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The more I read these conversations it becomes clear your position depends on where you are in the introvert / extrovert scale. Some people get a lot of energy

The more I read these conversations it becomes clear your position depends on where you are in the introvert / extrovert scale. Some people get a lot of energy from interacting one on one with others. These tend to be the loudest voices in any office. But so many people who are more introvered have just forced themselves to adapt. I guess what I'm trying to say, for everyone that wants to get back to the office, many of us had wanted to get out for a very long time.

deleted 5y ago
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colinmorelli 5y ago
Totally, and I think that's ok! I'm not intending to suggest that there is one true way. In fact, I think the very point I'm getting at is that there is not one true way. Different situations work better for different people in different roles, and even for the same person in the same role, the ideal situation may change from one quarter to the next. Where I take issue is with people suggesting that it would be insane to ever ask anyone to come to an office again, for the same reason I think it would be insane to tell people that working from home is a waste of time/not productive/etc. To this end, a hybrid work environment may not be any better, since it forces an individual person to balance both (I.e. your extroverts are still expected to be home 2x/week, and your introverts are still expected to be at the office 3x/week) The challenge for leaders of companies that are trying to navigate this (and one of the reasons that people will probably always be dissatisfied with the outcome) is that there is no perfect solution. You go full remote, you'll have people who miss the office (and almost certainly some intangibles will be lost). You go full in-office, and you'll have some less productive people who spend way too much time commuting and pay too much in rent. You go hybrid, and you still have people paying too much in rent, and now they also have to commute sometimes, and the people who want to be in the office aren't for 2 days/week, etc. Adding insult to injury, if you allow individual people to make their own decisions (some remote, some in-office) you'll have imbalances in career progressions, where people who have more facetime will be more likely to receive promotions and raises than their less visible, fully-remote counterparts. It's a challenging topic, and it's not clear to me there is a solution that is "fair," insofar as fairness is even a thing we can measure here.
jltsiren 5y ago
> The more I read these conversations it becomes clear your position depends on where you are in the introvert / extrovert scale. In which direction? As a strongly introverted person myself, I would expect that working from home would be easier for extroverts than introverts during normal times. Extroverts make friends more easily wherever they go, while introverts rely more on structured interactions such as work in their social life. Take the office away, and the introvert who has recently relocated may not know anyone in the area.
andrei_says_ 5y ago
I’m definitely an introvert. Having an office with a door caused my productivity to skyrocket. When working from the office, I close the door in the morning and open it when I leave. The 3 or 4 conference room meetings I had per month had half of the attendees on zoom. Being in the same conference room didn’t do much for me. I still have no idea what socialization people speak of. Office small talk? Happy hours? Are they worth spending 10 hours a week driving and losing all the benefits of working from home? Certainly not to me.

deleted 5y ago

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colinmorelli 5y ago

Totally, and I think that's ok! I'm not intending to suggest that there is one true way. In fact, I think the very point I'm getting at is that there is not one true way. Different situations work better for different people in different roles, and even for the same person in the same role, the ideal situation may change from one quarter to the next. Where I take issue is with people suggesting that it would be insane to ever ask anyone to come to an office again, for the same reason I think it would be insane to tell people that working from home is a waste of time/not productive/etc. To this end, a hybrid work environment may not be any better, since it forces an individual person to balance both (I.e. your extroverts are still expected to be home 2x/week, and your introverts are still expected to be at the office 3x/week) The challenge for leaders of companies that are trying to navigate this (and one of the reasons that people will probably always be dissatisfied with the outcome) is that there is no perfect solution. You go full remote, you'll have people who miss the office (and almost certainly some intangibles will be lost). You go full in-office, and you'll have some less productive people who spend way too much time commuting and pay too much in rent. You go hybrid, and you still have people paying too much in rent, and now they also have to commute sometimes, and the people who want to be in the office aren't for 2 days/week, etc. Adding insult to injury, if you allow individual people to make their own decisions (some remote, some in-office) you'll have imbalances in career progressions, where people who have more facetime will be more likely to receive promotions and raises than their less visible, fully-remote counterparts. It's a challenging topic, and it's not clear to me there is a solution that is "fair," insofar as fairness is even a thing we can measure here.

jltsiren 5y ago

> The more I read these conversations it becomes clear your position depends on where you are in the introvert / extrovert scale. In which direction? As a strongly introverted person myself, I would expect that working from home would be easier for extroverts than introverts during normal times. Extroverts make friends more easily wherever they go, while introverts rely more on structured interactions such as work in their social life. Take the office away, and the introvert who has recently relocated may not know anyone in the area.

andrei_says_ 5y ago

I’m definitely an introvert. Having an office with a door caused my productivity to skyrocket. When working from the office, I close the door in the morning and open it when I leave. The 3 or 4 conference room meetings I had per month had half of the attendees on zoom. Being in the same conference room didn’t do much for me. I still have no idea what socialization people speak of. Office small talk? Happy hours? Are they worth spending 10 hours a week driving and losing all the benefits of working from home? Certainly not to me.