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I’m so happy the wfh trend has ended. People don’t do good work from home, and all my friends who were into it liked it because it let them work less and/or wor

I’m so happy the wfh trend has ended. People don’t do good work from home, and all my friends who were into it liked it because it let them work less and/or work two jobs.

db48x 2y ago
As someone who has productively worked from home for over 25 years, this is nonsense.
erik_seaberg 2y ago
Deep work needs peace and quiet. This is getting hard to find in an open plan office, except late in the evening.
- musicale 2y ago
  Some people like working in an office to escape home distractions. Open plan offices tend to be productivity-destroying for technical work that requires concentration. I assume they were largely adopted to save money, as a status indicator vs. managers with private offices, for surveillance, and for appearance. The only open plan approach that I have seen work is a library where noise is forbidden and private work carrels are provided.
  - joshz404 2y ago
    Had a CEO who extolled how much better open plans were, how vibrant it made the workplace, and so on and so on... Years later she admitted it was just to save money. I refuse to call an open office an "office" - that vibrant office she described back then? Full of people wearing headphones to block out all the noise they otherwise couldn't escape.
    - Ekaros 2y ago
      Do they sit on just regular desk in middle of noisiest part? Outside the few times they happen to be visiting the some side office...
vunderba 2y ago
Has it? Other than some of the larger companies who desperately want to justify expensive commercial real estate, I'd say among my friends who are in IT that nearly 90% of them are all working remotely. Also "Work less" doesn't convey the negative connotations you seem to think it does if they're meeting their contractual expectations.
- musicale 2y ago
  This is a really good point. There is little advantage to taking more time ("working more") to produce the same output. (Not to mention other wasted time such as commute time.) Unfortunately some managers seem willing to accept a productivity loss if it allows them to feel more important.
blackeyeblitzar 2y ago
That just sounds like you have bad managers and a bad culture in the companies where it doesn’t work
beretguy 2y ago
> People don’t do good work from home Unless they work from overseas for $15,000 salary.
rendaw 2y ago
The linux kernel is people doing good work from home.
pseufaux 2y ago
I'm completely the opposite here. I'm easily 2x more productive at home than in an office simply because of the lack of distractions. Honestly, I've started asking my spouse to start occasionally interrupting me so I remember to take a break occasionally and drink water. I think the quality of wfh really depends on the person and if they have enough integrity with their obligations to begin with. Sure it would be simple to get away with barely doing anything, but the people who do this are probably not who you would want to hire anyway.
x3n0ph3n3 2y ago
I have to go into the office 2 to 3 times a week now, and i get far less "work" done on those days than when I work from home. Most of my office time is just meetings/conversation. The commute also disrupts my ability to sync up with colleagues in Europe and Asia.
atoav 2y ago
The one day of home office at work is easily my most productive day by the objective numbers of tasks done. And that is because there are no random collegues or superiors wandering in with "urgent" requests, which could have been an email since I (A) read those and (B) usually there is enough time anyways. At home I can structure the day around my own concentration and have uninterrupted flow for hours and actually get shit done. Sometimes my feeling is that managers hate home office because that means they have to stop walking around and chatting with people.

I’m so happy the wfh trend has ended. People don’t do good work from home, and all my friends who were into it liked it because it let them work less and/or work two jobs.

db48x 2y ago

As someone who has productively worked from home for over 25 years, this is nonsense.

erik_seaberg 2y ago

Deep work needs peace and quiet. This is getting hard to find in an open plan office, except late in the evening.

musicale 2y ago
Some people like working in an office to escape home distractions. Open plan offices tend to be productivity-destroying for technical work that requires concentration. I assume they were largely adopted to save money, as a status indicator vs. managers with private offices, for surveillance, and for appearance. The only open plan approach that I have seen work is a library where noise is forbidden and private work carrels are provided.
- joshz404 2y ago
  Had a CEO who extolled how much better open plans were, how vibrant it made the workplace, and so on and so on... Years later she admitted it was just to save money. I refuse to call an open office an "office" - that vibrant office she described back then? Full of people wearing headphones to block out all the noise they otherwise couldn't escape.
  - Ekaros 2y ago
    Do they sit on just regular desk in middle of noisiest part? Outside the few times they happen to be visiting the some side office...

vunderba 2y ago

Has it? Other than some of the larger companies who desperately want to justify expensive commercial real estate, I'd say among my friends who are in IT that nearly 90% of them are all working remotely. Also "Work less" doesn't convey the negative connotations you seem to think it does if they're meeting their contractual expectations.

musicale 2y ago
This is a really good point. There is little advantage to taking more time ("working more") to produce the same output. (Not to mention other wasted time such as commute time.) Unfortunately some managers seem willing to accept a productivity loss if it allows them to feel more important.

blackeyeblitzar 2y ago

That just sounds like you have bad managers and a bad culture in the companies where it doesn’t work

beretguy 2y ago

> People don’t do good work from home Unless they work from overseas for $15,000 salary.

rendaw 2y ago

The linux kernel is people doing good work from home.

pseufaux 2y ago

I'm completely the opposite here. I'm easily 2x more productive at home than in an office simply because of the lack of distractions. Honestly, I've started asking my spouse to start occasionally interrupting me so I remember to take a break occasionally and drink water. I think the quality of wfh really depends on the person and if they have enough integrity with their obligations to begin with. Sure it would be simple to get away with barely doing anything, but the people who do this are probably not who you would want to hire anyway.

x3n0ph3n3 2y ago

I have to go into the office 2 to 3 times a week now, and i get far less "work" done on those days than when I work from home. Most of my office time is just meetings/conversation. The commute also disrupts my ability to sync up with colleagues in Europe and Asia.

atoav 2y ago

The one day of home office at work is easily my most productive day by the objective numbers of tasks done. And that is because there are no random collegues or superiors wandering in with "urgent" requests, which could have been an email since I (A) read those and (B) usually there is enough time anyways. At home I can structure the day around my own concentration and have uninterrupted flow for hours and actually get shit done. Sometimes my feeling is that managers hate home office because that means they have to stop walking around and chatting with people.