4 ms·

> i still think every single one of these return to office orders are from investors that are heavily portfolio'd (new word!) in commercial real estate and are

> i still think every single one of these return to office orders are from investors that are heavily portfolio'd (new word!) in commercial real estate and are trying to keep the bubble from bursting like it should. I run a fully distributed company where work from home is standard. It works for us but has major downsides related to sharing of information that we struggle with every day. We have to overcommunicate every decision to ensure everyone gets the memo. Plus collaborative problem-solving is very hard, especially when the team crosses timezones. It's a constant threat to our competitiveness. At a more basic level, many people simply can't stay motivated or work productively a fully distributed environment. This reduces the pool of people to whom we can offer jobs. I love work from home and we have no plans to change. At the same time I am skeptical that it is a general solution that can work across the entire economy. It's just too difficult to manage.

karmakurtisaani 3y ago
> At a more basic level, many people simply can't stay motivated or work productively a fully distributed environment. I wouldn't trust a person like this to work very well in the office either to be honest. Your company and approach sound great tho, you must be saving a ton in office space expenses.
- hodgesrm 3y ago
  Thanks! It works for us. We're also saving because we're not in Silicon Valley or any of the other high cost tech centers like New York or Seattle. It's harder to do bootstrapped companies in those locations and be profitable.
wokwokwok 3y ago
> It's just too difficult to manage. Bold words. I've heard plenty of people with various opinions on this, but I suspect that you've cut to the heart of it here. It's not that it can't work. It's just harder to make it work. ...and that hard work has to be done by people who previously just sat everyone in a room and expected them to do their things with no additional effort required; and having to do that extra effort on top of what they normally do is uncomfortable for them. There's no denying that remote work makes some people's lives more difficult; but it indubitably makes the life of others easier. It's a trade off; and anecdotal 'it works' or 'it doesn't work' comments are just people commenting on their personal situation; what is much less clear, is if it actually has a meaningful impact at scale, or what that impact is.

karmakurtisaani 3y ago

> At a more basic level, many people simply can't stay motivated or work productively a fully distributed environment. I wouldn't trust a person like this to work very well in the office either to be honest. Your company and approach sound great tho, you must be saving a ton in office space expenses.

hodgesrm 3y ago
Thanks! It works for us. We're also saving because we're not in Silicon Valley or any of the other high cost tech centers like New York or Seattle. It's harder to do bootstrapped companies in those locations and be profitable.

wokwokwok 3y ago

> It's just too difficult to manage. Bold words. I've heard plenty of people with various opinions on this, but I suspect that you've cut to the heart of it here. It's not that it can't work. It's just harder to make it work. ...and that hard work has to be done by people who previously just sat everyone in a room and expected them to do their things with no additional effort required; and having to do that extra effort on top of what they normally do is uncomfortable for them. There's no denying that remote work makes some people's lives more difficult; but it indubitably makes the life of others easier. It's a trade off; and anecdotal 'it works' or 'it doesn't work' comments are just people commenting on their personal situation; what is much less clear, is if it actually has a meaningful impact at scale, or what that impact is.