[HN Gopher] Ask HN: What remote work dreams didn't come true for...
___________________________________________________________________
Ask HN: What remote work dreams didn't come true for you?
I know some folks have worked remotely for years, but a vast number
of us are coming up on 2 years of working remotely instead of being
in the office 5 days a week. Life is different now, but not as I
expected. And I also don't feel like I'm as good at it as I
expected. Looking back to the days before I worked remotely, it
sounded amazing - no commute, no dress code, no obnoxious cube
neighbors, etc. And those aspects of remote work haven't
disappointed. On the other hand, I always felt like if I was
working from home I'd find ways to exercise while working and I'd
work on language learning by immersing myself in foreign language
audio (news, music, podcasts, whatever). Neither of these panned
out. Maybe partially because my work projects have been extra-
demanding, maybe partially because I don't multi-task/context-shift
well. What remote work dreams didn't come true for you (or
alternatively, how did you make your remote work dreams come true)?
Author : lastofthemojito
Score : 19 points
Date : 2022-02-14 18:58 UTC (4 hours ago)
| buescher wrote:
| I thought by 2000 I'd be able to, for example, get paid to noodle
| with Mathematica on a laptop or VR deck on the beach.
|
| I wound up living near the beach in Santa Cruz in 2000 and almost
| bought a Ricochet modem, but never quite got around to it. No one
| has ever paid me to just noodle with Mathematica, either.
| giraffe_lady wrote:
| I know it's cliche and annoying but hear me out first because for
| me it's table tennis. Or not ping pong per se though I do love
| that game. But just having an extended, semi-communal break time
| with low-to-moderate physical activity available and a natural
| point of interaction with non-eng coworkers was more valuable
| than I realized at the time.
|
| Yes can I can pick any of those things and carefully create the
| circumstances for it. I don't want to though. I liked that there
| was a place and times set aside to combine all of these
| activities.
|
| I'm fully committed to remote for other reasons and this won't
| bring me back. But I do miss it, and it's not as simple as "well
| just go for a walk" or "find time to connect with you coworkers."
| boring_twenties wrote:
| How often would you play table tennis at work, though?
|
| A 2 hour round trip commute in exchange for 15-20 minutes of
| play time does not sound like a good trade.
| giraffe_lady wrote:
| I wasn't trying to make the point that it was worth it? Just,
| as an active, social person I figured I'd naturally find or
| be able to create a replacement for this hybrid
| workish/socializing/light exercise type time and that hasn't
| happened.
| bravetraveler wrote:
| I've been doing WFH since before the pandemic, I grew into it
| well. No disappointments really.
|
| It would be nice to take advantage of travel a bit more, but it
| seems less pragmatic. I love my desktop/lab, it's way too useful.
|
| Everyone else going remote has been the [momentary] dream killer.
| I can't passively stay logged in at 8PM anymore looking for fires
| or smoke.
|
| Everyone is always working and if I don't distance myself, it
| snowballs out of control. It's exhausting and negatively impacted
| me for a while until I learned some mitigation strategies.
| bananarchist wrote:
| I had hoped being at home would make it easier to drift to more
| worthwhile distractions (eg, reading my books instead of the
| news) but that hasn't worked out. Obviously I'm here.
| 121789 wrote:
| I had hoped I could easily recreate the healthy routines I had
| when working in office, but it hasn't panned out. Discipline and
| routine have been really hard to figure out without the forcing
| function of a commute. For example:
|
| 1. An early commute to avoid traffic forced me to go to bed
| earlier, get ready for the next day the night before, and wake up
| on a set schedule
|
| 2. Housework seems to expand infinitely when working remote. When
| I was in office, this didn't take up much of my mental energy.
| Now it seems like I always have laundry to do, dishes to clean,
| etc
|
| I'm going to try and stick remote, but I really need to figure
| these things out. The forced schedule really seems to help. FWIW
| I am single. I don't think it's the same if you have kids from
| what I've seen.
| otoburb wrote:
| >> _I don't think it's the same if you have kids from what I've
| seen._
|
| The endless list of housework expands when the kids are quite
| young, but perhaps the biggest difference for most parents is
| the motivation.
| 121789 wrote:
| Oh yes, I didn't mean to imply kids = less housework. It is
| definitely the opposite--they have much more work that could
| always be done. What I meant was that parents get two things
| from the in-office life by default:
|
| 1. A forced schedule, because you have to bring kids to
| school, cook dinner, deal with homework etc etc. I think this
| helps you prioritize at work a bit better, because the time
| limitation is very clear.
|
| 2. A heavy baseline social life, because your family is
| around frequently
|
| This isn't to say that their lives are easier (again, I think
| it's the opposite), but I think it helps explain some of
| differences in preferences right now for remote vs. in
| office.
| blable2 wrote:
| I hear ya... It was ok for me; 1 year 3 months. I just missed my
| workmates is all. I could do 99% of what I did before (had some
| minor hardware duties).
| jessi771 wrote:
| A striking amount of responses here make me think "we all should
| invest more time in non-work friends."
| throwaway6532 wrote:
| Thought I would get back commute time. Instead I just waste it.
| And now I miss my co-workers.
| quickthrower2 wrote:
| Make a fake commute? Walk your dog (or someone elses?) or just
| go grab a coffee.
|
| Hopefully a coworker lives near you. You could meet up for
| lunch.
| the_only_law wrote:
| Not necessarily related to remote work, but when the pandemic
| started I expected that working from home + the gobs of free time
| earned from many activities being suspended would give me an
| immense amount of time to site down, work on some ambitious
| projects, learn a lot, and give me the time I needed to drive my
| career in a direction I wanted.
|
| None of that happened ofc, and by the end of the first year not
| only had I failed to do those things, some other changes I had
| started making in my life for the better starting just a few
| months pre-pandemic completely exploded.
| drowe859 wrote:
| Overall I still love it, but mainly I miss being able to idly
| complain and grouse about things with my co-workers off the
| record. With all communication happening through company
| channels, I always assume someone has access.
|
| Complaining about work is a time honored tradition, and bonds
| teams together.
___________________________________________________________________
(page generated 2022-02-14 23:02 UTC)