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Not trying to be sarcastic. I genuinely asking. Why? I'm not a fan of the office because: 1. I don't like the commute 2. I have an office in my house, but at

Not trying to be sarcastic. I genuinely asking. Why? I'm not a fan of the office because: 1. I don't like the commute 2. I have an office in my house, but at the "office"; I would be sharing some kind of space. 3. now that covid is less of an issue I plan on going to lunch more with freinds.

zeroonetwothree 5y ago
1. Commute is a nice way to get some alone time and unwind after work (admittedly, I wouldn't mind a shorter one though, say 15 min) 2. At home there are many more distractions (kids) 3. At work there are nice people to talk to/interact with 4. Getting lunch with coworkers is a nice way to bond and discuss ideas 5. All my friends moved away during the pandemic, and an office is a good way to make new friends 6. IME, meeting in person leads to friendlier interactions, whereas virtual interactions tend to be more hostile 7. The separation of home/office life makes it easier to focus
- manuelabeledo 5y ago
  Most of these points are unrelated to work itself, and may be easily rebuked. Commuting is not a way to "unwind". If you have 15 minutes in the car, why couldn't you meditate for 15 minutes at home? Interaction is not taken away if you WFH. But even if it was, if there are "nice" people at work, then there's the assumption that there are "not nice" people as well. Do you want to spend your days surrounded by "not nice" people as well? If attending to the office is seen as a way to expand your friendship circle, then there is the assumption that any other in person activity should help to this end as well. Wouldn't it be worth trying to go to meet-ups, gym, etc., instead of relying on a workplace hostage situation? Not trying to be too harsh here. But I have found that most people who want to go back to the office, expect others to go back as well. I don't oppose people going back, of course, but I do oppose being an accessory to their way of life.
paulcole 5y ago
1. I bike/run commute and have planned my life to let me live with 15 minutes of where I work. 2. I purposefully choose to live in a small apartment with no dedicated “work” space. 3. Yeah, me too.
apocalyptic0n3 5y ago
Not the OP but for me: 1. I get very little face-to-face social interaction if I'm working from home. I need the interaction at the office or I fear I'll lose the already terrible social skills I have 2. Some conversations are just easier to have in-person, especially from a management standpoint. I don't micromanage and I am pretty hands-off but when a team leader is having issues with their team, it's generally easier for them to pull me into a conference room and chat face-to-face with me and we can figure out a resolution together. This can happen over video, but I find it's better if it's not. 3. I find you get exposure to new techniques and technologies and different perspectives on how to approach solving technical issues when you're in an office and can see a team huddling trying to figure something out. That said, I know it's not everyone's preference and I'm in favor of a hybrid model personally. Office is available if you want to use it. If you're living in the area of the office, come in once or twice a month and have a face-to-face meeting with your project teammates and/or manager. Otherwise, you're free to be at home if you want.
Swizec 5y ago
I love working from home and remote suits me. But the past few months I’ve noticed more and more coworkers asking for zoom pairing sessions, increasing numbers of mob programming sessions, and a general craving for face time. Personally I dislike those because they’re the worst of both worlds. Not quite remote, not quite in person. I get more done on my own. In my observation many people are just very done with remote. Especially the younger folk whose lives aren’t as full of adult crap yet.
dockd 5y ago
I can't speak for the OP and everyone has their own reasons but - Do you have a roommate? Children? Now your house/apartment is looking like a mini-office with shared space. - Your house has one office. Where will your spouse/partner work? Most houses don't have two offices. - Maybe living in a small apartment is OK for people because they can get out to larger spaces. Want to live in a studio apartment and work there too? - Offices can have cafeterias and tend to have restaurants nearby. - habit
eminence32 5y ago
In addition to all of the social reasons others have listed, I'll list 2 technical reasons why an office is a more comfortable place for me to work: I have 2 large monitors at my office desk (so when you include my laptop's screen, I have a total of 3 monitors; lots of screen space). Compared to no external monitors at home. At the office, I have a gigabit connection to the LAN and file servers. At home, I have a VPN that is, while pretty good, not able to compete with 1GBe.
- Bluecobra 5y ago
  These seem like easily solvable problems though. I have three monitors at home and 1Gb AT&T Fiber Internet.
  - paulcole 5y ago
    Some people don’t want to solve this problem. My apartment is small and I have 0 interest in 3 ugly work monitors visible where I can see them all the time.
  - eminence32 5y ago
    Hmm. Yes, they are solvable. But are they "easily solvable"? I could buy extra monitors for my work laptop, but then I'd also have to buy or build an entirely new desk for them, and find a place in my home for this desk to live. My ISP also offers 1GB I think, but even if I upgrade, that doesn't mean that my work VPN can keep up. It also doesn't help improve latency
sporedro 5y ago
Not the person you asked, but for me it’s the social aspect. I can’t stand being on a camera, voice and text chat don’t really replace the in-person conversations for me. Everything else is either the same or much worse working in person.
cwmoreiras 5y ago
1. I like my commute. If my commute changed I would feel differently. Regardless, I feel employees should get paid for their commutes. 2. I don't have an office in my house. Even if I had the space I don't think I would want to use it for work. However, since coronavirus happened I have had way more space in my office than I did before, and I refuse to be sandwiched between two other engineers in an open office floor plan. So if my company tries to do that they will have a problem, at least from me. 3. I pack my lunch as often as possible and don't really know anyone who works near me. I do think there are many developers for whom it makes sense to work from home. Especially if they are seniors, and their company workflow is well organized for it. Also, I do think that there are people who are very efficient working from home, but if they are WFH it will still be harder for junior engineers to collaborate with them or learn from them. I've seen it suggested that in the future, companies who want people to come back to the office will lose all their best employees and will only be able to retain the people who can't get a WFH job. I think a lot of what makes someone a good engineer comes down to experience, so if that were to come true it would ultimately mean that senior engineers (best employees) will work remotely and junior engineers (can't get a WFH job) will be working on site. That kind of leaves junior engineers in the dust as far as mentorship is concerned so I would not consider that a good thing, even though it seems to be fine with certain people who think that they are "good engineers", when in reality they are probably just seniors.
- lukas099 5y ago
  > I feel employees should get paid for their commutes. This would lead to more pollution, sprawl, and deaths by automobile as people would be incentivized to live further from work.
  - cwmoreiras 5y ago
    People are already incentivized to live far from their jobs because of HCOL near their workplaces. Also, it would be nice if people's choices were as binary as this line of thinking seems to suggest. It seems to me that many people would rather have a shorter commute either way.
turtlebits 5y ago
Not everyone has a bad commute. Distinct place where I don't have the distractions of home. (ie feel the need to clean, fix, things) Much nicer environment - way more open space / natural light, great air quality, views, amenities.
coldpie 5y ago
Man, I love my commute. Losing that was one of the hardest parts of the year I spent WFH. I take the bus to work, it's about 40 minutes each way. I get time outside, I get to watch the sun rise, I spend that time reading library books and magazines, sometimes I talk with strangers for a few minutes, I stop off on my way home to get new library books or at a shop for whatever, or sometimes hit a bar on the way home. My commute rules, don't take it away from me.
deltree7 5y ago
This could have never happened if Jeff and Sanjay were 'working from home' https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2018/12/10/the-friendship-that-made-google-huge https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2018/12/10/the-friendship... Who knows Google would have been an also-ran Search Engine company if it weren't for those two solving the right scale problems at the right time. And no amount of 'Productivity Metrics' can capture these leaps in value creation because it truly is of the 'Unknown-Unknown' category.
- Apocryphon 5y ago
  Most people are not going to be in the position, either in their role or the stage of they organization, to enact anything even remotely resembling that sort of innovation. Even when scaled down to their role and organization.

zeroonetwothree 5y ago

1. Commute is a nice way to get some alone time and unwind after work (admittedly, I wouldn't mind a shorter one though, say 15 min) 2. At home there are many more distractions (kids) 3. At work there are nice people to talk to/interact with 4. Getting lunch with coworkers is a nice way to bond and discuss ideas 5. All my friends moved away during the pandemic, and an office is a good way to make new friends 6. IME, meeting in person leads to friendlier interactions, whereas virtual interactions tend to be more hostile 7. The separation of home/office life makes it easier to focus

manuelabeledo 5y ago
Most of these points are unrelated to work itself, and may be easily rebuked. Commuting is not a way to "unwind". If you have 15 minutes in the car, why couldn't you meditate for 15 minutes at home? Interaction is not taken away if you WFH. But even if it was, if there are "nice" people at work, then there's the assumption that there are "not nice" people as well. Do you want to spend your days surrounded by "not nice" people as well? If attending to the office is seen as a way to expand your friendship circle, then there is the assumption that any other in person activity should help to this end as well. Wouldn't it be worth trying to go to meet-ups, gym, etc., instead of relying on a workplace hostage situation? Not trying to be too harsh here. But I have found that most people who want to go back to the office, expect others to go back as well. I don't oppose people going back, of course, but I do oppose being an accessory to their way of life.

paulcole 5y ago

1. I bike/run commute and have planned my life to let me live with 15 minutes of where I work. 2. I purposefully choose to live in a small apartment with no dedicated “work” space. 3. Yeah, me too.

apocalyptic0n3 5y ago

Not the OP but for me: 1. I get very little face-to-face social interaction if I'm working from home. I need the interaction at the office or I fear I'll lose the already terrible social skills I have 2. Some conversations are just easier to have in-person, especially from a management standpoint. I don't micromanage and I am pretty hands-off but when a team leader is having issues with their team, it's generally easier for them to pull me into a conference room and chat face-to-face with me and we can figure out a resolution together. This can happen over video, but I find it's better if it's not. 3. I find you get exposure to new techniques and technologies and different perspectives on how to approach solving technical issues when you're in an office and can see a team huddling trying to figure something out. That said, I know it's not everyone's preference and I'm in favor of a hybrid model personally. Office is available if you want to use it. If you're living in the area of the office, come in once or twice a month and have a face-to-face meeting with your project teammates and/or manager. Otherwise, you're free to be at home if you want.

Swizec 5y ago

I love working from home and remote suits me. But the past few months I’ve noticed more and more coworkers asking for zoom pairing sessions, increasing numbers of mob programming sessions, and a general craving for face time. Personally I dislike those because they’re the worst of both worlds. Not quite remote, not quite in person. I get more done on my own. In my observation many people are just very done with remote. Especially the younger folk whose lives aren’t as full of adult crap yet.

dockd 5y ago

I can't speak for the OP and everyone has their own reasons but - Do you have a roommate? Children? Now your house/apartment is looking like a mini-office with shared space. - Your house has one office. Where will your spouse/partner work? Most houses don't have two offices. - Maybe living in a small apartment is OK for people because they can get out to larger spaces. Want to live in a studio apartment and work there too? - Offices can have cafeterias and tend to have restaurants nearby. - habit

eminence32 5y ago

In addition to all of the social reasons others have listed, I'll list 2 technical reasons why an office is a more comfortable place for me to work: I have 2 large monitors at my office desk (so when you include my laptop's screen, I have a total of 3 monitors; lots of screen space). Compared to no external monitors at home. At the office, I have a gigabit connection to the LAN and file servers. At home, I have a VPN that is, while pretty good, not able to compete with 1GBe.

Bluecobra 5y ago
These seem like easily solvable problems though. I have three monitors at home and 1Gb AT&T Fiber Internet.
- paulcole 5y ago
  Some people don’t want to solve this problem. My apartment is small and I have 0 interest in 3 ugly work monitors visible where I can see them all the time.
- eminence32 5y ago
  Hmm. Yes, they are solvable. But are they "easily solvable"? I could buy extra monitors for my work laptop, but then I'd also have to buy or build an entirely new desk for them, and find a place in my home for this desk to live. My ISP also offers 1GB I think, but even if I upgrade, that doesn't mean that my work VPN can keep up. It also doesn't help improve latency

sporedro 5y ago

Not the person you asked, but for me it’s the social aspect. I can’t stand being on a camera, voice and text chat don’t really replace the in-person conversations for me. Everything else is either the same or much worse working in person.

cwmoreiras 5y ago

1. I like my commute. If my commute changed I would feel differently. Regardless, I feel employees should get paid for their commutes. 2. I don't have an office in my house. Even if I had the space I don't think I would want to use it for work. However, since coronavirus happened I have had way more space in my office than I did before, and I refuse to be sandwiched between two other engineers in an open office floor plan. So if my company tries to do that they will have a problem, at least from me. 3. I pack my lunch as often as possible and don't really know anyone who works near me. I do think there are many developers for whom it makes sense to work from home. Especially if they are seniors, and their company workflow is well organized for it. Also, I do think that there are people who are very efficient working from home, but if they are WFH it will still be harder for junior engineers to collaborate with them or learn from them. I've seen it suggested that in the future, companies who want people to come back to the office will lose all their best employees and will only be able to retain the people who can't get a WFH job. I think a lot of what makes someone a good engineer comes down to experience, so if that were to come true it would ultimately mean that senior engineers (best employees) will work remotely and junior engineers (can't get a WFH job) will be working on site. That kind of leaves junior engineers in the dust as far as mentorship is concerned so I would not consider that a good thing, even though it seems to be fine with certain people who think that they are "good engineers", when in reality they are probably just seniors.

lukas099 5y ago
> I feel employees should get paid for their commutes. This would lead to more pollution, sprawl, and deaths by automobile as people would be incentivized to live further from work.
- cwmoreiras 5y ago
  People are already incentivized to live far from their jobs because of HCOL near their workplaces. Also, it would be nice if people's choices were as binary as this line of thinking seems to suggest. It seems to me that many people would rather have a shorter commute either way.

turtlebits 5y ago

Not everyone has a bad commute. Distinct place where I don't have the distractions of home. (ie feel the need to clean, fix, things) Much nicer environment - way more open space / natural light, great air quality, views, amenities.

coldpie 5y ago

Man, I love my commute. Losing that was one of the hardest parts of the year I spent WFH. I take the bus to work, it's about 40 minutes each way. I get time outside, I get to watch the sun rise, I spend that time reading library books and magazines, sometimes I talk with strangers for a few minutes, I stop off on my way home to get new library books or at a shop for whatever, or sometimes hit a bar on the way home. My commute rules, don't take it away from me.

deltree7 5y ago

This could have never happened if Jeff and Sanjay were 'working from home' https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2018/12/10/the-friendship-that-made-google-huge https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2018/12/10/the-friendship... Who knows Google would have been an also-ran Search Engine company if it weren't for those two solving the right scale problems at the right time. And no amount of 'Productivity Metrics' can capture these leaps in value creation because it truly is of the 'Unknown-Unknown' category.

Apocryphon 5y ago
Most people are not going to be in the position, either in their role or the stage of they organization, to enact anything even remotely resembling that sort of innovation. Even when scaled down to their role and organization.