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> The synergy of having hardware people walk by you and clarify assumptions is priceless. Is it worth the price of mass daily commuting on the wealth and menta

> The synergy of having hardware people walk by you and clarify assumptions is priceless. Is it worth the price of mass daily commuting on the wealth and mental health of employees, and on the planet?

blq10 3y ago
This is quite the framing. The company gets paid for producing human value to customers, and unless you're willing to take a pay cut to work remote (oh, you aren't? I see.) the cost there is dominated by employee wages, taxes, social safety net (as meagre as it is here in the US). Sure, the office costs nonzero dollars and so does commuting - but framing it as morality is misguided. A company can o ly seek to produce customer value in a capital efficient manner, it is up to us (the customer) to value things correctly. Are you willing to do the work to drop Google services because they want to work from the office and do all that bad stuff? If you aren't, making people work from the office is the easy choice, their product gets marginally better for very low marginal costs.
- offices 3y ago
  >A company can o ly seek to produce customer value in a capital efficient manner, it is up to us (the customer) to value things correctly. This is not how businesses act in reality.
- oraphalous 3y ago
  The didn't frame it as morality - they framed it as an economic and social costs. There is nothing in your response that convinces me that those costs are worth it.
podgib 3y ago
> Is it worth the price of mass daily commuting on the wealth and mental health of employees, and on the planet? That's very context specific. In many cities, employees commuting by public transport to a central location, rather than all individually heating/cooling their houses, is a plus for the planet and wealth of employees. For many people (including me) it's also good for mental health.
sshine 3y ago
> Is it worth the price of mass daily commuting Yes, but the commute is a huge cost. I spend 80 minutes in traffic every day. During this time I listen to podcasts, music, call people, and think. I will be happy to have a remote-friendly job, e.g. when our systems are deployed in dozens of physical locations throughout the country, the DevOps role is essentially only possible as remote. But remote was just not a high priority for me this time. I really enjoy showing up. I'm not very social outside of work.

blq10 3y ago

This is quite the framing. The company gets paid for producing human value to customers, and unless you're willing to take a pay cut to work remote (oh, you aren't? I see.) the cost there is dominated by employee wages, taxes, social safety net (as meagre as it is here in the US). Sure, the office costs nonzero dollars and so does commuting - but framing it as morality is misguided. A company can o ly seek to produce customer value in a capital efficient manner, it is up to us (the customer) to value things correctly. Are you willing to do the work to drop Google services because they want to work from the office and do all that bad stuff? If you aren't, making people work from the office is the easy choice, their product gets marginally better for very low marginal costs.

offices 3y ago
>A company can o ly seek to produce customer value in a capital efficient manner, it is up to us (the customer) to value things correctly. This is not how businesses act in reality.
oraphalous 3y ago
The didn't frame it as morality - they framed it as an economic and social costs. There is nothing in your response that convinces me that those costs are worth it.

podgib 3y ago

> Is it worth the price of mass daily commuting on the wealth and mental health of employees, and on the planet? That's very context specific. In many cities, employees commuting by public transport to a central location, rather than all individually heating/cooling their houses, is a plus for the planet and wealth of employees. For many people (including me) it's also good for mental health.

sshine 3y ago

> Is it worth the price of mass daily commuting Yes, but the commute is a huge cost. I spend 80 minutes in traffic every day. During this time I listen to podcasts, music, call people, and think. I will be happy to have a remote-friendly job, e.g. when our systems are deployed in dozens of physical locations throughout the country, the DevOps role is essentially only possible as remote. But remote was just not a high priority for me this time. I really enjoy showing up. I'm not very social outside of work.