4 ms·

My productivity went at least 10x when the pandemic happened. - No commute - No 1 hour lunch (walking, buying, eating, cleaning up) - Not in an open-desk off

My productivity went at least 10x when the pandemic happened. - No commute - No 1 hour lunch (walking, buying, eating, cleaning up) - Not in an open-desk office where I'm constantly interrupted - Meetings are much more focused and I can hop between meetings quickly - Easy to do chores if necessary during the day and then work extra hours at night to make up - Office politics much reduced, output is easier to measure by necessity and people's output is much more clear Additionally I was forced to double-down on socialization outside of the office, reinforcing relationships that exist no matter what company I work for, further reducing my aversion to jumping ship. In summation, WFH forever, I'm never going back

bratbag 4y ago
Meanwhile the people who were interrupting you have now had their productivity hit. The question is, do the two tradeoff as a net positive or a net negative for the company and how does that tradeoff work in more collaborative roles?
- rodrigodlu 4y ago
  One thing I learned going from hybrid to physical, then moving back to remote in the last decade os that the type of people that interrupts you all the time don't learn how to solve similar problems, because asking is cheaper. Having a history on your slack you can just search and remember the solution given. For myself it's also easy to remind someone of the similar problem and adapt from the slack history, like similar commands and steps to solve an issue. If more than one person asks about the same problem you can just copy and paste to a wiki and pin on the channel. It's definitely better if everyone is on the Toyota model mentality instead of the ancient Ford model. Then with the spare time I can actually do a lot with my remote teammates that is more social. Online games are a thing. Sharing photos of your last hike trail is another, discovering similar tastes and food recipes is also awesome. I get that remote is not for everyone, specially people wired for social touching, but I felt extremely handcuffed in a open office space, doing my actual work by getting into the office 1 to 2 hours before everyone else. I found that I'm more willing to socialize now because of better planning, decent schedules, and doing small talks after completing the hardest parts of the sprint, and respecting everyone's schedules by proper use of async comms. Remote is not "anti collaborative". It only requires a different mindset.
draw_down 4y ago
tomtheelder 4y ago
I had almost the exact opposite experience, and for basically all the same reasons you mentioned. - Lost my amazing bike commute. It's infinitely harder to motivate myself to bike for 30 mins in the morning and afternoon now, so I don't do it. - No lunch reset. I still take an extended lunch because I need it to break up my day, but now it's just me depressingly eating by myself. - Not in an open-desk office where I get to interact with people regularly. Being by myself all the time makes focusing pretty much impossible. - Meetings seem mostly the same to me, except that people are way less engaged. - Really easy to do non-work stuff instead of working, so I often find myself doing that instead. - Output remains impossible to measure. Building relationships is now extra difficult, so the people who have them have an even bigger leg up. And finally, reduced my connection to my peers and my org which drastically reduces my engagement and job satisfaction. I'm trying to get back to the office ASAP, and basically coming to terms with the fact that I'm probably going to need to switch industries because of this.

bratbag 4y ago

Meanwhile the people who were interrupting you have now had their productivity hit. The question is, do the two tradeoff as a net positive or a net negative for the company and how does that tradeoff work in more collaborative roles?

rodrigodlu 4y ago
One thing I learned going from hybrid to physical, then moving back to remote in the last decade os that the type of people that interrupts you all the time don't learn how to solve similar problems, because asking is cheaper. Having a history on your slack you can just search and remember the solution given. For myself it's also easy to remind someone of the similar problem and adapt from the slack history, like similar commands and steps to solve an issue. If more than one person asks about the same problem you can just copy and paste to a wiki and pin on the channel. It's definitely better if everyone is on the Toyota model mentality instead of the ancient Ford model. Then with the spare time I can actually do a lot with my remote teammates that is more social. Online games are a thing. Sharing photos of your last hike trail is another, discovering similar tastes and food recipes is also awesome. I get that remote is not for everyone, specially people wired for social touching, but I felt extremely handcuffed in a open office space, doing my actual work by getting into the office 1 to 2 hours before everyone else. I found that I'm more willing to socialize now because of better planning, decent schedules, and doing small talks after completing the hardest parts of the sprint, and respecting everyone's schedules by proper use of async comms. Remote is not "anti collaborative". It only requires a different mindset.

draw_down 4y ago

tomtheelder 4y ago

I had almost the exact opposite experience, and for basically all the same reasons you mentioned. - Lost my amazing bike commute. It's infinitely harder to motivate myself to bike for 30 mins in the morning and afternoon now, so I don't do it. - No lunch reset. I still take an extended lunch because I need it to break up my day, but now it's just me depressingly eating by myself. - Not in an open-desk office where I get to interact with people regularly. Being by myself all the time makes focusing pretty much impossible. - Meetings seem mostly the same to me, except that people are way less engaged. - Really easy to do non-work stuff instead of working, so I often find myself doing that instead. - Output remains impossible to measure. Building relationships is now extra difficult, so the people who have them have an even bigger leg up. And finally, reduced my connection to my peers and my org which drastically reduces my engagement and job satisfaction. I'm trying to get back to the office ASAP, and basically coming to terms with the fact that I'm probably going to need to switch industries because of this.