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> 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? A

> 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.

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.