3 ms·

What's worse to me is the return to the "hybrid" office we keep getting threatened with. (My company has not actually done a RTO … yet. I don't know if we ever

What's worse to me is the return to the "hybrid" office we keep getting threatened with. (My company has not actually done a RTO … yet. I don't know if we ever will.) Now instead of a lousy 4' desk in an open office plan … I also get a desk that isn't mine? I'm supposed to … what, lug a keyboard¹ & mouse & laptop in? It seems like literally nobody has imagined what it might be like for a SWE to actually attempt to do work in the machinations that get proposed. (And in my case, luckily, never seem to materialize.) ¹between the insistence on MBPs, and my RSI, an external keyboard is a requirement, not a nicety

BLKNSLVR 3y ago
An external keyboard and mouse is a necessity for any non-emergency work. 100% of laptop keyboards and trackpads suck for anything other than emergencies, and many suck for emergencies as well. This is inarguable fact.
- tylerag 3y ago
  I won't argue with you, but I will ask how many laptops have you tried?
  - BLKNSLVR 3y ago
    Probably 10 - 15 over the course of 20-odd years. Sizes from a 10" ASUS eeePC to a Toshiba 17" monster desktop replacement, generic brands, a 14" Lenovo Thinkpad, a 13.3" Dell XPS, Samsung (real puurty silver slimline thing I was sad to say goodbye to), current work laptop is an HP Elitebook, a 15" ASUS, a 13.3" ASUS, and at least a couple of other work ones that aren't memorable enough. Plus my kids' school chromebooks. No macs though, I've not crossed that border yet. I can deal with any keyboard, but for actual proper typing in an environment where one is meant to be working, gotta be an external keyboard. I've got a mechanical at home, but I'm fine with non-mechanical at work, so I don't think I'm too much of a prima donna - I won't say that's inarguable fact though ;)
  - deathanatos 3y ago
    I know the thread has drifted a bit here, but in the context of employment, I don't have the option to try different laptops. I've never worked at an employer that permitted BYOD for the laptop, and so you're stuck with what they issue, which is generally a single choice, as they don't want to put in the IT work to support more than that. If that choice is a MBP … then you're stuck with not only an infamous keyboard, but also one that causes me (and many people I've worked with) RSI … it's that, or an external.
suprjami 3y ago
Get your employer to buy you an ergo keyboard. If you need a medical certificate then doctor shop until you get one. Then again if your employer doesn't even have monitors at hotdesks then maybe it's time to look for greener pastures.
- deathanatos 3y ago
  > Get your employer to buy you an ergo keyboard. … if only it were so simple! Employers are incredibly stingy¹. But what I was trying to convey in the previous comment is that I already have an ergo keyboard. (So do many of my coworkers. It is also mine, purchased with my own money, because of the above.) The point is not really obtaining the keyboard … it's transiting it to-and-fro the office, day-in, day-out, in these hybrid RTO plans. "Hotdesking" is inherently incapable of supporting this as the desk is no longer dedicated to a specific employee, but nobody in power making these plans appears to have thought it through. (¹but frankly, a part of me would rather just say "give me that in cash as part of salary" and I can make a better purchase & management then than trying to deal with what amounts to being partially paid in keyboards. This extends to more than just keyboards: employees should absolutely not forget we bear costs in order to be employed for the company in the form of depreciating hardware costs)
  - suprjami 3y ago
    I mean an ergo keyboard for the office. I'd never carry a keyboard daily.
wiether 3y ago
Having worked in two companies practicing hybrid office with no nominative desks but two very different ways of doing it, I can say that it can be great. Or a nightmare. In the first one they just converted regular nominative desks to free ones. Every desk had different screens with different cable standards, no ergo stand for the screens, some had shared keyboards, each had different chairs, some had drawers, some had accessible outlets, other were hidden behind the desk... You had to come with your stuff from home. And the cleaning was done once a week. The second one, every desk is the same. The same two screens on ergo stands. A USB-C dock with network connected to the screens. Easily accessible on the desk to plug USB devices. Same chairs at each desk. Each employee has a big personal locker to put stuff like keyboard, headset, coffee mug... Cleaning done every evening so when you arrive in the morning everything is perfectly clean. You can see which is which. The second is by far the best place I worked at in my 10+ years career. Depending on what is your main topic of the day, you just pick the next near the people with whom you'll work. Don't want to be bothered with your coworkers most of the day? Just go near another team. And you can also meet new people this way. You can even change desk during the day if need to change context. Just unplug your laptop. I know people prefer having their own desk with pictures, goodies and other junk. And I thought I was one of them. Until I tried free office the right way.

BLKNSLVR 3y ago

An external keyboard and mouse is a necessity for any non-emergency work. 100% of laptop keyboards and trackpads suck for anything other than emergencies, and many suck for emergencies as well. This is inarguable fact.

tylerag 3y ago
I won't argue with you, but I will ask how many laptops have you tried?
- BLKNSLVR 3y ago
  Probably 10 - 15 over the course of 20-odd years. Sizes from a 10" ASUS eeePC to a Toshiba 17" monster desktop replacement, generic brands, a 14" Lenovo Thinkpad, a 13.3" Dell XPS, Samsung (real puurty silver slimline thing I was sad to say goodbye to), current work laptop is an HP Elitebook, a 15" ASUS, a 13.3" ASUS, and at least a couple of other work ones that aren't memorable enough. Plus my kids' school chromebooks. No macs though, I've not crossed that border yet. I can deal with any keyboard, but for actual proper typing in an environment where one is meant to be working, gotta be an external keyboard. I've got a mechanical at home, but I'm fine with non-mechanical at work, so I don't think I'm too much of a prima donna - I won't say that's inarguable fact though ;)
- deathanatos 3y ago
  I know the thread has drifted a bit here, but in the context of employment, I don't have the option to try different laptops. I've never worked at an employer that permitted BYOD for the laptop, and so you're stuck with what they issue, which is generally a single choice, as they don't want to put in the IT work to support more than that. If that choice is a MBP … then you're stuck with not only an infamous keyboard, but also one that causes me (and many people I've worked with) RSI … it's that, or an external.

suprjami 3y ago

Get your employer to buy you an ergo keyboard. If you need a medical certificate then doctor shop until you get one. Then again if your employer doesn't even have monitors at hotdesks then maybe it's time to look for greener pastures.

deathanatos 3y ago
> Get your employer to buy you an ergo keyboard. … if only it were so simple! Employers are incredibly stingy¹. But what I was trying to convey in the previous comment is that I already have an ergo keyboard. (So do many of my coworkers. It is also mine, purchased with my own money, because of the above.) The point is not really obtaining the keyboard … it's transiting it to-and-fro the office, day-in, day-out, in these hybrid RTO plans. "Hotdesking" is inherently incapable of supporting this as the desk is no longer dedicated to a specific employee, but nobody in power making these plans appears to have thought it through. (¹but frankly, a part of me would rather just say "give me that in cash as part of salary" and I can make a better purchase & management then than trying to deal with what amounts to being partially paid in keyboards. This extends to more than just keyboards: employees should absolutely not forget we bear costs in order to be employed for the company in the form of depreciating hardware costs)
- suprjami 3y ago
  I mean an ergo keyboard for the office. I'd never carry a keyboard daily.

wiether 3y ago

Having worked in two companies practicing hybrid office with no nominative desks but two very different ways of doing it, I can say that it can be great. Or a nightmare. In the first one they just converted regular nominative desks to free ones. Every desk had different screens with different cable standards, no ergo stand for the screens, some had shared keyboards, each had different chairs, some had drawers, some had accessible outlets, other were hidden behind the desk... You had to come with your stuff from home. And the cleaning was done once a week. The second one, every desk is the same. The same two screens on ergo stands. A USB-C dock with network connected to the screens. Easily accessible on the desk to plug USB devices. Same chairs at each desk. Each employee has a big personal locker to put stuff like keyboard, headset, coffee mug... Cleaning done every evening so when you arrive in the morning everything is perfectly clean. You can see which is which. The second is by far the best place I worked at in my 10+ years career. Depending on what is your main topic of the day, you just pick the next near the people with whom you'll work. Don't want to be bothered with your coworkers most of the day? Just go near another team. And you can also meet new people this way. You can even change desk during the day if need to change context. Just unplug your laptop. I know people prefer having their own desk with pictures, goodies and other junk. And I thought I was one of them. Until I tried free office the right way.