4 ms·

There are tradeoffs in both directions. Your point about spontaneous interactions is a good one, but consider the other tradeoffs at play: - open layout office

There are tradeoffs in both directions. Your point about spontaneous interactions is a good one, but consider the other tradeoffs at play: - open layout offices are awful places to work where many people struggle to focus at all, to the point where their work is negatively impacted - separating home location from work location opens up opportunities to work places certain people would never have considered before, unless they wanted to leave their friends/family/social groups/etc. behind - cutting out a commute every day saves folks time, money, stress, and likely cuts down on a lot of wasteful greenhouse gas emissions I'm relatively early in my career, but I also love WFH compared to in-office work. Why? I hated the commute, I don't like socializing with my coworkers outside of actual work, and I struggle to focus with folks on calls around me and without decent thermostat control. I acknowledge that some people can deal with all of those things, still be productive, and reap the benefits of in-person work. But there are also those of us whose careers have skyrocketed in the past couple of years specifically because we have a working arrangement that works better for us now. It's hard to say how much this will impact my career trajectory in the long term. But I'm also more concerned about my private social life and hobbies than I am about my career, and remote work works far better for that, too. TL;DR: Different strokes for different folks. Young people are not doomed by remote work.

EricE 4y ago
I'm not saying anyone is doomed - you are just going to have dramatically fewer opportunities for serendipitous interactions; that's just a plain fact any way you slice it. And maybe for your career path that isn't important - but for most people it's far more important than they likely realize. Your reputation is the greatest asset you have - it always saddens me at how carelessly many people today treat theirs. Social media doesn't help here either; heck it's a constant struggle for me too. I also don't think it has to be 100% either way. The most productive time in my career was when I split time in the office and at home. Office time was for meetings, collaboration, strategizing with others, networking, pushing the corporate bureaucracy along, etc. At home time was focus time to actually get shit done. It worked amazingly well and I consider myself fortunate to work for several organizations that did allow and respect at least some remote work. Like most things in life, extremes in any direction are rarely healthy, especially over time. What I think is most dangerous about moves like this is by pushing so hard to one extreme they risk convincing a company like Apple that the whole concept is more trouble than it's worth. I dunno, maybe there is enough of a labor shortage of smart people where Apple will really shoot themselves in the foot if they maintain a hard line - but I doubt it. We rarely are as essential to the organization as we like to think we are :) It will be interesting to see how it plays out but I think there are better ways of making your case than resorting to race bating and victimhood right out the gate.

EricE 4y ago

I'm not saying anyone is doomed - you are just going to have dramatically fewer opportunities for serendipitous interactions; that's just a plain fact any way you slice it. And maybe for your career path that isn't important - but for most people it's far more important than they likely realize. Your reputation is the greatest asset you have - it always saddens me at how carelessly many people today treat theirs. Social media doesn't help here either; heck it's a constant struggle for me too. I also don't think it has to be 100% either way. The most productive time in my career was when I split time in the office and at home. Office time was for meetings, collaboration, strategizing with others, networking, pushing the corporate bureaucracy along, etc. At home time was focus time to actually get shit done. It worked amazingly well and I consider myself fortunate to work for several organizations that did allow and respect at least some remote work. Like most things in life, extremes in any direction are rarely healthy, especially over time. What I think is most dangerous about moves like this is by pushing so hard to one extreme they risk convincing a company like Apple that the whole concept is more trouble than it's worth. I dunno, maybe there is enough of a labor shortage of smart people where Apple will really shoot themselves in the foot if they maintain a hard line - but I doubt it. We rarely are as essential to the organization as we like to think we are :) It will be interesting to see how it plays out but I think there are better ways of making your case than resorting to race bating and victimhood right out the gate.