5 ms·

I am tired of hearing banalities about remote working

25 points by brainrepo 4y ago

tanseydavid 4y ago
"We want to laugh at the coffee machine." I actually, initially thought the author meant "ridicule the coffee machine". How rude. ;)
- antiquark 4y ago
  Don't worry, coffee machines don't have emotions... YET!
- Bilal_io 4y ago
  Funny, I've laughed at the coffee machine at my previous job, because I am a coffee snob. For the past year I've been at a new job with no threat of ever going back to the office, and I get to drink all the coffee I want from a machine that cost me so much I can only smile. <rant> If the goal is to laugh with you coworkers, you can still do that. I have all kinds of conversations with coworkers about life, politics, silly things, pets, coffee.. etc And if the goal is to have coffee with your coworkers, meet them and talk and laugh. WFH benefits everyone, even the people with jobs that cannot be done remotely. Think about traffic, and rent, the environmental benefits. </rant>
  - yrgulation 4y ago
    Speaking about coffee machines i have one of those pods machines and make my own starbucks at home. A delight. Decafo tho. Have 4-5 a day.
effnorwood 4y ago
deleted 4y ago
[deleted]
ChuckNorris89 4y ago
From the article's author: >I am just coming back from a very intense company retirement with activities that helped me reach my limits Yeah, no thanks, I don't want to "reach my limits" by being pressured into childish team building activities with random people from work I've never met IRL. Not my thing. I have my own groups of friends for that. >Hei man, if you would see our slack channels, where hundreds of people share opinions, experiences and their pets’ photos, you would understand. Is there something wrong with me if I don't care at all the about pet photos, and other non work related opinions and experiences of hundreds of people I don't personally know IRL and rarely get to meet? To me those slack channels are just noise that distract me from wrapping up my work sooner so I can go have fun. I have my own Signal and WhatsApp groups of people I actually know personally and care about. >I can call them friends after seeing them just one time! I don't think you know what true friendship is about. Last month I got a bad case of COVID, hurt myself seriously, and had to be taken to the hospital. I had 3 IRL friends who offered their help with my recovery on a daily basis. Would your new remote work colleague "friends" that you met once in a company retreat fly over from their countries and take care of you? Probably not. Work colleagues you only met once IRL aren't your true friends. They'll quickly forget about you after the retreat is over and focus on their IRL friends back home. Lots of strong and loaded opinions on both sides in this article. I don't think one is more right than the other, just that each is working for a companies with different cultures, in industries where one is more modern, one is more traditional and so is their customer base, where one values physical interaction more for business success vs the other, so of course both approaches are not compatible, but that doesn't make one wrong or one right. I WFH so I get the author's PoV, but that's mostly applicable to his/our bubble. From my experience, an engineering or other more traditional company will value face to face interaction and handshake business deals more than web startups or SaaS companies, so his cheap shots at trying to out-smug the author of that LinkedIn post from his SW remote-work high-horse are missing the point completely and don't put him in a better light.
- tdeck 4y ago
  > Would your new remote work colleague "friends" that you met once in a company retreat fly over from their countries and take care of you? Probably not. Who said you can only have IRL friends through work? It's possible to have interactions outside the work context and to make friends outside of work.
bvanderveen 4y ago
Is there an official party line that wfh is in every way for every person everywhere always better, and it’s best not to kick that hornet’s nest? Asking for a friend.
- SQueeeeeL 4y ago
  I feel the problem is that many people in healthy offices already have a productive relationship with WFH, and understand the inherent costs and benefits. But there exists a large group who work in inherently toxic environments with sociopathic management for whom WFH is an essential component towards stability and is also the first places trying to force them to be in person.
- coldtea 4y ago
  The option to WFH, and avoid commuting, congestion, pollution, higher costs, disruptions, be closer to your spouse/kids, and don't lose an additional 2 hours every day is indeed inherently better for anyone, everywhere. If someone likes socializing, they can do more of that when WFH too (especially since WFH really means: working from anywhere, be it a cafe, a coworking space, a village, or wherever they like). Except it their have issues at their home. But going to an office is not a solution to that, is sidestepping their real problem... The only place where that's not good is when you need expesinve resources to work (e.g. access to labs and machines).
  - compiler-devel 4y ago
    From an environmental impact perspective alone, the opportunity to free the planet from emissions, lower the demand for vehicles, improve pedestrian safety by staying off the road, and lower commute-induced stressors on our bodies should be enough of a reason to WFH whenever possible. And those are only the first benefits of the practice.
    - krashidov 4y ago
      You are conflating automobile transport with working from an office. They are different issues.
xchip 4y ago
Only micromanagers and people that need attention or supervision need to go to the office.
- dogcatter 4y ago
  Is that your example banality?
yrgulation 4y ago
Those who advocate for on site work are like people of the old age that advocated for in store shopping. They thought no one would ever shop online because they’d need to touch and feel the products before buying. Same kind of people who thought blockbuster is better than netflix because people want the experience. The reality tho is the world is changing and so is how we work in it.
- qubex 4y ago
  I thill think online shopping is a very poor substitute for in/store shopping. I bemoan the loss of physical media.
- throwaway22032 4y ago
  How is in store shopping "of the old age"? Do you ever go outside...?
- hulitu 4y ago
  I don't know what netflix you have but on mine Star trek looks horrible and the sound is so bad that i have to turn the volume to 70% to be able to distinguish what people speak. Online shopping is nice until you realize that the piece of clothing you bought is total crap and it does not resemble the picture on the website. And not everybody has time to spend at the Post office shipping back parcels.
- aiisjustanif 4y ago
  100% agree. For those saying online shopping is bad, revenues say otherwise.
musicale 4y ago
My contribution to the collection of truisms: I like working at home, but I hate living at work.

25 points by brainrepo 4y ago

"We want to laugh at the coffee machine." I actually, initially thought the author meant "ridicule the coffee machine". How rude. ;)

antiquark 4y ago
Don't worry, coffee machines don't have emotions... YET!
Bilal_io 4y ago
Funny, I've laughed at the coffee machine at my previous job, because I am a coffee snob. For the past year I've been at a new job with no threat of ever going back to the office, and I get to drink all the coffee I want from a machine that cost me so much I can only smile. <rant> If the goal is to laugh with you coworkers, you can still do that. I have all kinds of conversations with coworkers about life, politics, silly things, pets, coffee.. etc And if the goal is to have coffee with your coworkers, meet them and talk and laugh. WFH benefits everyone, even the people with jobs that cannot be done remotely. Think about traffic, and rent, the environmental benefits. </rant>
- yrgulation 4y ago
  Speaking about coffee machines i have one of those pods machines and make my own starbucks at home. A delight. Decafo tho. Have 4-5 a day.

effnorwood 4y ago

deleted 4y ago

[deleted]

ChuckNorris89 4y ago

From the article's author: >I am just coming back from a very intense company retirement with activities that helped me reach my limits Yeah, no thanks, I don't want to "reach my limits" by being pressured into childish team building activities with random people from work I've never met IRL. Not my thing. I have my own groups of friends for that. >Hei man, if you would see our slack channels, where hundreds of people share opinions, experiences and their pets’ photos, you would understand. Is there something wrong with me if I don't care at all the about pet photos, and other non work related opinions and experiences of hundreds of people I don't personally know IRL and rarely get to meet? To me those slack channels are just noise that distract me from wrapping up my work sooner so I can go have fun. I have my own Signal and WhatsApp groups of people I actually know personally and care about. >I can call them friends after seeing them just one time! I don't think you know what true friendship is about. Last month I got a bad case of COVID, hurt myself seriously, and had to be taken to the hospital. I had 3 IRL friends who offered their help with my recovery on a daily basis. Would your new remote work colleague "friends" that you met once in a company retreat fly over from their countries and take care of you? Probably not. Work colleagues you only met once IRL aren't your true friends. They'll quickly forget about you after the retreat is over and focus on their IRL friends back home. Lots of strong and loaded opinions on both sides in this article. I don't think one is more right than the other, just that each is working for a companies with different cultures, in industries where one is more modern, one is more traditional and so is their customer base, where one values physical interaction more for business success vs the other, so of course both approaches are not compatible, but that doesn't make one wrong or one right. I WFH so I get the author's PoV, but that's mostly applicable to his/our bubble. From my experience, an engineering or other more traditional company will value face to face interaction and handshake business deals more than web startups or SaaS companies, so his cheap shots at trying to out-smug the author of that LinkedIn post from his SW remote-work high-horse are missing the point completely and don't put him in a better light.

tdeck 4y ago
> Would your new remote work colleague "friends" that you met once in a company retreat fly over from their countries and take care of you? Probably not. Who said you can only have IRL friends through work? It's possible to have interactions outside the work context and to make friends outside of work.

bvanderveen 4y ago

Is there an official party line that wfh is in every way for every person everywhere always better, and it’s best not to kick that hornet’s nest? Asking for a friend.

SQueeeeeL 4y ago
I feel the problem is that many people in healthy offices already have a productive relationship with WFH, and understand the inherent costs and benefits. But there exists a large group who work in inherently toxic environments with sociopathic management for whom WFH is an essential component towards stability and is also the first places trying to force them to be in person.
coldtea 4y ago
The option to WFH, and avoid commuting, congestion, pollution, higher costs, disruptions, be closer to your spouse/kids, and don't lose an additional 2 hours every day is indeed inherently better for anyone, everywhere. If someone likes socializing, they can do more of that when WFH too (especially since WFH really means: working from anywhere, be it a cafe, a coworking space, a village, or wherever they like). Except it their have issues at their home. But going to an office is not a solution to that, is sidestepping their real problem... The only place where that's not good is when you need expesinve resources to work (e.g. access to labs and machines).
- compiler-devel 4y ago
  From an environmental impact perspective alone, the opportunity to free the planet from emissions, lower the demand for vehicles, improve pedestrian safety by staying off the road, and lower commute-induced stressors on our bodies should be enough of a reason to WFH whenever possible. And those are only the first benefits of the practice.
  - krashidov 4y ago
    You are conflating automobile transport with working from an office. They are different issues.

xchip 4y ago

Only micromanagers and people that need attention or supervision need to go to the office.

dogcatter 4y ago
Is that your example banality?

yrgulation 4y ago

Those who advocate for on site work are like people of the old age that advocated for in store shopping. They thought no one would ever shop online because they’d need to touch and feel the products before buying. Same kind of people who thought blockbuster is better than netflix because people want the experience. The reality tho is the world is changing and so is how we work in it.

qubex 4y ago
I thill think online shopping is a very poor substitute for in/store shopping. I bemoan the loss of physical media.
throwaway22032 4y ago
How is in store shopping "of the old age"? Do you ever go outside...?
hulitu 4y ago
I don't know what netflix you have but on mine Star trek looks horrible and the sound is so bad that i have to turn the volume to 70% to be able to distinguish what people speak. Online shopping is nice until you realize that the piece of clothing you bought is total crap and it does not resemble the picture on the website. And not everybody has time to spend at the Post office shipping back parcels.
aiisjustanif 4y ago
100% agree. For those saying online shopping is bad, revenues say otherwise.

musicale 4y ago

My contribution to the collection of truisms: I like working at home, but I hate living at work.