4 ms·

I expect you'll get downvoted by the vocal cohort on HN that hates working in-person, but FWIW I agree with you. 9/12 years of my career have been remote, and i

I expect you'll get downvoted by the vocal cohort on HN that hates working in-person, but FWIW I agree with you. 9/12 years of my career have been remote, and increasingly it's difficult to even find a job that has an office. But the time I was in the same building with the whole team I was working with were the most productive and enjoyable years of my career. I really wish I could get that back.

TameAntelope 4y ago
As someone who has been WFH for ~5 years now, I 100% agree. I very much miss being in an office, WFH is not nearly as fun as it's made out to be, especially when my "from office" years were still very flexible, no "butts in chairs" attitude, just "here's a place to get work done and talk to your coworkers", which IMO is how you should treat any adult with a digital job. The key is "and talk to your coworkers" though. Video calls just don't do it for me.
koliber 4y ago
I have been working exclusively remotely for over a decade as well. I also occasionally reminisce about working from the office. There were some really great aspects of it. At the same time, there are lots of great things about working from home Recently I tried to see how those tradeoffs stack up against each other. I had an insight. A lot of what I missed about working from the office had nothing to do with working from the office. It had a lot to do with me being younger, without so many family commitments, and a lot of free time and flexibility. Concretely, in my 20's and early 30's, I would have preferred working from an office. But later on, I vastly prefer working from home. The tradeoffs get weighed differently depending on what stage in life I am at.
jokethrowaway 4y ago
I worked remote for 12/16 (the 4 years being somewhere in the middle). Working from the office was surely fun. Jokes, ping pong, lunches, going to the gym, coffee breaks, beers, useless meetings, company parties. Most of my time in the office wasn't productive but I was sure happier about the company. Working remote it's easier not to give a crap about your employer. Still, at least you have time to get stuff done without anyone bothering you and then have some extra free time.

TameAntelope 4y ago

As someone who has been WFH for ~5 years now, I 100% agree. I very much miss being in an office, WFH is not nearly as fun as it's made out to be, especially when my "from office" years were still very flexible, no "butts in chairs" attitude, just "here's a place to get work done and talk to your coworkers", which IMO is how you should treat any adult with a digital job. The key is "and talk to your coworkers" though. Video calls just don't do it for me.

koliber 4y ago

I have been working exclusively remotely for over a decade as well. I also occasionally reminisce about working from the office. There were some really great aspects of it. At the same time, there are lots of great things about working from home Recently I tried to see how those tradeoffs stack up against each other. I had an insight. A lot of what I missed about working from the office had nothing to do with working from the office. It had a lot to do with me being younger, without so many family commitments, and a lot of free time and flexibility. Concretely, in my 20's and early 30's, I would have preferred working from an office. But later on, I vastly prefer working from home. The tradeoffs get weighed differently depending on what stage in life I am at.

jokethrowaway 4y ago

I worked remote for 12/16 (the 4 years being somewhere in the middle). Working from the office was surely fun. Jokes, ping pong, lunches, going to the gym, coffee breaks, beers, useless meetings, company parties. Most of my time in the office wasn't productive but I was sure happier about the company. Working remote it's easier not to give a crap about your employer. Still, at least you have time to get stuff done without anyone bothering you and then have some extra free time.