4 ms·

Just want to say you are not alone. I too want to have a place to go. Whether it's a co-working space or an office for the company I work for, waking up and wor

by 65 5y ago

Just want to say you are not alone. I too want to have a place to go. Whether it's a co-working space or an office for the company I work for, waking up and working in the same place every day is slowly driving me crazy. The WFH people are probably the most vocal online (especially on Reddit as subreddits tend to create echo-chambers), so it feels as though _everyone_ wants to work from home, but ultimately I think/hope most people understand the social benefits of working in an office.

g051051 5y ago
> ultimately I think/hope most people understand the social benefits of working in an office. As far as I'm concerned, there aren't any. But you know what? At the end of the day I don't care where someone works, as long as they extend me the same courtesy. The last place I worked at (before the lockdowns) gradually eliminated WFH, converted to an open plan office, and generally made life miserable for software devs who prefer peace and quiet over socializing at work. I'm much happier working from home, although I have some uncommon advantages there: no kids and amazing internet.
- KaiserPro 5y ago
  > But you know what? At the end of the day I don't care where someone works I think this is the most pragmatic way forward. Given my own company, I suspect that there are about 10-25% of tech that want to work fully remote. That is, never work in the office again, save for specific times (internal conferences, and the like) equally there are 10-25% who hate working remotely and want to be in the work office. The rest are either ambivalent or want something truely (ie 1-3 days a week, but with the autonomy to choose) However for that to work, there needs to be a revolution in how we share knowledge, spread ideas, and plan. At the moment none of the tools we use appear to be particularly efficient. VC is largely half duplex, slow and draining. 1:1 video calls feel invasive, so you don't want to start them unless you really have to. Where I work we have "workplace" but the signal to noise ratio is really quite terrible. I suspect that half of that is down to culture of present $company. Slack is a much better at instant chat, but workplace has better layout for semi ephemeral messaging. None of them are good for longterm documentation.
- geekbird 5y ago
  This. I hate open plan offices, I hate commuting, I don't feel the need to socialize in my job. If an extrovert gets energized and inspired by working in an office, great. But don't expect me to do it just because they want company to talk at. There are plenty of extroverts that can share the office with you. IMO, all the extroverts can drive over an hour a day to yak at each other in open plan petri dishes, but count me out.
- dbbk 5y ago
  Presumably you're an introvert then? As OP said, they're extrovert, and hate being on their own.
  - g051051 5y ago
    And as I said, if OP wants to hang out and work with other people, I'm fine with it. Medical reasons aside, I wouldn't force someone to WFH any more than I'd want someone to force me into an office. However, work culture (until recently) has catered exclusively to "extroverts".
- fouc 5y ago
  To me, "social benefit" implies being able to make friends, real friends not token friends. In which case, then it would be worth going to the office. Granted, not all companies are good for that unfortunately.
abyssin 5y ago
I’ve decided to switch career because WFH has made me depressed. I simply can’t stand looking at a computer anymore. Working for a company was bearable when I used to be able to get human connections in exchange. I haven’t tried joining a coworking place because I didn’t really have the opportunity, but I think I wouldn’t get the same connection with people who don’t work for the same company as I do.
- alecbz 5y ago
  > I think I wouldn’t get the same connection with people who don’t work for the same company as I do. Mentioned this in another comment, but I'm working from my company's local office while my team is mostly elsewhere/remote. We had an in-person onsite at HQ recently though, and I realized even working with other people at my company is peanuts compared to working physically with the actual people on my team I work with day-to-day. (Obviously this distinction is only meaningful at larger companies).

by 65 5y ago

g051051 5y ago

> ultimately I think/hope most people understand the social benefits of working in an office. As far as I'm concerned, there aren't any. But you know what? At the end of the day I don't care where someone works, as long as they extend me the same courtesy. The last place I worked at (before the lockdowns) gradually eliminated WFH, converted to an open plan office, and generally made life miserable for software devs who prefer peace and quiet over socializing at work. I'm much happier working from home, although I have some uncommon advantages there: no kids and amazing internet.

KaiserPro 5y ago
> But you know what? At the end of the day I don't care where someone works I think this is the most pragmatic way forward. Given my own company, I suspect that there are about 10-25% of tech that want to work fully remote. That is, never work in the office again, save for specific times (internal conferences, and the like) equally there are 10-25% who hate working remotely and want to be in the work office. The rest are either ambivalent or want something truely (ie 1-3 days a week, but with the autonomy to choose) However for that to work, there needs to be a revolution in how we share knowledge, spread ideas, and plan. At the moment none of the tools we use appear to be particularly efficient. VC is largely half duplex, slow and draining. 1:1 video calls feel invasive, so you don't want to start them unless you really have to. Where I work we have "workplace" but the signal to noise ratio is really quite terrible. I suspect that half of that is down to culture of present $company. Slack is a much better at instant chat, but workplace has better layout for semi ephemeral messaging. None of them are good for longterm documentation.
geekbird 5y ago
This. I hate open plan offices, I hate commuting, I don't feel the need to socialize in my job. If an extrovert gets energized and inspired by working in an office, great. But don't expect me to do it just because they want company to talk at. There are plenty of extroverts that can share the office with you. IMO, all the extroverts can drive over an hour a day to yak at each other in open plan petri dishes, but count me out.
dbbk 5y ago
Presumably you're an introvert then? As OP said, they're extrovert, and hate being on their own.
- g051051 5y ago
  And as I said, if OP wants to hang out and work with other people, I'm fine with it. Medical reasons aside, I wouldn't force someone to WFH any more than I'd want someone to force me into an office. However, work culture (until recently) has catered exclusively to "extroverts".
fouc 5y ago
To me, "social benefit" implies being able to make friends, real friends not token friends. In which case, then it would be worth going to the office. Granted, not all companies are good for that unfortunately.

abyssin 5y ago

I’ve decided to switch career because WFH has made me depressed. I simply can’t stand looking at a computer anymore. Working for a company was bearable when I used to be able to get human connections in exchange. I haven’t tried joining a coworking place because I didn’t really have the opportunity, but I think I wouldn’t get the same connection with people who don’t work for the same company as I do.

alecbz 5y ago
> I think I wouldn’t get the same connection with people who don’t work for the same company as I do. Mentioned this in another comment, but I'm working from my company's local office while my team is mostly elsewhere/remote. We had an in-person onsite at HQ recently though, and I realized even working with other people at my company is peanuts compared to working physically with the actual people on my team I work with day-to-day. (Obviously this distinction is only meaningful at larger companies).