5 ms·

Maybe I'm in the minority, but I dont want a fun-filled work environment. I want to work then go home to my family where we have a fun-filled home environment.

zemvpferreira 4y ago
You (and I) are in the minority, or at least there are a good number of people that feel the opposite. Looking around me I see plenty of acquaintances that use work to get as far away as possible from their homes and families. People are weird, man.
- Entinel 4y ago
  I don't think it's weird. Sometimes you just want to not look at the same 4 walls everyday, sometimes you just want to see a different set of faces. I like co-working spaces to mix things up from time to time.
- theturtletalks 4y ago
  Many entrepreneurs start their business from home. Before they know it, their isn’t a separation between work and life and that can take a toll. It doesn’t mean they need to get away from home or the family.
- rafaelero 4y ago
  Or maybe you guys are too obsessed with your domestic life? It's pretty common for people to reach 50 years old and realize they haven't cultivated a vibrant social life outside their marriage. And that's also not ideal.
  - zemvpferreira 4y ago
    I'm not married. I have a girlfriend, no kids and live by myself. I see friends for lunch or dinner every day. Maybe that's why I'm happy at home.
    - rafaelero 4y ago
      Now imagine not only having lunch, but also working (or coexisting in the same workspace) with enjoyable people. Wouldn't that be awesome?
      - xboxnolifes 4y ago
        A lot of people don't find "people", the general case, enjoyable to be around, every day, for most of the day. Finding friends I enjoy being around some of the time was/is hard enough. The chance a random co-working space will be full of people I enjoy being around is closer to lottery odds. If such odds were more realistic, I would agree.
A4ET8a8uTh0 4y ago
Eh, I think ( there is no credible data I could find ) people like you are in a minority. For whatever reason, people consider work and workspace their 2nd home ( hence all sorts of personal items on their desks, while mine is barren like I am ready to leave tomorrow... which I am, but that is besides the point ). I am agreeing with you. Work can stay work. I don't need a contest for most scary cubicle. Still, some people go for that stuff. Let me them stay in office. For me, WFH all the way. I make my own fun there.
- unethical_ban 4y ago
  >For whatever reason, people consider work and workspace their 2nd home Maybe because it's 1/3 of a person's life and they want to make the most of it.
nolok 4y ago
Agreed. I guess it depends on how much time you spend at work. Eg in France the legal worktime is 35h, the debate is "32h proposed by the left, going back to 39h proposed by the right", but when I read the twitter people having to do 80h/week under Musk not only do I feel so horrible for them, but I understand then why a "fun filled environment" might be required to avoid people all falling into depression ... And also there is no way those people are anywhere near productive for more than half of those 80 hours.
mcculley 4y ago
Many people are young, single, and don't yet have a family. They want more opportunities to meet people. Not that I think work should be where people find relationships, but rather that different age groups have different needs and desires.
- tech_tuna 4y ago
  This 100%. I'm an old shit but I too was younger once and paid rent and lived in/near the downtown area where I live. I totally regret throwing away all that rent money but anyway, here I am. At my old company, there were two main offices - one in an office park in the suburbs for the "grownups" and a smaller one in a hip part of downtown for the "kiddies". I worked remotely the entire time and that company also had a large percentage of remote folks like me, this was years before Covid. tl;dr for a lot of younger/single people, work can be a big part of one's social life.
- rendall 4y ago
  > Not that I think work should be where people find relationships... Full-time employees spend nearly all of their active hours at work. If they do not find relationships / friendships there, where and when will they?
  - sidlls 4y ago
    Clubs (activities or nightclubs), online networks, out-and-about (stores), from their existing friends network, etc.
    - rendall 4y ago
      I think this idea that one should not form friendships with coworkers is unnatural. It leads to isolation.
      - mcculley 4y ago
        I wrote relationships, not friendships. I maintain that having sex with coworkers is ill-advised, but not for the same reasons as employers and their HR departments.
rafaelero 4y ago
And why wouldn't you want to have both?
Eric_WVGG 4y ago
I think “fun” is maybe a bad descriptor of the WeWork aesthetic. Take a look at Office Space, that sort of sterile, glaring white environment was the norm for offices right up to the new millennium. Yes, WeWork has some goofy themes (I had the misfortune of one that took Coney Island as an inspiration, so there were scattered silhouettes of Ferris wheels here and there), but at its core was warm, dark walls that were easy on the eyes, generally good interior design, and people who actually wanted to be at their jobs. I didn’t love it, but far from the worst place I ever had to work. And once in a while I still drop by an authentic Manhattan office building, and it is like stepping back into the eighties. It’s no wonder jumping off buildings was so popular among stockbrokers…
- trgn 4y ago
  The aesthetic has a name, "resimercial". Agreed that "fun" doesn't quite capture it, even though often times the arcade machine and corn hole boards give that inmpression. I think tbh wework's vibe works quite well for temporary office/flex-space, low cost of entry. The fact that everybody is somewhat of a transient at a wework creates its own cohesion too. e.g. I rented office space at a "real" office building once, and it was just weird for some rando telecommuter to share space with more established companies in more local industries. ymmv, but they did create something "new", or at least a niche office offering is now an established fixture in most metros.
- ben7799 4y ago
  This really didn't take off till closer to 2010. There might have been outliers at places like Google and Facebook in the 2000s but it didn't start exploding till after 2010 when all the more traditional companies started thinking they needed to be like Google and Facebook. Lots of boring offices got rehabbed into "culture" offices around 2010-2012, even if it was financially irresponsible. There was huge talk that it was required to have any chance of hiring millennials at the time.

zemvpferreira 4y ago

You (and I) are in the minority, or at least there are a good number of people that feel the opposite. Looking around me I see plenty of acquaintances that use work to get as far away as possible from their homes and families. People are weird, man.

Entinel 4y ago
I don't think it's weird. Sometimes you just want to not look at the same 4 walls everyday, sometimes you just want to see a different set of faces. I like co-working spaces to mix things up from time to time.
theturtletalks 4y ago
Many entrepreneurs start their business from home. Before they know it, their isn’t a separation between work and life and that can take a toll. It doesn’t mean they need to get away from home or the family.
rafaelero 4y ago
Or maybe you guys are too obsessed with your domestic life? It's pretty common for people to reach 50 years old and realize they haven't cultivated a vibrant social life outside their marriage. And that's also not ideal.
- zemvpferreira 4y ago
  I'm not married. I have a girlfriend, no kids and live by myself. I see friends for lunch or dinner every day. Maybe that's why I'm happy at home.
  - rafaelero 4y ago
    Now imagine not only having lunch, but also working (or coexisting in the same workspace) with enjoyable people. Wouldn't that be awesome?
    - xboxnolifes 4y ago
      A lot of people don't find "people", the general case, enjoyable to be around, every day, for most of the day. Finding friends I enjoy being around some of the time was/is hard enough. The chance a random co-working space will be full of people I enjoy being around is closer to lottery odds. If such odds were more realistic, I would agree.

A4ET8a8uTh0 4y ago

Eh, I think ( there is no credible data I could find ) people like you are in a minority. For whatever reason, people consider work and workspace their 2nd home ( hence all sorts of personal items on their desks, while mine is barren like I am ready to leave tomorrow... which I am, but that is besides the point ). I am agreeing with you. Work can stay work. I don't need a contest for most scary cubicle. Still, some people go for that stuff. Let me them stay in office. For me, WFH all the way. I make my own fun there.

unethical_ban 4y ago
>For whatever reason, people consider work and workspace their 2nd home Maybe because it's 1/3 of a person's life and they want to make the most of it.

nolok 4y ago

Agreed. I guess it depends on how much time you spend at work. Eg in France the legal worktime is 35h, the debate is "32h proposed by the left, going back to 39h proposed by the right", but when I read the twitter people having to do 80h/week under Musk not only do I feel so horrible for them, but I understand then why a "fun filled environment" might be required to avoid people all falling into depression ... And also there is no way those people are anywhere near productive for more than half of those 80 hours.

mcculley 4y ago

Many people are young, single, and don't yet have a family. They want more opportunities to meet people. Not that I think work should be where people find relationships, but rather that different age groups have different needs and desires.

tech_tuna 4y ago
This 100%. I'm an old shit but I too was younger once and paid rent and lived in/near the downtown area where I live. I totally regret throwing away all that rent money but anyway, here I am. At my old company, there were two main offices - one in an office park in the suburbs for the "grownups" and a smaller one in a hip part of downtown for the "kiddies". I worked remotely the entire time and that company also had a large percentage of remote folks like me, this was years before Covid. tl;dr for a lot of younger/single people, work can be a big part of one's social life.
rendall 4y ago
> Not that I think work should be where people find relationships... Full-time employees spend nearly all of their active hours at work. If they do not find relationships / friendships there, where and when will they?
- sidlls 4y ago
  Clubs (activities or nightclubs), online networks, out-and-about (stores), from their existing friends network, etc.
  - rendall 4y ago
    I think this idea that one should not form friendships with coworkers is unnatural. It leads to isolation.
    - mcculley 4y ago
      I wrote relationships, not friendships. I maintain that having sex with coworkers is ill-advised, but not for the same reasons as employers and their HR departments.

rafaelero 4y ago

And why wouldn't you want to have both?

Eric_WVGG 4y ago

I think “fun” is maybe a bad descriptor of the WeWork aesthetic. Take a look at Office Space, that sort of sterile, glaring white environment was the norm for offices right up to the new millennium. Yes, WeWork has some goofy themes (I had the misfortune of one that took Coney Island as an inspiration, so there were scattered silhouettes of Ferris wheels here and there), but at its core was warm, dark walls that were easy on the eyes, generally good interior design, and people who actually wanted to be at their jobs. I didn’t love it, but far from the worst place I ever had to work. And once in a while I still drop by an authentic Manhattan office building, and it is like stepping back into the eighties. It’s no wonder jumping off buildings was so popular among stockbrokers…

trgn 4y ago
The aesthetic has a name, "resimercial". Agreed that "fun" doesn't quite capture it, even though often times the arcade machine and corn hole boards give that inmpression. I think tbh wework's vibe works quite well for temporary office/flex-space, low cost of entry. The fact that everybody is somewhat of a transient at a wework creates its own cohesion too. e.g. I rented office space at a "real" office building once, and it was just weird for some rando telecommuter to share space with more established companies in more local industries. ymmv, but they did create something "new", or at least a niche office offering is now an established fixture in most metros.
ben7799 4y ago
This really didn't take off till closer to 2010. There might have been outliers at places like Google and Facebook in the 2000s but it didn't start exploding till after 2010 when all the more traditional companies started thinking they needed to be like Google and Facebook. Lots of boring offices got rehabbed into "culture" offices around 2010-2012, even if it was financially irresponsible. There was huge talk that it was required to have any chance of hiring millennials at the time.