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I recently spent a week in the office with my team. First time I'd had office time with any team since mid-2018. It was really, really, really nice. I've been

I recently spent a week in the office with my team. First time I'd had office time with any team since mid-2018. It was really, really, really nice. I've been a diehard work-from-home guy for ages. Why spend perhaps 10+ hours per week commuting? It's a productivity and environmental nightmare. But... sometimes? Yeah. It's nice to be in the room with other smart people, solving hard problems. I didn't realize I missed it until I experienced it again. For the first time in years. I think it also helps team cohesion. We're human beings, not robots. I think my ideal schedule would be "3 days at home, 2 in the office" per week or maybe "one week in the office, two weeks at home." edit: I'm baffled by the polarized and inflammatory replies to this post. I was just relating a personal experience. I don't have opinions on how others should work. You want to be 100% fully remote forever? Cool. I don't think you're wrong. I'll continue to be remote a majority of the time, myself.

anothernewdude 5y ago
Some of us have moved to places that aren't a reasonable commute to an office. It's much nicer not having to deal with big city traffic for anything.
- JohnBooty 5y ago
  Yeah, I hate big cities, generally. Do you still spend (or, would you like to spend) any time with your teammates? Like several times per year? Or 100% remote?
- GoodJokes 5y ago
fartcannon 5y ago
I did the same and it was as unbelievably worthless as I recalled from before the pandemic. You know what really stands out in the office? How sad it all is. The frowns on the subway, the fake smiles in the office, the pretending, the posturing. Bleh. I'm resigning.
- JohnBooty 5y ago
  - walls 5y ago
    It's very likely you're the kind of person who makes everyone want to wfh.
    - JohnBooty 5y ago
      What is going on in this conversation thread?
      - ByteJockey 5y ago
        There are two camps that want something mutually exclusive (work from home vs work in office). Additionally, in order to get what they want, they need the other group to comply.* The struggle is spilling over into the comment threads. * If everyone works in the office, and the work from home people are still remote, they get passed over for promotions and basically have a good chance of tanking their career. If everyone works from home, the work in office people lose a lot of human interaction that they need on a human level.
        JohnBooty 5y ago
        I still find the replies to my personal experience very baffling. I didn't say what anybody else should be doing; I didn't present it as a universal truth. It seems very clear to me that there is room for a variety of workplace types. Strictly in-office, hybrid, and strictly remote. I said I enjoyed getting together with my coworkers; I also said my ideal situation would involve spending a majority of time remote.
        walls 5y ago
        Requiring any amount of office time completely eliminates the most meaningful advantages of working remotely.
crossroadsguy 5y ago
Those people have to be (labelled) smart, don’t they? I’ve noticed this as a very American thing to say on the lines of “I’m super excited to be here” :-)
- JohnBooty 5y ago
  I've read your comment a few times and I'm baffled. What are you saying, here? I understand that people fake "happiness" and "respect" all the time. Yes. It's true. But... you seem to be suggesting that I am faking it here? Why? My coworkers aren't reading this. They don't know my HN handle. I have never mentioned my employer on HN. What incentive would I have to be false here? If I am misunderstanding you, please explain.
  - crossroadsguy 5y ago
    No, I didn’t mean faking it at all. I commented as a light disagreement with: - need to use the word “smart people” or even such a need itself - also possibility of this being a trite - more of an unconscious habit without maybe meaning anything specific about it (again, not faking it) [1] And more importantly it was joke kind of a retort which I think I should have been clear about. Wasn’t a personal attack in any way. Edit: [1] e.g. like the zero day old guy saying in his intro, “I’m super excited to join you all super smart people. It’s gonna be fun”. And as for WFH - god, I just want to go back to office - fully or hybrid!!
- bshoemaker 5y ago
  Wtf are you on about
- flurie 5y ago
  It could be an example of Lake Woebegon effect[1], though I'm not sure that's the case here. On the other hand, making broad proclamations about nationalities based on anecdotes has another name. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lake_Wobegon#The_Lake_Wobegon_effect https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lake_Wobegon#The_Lake_Wobegon_...
  - 5y ago
Moto7451 5y ago
I get where you’re coming from. I’ve been half time remote since 2017 (I.e. on one coast half the time and back near the office the other half) and full time since 2019. It is very nice to visit and have a really good in person session occasionally. My work has moved the office to a general hoteling model where the dozen people that need the office every day are always welcome to use it. It’s mostly a ghost town but everyone is happy with how this worked out. The most common use case is a team coming into the office to see each other for the first time in two years or the first time ever depending on when they started. We have a rule that all calls are done over Zoom or Meet, so we will have the eventual insane looking situation of the majority of the participants in the same conference room speaking into a laptop. The company owns several Owl cameras which did a good job pre-pandemic of bridging the gap of seeing who is speaking in a conference room. I’m not sure if all laptops open is a good policy for remotes like myself but I’m sure we’ll figure that out in a few months time.
elisbce 5y ago
1. There are people who are more sociable and more likely to thrive working with other people in person, while some other type of people are more introverted, sensitive and dislike human interactions. 2. There are companies/work environments/jobs/teams where coworkers are mostly nice, smart and a pleasure to work with. There are also companies/work environments/jobs/teams that suck and filled with political, disgruntled and unhappy employees. So, the only thing that is universally true is YMMV.
- closeparen 5y ago
  There’s introverted and then there’s reclusive. People who don’t like big groups or find social situations draining may nevertheless find a lifestyle with 95% of their time spent alone (assuming 8 hours of social plans in a 168 hour week) to be too isolating.
  - AitchEmArsey 5y ago
    I am introverted, but the pandemic has taught me that I'm not actually suited to a reclusive life. I get far more done when working from home, but need a day in the office every month or so as a "reset", to remind myself that the company is bigger than just me and my projects, and that my colleagues are people rather than Slack bots.
mcronce 5y ago
I'm with you. I definitely miss having an office to go to. Would I take a job that required me to be in the office every day? Almost definitely not. Would I sacrifice a bit of pay if it meant working for a company local enough that I could go to the office 1-2 days a week? Probably. That would really be the sweet spot for me. I like working from home a lot, but being a fully remote team wears on you. I've considered taking a part time bartending job just to satisfy the desire to have in-person coworkers a bit of time a week.
wallfacer120 5y ago
Regarding why this post is so inflammatory, it's just tedious "i hate people" misanthropic posturing from people who still haven't figured out that their problem is them.
- deleted 5y ago
  [deleted]
- oblio 5y ago
  Misanthropic? How could you possibly understand that from their comment? I'd really want to see your reasoning...
  - bspammer 5y ago
    I think they’re talking about the replies
jackstraw14 5y ago
No offense, but your comment reads like it came from a script. Thing happened -> unexpected result -> wonder why -> learn more about yourself. And the moral of the story is that working in the office is not that bad, because we're human beings not... robots? Surely you're not so surprised to get these responses :)
- JohnBooty 5y ago
  I actually am surprised to get these responses, and I’ve sent a request to the mods to remove my account as I’m weirded out by what HN has become.
  - sevrinsky 5y ago
    I'm with you on this. I had the temerity to suggest there are benefits to face-to-face collaboration, and that meeting with colleagues was a valid reason for asking them to be on site in the office -- and I got raked over the coals as a butts-in-seats management lackey. https://ez.substack.com/p/the-work-from-home-future-is-destroying/comments?s=r#comment-2163876= https://ez.substack.com/p/the-work-from-home-future-is-destr...
pjc50 5y ago
> I'm baffled by the polarized and inflammatory replies to this post. I was just relating a personal experience. I don't have opinions on how others should work. You want to be 100% fully remote forever? Cool. I don't think you're wrong. I'll continue to be remote a majority of the time, myself. The problem is that choices aren't independent. While they're not using this language, you can see that other people are thinking of you as a "scab" for having crossed the "picket line" of returning to the office, and that admitting there is any benefit to being in the office at all will result in their life being made worse. That's why it's so heated. I wouldn't mind being in the office. I do mind commuting, and I definitely would mind getting COVID as my wife is in the vulnerable category.

anothernewdude 5y ago

Some of us have moved to places that aren't a reasonable commute to an office. It's much nicer not having to deal with big city traffic for anything.

JohnBooty 5y ago
Yeah, I hate big cities, generally. Do you still spend (or, would you like to spend) any time with your teammates? Like several times per year? Or 100% remote?
GoodJokes 5y ago

fartcannon 5y ago

I did the same and it was as unbelievably worthless as I recalled from before the pandemic. You know what really stands out in the office? How sad it all is. The frowns on the subway, the fake smiles in the office, the pretending, the posturing. Bleh. I'm resigning.

JohnBooty 5y ago
- walls 5y ago
  It's very likely you're the kind of person who makes everyone want to wfh.
  - JohnBooty 5y ago
    What is going on in this conversation thread?
    - ByteJockey 5y ago
      There are two camps that want something mutually exclusive (work from home vs work in office). Additionally, in order to get what they want, they need the other group to comply.* The struggle is spilling over into the comment threads. * If everyone works in the office, and the work from home people are still remote, they get passed over for promotions and basically have a good chance of tanking their career. If everyone works from home, the work in office people lose a lot of human interaction that they need on a human level.
      - JohnBooty 5y ago
        I still find the replies to my personal experience very baffling. I didn't say what anybody else should be doing; I didn't present it as a universal truth. It seems very clear to me that there is room for a variety of workplace types. Strictly in-office, hybrid, and strictly remote. I said I enjoyed getting together with my coworkers; I also said my ideal situation would involve spending a majority of time remote.
        walls 5y ago
        Requiring any amount of office time completely eliminates the most meaningful advantages of working remotely.

crossroadsguy 5y ago

Those people have to be (labelled) smart, don’t they? I’ve noticed this as a very American thing to say on the lines of “I’m super excited to be here” :-)

JohnBooty 5y ago
I've read your comment a few times and I'm baffled. What are you saying, here? I understand that people fake "happiness" and "respect" all the time. Yes. It's true. But... you seem to be suggesting that I am faking it here? Why? My coworkers aren't reading this. They don't know my HN handle. I have never mentioned my employer on HN. What incentive would I have to be false here? If I am misunderstanding you, please explain.
- crossroadsguy 5y ago
  No, I didn’t mean faking it at all. I commented as a light disagreement with: - need to use the word “smart people” or even such a need itself - also possibility of this being a trite - more of an unconscious habit without maybe meaning anything specific about it (again, not faking it) [1] And more importantly it was joke kind of a retort which I think I should have been clear about. Wasn’t a personal attack in any way. Edit: [1] e.g. like the zero day old guy saying in his intro, “I’m super excited to join you all super smart people. It’s gonna be fun”. And as for WFH - god, I just want to go back to office - fully or hybrid!!
bshoemaker 5y ago
Wtf are you on about
flurie 5y ago
It could be an example of Lake Woebegon effect[1], though I'm not sure that's the case here. On the other hand, making broad proclamations about nationalities based on anecdotes has another name. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lake_Wobegon#The_Lake_Wobegon_effect https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lake_Wobegon#The_Lake_Wobegon_...
- 5y ago

Moto7451 5y ago

I get where you’re coming from. I’ve been half time remote since 2017 (I.e. on one coast half the time and back near the office the other half) and full time since 2019. It is very nice to visit and have a really good in person session occasionally. My work has moved the office to a general hoteling model where the dozen people that need the office every day are always welcome to use it. It’s mostly a ghost town but everyone is happy with how this worked out. The most common use case is a team coming into the office to see each other for the first time in two years or the first time ever depending on when they started. We have a rule that all calls are done over Zoom or Meet, so we will have the eventual insane looking situation of the majority of the participants in the same conference room speaking into a laptop. The company owns several Owl cameras which did a good job pre-pandemic of bridging the gap of seeing who is speaking in a conference room. I’m not sure if all laptops open is a good policy for remotes like myself but I’m sure we’ll figure that out in a few months time.

elisbce 5y ago

1. There are people who are more sociable and more likely to thrive working with other people in person, while some other type of people are more introverted, sensitive and dislike human interactions. 2. There are companies/work environments/jobs/teams where coworkers are mostly nice, smart and a pleasure to work with. There are also companies/work environments/jobs/teams that suck and filled with political, disgruntled and unhappy employees. So, the only thing that is universally true is YMMV.

closeparen 5y ago
There’s introverted and then there’s reclusive. People who don’t like big groups or find social situations draining may nevertheless find a lifestyle with 95% of their time spent alone (assuming 8 hours of social plans in a 168 hour week) to be too isolating.
- AitchEmArsey 5y ago
  I am introverted, but the pandemic has taught me that I'm not actually suited to a reclusive life. I get far more done when working from home, but need a day in the office every month or so as a "reset", to remind myself that the company is bigger than just me and my projects, and that my colleagues are people rather than Slack bots.

mcronce 5y ago

I'm with you. I definitely miss having an office to go to. Would I take a job that required me to be in the office every day? Almost definitely not. Would I sacrifice a bit of pay if it meant working for a company local enough that I could go to the office 1-2 days a week? Probably. That would really be the sweet spot for me. I like working from home a lot, but being a fully remote team wears on you. I've considered taking a part time bartending job just to satisfy the desire to have in-person coworkers a bit of time a week.

wallfacer120 5y ago

Regarding why this post is so inflammatory, it's just tedious "i hate people" misanthropic posturing from people who still haven't figured out that their problem is them.

deleted 5y ago
[deleted]
oblio 5y ago
Misanthropic? How could you possibly understand that from their comment? I'd really want to see your reasoning...
- bspammer 5y ago
  I think they’re talking about the replies

jackstraw14 5y ago

No offense, but your comment reads like it came from a script. Thing happened -> unexpected result -> wonder why -> learn more about yourself. And the moral of the story is that working in the office is not that bad, because we're human beings not... robots? Surely you're not so surprised to get these responses :)

JohnBooty 5y ago
I actually am surprised to get these responses, and I’ve sent a request to the mods to remove my account as I’m weirded out by what HN has become.
- sevrinsky 5y ago
  I'm with you on this. I had the temerity to suggest there are benefits to face-to-face collaboration, and that meeting with colleagues was a valid reason for asking them to be on site in the office -- and I got raked over the coals as a butts-in-seats management lackey. https://ez.substack.com/p/the-work-from-home-future-is-destroying/comments?s=r#comment-2163876= https://ez.substack.com/p/the-work-from-home-future-is-destr...

pjc50 5y ago

> I'm baffled by the polarized and inflammatory replies to this post. I was just relating a personal experience. I don't have opinions on how others should work. You want to be 100% fully remote forever? Cool. I don't think you're wrong. I'll continue to be remote a majority of the time, myself. The problem is that choices aren't independent. While they're not using this language, you can see that other people are thinking of you as a "scab" for having crossed the "picket line" of returning to the office, and that admitting there is any benefit to being in the office at all will result in their life being made worse. That's why it's so heated. I wouldn't mind being in the office. I do mind commuting, and I definitely would mind getting COVID as my wife is in the vulnerable category.