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I'm not sure about a deliberate ruse. In my experience, that level of forward planning is rare in big companies. What is clear to me is that hybrid is the wors

I'm not sure about a deliberate ruse. In my experience, that level of forward planning is rare in big companies. What is clear to me is that hybrid is the worst of both worlds: Incurring the many costs of having to come to the office, only to find that such and such colleague is at home, and there is little to zero added value to your presence there. So from that, it follows naturally that many companies will slippery-slope into full time in the office, aducing that it is an advantage over hybrid.

jodrellblank 4y ago
> "What is clear to me is that hybrid is the worst of both worlds: Incurring the many costs of having to come to the office" and the costs of having to maintain a home office. The costs of maintaining a commuting vehicle or transport ticket and office clothes, while not using them at least half the time. The time cost of commuting. The faff of a laptop, or the cost of two sets of equipment and the effort of keeping them in sync. It's the combined cost of working from home and working from the office, without the benefit of being able to work from a cheaper nicer home far away, or the benefit of committing to every day office work and having everyone in. Programmers love the "union of all the negatives, none of the individual positives" when it's called "cross platform compatible software" so why not rebrand this from hybrid work to cross environment compatible work?
closeparen 4y ago
Software engineering is a mix of collaboration and individual focused work. Zoom meetings are awful and the office is much better at supporting collaboration and human connections. The big loud open floor is a terrible place to think; WFH is much better at supporting focus. It remains to be seen whether we get the proportions right, or actually sort the right activities into the right settings, but it has the potential to be the best of both worlds. Many were actually hybrid working before the pandemic. Regularly sending emails like “I have no meetings today and need to get this done, so I’m staying home.” Still physically and socially part of the team.
georgeecollins 4y ago
> "What is clear to me is that hybrid is the worst of both worlds I don't agree with this because I think my office is nice and not a barnyard. I mean a door, a window, nice amenities and easy use of a conference room for meetings. I have worked for tech companies that had offices that were like these giant open floors or cubicle farms. There were all these reasons people said they were good but really I think it was that they were cheap and it was easy to circulate people through them in places with high turnover. I'm never working in a place like that again. My work is currently hybrid and what I like about it is if I want to work from home to keep odd hours or save time by not driving to work. If I want to have a particular time of focus, or host a meeting including guests, I can work in the office. Also, I should mention I have a short commute. Not everyone has all this, but this is what I think we should aspire to.
- greedo 4y ago
  99% of office workers don't have an office with a door, or a short commute.

jodrellblank 4y ago

> "What is clear to me is that hybrid is the worst of both worlds: Incurring the many costs of having to come to the office" and the costs of having to maintain a home office. The costs of maintaining a commuting vehicle or transport ticket and office clothes, while not using them at least half the time. The time cost of commuting. The faff of a laptop, or the cost of two sets of equipment and the effort of keeping them in sync. It's the combined cost of working from home and working from the office, without the benefit of being able to work from a cheaper nicer home far away, or the benefit of committing to every day office work and having everyone in. Programmers love the "union of all the negatives, none of the individual positives" when it's called "cross platform compatible software" so why not rebrand this from hybrid work to cross environment compatible work?

closeparen 4y ago

Software engineering is a mix of collaboration and individual focused work. Zoom meetings are awful and the office is much better at supporting collaboration and human connections. The big loud open floor is a terrible place to think; WFH is much better at supporting focus. It remains to be seen whether we get the proportions right, or actually sort the right activities into the right settings, but it has the potential to be the best of both worlds. Many were actually hybrid working before the pandemic. Regularly sending emails like “I have no meetings today and need to get this done, so I’m staying home.” Still physically and socially part of the team.

georgeecollins 4y ago

> "What is clear to me is that hybrid is the worst of both worlds I don't agree with this because I think my office is nice and not a barnyard. I mean a door, a window, nice amenities and easy use of a conference room for meetings. I have worked for tech companies that had offices that were like these giant open floors or cubicle farms. There were all these reasons people said they were good but really I think it was that they were cheap and it was easy to circulate people through them in places with high turnover. I'm never working in a place like that again. My work is currently hybrid and what I like about it is if I want to work from home to keep odd hours or save time by not driving to work. If I want to have a particular time of focus, or host a meeting including guests, I can work in the office. Also, I should mention I have a short commute. Not everyone has all this, but this is what I think we should aspire to.

greedo 4y ago
99% of office workers don't have an office with a door, or a short commute.