3 ms·

Our new love affair with the office is a step towards better philosophy of work

2 points by edward 4y ago

coldtea 4y ago
>Our love affair with working from home, triggered during Covid lockdowns by the often cheerless embrace of Zoom, is cooling sharply. The daily commute is becoming fashionable, especially if you are young. The alternative is experienced by too many as lonely, isolating, distracting, threatening to one’s mental health, polluting of one’s home space. It’s expensive to keep warm and you’re often the last to find out what’s going on among your colleagues. Manager propaganda? >Workplaces, after all, are where you make friends and sometimes meet life partners, as well as learn all that tacit knowledge so crucial to doing your job well and so build your career. We humans are social animals and creating working lives permanently apart from others was always going against the grain. Yeah, because commuting for 1 or more hours each day, being packed in a cubicle or thrown in an open space, sitting down for 8+ hours, is so natural. As is looking into your office for friends and partners...
- senttoschool 4y ago
  >Manager propaganda? Do you think that Apple, Google, Microsoft recalling their workers back to the office because they were influenced by manager propaganda? Or do you think that they have data showing better efficiency with in office work? I consider those 3 companies, which are #1, #2, #3 in market cap, to be highly competent and the management team is probably very data driven. If they truly saw that remote work was more efficient, do you think they would still try so hard to recall workers back into the office?
  - coldtea 4y ago
    >Do you think that Apple, Google, Microsoft recalling their workers back to the office because they were influenced by manager propaganda? No, I think they are the instigators of manager propaganda. I don't distinguish the corporation from the management. >If they truly saw that remote work was more efficient, do you think they would still try so hard to recall workers back into the office? Yes. It's about control. Preventing WFH culture means employers don't have to compete for talent globally or even nationally as much (because if WFH is discouraged, employees will have to factor in a move everytime they want to switch). And of course someone with expensive rent or a mortgage is more easily controllable. And employees made to be always present to their overlords in a cubicle or similar confined space, like caged animals, are not exactly full of leverage either... Besides, companies are run by management, and management enjoys their little office rituals and politics - they'd have them over profit (it's not like management is not compensated even while they're burning a company to the ground anyway. Google, for example, has been a series of clusterfuck projects and failed "moonshots" and "company bets", only still supported by search ad revenue).
    - senttoschool 4y ago
      Corporations exist to make money. I'm an Apple stock holder. If employees working from home means more profits, then I'd vote to fire the management team if they went away from WFH. You're too deep into conspiracy theories. Come back to real life. The simple reason companies are recalling workers back into the office is because it's more efficient when people are in the office together.
      - coldtea 4y ago
        >Corporations exist to make money Yes, and that would be a bad thing to prioritize to begin with (over ethics, quality products, society, safety, environment and many other things, as if more often than not happens). But, that's not the whole story either. A "corporation" is an abstract notion. Corporations don't exist as people, except in the eyes of the law. Management exists. And management has BS views, is influenced by BS ideologies, wants power and micro-games and so on, on top of "making money". Which is how e.g. corporations wouldn't hire women, blacks, or gay people for many (or all) positions at different times, even though they missed on a huge pool for employees, which would include people even better and more skilled than the < 50% of the population they considered for hiring and promoting to those positions. Does that sound like a money-inspired decision? Ideology, societal norms, racism, sexism, power plays, prejudice, etc. plays into what "corporations" (i.e. the people running them do) as much or even more than money does. >You're too deep into conspiracy theories. Come back to real life. People want to fuck other people over for power and profit. That's no conspiracy, it's out in the open, celebrated even. So, get out of fairy-tale land of naivety. Except of course if you're on the other side (or those making those decisions), in which case "it is difficult to get a man to understand something, when his salary depends on his not understanding it", as the quote goes. >The simple reason companies are recalling workers back into the office is because it's more efficient when people are in the office together. Citation needed.
    - ss108 4y ago
      Doesn't having competition for jobs geographically-scoped help a lot of us? For example, I am looking for dev jobs in NYC and LA. It's bad for me that employers could just hire someone equally-qualified in Kansas for less. Am I misinterpreting your comment?
senttoschool 4y ago
I believe for the vast majority of companies out there, it's more efficient and more competitive to be working from the office than home. I do not want my doctor to be working from home or graduated with all his courses taken from home. I do not want my team of lawyers to be working from home. I will hire a team of lawyers working in the office over a team working remotely should I ever need one. In tech, although uniquely better suited to WFH style than most other industries, I still believe office teams will outcompete WFH teams. I believe we will see most tech companies recall workers back into the office in 2023/2024 if they haven't yet. If I'm a VC, I would rather invest in an in-person team over a remote team with all things being equal.
observer4 4y ago
"Love affair." It's clearly a joke. The blogger is a joker.

2 points by edward 4y ago

>Our love affair with working from home, triggered during Covid lockdowns by the often cheerless embrace of Zoom, is cooling sharply. The daily commute is becoming fashionable, especially if you are young. The alternative is experienced by too many as lonely, isolating, distracting, threatening to one’s mental health, polluting of one’s home space. It’s expensive to keep warm and you’re often the last to find out what’s going on among your colleagues. Manager propaganda? >Workplaces, after all, are where you make friends and sometimes meet life partners, as well as learn all that tacit knowledge so crucial to doing your job well and so build your career. We humans are social animals and creating working lives permanently apart from others was always going against the grain. Yeah, because commuting for 1 or more hours each day, being packed in a cubicle or thrown in an open space, sitting down for 8+ hours, is so natural. As is looking into your office for friends and partners...

senttoschool 4y ago
>Manager propaganda? Do you think that Apple, Google, Microsoft recalling their workers back to the office because they were influenced by manager propaganda? Or do you think that they have data showing better efficiency with in office work? I consider those 3 companies, which are #1, #2, #3 in market cap, to be highly competent and the management team is probably very data driven. If they truly saw that remote work was more efficient, do you think they would still try so hard to recall workers back into the office?
- coldtea 4y ago
  >Do you think that Apple, Google, Microsoft recalling their workers back to the office because they were influenced by manager propaganda? No, I think they are the instigators of manager propaganda. I don't distinguish the corporation from the management. >If they truly saw that remote work was more efficient, do you think they would still try so hard to recall workers back into the office? Yes. It's about control. Preventing WFH culture means employers don't have to compete for talent globally or even nationally as much (because if WFH is discouraged, employees will have to factor in a move everytime they want to switch). And of course someone with expensive rent or a mortgage is more easily controllable. And employees made to be always present to their overlords in a cubicle or similar confined space, like caged animals, are not exactly full of leverage either... Besides, companies are run by management, and management enjoys their little office rituals and politics - they'd have them over profit (it's not like management is not compensated even while they're burning a company to the ground anyway. Google, for example, has been a series of clusterfuck projects and failed "moonshots" and "company bets", only still supported by search ad revenue).
  - senttoschool 4y ago
    Corporations exist to make money. I'm an Apple stock holder. If employees working from home means more profits, then I'd vote to fire the management team if they went away from WFH. You're too deep into conspiracy theories. Come back to real life. The simple reason companies are recalling workers back into the office is because it's more efficient when people are in the office together.
    - coldtea 4y ago
      >Corporations exist to make money Yes, and that would be a bad thing to prioritize to begin with (over ethics, quality products, society, safety, environment and many other things, as if more often than not happens). But, that's not the whole story either. A "corporation" is an abstract notion. Corporations don't exist as people, except in the eyes of the law. Management exists. And management has BS views, is influenced by BS ideologies, wants power and micro-games and so on, on top of "making money". Which is how e.g. corporations wouldn't hire women, blacks, or gay people for many (or all) positions at different times, even though they missed on a huge pool for employees, which would include people even better and more skilled than the < 50% of the population they considered for hiring and promoting to those positions. Does that sound like a money-inspired decision? Ideology, societal norms, racism, sexism, power plays, prejudice, etc. plays into what "corporations" (i.e. the people running them do) as much or even more than money does. >You're too deep into conspiracy theories. Come back to real life. People want to fuck other people over for power and profit. That's no conspiracy, it's out in the open, celebrated even. So, get out of fairy-tale land of naivety. Except of course if you're on the other side (or those making those decisions), in which case "it is difficult to get a man to understand something, when his salary depends on his not understanding it", as the quote goes. >The simple reason companies are recalling workers back into the office is because it's more efficient when people are in the office together. Citation needed.
  - ss108 4y ago
    Doesn't having competition for jobs geographically-scoped help a lot of us? For example, I am looking for dev jobs in NYC and LA. It's bad for me that employers could just hire someone equally-qualified in Kansas for less. Am I misinterpreting your comment?

senttoschool 4y ago

I believe for the vast majority of companies out there, it's more efficient and more competitive to be working from the office than home. I do not want my doctor to be working from home or graduated with all his courses taken from home. I do not want my team of lawyers to be working from home. I will hire a team of lawyers working in the office over a team working remotely should I ever need one. In tech, although uniquely better suited to WFH style than most other industries, I still believe office teams will outcompete WFH teams. I believe we will see most tech companies recall workers back into the office in 2023/2024 if they haven't yet. If I'm a VC, I would rather invest in an in-person team over a remote team with all things being equal.

observer4 4y ago

"Love affair." It's clearly a joke. The blogger is a joker.