by arunharidas on 4/7/22, 1:16 PM with 50 comments
With WFH I can think of many advantages to both the companies and the employees. - No commutation, leads to less tired employees - Healthy food - No rent - if they are working from their own house, rather than renting a flat near to the office. - Flexibility of timing - Employee could work little longer if they want since there's no commutation. - Finance - rent & fuel - Happiness - since they're with the family.
Is it just a corporate management disconnection from the reality or something else ?
by ejb999 on 4/7/22, 1:21 PM
With lots of newly-minted remote workers I have seen HUGE drops in accountability and performance, including many, many folks who just seem to 'disappear' for hours and days at a time, and nobody knows that they are doing.
Yes, you can be unproductive in the office - but the temptation and opportunities to do next to nothing on a daily basis are too big a temptation for many people, and becomes a nightmare for the people that are supposed to manage the slackers.
Some people are just as productive at home, some people are more productive, but in my experience, the number of people that have become unproductive outweighs the benefit of the relatively smaller number of people who either stay the same, or are more productive.
It's unfortunate, but if you have ever had to manage large numbers of people, you know not all folks will work just as hard when nobody is watching.
by aurizon on 4/7/22, 1:28 PM
by hemloc_io on 4/7/22, 9:44 PM
College grad/New Hires are super difficult to onboard remotely. It's already difficult to go from school to a tech job, but add in that you now don't have any sense of what's going on and it's easy to get forgotten even with a good/active mentor.
Also lots of young people don't want to stay in their hometown and move to Seattle/SV/SF, and without the office it's very easy to literally have no friends. When I got a job and moved out to the west coast I had to very actively find people to meet up with, I know a bunch of coworkers who didn't and either ended up leaving frequently to go back just to combat mental health issues, or just sitting home alone. Not saying that ALL of your friends need to come from work or whatever, but if you're new to a city and single it's much easier to seed those friendships.
Lots of people don't buy the innovation, "talk about x by the watercooler", argument, but I think on a macro scale it's a bigger deal. How many startups are started because two people became friends in SV, lived together and started a new project. That only happens with talent density that you get from tons of smart people being colocated. (And it's something lots of ambitious young people move out to the west coast to get, where I came from most of the best jobs were trade schools, construction and trucking lol, not too many promising startups come from a small town in the middle of nowhere just because there's noone to work with.)
So there's def some demand from young people to go into the office which puts a pro in the return to office column for the pointy hairs. Not saying that specific policies are good or bad, just want to outline a datapoint.
by BergTheBold on 4/7/22, 1:29 PM
by throwaway22032 on 4/7/22, 4:57 PM
I could just buy a rack and make a home gym but the actual gym is better for a number of reasons, same with the office.
It's a dedicated place. My home is for relaxation.
by eddyg on 4/7/22, 1:37 PM
https://www.bbc.com/worklife/article/20220329-the-coasting-w...
and thinking that having people in the office will reduce that situation.
by warrenm on 4/7/22, 4:41 PM
Not effectively
It really does take a certain combination of personality type, personal drive, and interest in the work to be effective at remote work
by ozzythecat on 4/7/22, 3:32 PM
It was a similar conversation I had with several mentees, not sure about whether they should just switch teams or leave the company because things weren’t moving forward, and they had no control over the situation.
Everyone blamed WFH since the significant decrease in productivity happened after WFH started.
by BlameKaneda on 4/7/22, 4:38 PM
I'm guessing that the company's interested in gradually moving away from a hybrid work approach and getting people back in their seats. It's the type of company (and industry) where face-to-face communication is deemed as highly important for everyone (those in staff and line positions).
And to my point on the shiny new office, I'm sure the ET wants to get their money's worth.
by amusedcyclist on 4/7/22, 5:10 PM
by jstx1 on 4/7/22, 2:12 PM
> when people quit on their own it’s not layoffs. There’s no lawsuits. No bad press. No questions on the business model. No risk of not raising the next investment.
by strikelaserclaw on 4/7/22, 4:57 PM
by djanogo on 4/7/22, 6:16 PM
by gregjor on 4/7/22, 1:45 PM
by emptyparadise on 4/7/22, 3:13 PM
by znpy on 4/7/22, 8:08 PM
Real estate becomes worthless if nobody is willing to rent it.