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> WFH is only going to make this worse. Absolutely. No way we are stripping 8h of daily socialization without any adversal effect on our social lives. I can fe

> WFH is only going to make this worse. Absolutely. No way we are stripping 8h of daily socialization without any adversal effect on our social lives. I can feel it myself. And no, "finding other places to talk to people" is not a solution, because work time is 50% of my waking hours, and removing that social connection is terrible by itself.

waboremo 4y ago
Finding other places to talk to people is a solution it's just not one you're willing to take seriously due to prioritizing work over a social life. There is a group of people that genuinely have an excuse here, but most of their jobs weren't even applicable for WFH and they're working insane hours just for minimum wage.
- rafaelero 4y ago
  Oh, but I am willing. But will I get fired if I do so? Because if I am going to socialize during worktime I won't be available right away during this period.
  - waboremo 4y ago
    I don't know, are you going to get fired for joining a book club?
    - rafaelero 4y ago
      During work time? I am not sure actually.
Loocid 4y ago
There is no way 8h of work can be classed as 8h of socialization. Especially in fields that can be done WFH. The vast majority of my work hours are spent facing the screen not socializing with anyone. A more realistic number would be a couple of hours in my opinion, which is still significant.
- rafaelero 4y ago
  > A more realistic number would be a couple of hours in my opinion, which is still significant. Yeah, I agree.
randomdata 4y ago
Wait. Why are you stripping away socialization again? Those who started WFH during the pandemic may not realize, but WFH stands for work from anywhere. You may have needed to lock yourself in your bedroom during the height of the pandemic, but those days are coming to a close. Venture out into the world. If you have no existing friend group that wants to work alongside you, head to the coffeeshop, the bar, the park, the library. You'll soon find people to socialize with.
- rafaelero 4y ago
  I think I am not making myself very clear. It's not a question of having or not friends to socialize with after work. It's about socializing DURING workhours. Even on WFH, we are still working the usual 8h. And I feel like I am losing a ton of opportunities to engage in meaningful conversations when I am alone at home or at a cafe. The question then is: how do we create environments that allow these types working hours interactions in a WFH setting?
  - randomdata 4y ago
    > It's not a question of having or not friends to socialize with after work. It's about socializing DURING workhours. You have made yourself clear. We are talking about during work hours. That is the very freedom that WFH allows. Again, WFH is short for work from anywhere. > how do we create environments that allow these types working hours interactions in a WFH setting? Why do you think they don't already exist? I have WFH for 20 years now and have never found much difficulty to find people to work with, save the pandemic period. And I am based in rural area. Imagine how much easier it would be to find people to work with in a city! As I alluded to earlier, I think the pandemic being the introduction to WFH for a lot of people has skewed perceptions. They went WFH because they had to stay home alone. But those days are quickly moving behind us. You can work anywhere again now. Venture out into the world. There are people out there. If the cafe isn't working, try another venue. You are only limited by your ingenuity.
    - tomduncalf 4y ago
      > if all else fails, get a second job that is in front of people and also do your WFH job there This sounds like a very convoluted workaround for something which, for some people, is solved by having an office to go into. I think what is very clear every time this WFH topic comes up is that different people have very different strong opinions on it, which is fine. I wish people would respect each other’s opinions a bit more though. For some people, working from an office works well from them. Personally, having worked from home for three years (2 pandemic, 1 in a remote job), I’ve found I really miss that “casual” social interaction with people at work and I don’t believe I could replace that by going into a cafe - maybe it’s a personality thing and/or a location/cultural thing but it’s very rare for me to just strike up meaningful conversation in a cafe here in London. Maybe a coworking space would be better but I still think there’s a lot of value to social interactions with your actual colleagues. Others obviously feel differently, whether that’s because they want to live somewhere outside of a major metropolitan area, or because they don’t enjoy that kind of interaction, or whatever, and that’s also fine. I guess the challenge is how companies reconcile the two into something that works. “Hybrid” only works if you have a decent number of people actually coming in to the office otherwise yeah, you might as well just go to a coworking space. I suspect we’ll see companies starting to align more to one model or the other as time progresses, and I think that’s fine - people can choose companies whos model works for them.

waboremo 4y ago

Finding other places to talk to people is a solution it's just not one you're willing to take seriously due to prioritizing work over a social life. There is a group of people that genuinely have an excuse here, but most of their jobs weren't even applicable for WFH and they're working insane hours just for minimum wage.

rafaelero 4y ago
Oh, but I am willing. But will I get fired if I do so? Because if I am going to socialize during worktime I won't be available right away during this period.
- waboremo 4y ago
  I don't know, are you going to get fired for joining a book club?
  - rafaelero 4y ago
    During work time? I am not sure actually.

Loocid 4y ago

There is no way 8h of work can be classed as 8h of socialization. Especially in fields that can be done WFH. The vast majority of my work hours are spent facing the screen not socializing with anyone. A more realistic number would be a couple of hours in my opinion, which is still significant.

rafaelero 4y ago
> A more realistic number would be a couple of hours in my opinion, which is still significant. Yeah, I agree.

randomdata 4y ago

Wait. Why are you stripping away socialization again? Those who started WFH during the pandemic may not realize, but WFH stands for work from anywhere. You may have needed to lock yourself in your bedroom during the height of the pandemic, but those days are coming to a close. Venture out into the world. If you have no existing friend group that wants to work alongside you, head to the coffeeshop, the bar, the park, the library. You'll soon find people to socialize with.

rafaelero 4y ago
I think I am not making myself very clear. It's not a question of having or not friends to socialize with after work. It's about socializing DURING workhours. Even on WFH, we are still working the usual 8h. And I feel like I am losing a ton of opportunities to engage in meaningful conversations when I am alone at home or at a cafe. The question then is: how do we create environments that allow these types working hours interactions in a WFH setting?
- randomdata 4y ago
  > It's not a question of having or not friends to socialize with after work. It's about socializing DURING workhours. You have made yourself clear. We are talking about during work hours. That is the very freedom that WFH allows. Again, WFH is short for work from anywhere. > how do we create environments that allow these types working hours interactions in a WFH setting? Why do you think they don't already exist? I have WFH for 20 years now and have never found much difficulty to find people to work with, save the pandemic period. And I am based in rural area. Imagine how much easier it would be to find people to work with in a city! As I alluded to earlier, I think the pandemic being the introduction to WFH for a lot of people has skewed perceptions. They went WFH because they had to stay home alone. But those days are quickly moving behind us. You can work anywhere again now. Venture out into the world. There are people out there. If the cafe isn't working, try another venue. You are only limited by your ingenuity.
  - tomduncalf 4y ago
    > if all else fails, get a second job that is in front of people and also do your WFH job there This sounds like a very convoluted workaround for something which, for some people, is solved by having an office to go into. I think what is very clear every time this WFH topic comes up is that different people have very different strong opinions on it, which is fine. I wish people would respect each other’s opinions a bit more though. For some people, working from an office works well from them. Personally, having worked from home for three years (2 pandemic, 1 in a remote job), I’ve found I really miss that “casual” social interaction with people at work and I don’t believe I could replace that by going into a cafe - maybe it’s a personality thing and/or a location/cultural thing but it’s very rare for me to just strike up meaningful conversation in a cafe here in London. Maybe a coworking space would be better but I still think there’s a lot of value to social interactions with your actual colleagues. Others obviously feel differently, whether that’s because they want to live somewhere outside of a major metropolitan area, or because they don’t enjoy that kind of interaction, or whatever, and that’s also fine. I guess the challenge is how companies reconcile the two into something that works. “Hybrid” only works if you have a decent number of people actually coming in to the office otherwise yeah, you might as well just go to a coworking space. I suspect we’ll see companies starting to align more to one model or the other as time progresses, and I think that’s fine - people can choose companies whos model works for them.