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2 weeks of going to the office and I am convinced the office has no future. It is great for socializing, taking a long time to get food and a drink, running in

2 weeks of going to the office and I am convinced the office has no future. It is great for socializing, taking a long time to get food and a drink, running into people randomly that you wouldn't talk to electronically to socialize more. Then you add in background conversations and constant distraction. IMO you don't even have to bring in the cost of the office and it already doesn't make sense anymore.

ev1 5y ago
It's kind of interesting with socialisation dynamics - my team now has an E2EE Matrix groupchat (we don't post any PII/proprietary data/source code/etc here) because we used to have in-person discussions about various potentially volatile subjects that were verbal and non-logged that people were hesitant to post on Slack or Teams or whatever equivalent exists. It also helped make 1:1s less corporate/more honest and "logged" And I guess semi-jokingly trashtalking other teams that caused outages and were ludicrously incompetent but kept protected by office politics.
icedchai 5y ago
The distractions are no better working at home: useless Zoom meetings, constant Slack messages, pointless emails. I prefer to get out of my house.
- MrGilbert 5y ago
  > The distractions are no better working at home: useless Zoom meetings, constant Slack messages, pointless emails. Well... I can mute Zoom meetings, but I can't mute the colleagues I'm with in my shared office space. Also, while in a virtual room, people are more likely to just "change the room" to not distract you and others from their work, compared to being in the same office, where they would need to take everything with them. > I prefer to get out of my house. So do I - but not every day. When I need to "get things done", I prefer staying at home.
- Tagbert 5y ago
  Can’t you block slack notifications and only check in on Slack when you are ready to communicate? Are you required to attend all zoom meetings? Can you setup filters to file/delete “pointless” emails? I keep all the distracting notices pretty much turned off and only allow it for a select few situations. Then I plan regular “communication breaks” where I check for new email, check for slack messages, etc. It helps tame the noise.
- felipellrocha 5y ago
  Don't bother. The people that vocalize about this online are extremely biased. You'll only get trolled for voicing your opinion. (I'm in the same boat as you, by the way)
  - saurik 5y ago
    Real question: why can't you just turn off all those notifications? If someone wants to get a hold of me at work and interrupt my flow of thought they literally would have to drive to my apartment and start banging on my door.
    - icedchai 5y ago
      Of course, you can. Depending on your position, you may then start getting complaints that you're "unavailable when needed" or "responding slowly."
- Gibbon1 5y ago
  When I was contractor I rented a room in a janky warehouse for $300/month, $200 after taxes. Used that as my office. It was about 5 minutes from my house. Me I feel like society is spending a lot of public and worker bee resources for the mere convenience of the boss class. With workers making 50-80 mile a day commutes on the public roads.
xyzzy21 5y ago
If you are doing truly creative and innovative work, the office or equivalent is the only way. You can't "invent" anything new remotely. You need the "speed of flow" combined with the interaction of testing new ideas. If you are doing something invented 30 years ago or longer, and implementing by rote, then that can be done distributed with no problem. Follow a standard waterfall-able process is easily done remotely as not.
- saurik 5y ago
  Anything you can do via speech in a group can be done faster and easier by text as everyone can talk at the same time without overlap and you have continual access to all of the history of the conversation. If you feel a need to meet in person to get "speed of flow" and "interaction" it just says more about how you were trained to use language than it does about the problem you are solving.
  - sigstoat 5y ago
    as much as i like remote, and text interactions, i worked for a bit with some near-retirement guys who'd had health problems. they could still type to program, but the typing necessary to participate in a meeting was probably beyond them without physical therapy or serious exercise regimen or something. i'd say they needed speech to text, but one of them probably couldn't have _read_ a text meeting fast enough to keep up, either. maybe if he was provided with a 40" monitor and kept it at 1080p? i dunno man.
bsder 5y ago
Remote is good for senior people. They're established in their position, have social networks, and likely have space in their residence to work from home. Remote kinda sucks for junior people. They need mentoring, don't know who to ask for what, and likely have multiple roommates all stomping over one another. I also continue to point out, not everybody is software only. Anyone who operates in the land of firmware finds that not having an office and a lab really stinks. Anybody who is a manager probably spends more time on webcam than they ever did in meetings. And, let me argue further, if your job is software only and can be done completely remotely, you can probably be replaced with someone cheaper. Think very carefully about your actual talent level and value to your job.
- mgh2 5y ago
  Cheaper, you mean internationally? Not likely due to taxing and regulations. Locally? Maybe if they live somewhere cheaper, but talent still requires competitive compensation, otherwise they have other choices, it goes both ways

ev1 5y ago

It's kind of interesting with socialisation dynamics - my team now has an E2EE Matrix groupchat (we don't post any PII/proprietary data/source code/etc here) because we used to have in-person discussions about various potentially volatile subjects that were verbal and non-logged that people were hesitant to post on Slack or Teams or whatever equivalent exists. It also helped make 1:1s less corporate/more honest and "logged" And I guess semi-jokingly trashtalking other teams that caused outages and were ludicrously incompetent but kept protected by office politics.

icedchai 5y ago

The distractions are no better working at home: useless Zoom meetings, constant Slack messages, pointless emails. I prefer to get out of my house.

MrGilbert 5y ago
> The distractions are no better working at home: useless Zoom meetings, constant Slack messages, pointless emails. Well... I can mute Zoom meetings, but I can't mute the colleagues I'm with in my shared office space. Also, while in a virtual room, people are more likely to just "change the room" to not distract you and others from their work, compared to being in the same office, where they would need to take everything with them. > I prefer to get out of my house. So do I - but not every day. When I need to "get things done", I prefer staying at home.
Tagbert 5y ago
Can’t you block slack notifications and only check in on Slack when you are ready to communicate? Are you required to attend all zoom meetings? Can you setup filters to file/delete “pointless” emails? I keep all the distracting notices pretty much turned off and only allow it for a select few situations. Then I plan regular “communication breaks” where I check for new email, check for slack messages, etc. It helps tame the noise.
felipellrocha 5y ago
Don't bother. The people that vocalize about this online are extremely biased. You'll only get trolled for voicing your opinion. (I'm in the same boat as you, by the way)
- saurik 5y ago
  Real question: why can't you just turn off all those notifications? If someone wants to get a hold of me at work and interrupt my flow of thought they literally would have to drive to my apartment and start banging on my door.
  - icedchai 5y ago
    Of course, you can. Depending on your position, you may then start getting complaints that you're "unavailable when needed" or "responding slowly."
Gibbon1 5y ago
When I was contractor I rented a room in a janky warehouse for $300/month, $200 after taxes. Used that as my office. It was about 5 minutes from my house. Me I feel like society is spending a lot of public and worker bee resources for the mere convenience of the boss class. With workers making 50-80 mile a day commutes on the public roads.

xyzzy21 5y ago

If you are doing truly creative and innovative work, the office or equivalent is the only way. You can't "invent" anything new remotely. You need the "speed of flow" combined with the interaction of testing new ideas. If you are doing something invented 30 years ago or longer, and implementing by rote, then that can be done distributed with no problem. Follow a standard waterfall-able process is easily done remotely as not.

saurik 5y ago
Anything you can do via speech in a group can be done faster and easier by text as everyone can talk at the same time without overlap and you have continual access to all of the history of the conversation. If you feel a need to meet in person to get "speed of flow" and "interaction" it just says more about how you were trained to use language than it does about the problem you are solving.
- sigstoat 5y ago
  as much as i like remote, and text interactions, i worked for a bit with some near-retirement guys who'd had health problems. they could still type to program, but the typing necessary to participate in a meeting was probably beyond them without physical therapy or serious exercise regimen or something. i'd say they needed speech to text, but one of them probably couldn't have _read_ a text meeting fast enough to keep up, either. maybe if he was provided with a 40" monitor and kept it at 1080p? i dunno man.

bsder 5y ago

Remote is good for senior people. They're established in their position, have social networks, and likely have space in their residence to work from home. Remote kinda sucks for junior people. They need mentoring, don't know who to ask for what, and likely have multiple roommates all stomping over one another. I also continue to point out, not everybody is software only. Anyone who operates in the land of firmware finds that not having an office and a lab really stinks. Anybody who is a manager probably spends more time on webcam than they ever did in meetings. And, let me argue further, if your job is software only and can be done completely remotely, you can probably be replaced with someone cheaper. Think very carefully about your actual talent level and value to your job.

mgh2 5y ago
Cheaper, you mean internationally? Not likely due to taxing and regulations. Locally? Maybe if they live somewhere cheaper, but talent still requires competitive compensation, otherwise they have other choices, it goes both ways