[HN Gopher] Workplaces are in denial over how much Americans hav...
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Workplaces are in denial over how much Americans have changed
Author : 0xa2
Score : 55 points
Date : 2022-03-22 17:38 UTC (5 hours ago)
(HTM) web link (www.theguardian.com)
(TXT) w3m dump (www.theguardian.com)
| atonse wrote:
| Yup I look back at the insanity of driving two hours a day to sit
| in a stupid office that's downtown for random reasons apart from
| "I'm required to"
|
| I hated it before the pandemic. But now I never ever want to go
| back to it.
|
| It is amazing to see my kids and family for longer.
|
| It isn't perfect. The weaker boundaries can take their toll. But
| overall I can't imagine what circumstance would make me want to
| commute ever again.
|
| And I'm the CEO so I can't imagine any client demanding such. And
| I will never demand it of my employees.
| simulate-me wrote:
| All your reasons for liking WFH have to do with you and your
| personal time. Less time spent driving, more time with friends
| and family, etc. I like those things too. But I have a feeling
| most companies will try to optimize for what's best for the
| company. If it's possible to hire talent that can come into the
| office, then they will in the long term.
| trillic wrote:
| I've decided that I am willing to go into the office, but the
| price of that labor is higher than the price of my WFH labor.
|
| I also think I am more productive at home, and am upfront
| about that.
|
| I think the labor market will have a higher rate for in
| person SWE work compared to the WFH market.
| r00tanon wrote:
| Many companies have actually experienced more optimal
| business in WFH during the pandemic. And many metro areas
| less pollution, lighter traffic, etc. The fact is most work
| is done hybrid anyway in companies with large geographic
| footprints and outsourcing. Of course different business
| models and sizes may still benefit from 100% in office so not
| a onesize model.
| furyofantares wrote:
| Used to be I'd leave home at 815 to get to work at 9, and leave
| work at 5 to get home at 6
|
| Last September I decided to start going into the office one day
| a week again. Except my new schedule was go upstairs at 9 and
| go downstairs at 5, so I left at 9 to get to work at 945 and
| left work at 4 to get home at 5
|
| I immediately went back to full time WFH. If I commute it's
| gonna cut into my 8 hours, not into my personal time. That's
| the new reality, and it's not worth it to the company to cut
| 25% of my time so they can have me in the office
| Kon-Peki wrote:
| My employer is in denial about why people don't want to come back
| to the office. They are convinced that the only reason anyone
| wants to work from home is that they are afraid of getting sick.
| ruined wrote:
| we all knew things were bad, but feeling the contrast and
| suddenly living a freer life was absolutely enchanting, even in
| the face of uncertainty and death.
|
| all of my friends said to each other, over and over, we will
| never go back to the way we lived before. i'm sure millions of
| Americans had the same experience.
| SQueeeeeL wrote:
| I feel like this is the correct response. I've seen so many
| people claiming that "office efficiency" is the most important
| thing, but the happiness of humans working remotely is such a
| massive gain. It creates a tradeoff where you're explicitly
| making employees much more miserable for mild gains in money
| for employers.
| anaccountexists wrote:
| I feel like there's a happy medium where you have a quarterly
| session where you meet with coworkers in person to get face
| time but work remotely the rest of the time. That's been
| great for my team, at least.
| Melatonic wrote:
| The whole COVID rollercoaster has made me appreciate the fact
| that I work for a labor union much more than I did before.
| thenerdhead wrote:
| I'll never forget the freedom I had as an 18 year old fresh out
| of high school who got a job remotely building web apps for the
| university. That type of autonomy can never be replaced with any
| office perk ever. Multiple startups and big tech companies later,
| I'm still not bothered by those perks and live my very happy life
| with this freedom.
| r00tanon wrote:
| After 2 years my company, a recent acquisition of a "large bank",
| has begun the RTO transition.
|
| The CEO of our parent has been leading the charge to "get back in
| the office, where face to face gatherings foster great ideas,
| spread our great culture, train our young associates!" etc.
|
| Looking around today in the office, still largely empty, I know
| the truth is: very little is done 100% onsite in the same
| building. Hell, we've been working with mixed teams comprised of
| offshore and nearshore members, and departments in other offices
| for years prior to the pandemic, and, of course, for the last 2
| years under the pandemic in a 100% WFH regime, and have in this
| distributed team model actually grown assets under management by
| over 100%. Business has been good if not outstanding.
|
| So it rings very hollow to hear all this cheerleading about how
| good we had it. How, all of a sudden after, finally, some respite
| from pandemic numbers, our senior company leaders are "excited"
| to dive back into long commutes and rub elbows with their
| employees around the water cooler - not that a lot of elbow
| rubbing ever really occured.
|
| I swear an HR manager said in an all hands Zoom call, "The one
| thing I miss most was that Ferry commute!
|
| Yeah. The one parked for hours in a car line, both ways, then
| getting on a boat trip, if you were lucky a breakdown hadn't
| occured. All this 3 hours a day on top of at least an 8 hour work
| day. This claim sounded so forced and desperate it was
| completely, obviously, an attempt to shill the whole idea.
|
| Can't fathom why we'd continue to cling to this false notion that
| everything has to happen 9-5 and in one office. It hasn't been
| like that for a very long time.
| atonse wrote:
| I agree that face to face interactions can be great. However
| they don't need to happen in an office.
|
| I have expressed to my team that, in the spirit of doing things
| however we want to, our sprint kickoff can be a picnic or could
| be done at a park (or some different place every couple
| sprints)
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