4 ms·

Same experience. You have the younger crowd who live with parents, have their own room in a apartment somewhere. Happy to jump on work and then jump instantly

Same experience. You have the younger crowd who live with parents, have their own room in a apartment somewhere. Happy to jump on work and then jump instantly to discord and whatever. Like my friend below my apartment. Then you have the older crowd who have their own house, Kids, family pet or two. Have a spare room they can turn in to an office. And then theres me, a 32 year old who has a single bedroom apartment who likes separation from work and personal. Having my work laptop at home has been stressful because its always felt like I am at work. Having to use my personal space for work doesn't bode well. Luckly, my office is open and I can now go in everyday. Even when I am the only one in the office I feel more productive then being at home. WFH isn't for me.

iamjake648 5y ago
At least at my office it's only the young people that are actually coming in to the office. It's cliché, but the subsidized snacks, ping pong, etc I think are bringing people back where as I haven't seen a single 'older' engineer back in the office yet.
- bsder 5y ago
  Really? As an engineer, as much as I love my home setup, my lab at work is WAY better equipped. Consequently, I'm much more productive when bringing up a board at work where my office is optimized for software and is nice and clean, my lab is optimized for hardware and is goopy and dirty at times, and I have lots of space for both. But, then, we also don't believe in the "open office" idiocy, so we put people in their own spaces with a door they can close.
  - notpachet 5y ago
    Way to bury the lede there! I think if companies like Google were to say, "Hey, we're going to start requiring people to come back into the office, and we do mean office in a literal sense. Here's your own office" -- we'd be having a very different type of conversation.
ctoth 5y ago
Couldn't you just move to a larger and cheaper apartment since you don't have to live directly next to the office anymore? I don't understand, if the problem is your space, change your space. Maybe try that whole getting a pet thing. Even with the office as a social outlet I wouldn't want to live in a 1 bedroom apartment very long. Also consider using a separate computer for work and nonwork stuff, and turning the work computer off at a specific time. Once it's shut down, you're done for the day. You can give yourself permission to disconnect from work without forcing everyone into an office.
- doublerabbit 5y ago
  > Couldn't you just move to a larger and cheaper apartment since you don't have to live directly next to the office anymore? I don't understand, if the problem is your space, change your space. Will you fund all my costs to move apartments? Transport costs? Costs to and from my social activities? I like where I am. I shouldn't need to move because upcoming generations doesn't enjoy office life. I get it, I really do. Commuting to work sucks, transport sucks, meetings suck but to ignore those who do actually enjoy being in the office is sad. I hate webcam, zoom, teams. I need real face interaction. It's an outlet. > Once it's shut down, you're done for the day. You can give yourself permission to disconnect from work without forcing everyone into an office. I disconnect by knowing that I can walk through my apartment door and be free from anything work related. Separation is how I disconnect. I like my own space, and it shouldn't need to be filled with work related objects. Otherwise my life will always be orientated around work knowing I have to have that one bit of space for a work laptop. That's not healthy.
  - ghaff 5y ago
    > I shouldn't need to move because upcoming generations doesn't enjoy office life. From what I've seen it's the younger people who mostly really want to get back into offices for the social aspect. Those of us who own houses in the country or suburbs are mostly fine with not driving into offices, not that I did it much pre-pandemic. And I totally get the social aspect. With some trade events spinning back up I've really appreciated the opportunity to reconnect with people in person.
teddyh 5y ago
Tip: You don’t have to actually have a separate room, all you have to do is trick your brain into feeling like it’s another room. Design two completely different lighting schemes for work and off-work, and connect the lights to a switch to change between them. Use two different chairs. Switch to another keyboard and mouse. Reposition your monitor. If you have an height-adjustable desk, change it. Idea courtesy of Vallejo B: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=snAhsXyO3Ck&lc=Ugzl3DOl0s0oSv6osRp4AaABAg https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=snAhsXyO3Ck&lc=Ugzl3DOl0s0oS...
- doublerabbit 5y ago
  Not a viable means for myself. I can hide my laptop behind my bookcase, leave it outside in the courtyard. I don't have space for two different chairs. I have dual monitors, I even bought mounting poles for my monitors to make it a larger area. WFH just doesn't work for me.
- nja 5y ago
  Living in my 350sqft studio during the pandemic, I personally have tried a lot of these "tips," but haven't found much success. It turns out the brain is pretty good at building contextual clues related to its surroundings. Even if I'm sitting at my "play" desk (different chair, different room corner, different computer with its own keyboard/mouse/monitor), playing a game, with the lighting scheme completely different, I'm still _physically_ in the same place. I've still got the same noise from upstairs neighbors, same surroundings, same deco, same food options, same _temperature_ even (remember complaining about offices being too cold?). It's not enough to kick my brain out of "work" mode, and as a consequence, I'm always thinking about work in the back of my mind. This is of course all separate from whether you can actually physically go offline from work, too. If a Slack ping at any time causes you to reopen your work laptop, even if you have different surroundings, you can't really fully escape "work mode." If you always wake up immediately into dealing with work, your bed becomes a "work area" too... I have found myself missing the work commute more and more. Granted, I had a pretty nice one (15min train, 10min walk; not spending hours in traffic), but the biggest benefit I'm retroactively realizing was the clear separation between work and home. Working on finishing up a commit? Too bad, gotta run to catch a train, and then I'm no longer in work mode. Thinking about that bug the next morning? Maybe, but can still allow some personal time in the morning because not really "at work" until the physical commute in.
Teknoman117 5y ago
I ended up terminating my lease and moving back in with my parents because I had no friends outside of work that lived in the area. I ended up renting some cheap office space in the small town they live in to work from.

iamjake648 5y ago

At least at my office it's only the young people that are actually coming in to the office. It's cliché, but the subsidized snacks, ping pong, etc I think are bringing people back where as I haven't seen a single 'older' engineer back in the office yet.

bsder 5y ago
Really? As an engineer, as much as I love my home setup, my lab at work is WAY better equipped. Consequently, I'm much more productive when bringing up a board at work where my office is optimized for software and is nice and clean, my lab is optimized for hardware and is goopy and dirty at times, and I have lots of space for both. But, then, we also don't believe in the "open office" idiocy, so we put people in their own spaces with a door they can close.
- notpachet 5y ago
  Way to bury the lede there! I think if companies like Google were to say, "Hey, we're going to start requiring people to come back into the office, and we do mean office in a literal sense. Here's your own office" -- we'd be having a very different type of conversation.

ctoth 5y ago

Couldn't you just move to a larger and cheaper apartment since you don't have to live directly next to the office anymore? I don't understand, if the problem is your space, change your space. Maybe try that whole getting a pet thing. Even with the office as a social outlet I wouldn't want to live in a 1 bedroom apartment very long. Also consider using a separate computer for work and nonwork stuff, and turning the work computer off at a specific time. Once it's shut down, you're done for the day. You can give yourself permission to disconnect from work without forcing everyone into an office.

doublerabbit 5y ago
> Couldn't you just move to a larger and cheaper apartment since you don't have to live directly next to the office anymore? I don't understand, if the problem is your space, change your space. Will you fund all my costs to move apartments? Transport costs? Costs to and from my social activities? I like where I am. I shouldn't need to move because upcoming generations doesn't enjoy office life. I get it, I really do. Commuting to work sucks, transport sucks, meetings suck but to ignore those who do actually enjoy being in the office is sad. I hate webcam, zoom, teams. I need real face interaction. It's an outlet. > Once it's shut down, you're done for the day. You can give yourself permission to disconnect from work without forcing everyone into an office. I disconnect by knowing that I can walk through my apartment door and be free from anything work related. Separation is how I disconnect. I like my own space, and it shouldn't need to be filled with work related objects. Otherwise my life will always be orientated around work knowing I have to have that one bit of space for a work laptop. That's not healthy.
- ghaff 5y ago
  > I shouldn't need to move because upcoming generations doesn't enjoy office life. From what I've seen it's the younger people who mostly really want to get back into offices for the social aspect. Those of us who own houses in the country or suburbs are mostly fine with not driving into offices, not that I did it much pre-pandemic. And I totally get the social aspect. With some trade events spinning back up I've really appreciated the opportunity to reconnect with people in person.

teddyh 5y ago

Tip: You don’t have to actually have a separate room, all you have to do is trick your brain into feeling like it’s another room. Design two completely different lighting schemes for work and off-work, and connect the lights to a switch to change between them. Use two different chairs. Switch to another keyboard and mouse. Reposition your monitor. If you have an height-adjustable desk, change it. Idea courtesy of Vallejo B: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=snAhsXyO3Ck&lc=Ugzl3DOl0s0oSv6osRp4AaABAg https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=snAhsXyO3Ck&lc=Ugzl3DOl0s0oS...

doublerabbit 5y ago
Not a viable means for myself. I can hide my laptop behind my bookcase, leave it outside in the courtyard. I don't have space for two different chairs. I have dual monitors, I even bought mounting poles for my monitors to make it a larger area. WFH just doesn't work for me.
nja 5y ago
Living in my 350sqft studio during the pandemic, I personally have tried a lot of these "tips," but haven't found much success. It turns out the brain is pretty good at building contextual clues related to its surroundings. Even if I'm sitting at my "play" desk (different chair, different room corner, different computer with its own keyboard/mouse/monitor), playing a game, with the lighting scheme completely different, I'm still _physically_ in the same place. I've still got the same noise from upstairs neighbors, same surroundings, same deco, same food options, same _temperature_ even (remember complaining about offices being too cold?). It's not enough to kick my brain out of "work" mode, and as a consequence, I'm always thinking about work in the back of my mind. This is of course all separate from whether you can actually physically go offline from work, too. If a Slack ping at any time causes you to reopen your work laptop, even if you have different surroundings, you can't really fully escape "work mode." If you always wake up immediately into dealing with work, your bed becomes a "work area" too... I have found myself missing the work commute more and more. Granted, I had a pretty nice one (15min train, 10min walk; not spending hours in traffic), but the biggest benefit I'm retroactively realizing was the clear separation between work and home. Working on finishing up a commit? Too bad, gotta run to catch a train, and then I'm no longer in work mode. Thinking about that bug the next morning? Maybe, but can still allow some personal time in the morning because not really "at work" until the physical commute in.

Teknoman117 5y ago

I ended up terminating my lease and moving back in with my parents because I had no friends outside of work that lived in the area. I ended up renting some cheap office space in the small town they live in to work from.