4 ms·

Even though I’ve personally taken the trade off of remote work, it’s always seemed intuitively obvious to me that there are also massive benefits to being in-pe

by jtc331 3y ago

Even though I’ve personally taken the trade off of remote work, it’s always seemed intuitively obvious to me that there are also massive benefits to being in-person because collaboration, chance conversations, and feedback are more likely to happen naturally and because communication bandwidth is far higher face to face. The trade-offs are largely around whether those things are desirable. Sometimes they aren’t. But also sometimes they are. And I’ve never understood why there seems to be such a dogmatic insistences that remote is better on all fronts and there can be no acknowledged benefits to in-office work.

manicennui 3y ago
The reason you see so many of us being so insistent is because most of us work at highly dysfunctional companies with incredibly boring and annoying people and don't want to spend 1-3 hours per day commuting to the office and/or spending more on staying alive so we can be closer to the office. I've been remote since the start of the pandemic and will never go back. I'm the happiest I've been in my adult life (mid 40s) in large part because I'm able to get more sleep, don't have to deal with the noise and density of the city, and don't have to deal with commuting. My home office is better than any office environment I have ever had. I put less than 5k miles on my car in the last year. I eat far better and spend less money on eating out. I have also received great raises every year since the pandemic started (and before) and have been promoted (for the second time since the pandemic started) to what is probably equivalent to an L8 at Google (I don't work for a FAANG company). Some of us are flourishing in this new work environment, and we are being tired of being told that we'd be better off if only we would spend an hour commuting to hear Fred's mildly racist/misogynistic jokes and attend useless meetings in person instead of passively listening to video calls while we get actual work done.
- jtc331 3y ago
  Notably I didn’t disagree with any of that, and, in fact, take pains to very carefully address only that there are tradeoffs—that is that there legitimate arguments to be made both ways particularly depending on the person. I don’t object to an individual saying “I’m far better off this way”; it’s often true. But it’s also the case that I’ve observed others who are far less productive working from home. And we should be intellectually honest enough to recognize both realities.

by jtc331 3y ago

manicennui 3y ago

The reason you see so many of us being so insistent is because most of us work at highly dysfunctional companies with incredibly boring and annoying people and don't want to spend 1-3 hours per day commuting to the office and/or spending more on staying alive so we can be closer to the office. I've been remote since the start of the pandemic and will never go back. I'm the happiest I've been in my adult life (mid 40s) in large part because I'm able to get more sleep, don't have to deal with the noise and density of the city, and don't have to deal with commuting. My home office is better than any office environment I have ever had. I put less than 5k miles on my car in the last year. I eat far better and spend less money on eating out. I have also received great raises every year since the pandemic started (and before) and have been promoted (for the second time since the pandemic started) to what is probably equivalent to an L8 at Google (I don't work for a FAANG company). Some of us are flourishing in this new work environment, and we are being tired of being told that we'd be better off if only we would spend an hour commuting to hear Fred's mildly racist/misogynistic jokes and attend useless meetings in person instead of passively listening to video calls while we get actual work done.

jtc331 3y ago
Notably I didn’t disagree with any of that, and, in fact, take pains to very carefully address only that there are tradeoffs—that is that there legitimate arguments to be made both ways particularly depending on the person. I don’t object to an individual saying “I’m far better off this way”; it’s often true. But it’s also the case that I’ve observed others who are far less productive working from home. And we should be intellectually honest enough to recognize both realities.