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> The amount of theatre and politics involved in modern work culture is exhausting. I just want to get good work done, and go home. Remote work has largely rem

> The amount of theatre and politics involved in modern work culture is exhausting. I just want to get good work done, and go home. Remote work has largely removed the theatrical aspect of my position. This is one of the reasons I hope to never work in an office again.

johnea 3y ago
Oh yes, I too would much rather watch the theater from home on TV...
Spivak 3y ago
And during the lulls replacing doom scrolling on Reddit with house chores has been a godsend for my mental health. I pretty much only go into the office when there's catered food (ie when there's planned non-work related socializing).
- ilyt 3y ago
  Or just having mid-day break to cook and eat some food in peace. Splitting 8h day into 2x 4h parts helped a lot.
  - mcbutterbunz 3y ago
    And not just food, healthier food (hopefully). Good that’s fresh and not just microwaved frozen pizza.
nkjnlknlk 3y ago
It depends if you're trying to get promoted or not. One of the reasons I never aim for a promotion internally--remote or in person--is the requirement of theater over everything else. It perverts the day to day.
jpm_sd 3y ago
"LARPing your job" on Slack seems to be a common issue with remote work. https://annehelen.substack.com/p/larping-your-job https://annehelen.substack.com/p/larping-your-job https://www.theawl.com/2015/04/are-you-just-larping-your-job/ https://www.theawl.com/2015/04/are-you-just-larping-your-job...
- Draiken 3y ago
  I never understood this. If you can get away with "pretending to work" then either you have a bullshit job or everyone is in this bullshit rodeo together. If I work with someone (supervising or not) I know if they are working or slacking off. And no, you don't need made up metrics or to be sitting next to them for that. If you really are in the midst of people that actually get stuff done, I should add. On somewhat of a tangent, I'm not gonna lie: it sometimes feels like everything is a big farce in tech. We write code for useless functionalities on mostly useless products. Product managers often don't even understand/use the product and copy competitors blindly. C-suite/founders pretend they know what they're doing but copy whatever is trending at the time (Agile, OKRs, Scrum, squads, etc). Investors give out money to people that yell the right buzzwords loud enough (and/or have the right connections). The list goes on. The only people that really work are the ones in the lower echelons answering support tickets, keeping things running, actually committing code, etc. Everyone else sits on useless meetings adding "meeting for X" in their reports. Ironically those getting things done are the most scrutinized for "LARPing" by higher ups. Maybe I've been really unlucky in my career but I've found this to be true in every single job.
  - welshwelsh 3y ago
    I don't agree about the lower levels doing all the work. People in the lower echelons usually don't understand what their product is for, how it works, who uses it or how it fits into their company's overall business strategy. They are only capable of understanding and working with a small part of the product. Because they don't see the "big picture", they often feel unmotivated and think their job is unimportant. People who have a higher level of understanding- people who can intelligently talk about the product with stakeholders and make high-level executive decisions- these people are rare and extremely valuable, much more so than engineers and support people.
    - xctr94 3y ago
      A lot of work being done at the lower levels is for done in the name of the same farcical issues pointed in the thread. We spend lots of time building absolute bullsh*t. The reality is a lot of these nonsense is fed from high-up without a good rationale. I’m in a position of power now, and I’m constantly fighting for the idea that we should build what delivers the most value to our users. Nothing else. Any other ‘feature’ is a waste of time, effort, and money. So I disagree. People in the trenches seem — to me at least — to have a much better grasp of the product, what it does, what it looks like, and how it’s really used. The further up you are from the trenches, the more you’re relying on reports of reports, proxy metrics, and so on; which further detach you from reality.
codyb 3y ago
As an experienced developer, I love working remotely. As a younger developer, I'm glad I got the office experience a few times. Even if, the entire time, I hated the open office layouts.
ssss11 3y ago
It’s probably one of the reasons the managers want you back in as well - they want/need the theatre

johnea 3y ago

Oh yes, I too would much rather watch the theater from home on TV...

Spivak 3y ago

And during the lulls replacing doom scrolling on Reddit with house chores has been a godsend for my mental health. I pretty much only go into the office when there's catered food (ie when there's planned non-work related socializing).

ilyt 3y ago
Or just having mid-day break to cook and eat some food in peace. Splitting 8h day into 2x 4h parts helped a lot.
- mcbutterbunz 3y ago
  And not just food, healthier food (hopefully). Good that’s fresh and not just microwaved frozen pizza.

nkjnlknlk 3y ago

It depends if you're trying to get promoted or not. One of the reasons I never aim for a promotion internally--remote or in person--is the requirement of theater over everything else. It perverts the day to day.

jpm_sd 3y ago

"LARPing your job" on Slack seems to be a common issue with remote work. https://annehelen.substack.com/p/larping-your-job https://annehelen.substack.com/p/larping-your-job https://www.theawl.com/2015/04/are-you-just-larping-your-job/ https://www.theawl.com/2015/04/are-you-just-larping-your-job...

Draiken 3y ago
I never understood this. If you can get away with "pretending to work" then either you have a bullshit job or everyone is in this bullshit rodeo together. If I work with someone (supervising or not) I know if they are working or slacking off. And no, you don't need made up metrics or to be sitting next to them for that. If you really are in the midst of people that actually get stuff done, I should add. On somewhat of a tangent, I'm not gonna lie: it sometimes feels like everything is a big farce in tech. We write code for useless functionalities on mostly useless products. Product managers often don't even understand/use the product and copy competitors blindly. C-suite/founders pretend they know what they're doing but copy whatever is trending at the time (Agile, OKRs, Scrum, squads, etc). Investors give out money to people that yell the right buzzwords loud enough (and/or have the right connections). The list goes on. The only people that really work are the ones in the lower echelons answering support tickets, keeping things running, actually committing code, etc. Everyone else sits on useless meetings adding "meeting for X" in their reports. Ironically those getting things done are the most scrutinized for "LARPing" by higher ups. Maybe I've been really unlucky in my career but I've found this to be true in every single job.
- welshwelsh 3y ago
  I don't agree about the lower levels doing all the work. People in the lower echelons usually don't understand what their product is for, how it works, who uses it or how it fits into their company's overall business strategy. They are only capable of understanding and working with a small part of the product. Because they don't see the "big picture", they often feel unmotivated and think their job is unimportant. People who have a higher level of understanding- people who can intelligently talk about the product with stakeholders and make high-level executive decisions- these people are rare and extremely valuable, much more so than engineers and support people.
  - xctr94 3y ago
    A lot of work being done at the lower levels is for done in the name of the same farcical issues pointed in the thread. We spend lots of time building absolute bullsh*t. The reality is a lot of these nonsense is fed from high-up without a good rationale. I’m in a position of power now, and I’m constantly fighting for the idea that we should build what delivers the most value to our users. Nothing else. Any other ‘feature’ is a waste of time, effort, and money. So I disagree. People in the trenches seem — to me at least — to have a much better grasp of the product, what it does, what it looks like, and how it’s really used. The further up you are from the trenches, the more you’re relying on reports of reports, proxy metrics, and so on; which further detach you from reality.

codyb 3y ago

As an experienced developer, I love working remotely. As a younger developer, I'm glad I got the office experience a few times. Even if, the entire time, I hated the open office layouts.

ssss11 3y ago

It’s probably one of the reasons the managers want you back in as well - they want/need the theatre