampx 5y ago
    In a world where Amazon blue-collar jobs exist, I highly doubt that it's >>illegal<<.
  - Viliam1234 5y ago
    As far as I know our company does not have such surveillance software. But we all use Microsoft Teams, which changes the color of your icon from green to yellow if you leave your computer for a minute (or stop using keyboard and mouse). So I guess the only difference is whether someone looks at the icons.
carlmr 5y ago
>When I was an executive, I'd sometimes hold longer business meetings with people I knew well hiking, walking, on a kayak, or similar. Those were hyper-productive meetings compared to sitting in office chairs across a coffee table. It only worked for meetings which didn't need a whiteboard or computer, but that's a lot of meetings. Steve jobs was also known for his walking meetings. I walk around during phone calls since I'm working remotely and it has improved my focus 100x.

jonny_eh 5y ago

We also socialize and travel. I personally miss going to the office and interacting with coworkers.

sharken 5y ago
Same here, sure there are downsides as mentioned above, but the interaction creates a strong human connection that is just not there when working remotely. In a team where one member might only be present in the office 1 or 2 days a week, i tend to talk to the other team members instead.

luke2m 5y ago

We walk around on phone calls.

Mediterraneo10 5y ago

When some cubicle-farm jobs go remote, they go remote with the employer requiring you to run surveillance software (webcam observing you, tracking of continual mouse and keyboard activity) to ensure that you are present at your computer all working hours, except authorized breaks. So, even when liberated from the office those workers don’t get all the freedoms that you might hope for.

carlmr 5y ago
Luckily this is highly illegal in the developed world.
- Mediterraneo10 5y ago
  Is it? Platforms like Upwork advertise this software to businesses wanting to hire freelancers as a major advantage of choosing to go through them, and I hear that trucking companies in the US regularly install cameras within their trucks to watch the drivers at all times.
  - deepserket 5y ago
    uh... why? the job of a trucker is to go from A to B as far as i know, isn't gps enough? why would you need to install cameras?
    - Mediterraneo10 5y ago
      Various reasons. One is to check that the driver is not looking at his phone or watching videos while driving (because they have so much downtime, truckers often have a tablet or laptop to watch movies on), i.e. the same reason there are cameras watching the drivers of trains. Truckers occasionally try to bring their spouses along, which is against the company’s rules, or they make use of prostitutes on the road, and a camera lets the company ensure that no one is ever inside their truck but the driver.
- llampx 5y ago
  In a world where Amazon blue-collar jobs exist, I highly doubt that it's >>illegal<<.
- Viliam1234 5y ago
  As far as I know our company does not have such surveillance software. But we all use Microsoft Teams, which changes the color of your icon from green to yellow if you leave your computer for a minute (or stop using keyboard and mouse). So I guess the only difference is whether someone looks at the icons.

carlmr 5y ago

>When I was an executive, I'd sometimes hold longer business meetings with people I knew well hiking, walking, on a kayak, or similar. Those were hyper-productive meetings compared to sitting in office chairs across a coffee table. It only worked for meetings which didn't need a whiteboard or computer, but that's a lot of meetings. Steve jobs was also known for his walking meetings. I walk around during phone calls since I'm working remotely and it has improved my focus 100x.