5 ms·

I’ll never understand why people want to go back to the office. Office has shit food. Shit coffee. In an open office, there’s a high risk of catching a virus f

by xyst 3y ago

I’ll never understand why people want to go back to the office. Office has shit food. Shit coffee. In an open office, there’s a high risk of catching a virus from your co-worker. People love to tap your shoulder, interrupt your thought process (clearly I’m in the zone, asshole), and ask you mundane shit that could have been resolved over IM. Even worse, the idiot asshole that can’t be bothered to read documentation and asks you to go over it with him/her in a 1:1 session. Fuck off.

UberFly 3y ago
This may not be the experience that everyone else is having in the office. Some work better with the team experience. You obviously don't.
fatih-erikli 3y ago
Obviously you worked in someone elses desktop wallpaper that they call you an "office". Real working places exist, they are different than what you describe.
spike021 3y ago
>Office has shit food. Shit coffee. In an open office, there’s a high risk of catching a virus from your co-worker. People love to tap your shoulder, interrupt your thought process (clearly I’m in the zone, asshole), and ask you mundane shit that could have been resolved over IM. It's not that complicated to bring food from home for lunch, grab something on the way in, or go out for lunch -- I doubt you're working in a food desert after all. Ditto for coffee and even coffee shops. Catching a virus thing, sure that's a real concern. For personal experience though I've found I've gotten sick more often since COVID and 100% WFH than when I used to work out of the office 2-3 days a week, including public transit. As far as interruptions, a lot of offices have conference rooms engineers can use whenever they want. Even one person rooms or the newer telephone booths. Usually all soundproofed. You don't even have to tell coworkers which one you're working from and you can switch rooms throughout the day. I guess that's not feasible in like a 10-20 person office but I've been in offices for up to 75-100 people and it wasn't that difficult. Most of the problems you've cited have relatively simple solutions in my opinion.
- mjevans 3y ago
  Yes, as they described: Working from Home. It solves all of these problems and has many other benefits mentioned elsewhere in this discourse.
- giantrobot 3y ago
  > It's not that complicated to bring food from home for lunch, grab something on the way in, or go out for lunch -- I doubt you're working in a food desert after all. Or, try to stay with me here, I'm just at my fucking house and I can pop into the kitchen whenever I want to get food. I can even take my laptop into the kitchen and be on a meeting while I'm cooking or eating. I can make fresh coffee whenever I want. If I'm lazy I can order DoorDash and hot food just shows up at my door. The idea conference rooms are places to get work done is ludicrous. Conference rooms are perennially booked, often overbooked, and at best you might get an hour of uninterrupted work done in one. Woe be unto the poor engineer that's found in a conference room by a middle manager. They'll get no end of shit for *reasons*. Offices have only gotten worse over the past few decades. If my work doesn't involve physically touching hardware (all my shit deploys to The Cloud) there's no reason I can't work from my house. I've been working remote for several years now and it's been amazing for my mental health and productivity. Not to mention I've saved thousands of dollars a year not having to commute.
  - spike021 3y ago
    >Or, try to stay with me here, I'm just at my fucking house and I can pop into the kitchen whenever I want to get food. I can even take my laptop into the kitchen and be on a meeting while I'm cooking or eating. Obviously those defeat the point of the article and the very subjective stated problems that have very simple solutions. >The idea conference rooms are places to get work done is ludicrous. Conference rooms are perennially booked, often overbooked, and at best you might get an hour of uninterrupted work done in one. Woe be unto the poor engineer that's found in a conference room by a middle manager. They'll get no end of shit for reasons. I never had this problem across jobs at three different companies, working out of multiple locations that each had quite varying differences in office culture. Maybe it's a company-specific work culture thing?
- 3y ago

by xyst 3y ago

UberFly 3y ago

This may not be the experience that everyone else is having in the office. Some work better with the team experience. You obviously don't.

fatih-erikli 3y ago

Obviously you worked in someone elses desktop wallpaper that they call you an "office". Real working places exist, they are different than what you describe.

spike021 3y ago

>Office has shit food. Shit coffee. In an open office, there’s a high risk of catching a virus from your co-worker. People love to tap your shoulder, interrupt your thought process (clearly I’m in the zone, asshole), and ask you mundane shit that could have been resolved over IM. It's not that complicated to bring food from home for lunch, grab something on the way in, or go out for lunch -- I doubt you're working in a food desert after all. Ditto for coffee and even coffee shops. Catching a virus thing, sure that's a real concern. For personal experience though I've found I've gotten sick more often since COVID and 100% WFH than when I used to work out of the office 2-3 days a week, including public transit. As far as interruptions, a lot of offices have conference rooms engineers can use whenever they want. Even one person rooms or the newer telephone booths. Usually all soundproofed. You don't even have to tell coworkers which one you're working from and you can switch rooms throughout the day. I guess that's not feasible in like a 10-20 person office but I've been in offices for up to 75-100 people and it wasn't that difficult. Most of the problems you've cited have relatively simple solutions in my opinion.

mjevans 3y ago
Yes, as they described: Working from Home. It solves all of these problems and has many other benefits mentioned elsewhere in this discourse.
giantrobot 3y ago
> It's not that complicated to bring food from home for lunch, grab something on the way in, or go out for lunch -- I doubt you're working in a food desert after all. Or, try to stay with me here, I'm just at my fucking house and I can pop into the kitchen whenever I want to get food. I can even take my laptop into the kitchen and be on a meeting while I'm cooking or eating. I can make fresh coffee whenever I want. If I'm lazy I can order DoorDash and hot food just shows up at my door. The idea conference rooms are places to get work done is ludicrous. Conference rooms are perennially booked, often overbooked, and at best you might get an hour of uninterrupted work done in one. Woe be unto the poor engineer that's found in a conference room by a middle manager. They'll get no end of shit for *reasons*. Offices have only gotten worse over the past few decades. If my work doesn't involve physically touching hardware (all my shit deploys to The Cloud) there's no reason I can't work from my house. I've been working remote for several years now and it's been amazing for my mental health and productivity. Not to mention I've saved thousands of dollars a year not having to commute.
- spike021 3y ago
  >Or, try to stay with me here, I'm just at my fucking house and I can pop into the kitchen whenever I want to get food. I can even take my laptop into the kitchen and be on a meeting while I'm cooking or eating. Obviously those defeat the point of the article and the very subjective stated problems that have very simple solutions. >The idea conference rooms are places to get work done is ludicrous. Conference rooms are perennially booked, often overbooked, and at best you might get an hour of uninterrupted work done in one. Woe be unto the poor engineer that's found in a conference room by a middle manager. They'll get no end of shit for reasons. I never had this problem across jobs at three different companies, working out of multiple locations that each had quite varying differences in office culture. Maybe it's a company-specific work culture thing?
3y ago