Poll: Do you prefer the office or work from home?

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=30239441

by alfiedotwtf • 4 years ago

312 355 4 years ago

news.ycombinator.com

sparrish2• 4 years ago

Been working from home for 12+ years now. I can't imagine going back to an office.

I get more work done at home than I ever did in an office and I have 7 kids and we homeschool.

throwawayboise2• 4 years ago

You have my respect. No way do I think I could manage the time commitment and work needed to effectively homeschool.

sparrish2• 4 years ago

My wife deserves nearly all the respect for homeschooling. She does the lion's share. I help with checking the work and mostly science and math.

enobrev• 4 years ago

20 years for me - since late 2001. Loved it in a 450 square foot apartment in a very lively Brooklyn neighborhood; I loved it in my peaceful 2br apt with a view in Seattle; I still love it now with a house and a toddler (still in the city).

I started my career in an office - a very fancy one at that with an incredible view and great coworkers. But office life has never been for me.

I have 7 kids and we homeschool

Impressive.

jwHollister• 4 years ago

10+ yrs wfh, 4 kids homeschool. Ditto, amazing wife.

pensatoio• 4 years ago

That's awesome!

toomanydoubts3• 4 years ago

Going to an office to write software is absolutely insane. I like going on fridays and leaving early to drink beer with coworkers.

interpol_p• 4 years ago

Agree. I go in once a week to pick up a shared lunch for everybody and we hang out and play some board games

hh3k02• 4 years ago

Hanging out with coworkers would be my own personal hell, to be frank. And there's nothing wrong with my coworkers, I'd like to emphasize that, but I have friends and family that I'd rather hang out with. Coworkers are just coworkers to me.

Trasmatta4• 4 years ago

The absolute absurdity of sitting in an open office, and pretending to program the full 9-5. That's just not how work like this happens. Why do companies pay their developers high salaries, but then tie one hand behind their backs like that.

For me? Never again.

yupper32• 4 years ago

Why are you pretending to program the full 9-5?

I like the office and am currently working in the office but I just... get up and leave whenever I want. Come back whenever I want. No need to pretend to work 9-5.

vesinisa2• 4 years ago

My experience is almost exactly contrary.

At home, I get a "guilty" feeling if I don't work 100% effectively for the whole day. At the office, I never felt pressured to "code" the full eight hours, as I could see nobody was doing so (in Slack it seems everyone else is always green/present.)

At the office, I'd fill the day with conversations, lunch and coffee breaks, and other meaningful interactions with other programmers, managers, designers and various other stakeholders.

At home, when I need to take a mental break I just get bored and start procrastinating with the computer. If I go see my family to the other room we talk family business.

I look forward to returning to the office. Immense amounts of information just never get communicated over Slack & Zoom. I feel like working in a dark tunnel for the past 2 years and going.

If I wanted to sharply focus on a specific task for the whole eight hours I could do unlimited remote already pre-Covid. I used this option rarely, as these days could get quite exhausting.

unobatbayar2• 4 years ago

This is true, with exception of Japanese people programming the full 7am - 10pm and pretending not working.

_9omd4• 4 years ago

But why go 9-5? Show up at 10. Take a 2hr lunch at noon, and leave at 4. Ride your bike in, chill with people you like, get some work done, don't stress yourself. Ride your bike home and crack a beer. No one is chaining you to a desk, if you're a software engineer the cards are all in your hand in this market.

mortenjorck• 4 years ago

You describe my ideal hybrid schedule. I don’t miss being in the office Monday through Thursday at all, but I really miss Fridays in the office.

In my experience, remote work typically has no direct productivity downsides, but team cohesion absolutely can take a hit. I find being in the same room with someone doesn’t help us work any better, but having been in the same room with them at some point (ideally not all that long ago) absolutely does, likely even more so having had a beer with them.

Hermitian909• 4 years ago

In my experience, remote work typically has no direct productivity downsides, but team cohesion absolutely can take a hit

I'm sure this varies based on the type of work you're doing, but I found the hit to team cohesion led to long term productivity losses. At first we were getting more done than ever. As time went on our raw work output day-to-day did not decrease but a lot of unneeded work that previously would have been headed off at planning and discussion stages would get through.

This was on a team that is specifically doing speculative high risk/reward work so that might be applicable to a lot fewer people than I imagine.

alecbz14• 4 years ago

Going to an office to write software is absolutely insane.

Why?

Writing software, especially in a large organization, is often an inherently social job, just like many others. You often need heads down time to actually get into flow and produce code, but that doesn't mean interaction with others isn't a significant part of it as well.

LAC-Tech2• 4 years ago

Linux kernel team seems to manage fine. Or maybe they'd all do better if they were in a big open office with Linus Torvalds.

madeofpalk2• 4 years ago

I think the overwhelming majority of software that's written does not need that much attention.

grensley• 4 years ago

Last Friday I went in and got a good education on some of our physical hardware. This knowledge is only held by people that have been with the company since Spring 2020 or work in that department.

I can only imagine the amount of institutional knowledge that is being lost right now. Workers that are low to the ground and sociable who form informal bonds between departments are hurt by being limited to only online interactions, and as a result, the organization suffers too.

ngngngng• 4 years ago

For me the sweet spot is working from home with a place away from home I can go when I feel like it. This could be a coworking space or coffee shop but my favorite is the public library near me which is not too trafficked, has excellent Wi-Fi and is a great place for everything but meetings.

twalichiewicz• 4 years ago

I think my views have changed over the course of the pandemic— originally I was thrilled by not having to commute, being comfortable, having an easy way to take a break.

Now in 2022 it sort of feels like living at the office, and the lack of separation between the two can be annoying. The flexibility to pick when I want “intense focus” time at the office has been working really well for me. (Thank goodness my company allowed us to be hybrid.)

bee_rider2• 4 years ago

Yeah. I'm working from home. I'm loving the convenience and the ability to use, for example, my favorite keyboard. But working in my bedroom and livingroom has kind of ruined those rooms for me. I think I'd enjoy it much more if I had a separate home office room to go to.

User232• 4 years ago

If you can get a dedicated home office somehow I’d recommend it.

fartcannon2• 4 years ago

My job supplied a laptop and I just use another desk for that. So When I'm working its the work desk, when I'm at home its the home desk. Conveniently they're at 90 degrees but share a chair which let's me sometimes be at home when I'm at work. Which is nice.

kilbuz• 4 years ago

Yes, "it's not working from home, it's living at work" is how I feel and how I have heard it expressed.

quickthrower2• 4 years ago

WFH is so much better for 2 reasons: can focus, no commute.

Other great reasons: not spreading germs. get chores done during lunch break. see more of kids. look after pets. easy take holidays where you work from another location. own office space. decent coffee machine. not being caged in a city centre during lunchtime. bring in washing if it rains. be near school if there is a problem (like kid is sick). conversation over zoom means both of you get to work at a desk and have good ergonomics while solving an issue.

stickyricky• 4 years ago

I'm a social person. I vastly prefer working from home. I've been doing so for the past 8 years. My work days are short. My time with family, hobbies, and friends is long, peaceful, and uninterrupted.

Working in a remote first organization is better. No asses to kiss. Just results. And ample amounts of free time.

redman25• 4 years ago

Work from home but head into the office once or twice per week. I’m liking the mix of comfort at home without losing connection with colleagues.

WalterSobchak• 4 years ago

We're about to adopt the same hybrid schedule. It's a good compromise from what it was before the pandemic (always in office).

fartcannon2• 4 years ago

The first rule of change management is to boil the frog slowly.

Unless the hybrid schedule is optional, expect to be back full time in under a year! You'll know you're about to go back when your managers manager has an all hands and mentions something about people being confused or not knowing when their team will be in the office.

They'll manufacture consent by doing a bunch of surveys that they claim people want to go back.

Then 3 months later they'll mandate teams return to work full time (with a flex alternating friday off or something) for 'team cohesion'.

You can actually be a change management consultant. It's big money.

ketzo8• 4 years ago

At the start of the pandemic, I knew I would miss working with people in person, but thought I would be totally great with WFH.

Now, I know that I badly need some amount of in-person time with my coworkers on a weekly basis, or I go crazy.

It's a motivational thing for me. I thrive on solving problems for and with other people, and there's an "out of sight, out of mind" effect for me over zoom. It's just harder for me to get my brain going.

I wish I were better at WFH - maybe with the right type of work I would be. I love everything else about it! My home office setup is awesome, I always hated commuting, I love the flexibility of doing chores during the day or getting some work done at 11pm because I don't feel like sleeping.

But man, I miss people.

spurgu2• 4 years ago

It's a motivational thing for me.

I've always loved working from home (and was doing it for almost a year before the pandemic started), I'm quite self-driven, but I do recognize that it can be difficult to get back into the groove once you've been out of it for a while - meeting colleagues in person would help with that aspect.

Ideally, if my colleagues weren't some 3000 km away, I wouldn't mind going to the office once a week or something.

pc86• 4 years ago

It's hard to find places that have anything in the middle. It's either fully remote, they may or may not even have an office anymore, and they act like you're crazy if you suggest having some sort of standing office space available without special reservations or advance notice. Or on the flip side, they want you in the office 3, 4 days a week, 8-5 or whatever, basically pre-COVID requirements.

I agree I think the best of both worlds would be some sort of schedule, maybe ~1-ish day a week on average. Personally I'd love something like Monday-Tuesday in the office every other week. But everybody is different, which in turn makes it really hard to coordinate and make everyone happy.

playcache2• 4 years ago

That's my situation, we have a very globally diverse workforce from the UK, France, North America. I can only see this happening more and more over time now. Companies no longer need to restrict hiring to the small pool who are able to physically travel to a single location everyday.

xwdv2• 4 years ago

This kind of makes you a bad coworker. I would be annoyed if someone actually needed to pester me in person regularly to function. I work from home to avoid people like that now. If I was in the office I would not want to talk to anybody unless we had some prearranged meeting on a specific topic.

bonniemuffin• 4 years ago

Not bad, just different. Many humans enjoy socializing with other humans in a workplace setting. It's ok that you don't like it, but that doesn't make this person a bad coworker.

paulcole2• 4 years ago

If I was in the office I would not want to talk to anybody unless we had some prearranged meeting on a specific topic.

This is the sort of honesty I’d love to hear when interviewing candidates.

webstrand• 4 years ago

Maybe it depends on how the team is structured. For the team I belonged to, most of our long-term planning was done informally, we were small enough that we could often spontaneously discuss future goals, present problems, and potential solutions. But with the advent of WFH, those discussions no longer happen, and nobody seems to have time or interest in regularly scheduled meetings.

But I don't know, I only learned recently that my own team members had been working around a broken feature that I maintain for over a year without telling me. I kind of feel like I've been abandoned.

scarby2• 4 years ago

But I don't know, I only learned recently that my own team members had been working around a broken feature that I maintain for over a year without telling me.

I keep getting this happen. Someone wants an improvement/fix to something and just doesn't communicate that, probably because it has to be very intentional now, whereas it used to be something you'd mention over coffee when you saw the right person.

ketzo8• 4 years ago

I'm sorry to hear that. My team is actually excellent about communication for ongoing work, and I still feel the way I do - I'd be waaaay worse off if I felt like people were forgetting about me.

If I could offer some unsolicited advice - tell them that you feel that way! I am quite confident that no one wants you to feel abandoned, and they would be unhappy to know they're making you feel that way. They might not be able to fix the situation all at once, but I hope you're able to get a better situation soon, one way or the other.

echelon• 4 years ago

WFH has become so monotonous. It drags on far longer than working from the office. I can't focus. It's more exhausting. There's nobody to talk to.

My employers are getting half the efficiency they used to get. Anything I used to find enjoyable about the work is now gone.

I'm probably going to go on a looong sabbatical soon.

rbut• 4 years ago

I found that for the first few years, but eventually got used to it. 13 years later it doesn't bother me. Having a young family at home with me definitely helps defeat the loneliness though.

Sebb7673• 4 years ago

I'm in exactly the same boat. Working from home has a lot of advantages (as a longer sleeper, I can get up later, I can eat at home, I don't need to travel, I have a really nice setup etc) but I really miss having a coffee break with coworkers. We regularly do some Zoom coffee meetings or are even having a drink, but it's not a perfect replacement.

On the other hand, the pandemic really took the fun from meeting people all day, so I don't think I'd be happy in an office either, at least under the current circumstances.

soheil2• 4 years ago

What if you WFH and others work from your home too and vice versa?

ketzo8• 4 years ago

We actually did this a few times and it was really nice! Current living situations make it a little impractical, but we should try doing it again some time soon, that's a great idea.

Cerium• 4 years ago

I have felt some of this. I setup zoom meetings occasionally with coworkers that I used to chat in the hallway with. It is a nice way to keep the connections, and despite the purpose of just shooting the breeze, usually some productive discussion comes out of it.

cjohnson318• 4 years ago

Yeah I've been WFH since 2018, and I'm not a people person, but dang... I miss people.

On the flip side, being able to drop everything and go to the DMV without feeling the social pressure to skip lunch or work late is nice. I feel like I only have a finite number of super productive hours a day, and it's not eight, and they're not always squished together back to back.

JohnBooty12• 4 years ago

    But man, I miss people.

For me, working from home gives me more time to spend with family and friends, so that's been the tradeoff and it has mostly worked. I also get more exercise/sunlight. Even if it's just a walk with the dogs during lunch, or mowing the lawn.

Although, it's doubly tough when things aren't good at home. Because during those times, the office provided some solace. But overall it's been positive.

Have you gotten at least some kind of positive tradeoff in terms of more friends+family time, exercise, etc?

ketzo8• 4 years ago

Yeah, my work-life balance has been great as a result, and I've been able to spend a lot of time with friends and my partner. So that's something I'm actually very grateful for.

But at some point I realized that I really missed work people! I got into software engineering because I love talking about engineering with other really smart engineers. Took me a while to realize that was what was missing.

playcache2• 4 years ago

I think this is the key aspect. For people with families at home, WFH is a godsend. I have two small children and am an avid runner on my local trails. WFH has meant I can get up around 7am and go running with my dog through the countryside, to then return, have a shower and walk with my young son to his school to drop him off. I can do all that and be showered and ready to start work in my home office by 9am.

Any companies not offering remote now that instead want me to commute to an office and lose all of that personal time, are an immediate rejection.

On the other hand, young professionals who have moved into a city and our just developing their career, they want to be among peers, socializing , learning and building a network.

isodude• 4 years ago

This was my opinion back in 2020, moved to another house with other neighbors, now it's the other way around.

Now I almost long to get off work and do some choirs outside instead.

Salgat• 4 years ago

I think the biggest issue is that people are lonely due to the pandemic, and are conflating that with working from home. You can have a strong social life and working from home. For others, unfortunately the only socialization they can get is forced interaction with coworkers at the office.

klodolph• 4 years ago

Conflating those concepts may be appropriate here, for many people. I don't think it's only a matter of how strong your social life is outside of work, or a matter of people leaning on forced socialization at work. That's an overly reductive look at it.

I would like to talk about it but I'm kind of sick of seeing the discussion framed in term of people who only socialize at the office.

The fact is, in the office we have many in-person interactions spread throughout the day. Socialization isn't fungible, we can't simply replace interactions in one context with interactions in another context and assume people will be happy with it.

ketzo8• 4 years ago

I can see what you're getting at, and I thought it was the issue for me, but I've come to realize that it's not a loneliness/lack of socialization thing. It's just that I really treasure in-person interactions with the people I am working on something with.

I got into software engineering because I like solving problems, but also because I love solving problems with really smart people. Turns out that it feels really good to do that in person!

Coffee breaks, lunch outings, being able to stop by someone's desk and shoot the shit or see what they're working on -- I've realized that these things are not only enjoyable for me, but critical for both the actual quality of my work and my motivation to do it. Not to mention any kind of whiteboarding / collaborative discussion, which I think is pretty obviously nicer in person.

So far, nothing I have tried remotely gives me the same kind of satisfaction that just physically being with my work partners does. I do think there's something very deeply ingrained in me that's responsible for that, and I know it's definitely not something everyone wants or needs.

physicles• 4 years ago

For me, the two aren't conflated, and I still find that I prefer some office time. I have the ability to work from home or work remote, so I often do that. But I live in China, so social life is rather normal these days (modulo the occasional restrictions).

Like another commenter said, I find it easier to care about the concerns of people around me, so if that's a bunch of people at my company then I'll care more about them and what they need. It makes a difference for me if physical presence and work presence are aligned.

Probably for a similar reason, I've found that I can't reach 100% productivity consistently (over weeks) unless I'm in an environment where people around me are working. So that means finding a coworking space wherever I go.

Also, in-person conversation is so much higher bandwidth than anything else. Those couple hundred ms of latency do matter. Being able to party on the same physical whiteboard is really nice.

spike021• 4 years ago

I've seen this argument several times and while it's probably true for some segment of the population, it's definitely not for everyone (who feels this way).

I have this sentiment, yet I hang out with one or two friends once or twice a week, occasionally some family every couple weeks or so, and constantly on a daily basis get to socialize with the parents of my dog's friends while on walks.

None of that makes up for working alongside people. And I don't just mean work specifically but forming connections with my coworkers. I'm a huge proponent of making real social connections with coworkers so that it's easier to be collaborative with them. There will be times when your work is not siloed and you either need context about something that your coworker has contributed to before but you haven't, vice versa, etc. and it helps if you both have some kind of connection and stake in the work relationship. If there's no stake in it, then other than the bare minimum (such as not wanting someone to totally screw up something owned by the team), nothing will be contributed. It can make gathering context brutal, work more competitive (resource starvation where one coworker can let their coworker have more trouble which results in them getting a better pick of things to work on, etc.).

simondotau• 4 years ago

If I'm not occasionally in the same room as someone else, I find that in very small ways you lose an abstract, almost ethereal sense of being in connection with another human.

randomsearch• 4 years ago

Going to the pub or a cafe with a friend is completely different from the interactions you have in your work. Most (all?) humans need both - we need to work together, and we need to relax together.

achow• 4 years ago

Got the following insights from my younger team members, who are single, new to workforce, new to the city (edit - not in 'home' city).

I miss the office for..

- Free and convenient food.

- Social chatter & engagement.

- Making friends with employees who I don't know and connecting with new employees.

- Work life separation (balance).

- Proper workstation, climate controlled environment.

- Sense of belonging - team outing, after hours beers..

- Intra and inter company sports and games.

- Meeting potential dates.

ketzo8• 4 years ago

Engagement is a good word for what I'm missing. Talking with work people - even if we're not actually talking about work - makes me feel more engaged with my day-to-day tasks.

011000112• 4 years ago

I miss people. I don't miss my coworkers. I get plenty of interaction with my coworkers via the web. I miss socializing with normal folks who aren't obsessed with status, salary and career trajectory.

spc476• 4 years ago

We're still working from home, but I get together with a few people from the office once a week for lunch. I'll admit that we might be lucky in that we all live in the same city so it's easy for us to meet for a weekly lunch.

severino• 4 years ago

Now, I know that I badly need some amount of in-person time with my coworkers on a weekly basis, or I go crazy.

That's the problem with people that doesn't want WFH: they also want their coworkers to work at the office so they don't "go crazy".

evandijk70• 4 years ago

Yes, this is indeed the problem. I like the social aspects of work (work discussions, but also small talk) more than the work itself. Some people argue that that should not be their problem, and that as long as they get their work done, it's fine, which is probably true.

What I do know is that I did work from home for four months and I was miserable. Any job where the norm is at least three weeks at the office would be a huge plus for me, and if choosing between jobs that are mostly remote and jobs that are mostly in the office, I would take a paycut for the job that is mostly in the office. I realize it may be the other way around for other people and am really curious what the norm will be in the end.

w_t_payne• 4 years ago

I'm the same.

shard2• 4 years ago

I love the lockdown, I get to WFH and not have to deal with small talk every day, mandatory company dinners, commuting through rush hour traffic smelling exhaust, getting up early and going home late, staying late because the boss is staying late, slamming coffee in the afternoon to stay awake instead of taking a nap, not getting any sunlight because I'm in the office during all the daylight hours, having to cram my errands into the same time as everyone else when the markets and stores are the busiest, eating whatever food you can get close to the office instead of eating healthy, dressing up for work, having to shop for work clothes, not feeling free to go on a non-work website because someone could see your monitor from over your shoulder, dealing with chatty coworkers who go on and on about nothing, dealing with coworkers who have loud phone conversations, not being able to listen to the music you want, breathing recycled indoor air constantly, not being able to adjust the temperature to what you like, not being able to inject comments into a conversation over someone who is dominating a room, not being able to yawn or close my eyes or pick my nose during a meeting... I should probably stop.

thefz2• 4 years ago

I agree on everything you said and let me add: I get to pick my chair, desk, displays and overall computer peripherals in my home. I control the temperature, freshness of air, lighting, noise level, internet speed. And having your own toilet is cool too.

Personally just being lifted from a 1h + 1h car commute has dramatically increased the quality of my day to day life, so much that friends and relatives noticed an uplift in my mood.

flippinburgers• 4 years ago

Consider yourself lucky to be working at a company where you would even want to be around the other staff I guess.

29athrowaway• 4 years ago

You miss strangers more than your family?

salmo• 4 years ago

This is just my experience, not a right/wrong thing.

I’m the opposite. Part is that I irrationally hate lifestyle change. Part is that I work with so many teams.

I hated switching. I liked my busy workspace and being able to jump in and help people around me, get info, etc. I had the benefit of also having a private office I could retreat to when I needed long focus time.

I also love routine. I like predictability of my schedule.

But so much of the teams I primarily work with had been spread across the country. 3 cities at the time. They missed out on the hallway chatter and always felt behind.

After a couple months, I got into my groove. I was collaborating with the folks outside my city (and building) much better. But I was overwhelmed by notifications, and was working too many hours.

I disabled all chat notifications on my phone. I started enforcing a beginning of the day and my kids pop in to remind me it’s over (I lose track of time when I’m focused).

Those teams are now in 6 cities. I’ve learned to schedule collab time, offer myself up to teach new folks when I have time and jump in on things I don’t know the same way.

I also schedule 1 hour meetings with close coworkers for 10 minutes of decision just so the conversation can wander. We have an open biweekly call to just joke and wander into something brilliant.

Folks got super aggressive with meetings. So I block off focus time on my calendar and reject meetings that should be emails. I reject emails for things that should be public. I ignore “good morning” chat messages from people I don’t know. When I’m focusing, I disable notifications and turn my speakers off.

I’m more productive and collaborative now. I have more control with people not able to just walk up to my desk. I’m not distracted by others’ more appealing problems except when I plan to be. Folks in other cities have equal access as local.

I also switched to waking up early for my quiet time at home, before the kids wake up, and not staying up late. I stopped eating lunch out, but always take an hour away. Sometimes I just eat a snack and take a power nap. I quit drinking soda. I stopped caffeine after noon. COVID got me doing outdoor activities that I love regularly out of necessity.

I’m 60lbs lighter than when COVID hit, and just feel a lot healthier. It wasn’t an arching intentional goal, just a change here and there to feel better.

Also, I’m naturally an introvert. At work people don’t see that because I am jovial, kinda loud, and opinionated. But when I clock out, I’m done. I just want to chill with my family.

I’ve dabbled in hobbies. Outdoors stuff like fishing and hiking. Picked up sewing bags and masks. Small home improvements. Goofing around with guitars and drums. Making my own guitar pedals. I just don’t force myself to finish anything, it’s just entertainment.

We’re starting back “hybrid” soon, with “team days.” For some that’ll mean 2-3 days per week in office.

But my teams aren’t local, so I really only see that happening when we can get folks traveling again for planning events. I’m not going to the office to Zoom, when I can do it at home without shoes. Maybe the occasional whiteboarding session. I haven’t found an adequate digital replacement for that.

loco5niner2• 4 years ago

I get to see my wife and 2 kids way more during the day, and my extended family lives just down the street. I'm not missing out on socialization. I imagine if I was still single and lived out of state, this might be a problem for me though.

I don't miss the office-loud-laugher, or the drive-by-tell-you-a-dumb-joke guy when "I'm just trying to get my work done please". My manager wisely scheduled a daily team meeting so I get to see my team every day via Teams.

ianai• 4 years ago

I would strongly prefer WFH or at least a hybrid. But I’m more than happy to work from the office if it’s a competitive advantage in the common era.

NicoJuicy• 4 years ago

For me it's the same. Perhaps a bit of preference to working from the office ( I'm also nearby).

But I've noticed that our jr programmers haven't improved since 2 years ago.

zamadatix• 4 years ago

Work from home but within reasonable driving distance (2 hours) for a day or two in person event (usually some portion work oriented but mostly socializing focused) every month or two with folks in similar situations. I like this balance much better than my previous job where I was work from home but never got to meet everyone because it was a large company and we were all over the country. There was still ~weekly mix of getting together with local folks at the regional office but looking back it still seemed more often than I like. That said I like each much better than at the job prior to that where they had an aversion to people not being in their office chairs every day. All 3 jobs were in the same field and closely related outside of seniority.

dleslie2• 4 years ago

Working from home means I get to see my wife and children for more hours of the day. It also means that I get to choose when I will allow myself to be interrupted, rather than sitting in an open concept office and being _continually_ interrupted.

I've been working from home for over six years. I never want to return to the office. I will change careers before I return to a software development office.

cm2012• 4 years ago

Same, I do marketing and have been working from home for almost six years. Nothing could make me work in an office again.

User232• 4 years ago

Open concept offices are awful. As someone who is more vulnerable to interruptions than most, being able to control my work environment is a godsend.

Everyone is different, but my ideal work environment is library quiet. No music and certainly no overheard conversations or people constantly walking past. I’ve never worked in an office that was willing to provide such an environment, but I have it at home.

catsarebetter2• 4 years ago

Totally agree, used to wear enormous noise cancelling headphones but I would have to pay music to completely block out noise from the office, but then there would be loud music playing in my ears. Real challenge there

techsupporter• 4 years ago

Open concept offices are awful.

The only people I've met who seem to like them are people who do sales for a living or the exact kind of coworkers who I would really not like to be in an open office with.

I have a really nice office in Seattle. Since I am the second most tenured person on the team, I even have a water view and am right next to the snacks. I haven't seen the inside of this office since May 2020, and probably never will again.

All of my colleagues and I have agreed that we don't see the need to go back and our employer is likely going to sell our admin building (we have several other buildings for actual patient services) and distribute some of the money to those of us who worked in that building as a bonus or as an allowance to buy equipment for home.

I've visited the open offices at friends who work for Microsoft and Google and they're just awful hives of noise. I would rather have my own door and own bathroom.

rektide• 4 years ago

rather than sitting in an open concept office and being _continually_ interrupted.

I think of the benefit of the office being the opportunity for continuous partial attention. It affords the ability to be aware of what's going on about you, to learn & see a lot more. But one has to be attentive-ish, have some receptivity, to benefit from this. I feel like I can work without interruption in an office. But it's a risk or a sacrifice to do so: giving up my option of awareness, giving up the chance to share, the chance to learn or teach, the chance to discuss, to focus on my own things.

Rather than argue against open office as a bad construct, my main grievance is that most engagement points are synchronous & exclusive. Those not in the room at the time are not included, in most organization. Most learning, most deciding happens in the moment, in confidence. The open-office works because people are unable to find good forums for important conversations, and so ad-hocracy is an acceptable all-connected fallback.

Remote tends to be way more deliberate. Ad-hoc interaction is replaced by smaller networks of who-wants-to-talk-to-who. Most actions are private & hidden. It's even less communicative.

I'd far prefer an organization that can find more enduring, participatory, accessible ways of communicating. True for organizations which are remote, and those that are in person.

erik_seaberg2• 4 years ago

I don’t believe I can write useful software while following someone else’s conversation. Certainly my best work has been after everyone else left and I suddenly realize I’m hungry or thirsty or uncomfortable and haven’t really moved for hours.

nanomonkey• 4 years ago

I agree for the most part, except that I once had a software job where I had my own office, and it was the best. I could spend half of the day with the door left open, and fix my coworker's problems, and then spend the rest of the day with my door closed doing deep work. It gave me a great sense of what pain points were effecting others, but also allowed me to shut off the distractions when needed.

I absolutely cannot get anything done with open office floor plans. And commuting is life wasted.

sen• 4 years ago

Yeah I’ve been working from home for near on 12 years. I’d rather take a drastic pay cut and change careers than ever go back. I fully understand why some people like (or even “need”) it, but I absolutely despise it.

I get way more work done in a lot less time, save time and stress due to the commute, see my family more, and have significantly better mental health due to all those previous points.

I did miss the office a bit earlier in my WFH career when video conferencing wasn’t as common, but these days it’s not an issue at all and you still get face time with your colleagues etc.

PragmaticPulp• 4 years ago

It also means that I get to choose when I will allow myself to be interrupted, rather than sitting in an open concept office and being _continually_ interrupted.

This is extremely situational. When I was in a larger house and had no kids, WFH was an easy way to avoid interruptions.

Moving to a smaller house (more expensive city) and having kids flipped the situation around. Avoiding interruptions at home was extremely difficult because I was always only a door away from someone asking a “quick favor”.

It’s not just me: As a remote manger I can almost always tell when summer break starts for everyone’s area because there’s a stepwise decline in productive when people’s kids aren’t in school.

Likewise, the office environment makes all the difference. I’ve worked in open-office spaces where everybody respected each other and concentration was the default. I’ve also worked in private-office spaces where I could expect knocks on my door every 15 minutes or less because the culture was so bad that interrupting the engineers was the default practice.

Lately, I’ve felt that fully remote has been the worst of all worlds. Once Slack becomes the default I’m pinged from every angle all day long. It’s hard to push back against people who want answers now now now and know they can get your attention by typing the right few characters into Slack. Comes down to culture, but Slack makes it easy for people to quietly interrupt people directly whereas it was much easier to police the interruptions (as a manager) when I could literally see the offenders bothering the engineers.

dleslie2• 4 years ago

Moving to a smaller house (more expensive city) and having kids flipped the situation around.

I lived in an 800 square foot home with one bathroom for five of the last six years, with my wife and two children. My desk was beside the front entryway, with no door.

Avoiding interruptions at home was extremely difficult because I was always only a door away from someone asking a “quick favor”.

That's a problem of setting boundaries. It never gets easier, but at least the spouse works and the kids go to school and day care.

I’ve felt that fully remote has been the worst of all worlds. Once Slack becomes the default I’m pinged from every angle all day long. It’s hard to push back against people who want answers now now now and know they can get your attention by typing the right few characters into Slack.

More setting of boundaries. Be firm and say no. Better, don't respond outside of your core hours unless you're explicitly on pager duty.

tmmx• 4 years ago

When I want to focus, I pause slack notifications. Slack provide a way to still send it, but in my workplace people tend to respect that setting unless it is a real emergency.

JohnBooty12• 4 years ago

    Once Slack becomes the default I’m pinged from 
    every angle all day long.

I recently began work on a team that has a brief "culture FAQ" regarding things like Slack messaging norms and expectations. We have an agreement that @'ing/DM'ing is expected to be asynchronous unless you explicitly let the recipient know otherwise - "hey, the server's down" or "hey, I'm blocked on this" etc.

(above paragraph edited for clarity)

It's been awesome. Very respectful environment. People @ you but you are not expected to stop what you're doing.

By the same token, I can @ others without fear that I'm causing them an undue interuption, because asynchronous messaging is the norm.

rzz32• 4 years ago

Everything you just says is a great advocacy of a hybrid environment. I’m diametrically opposed to ever working in an office again. I’ve never worked in an office where I felt comfortable. I’m wonderful at focusing from my home office and my productivity nearly doubled. I’m literally never going back. That said, it doesn’t work for you it seems, and that matters too. Hybrid is the answer, as one size does not fit all.

philwelch3• 4 years ago

Moving to a smaller house (more expensive city) and having kids flipped the situation around. Avoiding interruptions at home was extremely difficult because I was always only a door away from someone asking a “quick favor”.

IMO full remote can eliminate the need to live in a small house in an expensive city.

teirce• 4 years ago

Working from home means I get to see my wife and children for more hours of the day.

I wouldn't be surprised if there is a strong correlation between the number of people (partner,family,kids) and how much people enjoy working from home.

I live alone in my apartment and going the first year or two of the pandemic seeing people I know once every few weeks drove me mad.

Hamuko2• 4 years ago

I live alone and I'm still pretty pleased almost two years into not seeing people face-to-face.

irrational• 4 years ago

I worked professionally in an office from 1998 to 2020 and remote from March 2020 till now. There is absolutely no comparison. Working from home is so much better than working in an office that I will quit any job that wants me to work in an office from here on out. Fortunately my current company (a Fortune 100 company) is saying that at some point everyone will have to come back to the office T-TH, except for IT/programmers/developers.

thatsamonad• 4 years ago

I’ve been remote at least some of the time for the last 4-5 years and fully remote since the start of the pandemic (which is what I intend to do going forward).

I totally understand why some people would rather be in an office, even those who are “just” writing code. But I’m just not a very social person and I value time with my family over in-person social interactions with my coworkers (despite my current coworkers being very nice and awesome people).

There’s also just zero need for me to be physically colocated given the work that I do, so any benefits are greatly outweighed by the commute and lack of flexibility that comes with a requirement to be in an office everyday.

zem• 4 years ago

i'm happy with either during my actual work time, but commuting is a huge negative. wfh all the way.

wfhthrowaway• 4 years ago

Did freelance, was at home everyday for many years. I loved it. But since I reported to myself, keeping a good schedule or structure was a challenging task.

Along with that I didn’t have coworkers so things got pretty lonely.

Lacking both structure and socialization allowed me to be completely wiped out emotionally for a long time when I lost an important person in my life.

I got a job, luckily an office job… in the second half of 2019.

Covid hit and I was work from home again. But this time I had structure. I had some socialization with coworkers through messaging and occasional virtual meetings.

This was a really great middle ground. For awhile I suppose. My office is still closed and I would enjoy the option to go in, but only for in-person socialization.

That’s a pretty self-serving reason for an office though. I’ve recently found other means of feeling a sense of community, and I’ve literally have never felt better in my life.

I guess my tl;dr, in-person work had been a long term substitute for community for many people. Remote work is great, but try to maintain structure and become part of a true community.

vncecartersknee• 4 years ago

wfh vastly better although I enjoy going into the office on occasion to catch up with coworkers over lunch or something

markmark• 4 years ago

I've been working from home for about five years and vastly prefer it. I wouldn't be completely against going to the office one day per week, my previous company did this (my current company doesn't have an office in my country much less nearby). It would take something significant to get me back in an office full time again.

hiptobecubic• 4 years ago

I would like hybrid, but I think it is missing the biggest benefit about WFH, which is that it lets you move away from the office. I would rather my house now be near my office so I could go in a few days a week, but if it were close enough for that I wouldn't have been able to afford it.

smallmouth• 4 years ago

I prefer both together.

__turbobrew__• 4 years ago

Where is the option in the poll: “prefer private office with door”?

JetAlone• 4 years ago

Agree, definitely. Even working from home, for temporary separation from distractions this is ideal. Rooms are unreasonably expensive and the toll of not partitioning and ensconcing enough people and things with them is steep.

Arubis• 4 years ago

Work remotely from coworking space at my option; prefer my ability to make my own decisions.

BoysenberryPi• 4 years ago

I've done both and I'm indifferent.I recognize this is probably a very pro WFH crowd but there are pros and cons to both of them. I find collaboration is just easier in person and most of the big "aha!" moments I've had came during water cooler talk.I've also had co-workers whose quality of work completely shit the bed when we went WFH and some of them were let go by management because of it. On the other hand, being able to just get up and go to the kitchen whenever I have down time or get some chores done whenever I have a moment is pretty great.

jamesfinlayson• 4 years ago

Last bout of working from home I got quite frustrated not being able to have some conversations in person but at the moment I haven't felt it (different projects maybe). I do like seeing people in person and there are definitely some conversations that are most easily had with everyone together in person, but working from home Mondays and Fridays has its appeal as well.

chc4• 4 years ago

Working from home was very bad for both my productivity and my mental health. Going in and seeing coworkers every day as mandatory social interaction is a godsend, and I now know I don't want to work for any company that is 100% WFH. The lower friction to just talk to people sitting next to me over having to DM them, and overhearing them complain or talk about whatever random thing they are working on is also a substantial upgrade in feeling connected to the work that I'm doing.

paulmooreparks2• 4 years ago

It is interesting to me how big of a gulf there is between the pro-office and pro-WFH groups. It isn't the case that one is completely right and one is completely wrong. Clearly, there are different working styles, different personalities, and different social needs. How do we build work environments that can accommodate both?

alecbz14• 4 years ago

I'm not sure we can, or should. I imagine the future looks more like different companies/teams with different working cultures.

True "remote as an office" and "working from office" work styles are inherently incompatible. And trying to compromise will probably make everyone unhappy.

bckr5• 4 years ago

How do we build work environments that can accommodate both?

Maybe we don't need to. Maybe different companies can have different cultures. Or, in a compromise with your idea, maybe you split up teams in a company by their preference.

catsarebetter2• 4 years ago

I found that if I make friendships and relationships, have meaningful, exciting, ambitious, and ambiguous work afterwards, remote work works really well, especially for personal growth

notatoad• 4 years ago

I much prefer working from the office, but since covid started I've mostly been working in an empty office, and that's been great. And my commute is about ten minutes by bike, so most of the downsides of working from an office don't really apply to my office.

I mostly just like having the division between work and home: I work at the office, I don't work at home. I think my ideal work location would be an office in town, but not in my company's building.

woofcat• 4 years ago

I'm fine with WFH, or in office 5 days a week. I think a mix would be terrible, as all meetings would end up being online anyways due to x% of the staff being remote on any given day.

My company is currently planning on doing 40% in the office, 60% remote, however with everyone picking their own schedule heading into the office for 2 days a week seems stupid if I'm just going to be on Microsoft Teams there.

madrajib• 4 years ago

Work from office

mastazi• 4 years ago

I adapted to WFH well but - and that's a big one - I had multi-year experience working solo from home, for multiple years, before COVID started.

Back when I started working solo around 10 years ago, I remember it wasn't easy and it took me a long time to find out how to do it right (e.g. things like "you still need to decide what your working hours are", or "you need self discipline" etc.).

Back then, I remember having a hard time and I could not wait to get back to an office - which I did around 2015.

But this second time around, I knew what to expect and I was able to adapt well from the start. Plus I have awesome coworkers and boss, that makes things a lot easier. We do things like virtually hang out once a week to play games etc. - that helps with not feeling lonely.

EDIT: but the biggest difference is probably that I now have a family. Back then I had flatmates, but I guess it's not the same.

m0llusk• 4 years ago

What I like most is to work from a rented office that is not the office. That separates work from home but without being forced to constant closeness with coworkers.

ggm• 4 years ago

I like catching up with my co-workers but I'd be lying if I claimed it was for improved efficiency on the day/at-the-time. It pays back in motivation and common understanding, but travel to and from work, time wastage catching up, longer lunches eats into the productivity.

Its a LOT harder to maintain "flow" in open-plan.

But my ears hurt less when I don't have to constantly zoom in with 'phones. That said, Because not 100% of the overlap worklife people are in the office at the same time, most meetings incur a zoom cost anyway.

mfrw• 4 years ago

Using the commute time to invest in my social-skills and spending time with family in my opinion is one of the reasons why I am now leaning towards a permanent WFH. Before the pandemic I did not know what I was missing in life -- spending quality time with family/friends.

barbazoo• 4 years ago

The pandemic has allowed me to change my life for the better. Once we started to work from home we took our chances and moved out of the city, hoping we wouldn't have to return to an office. We live close to nature now, close to family, have a wonderful community. We get to work from home so we spend much more time with family. There are many occasions throughput the week where I take a long break to work on something completely different, fixing something around the house, work on a project, go for a walk, it's just not possible in an office. I'm grateful for the time of my life not wasted in an office and the circumstances that come with it.

ohCh6zos• 4 years ago

Hands down working from home is so great compared to the office.

DevKoala• 4 years ago

Work for home by far. It saves me 1 hour and a half of commute everyday, and allows me to have a semblance of work life balance.

mybrid• 4 years ago

1 hour commute both ways in the SF Bay Area. Such a waste of life.

JSavageOne• 4 years ago

If by "office" you mean some large open office that you're forced to report to by 9:30-10:30 and stay for 8 hours glued to your desk the whole time with countless meetings, then no I prefer the freedom of working remotely.

I think "working remotely" is more accurate description because one can work remotely without working from home (eg. working out of a coworking space, coffee shop, or park)

Finnucane• 4 years ago

I don't mind going to my office because my commute is a short bike ride and unlike probably a lot of you I have an actual little private office. But now, being in the office is suboptimal because there's still restrictions on how much direct contact we can have with other people in the building. I mean, why go to the office if I still have to use Zoom? (right now the office is closed for everyone).

idrios• 4 years ago

I would love to see this poll broken up into some kind of demographics of: Are you single/married/married with kids, do you have roommates (and are they also wfh) what industry do you work in, what stage of your career are you in, are you managing people, etc.

I thought WFH would be great but it happened too early in my career. I had no savings and too many roommates, and I was not learning nearly as much on the job as I was while we were all in person. I still had to learn how to do my tasks but stopped having conversations with random coworkers about projects they were working on, stopped gossiping about our personal lives, all of our activity became measured and quantified (I freaking hate the MS-Teams online status) and my motivation suffered hard for all of it. It's hard for me to tell if it's my workplace that became dysfunctional or myself, but I wish I had spent long enough time in the office to get sick of it before being wfh.

rootusrootus2• 4 years ago

Are you single/married/married with kids

I think I'd have already gone completely insane if I were still a bachelor when this pandemic WFH experiment has been thrust upon me. I go stir crazy when I'm home alone, but I'm not really a social butterfly either. Work was a good compromise.

Qub3d• 4 years ago

Mid-twenties bachelor here, your suspicions are 100% correct. I don't mind WFH too much, especially now that I have a companion pet, but I definitely feel like I can dig into work with more focus and vigor in the office. It also took a lot of conscious effort on my part to build a healthy hybrid work lifestyle.

For one thing, I don't have the luxury of an entirely separate space to dedicate just to work -- my home office is also my bedroom and personal computer/gaming space.

And as others have noted, its just... way too easy to fall into a pattern where you literally turn into a technological anchorite. I have refused to let myself use food or grocery delivery primarily because I realized there was a point in the depths of 2020 when I hadn't left my apartment in almost two weeks, and it really frightened me how easily the time passed, in a beige blur of life.

Mayzie• 4 years ago

I think I'd have already gone completely insane if I were still a bachelor when this pandemic WFH experiment has been thrust upon me. I go stir crazy when I'm home alone, but I'm not really a social butterfly either. Work was a good compromise.

This is the issue with all of these anti-WFH posts and threads. It was in the midst of the pandemic, where you were not strongly discouraged from leaving your home and socialising. I imagine if there was no lockdown yet everybody similarly worked-from-home, the answers would be markedly different.

Hamuko2• 4 years ago

I'm single and I'm pretty pleased with with WFH. I've noticed that I do my best work when I'm listening to music anyways, so I'm still basically sitting in front of a computer with headphones on - except this time they're not noise-cancelling.

abap_rocky• 4 years ago

The pandemic really helped me confirm that I prefer the office.

I always sought to establish a clear distinction between my work life and home life and the enforced work from home due to COVID has made the two blur to a point now where I feel like I've lost all rhythm. Now living through a pandemic itself has a way of disrupting the rhythm of life but I feel that the collapsing of space into a singular living and work area doesn't help matters.

Another unexpected thing I've found that I missed while working from home is a commute. Now I imagine a person's opinion of their commute is highly conditioned on the mode of transportation but in my case it's a mostly relaxing public transit ride where I had 20-30 minutes of unstructured time to read, listen to a podcast, or just zone out. It similarly helped create additional space to separate the work life from the home life.

This second point on a commute would probably completely change if I had a 90 minute drive in bumper to bumper traffic. If that was my life, there's a good chance I'd find work from home preferable.

TehShrike• 4 years ago

I've been working from home for ~9 years. We live a short distance from town, so I use small grocery runs for about the same purpose as you were using commutes. Drive for 15-20 minutes listening to a podcast or thinking, do something useful, then drive back.

Hard agree on a clear distinction between work life and home life. I require an office in the home with a door that closes. When I am in the office, I am working. When I leave the office, I am not working. The closed door separates my work life from my home life.

My kids are trained not to come into the office, and my wife respects the boundary and messages me instead. I don't work from the living room or dining room. (I've tried, and I can't do it anyway, I become nearly useless to both the family members trying to talk to me, as well as my employer.)

alvatech• 4 years ago

I am just like you. I used to also maintain a clear distinction between home and office. Also, I like driving and 45min(2 way) commute was therapeutic to me.

mdorazio• 4 years ago

100% agree on the non-separation of "home" and "work" being terrible. It's easy to say "just don't work after 5/6/whatever" but in practice not having a physical separation between "this is where I work" and "this is where I don't work" makes that mental switch damn near impossible. I've ended up working far more hours since the pandemic started than I did previously, and when I'm "done" working, I'm still thinking about work and can't even summon the energy to work on hobbies. I'd love a private office in a co-working space, but as I posted in the "problem you want solved" thread earlier today, those are stupidly priced for individuals. Would love to hear how other people solve this.

jasonkester2• 4 years ago

This seems like a common issue. Surely by now there must be a software package you could install that forcibly logs you out of work slack, email, etc. at 5pm and doesn’t let you check it again until 8am.

Or am I going to have to start a new SaaS?

jjav6• 4 years ago

in practice not having a physical separation between "this is where I work" and "this is where I don't work" makes that mental switch damn near impossible.

A good way to enforce this separation is by hardware. (This has many other benefits as well.)

I have a work laptop which is for work only (provided by employer). I switch it on at 9am and I turn it off when the day is done. My own machines are mine, no work or work-related communication happens on them, ever.

While these machines are only a few feet away from each other, once the work laptop is off, it's off.

johnwalkr• 4 years ago

I feel the same way. Most of my commute is sitting on the train and I read on my phone during that time and then don’t have much urge to do this throughout the day. Working from home, I will always sleep a bit longer instead of make time for this, and then throughout the day I am constantly taking 5-10 minute breaks that waste time but done actually feel like a break. Even after so long of WFH, I haven’t managed to find my groove without the structure of going to the office.

signaru• 4 years ago

same. home has been the place for my side projects so having work stuff take over my real estate has been invasive.

home maintenance and electricity is also conveniently ignored by my employer (internet bills are flat so I don't mind). someone else does and pays these back in the office. staying at home longer means it gets disorganized faster, especially with work stuff thrown into it.

i had also always hated remote (micro-)management, even before the pandemic. now that's not just the norm, that's the only option. there are a lot of things that are not communicated verbally/textually. a lot of details get overlooked as we are only using documents as a guide instead of the actual stuff that is being built/developed. things look nice on paper, but the reality is full of duct tape solutions. there are also a lot of decisions that can be made better if you are at the workplace seeing the actual work.

it's also kind of insulting to do "extracurricular" work that would have been tolerable in the office. i had spent hours making "educational" presentations that had nothing to do with product we are developing, only because it had been a tradition in the workplace. when i'm doing stuff at home it's hard not to question whether it is ultimately meaningless.

philwelch3• 4 years ago

I think the trick is to separate your home office from your home-home well enough to create compartmentalization.

The President of the United States has worked from home for centuries, but the Oval Office and West Wing are well separated from the residence. “Oh, but I don’t have room in my West Coast studio apartment to do that.” If you’re working remote, why are you in a West Coast studio apartment?

rootusrootus2• 4 years ago

I miss the in-person time, but I don't miss the commute. That's the conundrum.

I don't like zoom calls, especially since we have so many pointless ones. Half the people (or more) don't even turn on the camera, and nearly all of them have crappy microphones. It's mostly an exhausting waste of time.

There are a bunch of nearby teams that I'd interact with daily at the office, but we have no real reason to talk most days when we're just plugging away on our own narrow slice of the work, so that connection is fading. I feel more mercenary than I ever have in my working life before.

progman32• 4 years ago

Saw the light of wfh in 2020. Won't consider returning to the office anytime soon. I'm sensitive to my environment, and staying home has been a game changer. It's opened my eyes to other ways I was ignoring my needs, too. Now I can spend my precious introvert people budget on things that are more important to me than office interactions, and perform better at work to boot.

I recognize other people prefer office work and that's totally fair. I'm just glad that the pandemic has opened easier avenues for people like me.

rammy1234• 4 years ago

Working from Home is great for 3 things.

1. It makes you to do work. End of the day you have to show your progress. WFH forces that coz everyone will now focus on your output than ever.

2. Forces documentation of your work. Everything needs to be documented.

3. You exactly know how your time is spent and with whom.

doopy1• 4 years ago

I hope I never have to commute to an office again. Working from home full time has been a dream come true.

pyuser583• 4 years ago

At start of pandemic was working from home, but with a company I had previously worked in person. I knew all my coworkers, and had plenty of in-person history with them.

Now I work for a different company. I’ve never met any of my coworkers. None of them are in the same city. Most are on different continents.

My ideal situation is working in office for a year, then work from home.

cardosof• 4 years ago

I'm never going back to work in an office. If companies stop with WFH I'll become a freelancer on Upwork or whatever.

Sure, there are many advantages to being in the office, learning and career-wise. But those advantages are related to just one aspect of life: work. With WFH I get perks in every aspect of life, plus it is healthier for me and to the environment, while also being better to the community I'm in - I get to spend my money here locally and not in some corporate park.

pmcollins• 4 years ago

i work from home and have the option to work from an office but the office is shitty and has an open plan. so no, i’m not going to commute 1.5 hrs round trip so i can be uncomfortable all day and be distracted by my coworkers (who i like otherwise).

but give me an office with my own space, a nice view, natural light, and a walkable neighborhood, and i’m very much in.

8organicbits• 4 years ago

Is part of the prompt missing? Should this be "I currently work from X, [but] I prefer working from Y"?

Hippocrates3• 4 years ago

I'm an EM who went from full onsite, to hybrid, to full remote. This is my favorite topic.

Throughout the pandemic we surveyed employees and they largely preferred to WFH. A lesser but significant cohort preferred a hybrid setup. Almost nobody at all was in favor of full-onsite. I was in the hybrid camp. I thought I could have the comraderie of the workplace and the dynamism of a bustling city, plus enjoy the comforts and efficiencies of WFH. On paper it sounds great. In practice it doesn't work at all.

As an employee: I found that the office felt empty and dead which made me question commuting in. Nobody was really around to go to happy hours or have events. A significant portion of the people I wanted to be around were opting to stay home more.

As an employer/manager: We found capacity planning to be hard. You can't save by scaling office space down if everyone is hybrid and still coming in on the same days (tues, weds, thurs, obviously). You also can't have a lively environment with A/B days and half-staff, and it creates headaches around who needs to be in together and when people want to be there. Communicating is easier if everyone just joins the meeting from their own laptop _wherever_ and doesn't need to arrive to a conference room and fight with some silly speakerphone-camera-tv thing.

So I'm ALL IN on remote work. Does it have downsides? Of course. I miss bonding with coworkers, going out to coffee/lunch, and impromptou hack-sessions. What I have gained is different and so much more valuable: Hours of extra time per day to devote to family, friends, health and hobbies. Work is work, and life is life. It's a revelation to realize that you don't _need_ to be IRL buddies with coworkers, just do great work together, and then go do your own thing.

Commuting is literally wasted money and life-- Full-stop. Corporate workspaces are redundant if the work can be done from home rather than letting that space go unused. This is just trimming wasted time and money and putting it somewhere more useful. I also find office attire to be insane. Countless individuals stressing about what shirt/pants/shoes combo to wear... ironing and paying for dry cleaning. Just go on your zoom call wearing something and use your brain to get shit done. Thats the whole point of work.

Sebb7673• 4 years ago

As an employee: I found that the office felt empty and dead which made me question commuting in. Nobody was really around to go to happy hours or have events. A significant portion of the people I wanted to be around were opting to stay home more.

Having a fixed office day really helps. Also, what I really liked about the hybrid approach is that the commute can actually be better; i.e. I don't mind driving 1h to work if I do so once per week.

It's a revelation to realize that you don't _need_ to be IRL buddies with coworkers, just do great work together, and then go do your own thing.

You also don't need to love your job, you just need to pay your bills. I don't think this is a revelation; at least for me, being friends with my coworkers is a significant part of what makes working fun. And even with WFH you still spend a lot of time working. This is of course just preference; if you're not much into socializing, cutting out that part of your life and instead spend the time somewhere else can make sense.

nell• 4 years ago

Commuting is literally wasted life

Commuting is not the same as setting time on fire. The distraction endemic negates the advantage and makes it worse. The forced time in the car with limited options lets me use it somewhat productively, notably makes me do one thing. I spend that time thinking about work, taking phone calls, sometimes listening to podcasts and audiobooks. I have read zero books, but finished 2 audiobooks in the car this year. I find myself setting time on fire during weekends on social media. If instead of commuting the hours are spent on Netflix/Social media etc has gone up then the point is moot.

alecbz14• 4 years ago

I quite like my (short) commute. Though it's either bus, subway, or bike. It's nice to get some exposure to the city, get some bookends for the work day, and (if biking) get some exercise in.

Generally we're talking 20-30 mins though. A much longer ~hour commute or something would definitely start to wear on me I think.

Hippocrates3• 4 years ago

I take your point but this is more of a self discipline issue. I don’t think that the way to get things done is to be stuck in traffic so that you can’t goof off.

alecbz14• 4 years ago

I'm working from an office now but my direct coworkers are all in other cities. I think actually working colocated with the people on my team is close to my no. 1 criteria for any new/teams jobs going forward. Maybe not totally ignoring comp, but I could definitely imagine taking some comp hit if it meant getting to work with a team again or not.

I think the most interesting thing about a lot of this is how wide the spectrum of desires is. It ranges from "you couldn't pay me enough to work from an office again" to "you couldn't pay me enough to WFH".

bckr5• 4 years ago

Thanks for this!

bckr5• 4 years ago

Thanks for this! I'll try that next time.

sverhagen• 4 years ago

For me at least, the real answer is of course much more nuanced. I'm probably well off being in my home office. We're making it work. I get a lot more time to hang out with my wife, or pick up my kid from school in the middle afternoon. But do I miss some creative meetings around the whiteboard in the office? Bet you!

elviejo• 4 years ago

Small co-working space within walking distance from home.

Get the benefits of working from home (no commuting, no traffic, closeness to family)

Get the benefits from the office: other professionals with whom to share, clear boundaries between work and family.

And even something that neither can provide: networking with people outside of your coworkers. And a healthy walk every day.

wly_cdgr• 4 years ago

I like anywhere between a couple days a quarter to a couple days a week in the office, with the rest at a coffeeshop or coworking space.

I mean...what I ACTUALLY like is not having to work for a living, but I'm a wage slave, so that's not an option

mr_tristan• 4 years ago

I've been fully remote since 2017. It's not just about personal convenience. The fully remote teams I've been a part of tend to have far more efficient meetings. I've now pushed status checks or round robin style stuff to Slack workflows. Every meeting I go to in this "good" remote world has an agenda, and generally good discussions. And I actually feel like more of a part of large organizations.

Yeah, we are planning proper "meatspace" get togethers, which will help gel the team more. But that's 2-4x a year. I don't think that needs to happen a lot to really reap some social benefits.

For everyone seeking more social interaction; just go find it locally, outside of work.

I guess I'm fully in the camp of work being intense, but time bound. And that's what remote work affords me, though I've learned to draw the lines between my work time and my personal time starkly. Once you get it right, office environments feel like such a drag in comparison.

kxrm• 4 years ago

As a software developer I have been working from home for 20 years, I have no intention of ever changing this setup. I do better, more quality work when I can control my environment and minimize disruption.

I have taken less pay in order to keep this going. It's well worth it when you consider the costs of commuting.

diogenescynic• 4 years ago

I'll never go back to an office. I've had two kids since the pandemic started and working from home has allowed me to spend way more time than I ever expected to. It's not worth anything else to be in the office. I don't have a commute so I can use those hours to get things done, plus I'm not fatigued/drained by dodging traffic, etc. I was also able to move to a lower cost of living area, which also happens to be closer to family which also helps with childcare. WFH is more human. Going to work was a total grind which I don't thing I could physically or mentally put up with again (if I weren't forced to by necessity). Plus remote work also allows me to live closer to things I want to do (like mountains for alpine sports).

poink• 4 years ago

I'm WFH and will never go to an office again, unless a team convinces me I'm missing something by being there, and I seriously doubt that will ever happen at this point in my career.

lifeplusplus• 4 years ago

Wfh

musesum• 4 years ago

Prior to covid, was coming in a couple hours before everyone else and get most of my coding done before standup. After standup was lunch, so got the camaraderie. When we started WFH, meetings started to drag out longer and longer. It got to the point where I would DM the PM to stop snoring.

Fave work environment was at a co-working space in Bali. No talking allowed in the AirCon room. So, you're around two dozen people whom are intently focused in getting work done. No interruptions and yet high energy. For Human connection, just pop out into the other space, where talking is allowed. Plus, shared lunches or tea throughout the week. Best of both worlds.

mcorning• 4 years ago

I'm a [graduate] student and developer working from home and doing classes from home. I am without a doubt less engaged in class, and I am completely loving it. I put my headphones on and do chores around my apartment and treat class like a podcast. When discussion or "lab" sections roll around, I pop over to my computer and engage with my friends/classmates for some collaborative social interaction. Especially as a person who is working with code during group sections 98% of the time, it is SO much easier to share what we are doing. The days of 3-4 students crowded around somebody's beat up 2016 Macbook are over, at least for me. Screen share, remote control, and a chat to drop useful links/resources is heaven on earth in comparison. Not to mention, thanks to not needing to make breakfast, eat it, pick out a nice outfit, make my bed, wash the dishes, commute, etc. before class, I am getting more sleep than I can ever remember, because I'm doing all of those mindless tasks during class.

twayt3• 4 years ago

I find that I get more emotionally jerked around working in person and can insulate myself from it working from home.

Coworker acts curt to me as though they are superior and more productive than me? Rage ensues and I get an ungodly amount of work done.

Come across an inspiring/encouraging coworker or get recognition for something? I feel great and feel like I take more risks.

Coworker types super loud or acts inconsiderately? My productivity is hampered and I keep focusing on that instead of getting work done.

Attractive coworker or someone I want to impress within sight? I can’t concentrate on actual productivity and try to overcompensate by typing more and acting zoned in.

Feel like a social failure during lunch and forced to sit passively as a couple douchebag workers on adderall dominate the conversation? Feel like a bitch for a few hours.

At home, I’m as productive as I need to be and my motivation allows me to be. No more emotional volatility regarding how I relate to others around me.

Fucking incredible if you ask me.

alecbz14• 4 years ago

Totally just my 0.02, but this reads a little like "opting out" instead of addressing issues interacting with other humans. Like yeah, humans are sometimes great, sometimes make you feel not great, sometimes are genuinely bad. I think life is learning to address and navigate all of that.

rendall• 4 years ago

Speaking as someone who has at times felt the same as OP, some people's empathy or emotional reactivity is just amped up higher than average for whatever reason. You can argue that they shouldn't, or mustn't, or should do something else, but navigating all of that is simply more distracting and exhausting for some than others.

twayt3• 4 years ago

Never said that these people were bad. Just stating my reaction to them is blunted and no longer affects my productivity.

Your framework of dealing with people seems different from mine. What in this post strikes you as “opting out”? That comment doesn’t make sense to me and some clarification would be great.

Also, do these things not bother you or do you simply have a different way of dealing with it so that you don’t feel bad about it?

halestock• 4 years ago

I struggle with ADHD, and I know I work much more effectively from the office. I learned during the pandemic that I really need and missed the social interactions that occur in the office, both for my mental health and for my job (there's nothing wfh that beats a five minute hallway conversation to meet new people, learn about projects, brainstorm, problem solve, etc etc). I also need the commute to help force me to bike and stay in shape (and it does wonders for my mood!).

But at the same time, the flexibility of working from home is incredible. I have been baking like a fiend because it's perfectly suited for the periodic breaks I take during the day. I can take a nap or go for a walk almost whenever I want. I don't feel bad about these things because I'm not wasting time walking to a meeting or waiting in line for the bathroom, and they make me more productive.

So, hybrid I guess.

rzz32• 4 years ago

It’s interesting, I’m severely ADHD and I can focus much better at home. I find offices horribly distracting. I used to come to the office 1 or 2 days a week before the pandemic, and they were my least productive days by an order of magnitude.

tgaj• 4 years ago

I think it's just complicated with ADHD. On one side it's easier for me to focus in a home, when I don't have problems with my executive function. But if I have problem with choosing what to do and to just start, then being in office with other people is helpful. It gives me boost in the motivation.

beebmam• 4 years ago

I don't really like physically being around only men, so I don't enjoy being in the workplace.

I much prefer to work from home when I work at companies that have a small percentage of women on my team (which is every software job I've had in the last 15 years)

Razengan• 4 years ago

Home, though my ideal environment would be outdoors, in something like a gazebo or a sheltered spot in a park, sitting with my computer surrounded by nature, occasionally watching people and animals without having to interact.

rubyfan• 4 years ago

I’m convinced that I’m weird somehow because since the start of the pandemic I have very little in person engagement with anyone outside my wife and kids… and I’m totally OK. Most people I know are either seriously bothered by lack of in person interaction or they’ve said screw it and are living a pre-pandemic life now. Like people were depressed or otherwise in bad mental places and I’ve been overall better throughout, so I sort of feel guilty.

WFH for me has been amazing, I get more personal time, more family time, less stress, less commute - feels like a total win for me. Like many corporate employees I am lamenting being forced back to a 3/2 hybrid arrangement in the near future. And like many I’m looking for a new employer.

shaunpersad• 4 years ago

You're not weird. There are dozens of us! Dozens! https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=18419378

omahane• 4 years ago

Because we work in two week sprints, what I would really enjoy is having on person demos, retros and planning on a biweekly basis while working from home the other days.

paulmooreparks2• 4 years ago

Work from home for me. I moved to Singapore in 2017 and I was already 80% WFH pre-Covid. The other 20% was just because some more senior people wanted to see faces in the office and possibly justify having as large an office as we did.

Now I'm in a new company, still in Singapore but doing basically the same job. I work in retail POS professional services, and my reports and colleagues are scattered all over Asia and Australia. This is because our customers are also equally distributed, and most of our time is spent engaging customers and collaborating remotely.

My manager is in Utrecht but soon will be in Sydney. Fortunately, she doesn't care where I work as long as I get the work done. That's also my message to my reports.

It's a unique job and set of circumstances that lends itself to WFH, but it suits me perfectly. Now I can't imagine going to an office every day.

on3twothr33• 4 years ago

WFH FTW!

_9omd4• 4 years ago

I'm currently living alone, and while not currently working, the idea of working from home feels like being stuck in solitary confinement all day. I've tended to have offices I biked to, where I worked with people I liked, so I generally enjoyed going in. The separation of work from home I find really nice too. I've worked from home before, but always had roommates or a partner living with me. Of course all that being said at this point in my life the idea of being forced to be in an office Monday - Friday sounds like torture too. I guess I can't win.

jltsiren• 4 years ago

I like working from home.

I like living close enough to office that I can go there to meet people without advance planning.

I like the idea of having an office day once a week, but I don't like waking up early enough and completing morning routines in a hurry to actually go there that often.

So I guess it's the "daily/weekly mix" option.

chrysoprace• 4 years ago

Work from home with the option to meet with colleagues face to face (without obligation). I had a choice between a 100% WFH job and a semi-WFH job with more pay and I would've really liked the flexibility of 100% WFH, but with the housing market going the way it's going here I had to sacrifice that for more pay.

Given the chance, I'd go for a 100% WFH option again in the near future.

danhab99• 4 years ago

It would be way better if I didn't have to commute 1hr. The money's way worth it and I love my bosses, but it's just the worst thing I have to complain about.

shell0x• 4 years ago

I prefer working from home. I moved to Toronto, but then I found out that Downtown is a bit of a shit hole, so I'll try to move out as far as I can(maybe even a different province)

donatj2• 4 years ago

We went to temporary work from home at the beginning of the pandemic. Well it's been 2 years now.

I have hated every minute of it. I used to have a 15 minute commute which was a nice bit of time to get my thoughts in order. Now I roll out of bed when my alarm goes off and do daily stand-up on zoom in my home office literally 5 minutes later. My brain is literally still asleep.

I miss people, I miss spontaneous interactions, I miss interactions with people who are not in my department. With very rare exception, I have not spoken to anyone outside of my department of 15 people in 2 years. There are over a thousand people in my company.

My wife works nights and I work during the day, which is the worst of all worlds. I hear her TV shows, TikToks, etc through the walls and they really distract me. I have noise canceling headphones, they only go so far.

When I worked at the office, my brain knew it was work time and could focus. At home, my brain is like "oh you should do the dishes", "what was that loud bang, you should check the basement?". My output has completely crashed.

My friends all had kids and moved to the exurbs, so I've seen them a couple times since the whole thing started. I'm genuinely losing my mind from lack of social interaction.

I want to go back to the office so badly.

McNutty2• 4 years ago

Now I roll out of bed when my alarm goes off and do daily stand-up on zoom in my home office literally 5 minutes later. My brain is literally still asleep.

You can fix this yourself, incredibly easily. Personally I have never changed my alarm clock based on if I'm WFH.

My wife is happy to pop in her headphones if I ask her to while I'm working.

I keep scheduled breaks. If I decide in the morning that the dirty dishes are bothering me then I might do them on my lunch break or when I "get home". And to be fair, if you heard a loud bang at your office anyone would go check it out immediately, no difference at home.

bckr5• 4 years ago

It's interesting to see how the pro-WFH folks largely seem to sneer at pro-office folks' complaints, regarding them as trivial. I'm not seeing the other way around in this or other recent threads.

Of course, this may be partially explained by the structural pressure against WFH, which has left its proponents on the defensive. But it strikes me as anti-compassionate.

chologrande• 4 years ago

I often feel like an overlooked part of working from home is the cost you have to take on to do so.

While I love the convenience of working from home, making an office space at home takes a huge portion of the square footage available for me. My company offers $100/mo as a stipend to work from home. This is approximately the cost of .25 square feet of real estate.

I can't afford to work from home, but I have to anyway. Most companies I know have closed down their offices. :(

jsrcout• 4 years ago

Work from home, definitely. The office was fine but I'm very much an introvert and it's just so much less stress this way. The main thing I miss is random chats with people in the aisles or the break room. Haven't found a substitute for that at all. When our site reopens, we'll probably be coming in for meetings/whatever fairly often, so things should be about perfect.

madeofpalk2• 4 years ago

In the before times, I (thought I) loved working from the office. I'm a reasonable social person, so I enjoy hanging out with people in the office and after work at the pub.

It took me a while to get used to remote work, but now I couldn't have it any other way. I do miss the social aspects of being in the same physical space as other people, but I greatly prefer the other freedoms like not wasting 1-2 hours of my day commuting to work. I used to get pretty bad seasonal depression over winter which has now disappeared as I'm not longer coming home in the miserable cold dark for a few months of the year.

I'm also grateful that I have a decent apartment with a seperate and dedicated office that is a very distinct area from where to cook, eat, and sleep.

I'm thankful that I have a good social circle (who I all met through past jobs in an office...) that still regularly hangs out. One silver lining of the past few years is that we just go over to each other's place to hang out, which is much more comfortable and cheaper!

tootie• 4 years ago

I think the huge irony of tech work over the last twenty years is that the WFH revolution was preceded by the offshoring revolution. I spent probably half my working days since 2012 working with partly or fully distributed teams around the world or at least the country. I don't grudge because I had some great teammates in Colombia or Ukraine or Costa Rica or Roumania. It was obvious they could do good work without being with us in person. There's very little about tech work that can't be done remotely. I worked in consulting and we had no trouble doing sales and support remotely too.

ajkjk• 4 years ago

One thing that the whole pandemic-induced WFH debate has really proven is this: in every HN post even tangentially related to the subject, everyone will state their strongly-held stance on the matter over and over, shouting into the void.

I do it too (there are a few in my comment history), but I don't quite understand why. It's maybe something like: if I state my stance (wfh, prefer working from office, for the record) then maybe the comment-section-at-large will stop assuming everybody else wants to WFH forever. But it rather feels like the community has a collective neurosis, chanting their opinions on the subject in a loop with no purpose. Perhaps we can do better.

sebastien_b• 4 years ago

Our small company went remote-only since well before the pandemic - started out with the engineering crew working from home 2 days a week, to eventually full-time remote, and finally the rest of the employees.

Generally it's worked out well - more flexibility and better work/life balance, but does need adjustment, especially if you have a busy household.

We try to get together for monthly all-hands, and usually try to have some social/team-building activities at the same time (conditions permitting - only remotely during the pandemic).

euske• 4 years ago

A university teacher. I work from the office for now but without student. I understand the appeal of online classes but man do I miss in-person teaching. In an online class, there's virtually no reaction from students (as most students here prefer to turn the camera off) and I feel like I'm a YouTuber who's constantly talking to an empty camera.

bckr5• 4 years ago

Thanks for sharing a different perspective! I liked not communiting to University but the lack of socialization with fellow students and professors was a drag.

systemali• 4 years ago

Commuting to office at odd hours is one drawback and hence, In the current situation that I am in, I prefer WFH !

NAHWheatCracker• 4 years ago

Work from home has a huge list of tangible benefits to employees. It seems hard to argue against.

  Less time driving and travel costs.
  Freedom to take a breaks however you please.
  Fewer distractions (YMMV).
  More autonomy.
  Better office equipment (depends).

That said, there's far less camaraderie in my teams with WFH normalized. Initially, people put effort into talking regularly. The effort has evaporated. Now talking only happens for project-related things. There is far less passive "team building".

When we were in the office, there were many random events that I miss.

  Eating lunch with people, often from other departments/projects.
  Free food in the break room.
  Playing MTG with coworkers.
  Playing Smash Bros with coworkers.
  Random hallway discussions.

As a naturally introverted person, I love WFH.

As an introspective person, I think WFH has done hidden damage by enabling my introversion to an extreme degree. However, I think that's more of a strike against my personality than against WFH.

cebert• 4 years ago

Covid has taught me that I really enjoy working from home the majority of the time. This surprised me as I did not expect to like remote work as much as I do now. I have a private office at my home instead of a crowded open office plan at work. Additionally, my team is distributed across the US; even if I did go in the office my whole team wouldn’t be there. Now that I’ve learned how to adapt to remote work, it’s my preferred arrangement.

I do miss some professional interactions. My plan is to start regularly attenuation Meetup type groups as we return to normalcy. This is likely even better than only networking with folks who work at the same company as me.

jayd16• 4 years ago

I don't mind hybrid and I especially do not mind a casual office environment but...

I'm getting a bit annoyed with the the lack of core hours. You don't need to pretend to be working, but what happened to being reachable during work hours? I feel like what was once a quick walk across the office room can be a two day turnaround these days.

errcorrectcode• 4 years ago

Face time at the office is essential for career development. Also important for mental health is leaving the cave and a cognitive change of scenery.

idorosen• 4 years ago

A missing option here is Work from home, prefer working from home and meeting regularly (e.g. a week a month) at some nice destination (e.g. Hawaii).

j7ake• 4 years ago

I guess one distinction is : at the office , do you have your own private office, sharing an office, or completely open space ?

For me, the ideal is my own private office at work, and my commute to the office is walking distance.

There, you have the benefit of serendipitous encounters, own space for zoom meetings, and quiet space for uninterrupted work.

dvtrn• 4 years ago

Home. My setup here is better, and my chair doesn’t make my lower back scream.

Plus there is absolutely nothing that can beat lunch hour siestas in my own damn bed, let me tell you

whateveracct2• 4 years ago

Goes to show that the negative commentary on remote work is a bit of a vocal minority situation on HN.

georgeburdell• 4 years ago

Perhaps for selfish reasons, I prefer to work in an office. First off, I have small children who have a nanny, and so I get interrupted a lot at home (my office at work is relatively quiet). Second, I live in the Bay Area so I theorize that my compensation is implicitly tied to a need to go into the office.

The fact that my work is not WFH has the side effect of limiting the talent pool to those who can move to the Bay Area. I bet there are thousands of people world-wide who could do my job better and for less pay, if only they could immigrate to the U.S. I expect that paying Bay Area compensation for remote roles is transitory.

techsin101• 4 years ago

Working from home can get to a point where you feel like you are stuck in some time loop and going crazy, but it's better to take time off and go around and be in different env, than to be required to commute daily and sit in meetings you have no say or impact on you at least with remote you can mute yourself and relax.

ChuckMcM• 4 years ago

When I first came to the Bay Area I was thrilled that California law stated unequivocally that I could work on, and profit by, my own stuff on my own time and equipment. I exploited that law by consulting on other projects while I worked for Intel.

But what I discovered was that since I had made "home" as much an office as "work" I didn't have anywhere to go that wasn't "work." That was very stressful for me since sometimes you really do need to get away.

After that experience I became much more judicious about working from home. A trick I used to help maintain mental sanity was to "set up" a home office for doing work when I needed/wanted to work from home, but then taking it down when I was done. That it wasn't there was the important bit in allowing me to not get stressed out about it.

AtlasBarfed• 4 years ago

When I was single: work from home.

Now that I'm not: work from office.

makeitdouble• 4 years ago

Working from home was a lot harder than from office in many ways.

The most obvious part was becoming my own office manager, somewhat stay motivated and focused, adapting the new work rythmes, getting clues about how coworkers are doing etc.

Then scheduling that with family and maintaining the home on the private side.

But it is really worth it. Mental health has improved a lot, even as objectively I’m doing longer days in total. Getting to interact a lot more with my family is a big part of it. It also means better understanding how the day goes for them, instead of the end of the day self-report at the dining table we were used to.

Work quality improved, there’s just way less “doing random stuff to look busy”.

Social life went way down, but the parts that stayed are also way more meaningful.

My hope is we see the light at the end of the “how do you socialize remotely ?” tunnel and find a middle ground between the current situation and the having everyone commute/wander in the city.

jader201• 4 years ago

One consideration that I don’t see covered here much (among the many other considerations often mentioned) when discussing WFH vs. WFO is whether you live with others.

I’m married and have two (teenage) children and have been working from home 100% for (going on) 8 years, and have very little issues with feeling alone.

Obviously if I lived alone, it would be a different story, and I would likely prefer going back to the office.

It seems like we constantly discuss and compare WFH and WFO without really discussing the difference living with others makes, especially if you have older children (where “older” = are mostly self-sufficient, which I consider about 10+, give or take).

LAC-Tech2• 4 years ago

I live in a small rural village, looking out over a cattle pasture, which itself is against the backdrop of national park - a long mountain range covered in forest.

Now in my ideal world this village would also have lots of amazing companies with cool offices that pay lots of money.

But that's not going to happen. So even though I do miss in-person stuff, I'll take the peace and quiet and not having to commute.

Mandatum• 4 years ago

Regular social events in-person with colleagues is a must. But all my actual work can continue to be from home.

pkukkapalli• 4 years ago

As a single guy, I prefer work from office. I'm sure if I was married with kids, I would prefer just the opposite.

alwaysanon• 4 years ago

Part of why working from home was soo effective for me at first is all the good will and camaraderie that I'd built up with my coworkers over many years - and vice versa. I imagine that if I had started a new role during the pandemic it'd have been quite different.

When people ping you on Slack or email and ask you in a really curt/terse way for something it can feel very transactional without the occasional small talk to humanise your coworkers. And I find it really hard to do that sort of small talk remotely/virtually.

So I think personally I need to have a day every week or two when you have a coffee/lunch/beer with people and get a chance to really have the small talk and put a face with the name. I also love huddling around a whiteboard for certain problems. Before Omicron I started going in one day a week and focusing it on the socialising and the meetings where in-person felt useful.

The catch with that is that it means 'work from home' can't be 'work from anywhere' - as everybody needs to be an occasionally commutable distance from the office for it to work. I also realise that it doesn't save the company money on the office if every team comes in the same day - so you might need a roster kind of thing to maximise the space. That sounds solvable to me though - enough so where it is my preference if we can make it work for 2022...

slotrans• 4 years ago

WFH is horrible and I can't wait for it to be over. Once mask mandates relax I may blow $200 a month on a coworking space just to get back into a rhythm where I leave the house daily, and see other humans.

amyjess• 4 years ago

I didn't realize how much I love working from home till the pandemic began.

Last spring, I left a company I'd been at for five years and had made several friends at because they wanted us to return to the office. I ended up landing at an all-remote subsidiary of a multinational that's super cautious about covid and hasn't even started to reopen their offices at all aside from a small handful of people who do shipping and receiving and need to do physical stuff in person. I don't regret it one iota. I ended up getting a drastic pay increase and a seriously more impressive title out of the switch.

Back in October, I went out drinking with my former boss and he told me my old company cancelled their return to the office and went all-remote again when the delta surge started. I'm enjoying my new company too much to go back, though (and, no, they haven't replaced me, and that's a long story).

Some clarification on the subsidiary I work for: they were remote-first even before covid, and while they had an office, nobody was required to work there in person even well before the pandemic started. While our parent company wasn't remote-first, as soon as covid began, they immediately told my subsidiary's landlord that they wouldn't be renewing the lease. I've also been told that the parent company has 100% committed that all meetings will be Zoom-only forever even after offices reopen, because they've found that, as a multinational company, Zoom-only meetings have solved a problem where, pre-covid, if a team had 1-2 members in a different office than everyone else, those 1-2 members would be marginalized on the team and cut out of major decisions. Zoom has been the great equalizer.

Edit: Oh yeah, the best part is that I'm in Texas but everyone else on my team is on the east coast. So I get to work from 8-4 and then close my laptop and enjoy the rest of my afternoon. Getting off at 4 every day has done wonders for my mental health.

wruza• 4 years ago

This has one flaw, it doesn’t ask if WFH preference is pre-2020 or post-. Two years is sometimes too little feel all side effects. Also it highly depends on which office. If you work at typically loud open space office, it’s one thing, if you have a room of 3 coworkers, that’s completely different. I’m afraid that this poll is partially of “does my office suck” type.

shruubi• 4 years ago

I prefer working from the office, not because of the social aspect but because I find that I just can't bring myself to be nearly as productive at home as opposed to in the office.

What I really miss was the period in time where I could work in the office and everyone else was working from home. The quiet of no-one else around, the productiveness of not being at home and the commute for that period of time between work/home where I can have some time just to myself.

eyelidlessness• 4 years ago

I prefer working from home and have most of my career, but have found some aspects of broader remote work adoption really challenging because it’s a lot noisier at home. My poll vote is easy but I wanted to register this more complex experience as well.

aj_nikhil• 4 years ago

I collated the current numbers, in short 70% people desire to work from home, 30% from the office.

tastysandwich• 4 years ago

I'm torn between the two.

On the one hand, I feel like working in the office makes me more productive and is better for my mental health. It's a change of environment, and I'm working around colleagues who keep me a bit more focussed (less likely waste 30 minutes watching YouTube if a coworker is right beside you).

Also, on the hour-long commute I tend to read, which is terrific. So many of these books have changed my life for the better. When I'm at home I find I have too many distractions. You make a cup of tea, the cat meows and you let her in, she meows again and you let her out. You decide to read outside. Then you realise it's too sunny and grab a hat. Before you know it you've burnt through 30 minutes.

On the other hand, since working from home during the pandemic I've filled the time saved with a lifelong dream of mine - learning to play guitar! I'm absolutely loving it.

So a mix is a pretty good compromise

croh• 4 years ago

Agree with this. And as day passes, pressure gets built to finish work and if you don't, you can't enjoy remaining day & night. At least with office setup, once you leave it physically, you also leave it mentally but with work from home setup that is not possible. Still it is good to have wfh option for emergencies. so yeah mix of both.

shard2• 4 years ago

Regarding tastysandwich's comment about having no time to read, my hack is to put the book I want to read in the bathroom, and never bring my phone with me. This give me some time to read every day, and I've polished off several books this way.

Regarding your comment about work/home separation, similar to what someone else has mentioned in another thread, I have the work laptop that my company provides to me, and my personal laptop. I have no personal files on my work laptop and no work files on my personal laptop. I don't even have any work-related app (Teams, Slack etc) on my personal phone (my thinking is that if the company wants to reach me through those on a phone, they need to provide me with the phone). I only have my work laptop turned on when I am working. When I close my work laptop, I am done for the day.

CephalopodMD• 4 years ago

WFH and prefer WFH with one major caveat. I've said this before, but really, I just want my own office. That's all. I'd be pretty okay with going in if I had my own office with 4 walls.

First job of my career, they told me I would have an office of my own. First day I came back in for full time (I had interned there with my own office as well), they tell me they're switching buildings to go open office in about a month's time. I got a precious few weeks with a personal office, and then it was all gone. I hated this change of scenery immediately, but I guess I got used to it after a few years.

Working from home took me back to that zen. I didn't even know how much I had missed it - how much I needed my own space to feel productive.

I've since changed jobs, and I kinda dread having to go to the open office nightmare once this is all over. The facilities are way nicer than my last job, but it's still an open office.

Open. Office. As. Implemented. In. Our. Industry. Is. Stupid.

deathanatos• 4 years ago

Yeah, in all these polls about WFH or work-from-office preference, I'd really like to see it broken out by whether the respondent has an office in their WFH setup. I want to know if that changes the answer.

I know my own opinion of WFH improved once I got a desk (once there was finally stock…) and a chair.

It might be that the grass is always greener, but I feel like having the ability to close the door & have a private room (at home or in the real office…) can be a huge plus if you need some quiet time. Similar to the desk/chair, it's just a better working space.

Open office floorplans were effective paycuts, IMO; nothing more than less space == cheaper, and no thoughts were given to the long-term effects because nobody in our industry thinks long-term about anything. Who would when whole companies turn over every two years?

I'd love a home office… but real-estate prices are ridiculous.

nucleardog• 4 years ago

I think it's just everyone trying to minimize their miserableness.

For a lot of people with long commutes or terrible work offices, "minimizing suffering" is working from home/a co-working space regardless of what those look like.

For a lot of people with terrible home office setups or lack of boundaries with family and short commutes, "minimizing suffering" is going to an employer's office.

Personally, I think work from "home" (anywhere) is the better path for most of the HN-types. At its core, it's us taking back _control_ over our workspace and we have the resources to make it better if we choose to. I can move somewhere with a spare room to use as an office. I can't make my employer give me a private office.

Which is all to say yes, I'd love to see a more in-depth poll/study on _why_ people are making the decisions they're making. My suspicion is that it largely comes down to which problems are easier to fix for that individual.

bb88• 4 years ago

I keep saying this, but at 1pm, if you're trying to find a stall -- some companies make this really hard to do.

rcpt• 4 years ago

Office but not in California because commute

paradite• 4 years ago

Neither.

I am most productive working at a cafe or an outdoor sitting area (in a campus).

anshumankmr• 4 years ago

I like a mix of both, but since my office is in a completely different state, I am fully remote. Social interaction has been terrible for me, so I am working on finding a cycling club in my city. Also, since pretty much all of my friends are gone (all of them are in different cities), so this is all I really have (I don't count my office calls as social interaction)

So if someone is a situation like I am in, I really really recommend cycling (or some outdoor sport). It really helps with the mood.

AdamJMarsh• 4 years ago

Work from home. I can't describe how much better my life is doing remote work full time.

I actually have the ability to exercise, cook wholesome meals, spend time with my girlfriend and invest the time spent travelling into hobbies / businesses /

Never again will I be in an office. It's a hard limit for me now.

sdoering2• 4 years ago

When I started to WFH at the beginning of the pandemic nearly two years ago I thought that a few days/weeks would be a nice change of scenery. Now, two years later I wouldn't want to go back to the office.

I can imagine doing offsites together with my team. Or client workshops. But regularly driving a quarter hour into the office is off the table for me.

Three days a week I start with swimming between 07:30 and 08:30 am. Sitting at my desk at 09:00. The other days I start early and am able to get some hours done before the meetings are killing productivity. And this way I am able to call it a day quite early.

banana_giraffe• 4 years ago

Due to a series of events at the company I currently work for, I've been one of a few permanent WFH employees in an otherwise office-bound company for a few years now.

For the most part, everyone is still WFH in my company even now, though that's beginning to change. I prefer this for mostly selfish reasons. I'm no longer an outlier, someone that they need to remember to loop into meetings, or that single outlier with an odd schedule. That part has made my job easy.

What's not easy for me: I'm now seen as the expert on how to WFH efficiently. I know what works for me, but communicating that to people in wildly different living arrangements, or just different work styles is surprisingly hard.

And, it turns out I do miss meeting up with colleagues in real life. I used to travel to our different offices a few times a year and meet with colleagues. As much as I'm one of the ones that's really adapted well to WFH, turns out even I need some face-to-face time. I suspect I'm going to be a bucket of nerves and stress next time I attend a conference.

schipplock• 4 years ago

Headhunters now are asking me if I'm ok with home office, like it's something bad.

My problem with home office is that I don't have a dedicated room for my "office". Also my heating costs went up, so did my power consumption. I still need to pay for car insurance and maintance :D.

I seem to work more at home. My stress level actually increased.

Also some people don't understand the concept of home office, and are now bugging me during work (my mom e.g.).

GianFabien• 4 years ago

I get more work done at home and prefer to avoid the commute.

It's always possible to organize regular (weekly?) meetups at convenient locations where you talk shop, thrash out issues and socialize. Even if you rent a conference room in a co-working space or hotel, it is still less costly than maintaining unused office space in a downtown location.

musicale• 4 years ago

I like working at home, but I dislike living at work.

jerzyt• 4 years ago

Really depends on the phase of the project. At the start, getting everyone in the room is really beneficial. Once we decide what we're doing, I'd rather be left alone and work from home. At the end, testing, debugging and fixing, I'd rather be in the office.

tempestn• 4 years ago

I've worked from home for over a decade now, and would never go back. When I started autotempest ~2008 I assumed that once it evolved into a "real" business we'd eventually need to get an office, but it didn't make sense when it was just me. And then it didn't make sense when it was just me and one other guy. And then... eventually I realized there was no point at which someone was going to make me move to an office! :) You do really need to be intentional about team processes, communication, collaboration, etc. though for it to work. Also on an individual basis I do think it's easier for people with families or roommates. Can be a bit tough working from home while living alone if you don't have many other social outlets. (Especially during a pandemic when it's going to be a lot harder to engage in in-person activities outside of work.)

gabrielsroka• 4 years ago

See results sorted and totaled. https://gabrielsroka.github.io/hnpoll.html?id=30239441

Source https://github.com/gabrielsroka/gabrielsroka.github.io/blob/...

whateveracct2• 4 years ago

Remote:hybrid:on-site preference seems to be 3:2:1

allthecybers• 4 years ago

Commuting to a crowded downtown core every day never made sense to me. I much prefer WFH. In my admittedly well appointed home office, I am much more focused, productive and it's easier to connect with my distributed team via video chats, Slack messages and Huddles.

I do go into a corporate office about once a week and candidly I have issues with concentration and productivity because of the open office and stark lighting. To take calls or video chats you have to step away from your desktop setup (monitor, etc) to find any empty conference room so you don't have to compete with other people talking in the open office area. Sometimes when I go in I am the only one on a floor with 50+ desks. Those days are slightly better for productivity, but the vaunted social aspect of the office isn't there anymore. Or other team members are in so randomly and infrequently that the serendipity of water-cooler world problem solving never happens.

While I prefer WFH for a number of reasons, I can understand why people prefer the office. But even on the days I appreciate having a corporate office, I still hate the open office configuration. It's almost like WFH has evolved and changed to be much better, and the office is stuck in the past. Candidly, you won't get me to come back into an office consistently, until there is a way for the office to be more like WFH.

jinushaun• 4 years ago

The results reflect other polls I’ve seen…

My only conclusion is that everyone else had shitty 2 hr commutes in heavy traffic from their large house with extra rooms.

Others, like myself, had a pleasant subway ride playing games/listening to music from my cramped tiny apartment.

sturmeh• 4 years ago

I miss how it was prior to the pandemic, and would happily office 5 days a week if I could get that back.

However knowing that it's never likely to be the same, as people get used to WFH and companies realise they can save a load of money without creating incentives to get people in an office, the office is going to be far less desirable.

I'm down for a mix or even WFH, but I miss the socialising greatly.

skinkestek2• 4 years ago

I have found that I usually work better when I am in the office. Getting 5 kids to understand that I am at work is really hard.

I also appreciate the separation of work and home that my commute provides.

Also while I am very much allowed to work from home the customer I work with really live the effect that we older teammates have on younger ones. (The young ones currently in the teqm in my team are brilliantly smart and hardworking, we just share experience so they don't have to learn everything the hard way.)

ixtli• 4 years ago

I really wish there was an effective way to know what job descriptions answer what

hiimshort• 4 years ago

Perhaps a bit different from the usual stories and situations I hear, so I figure I'll share my thoughts.

A few years ago (end of 2018) I ended up with a debilitating combo of anxiety, panic, depression, and stress from being overworked. That year and the following were the most difficult of my life. I had quit my job at the beginning of 2019 because I couldn't even think about work due to the cinstant chest pain. After half a year, I'd improved somewhat but began running out of funds and found another job. Unsurprisingly, my health improvements stagnated again and I continued to deal with chest pain and throat issues.

Then 2020 came. My team went remote and, suddenly, I was able to rest my back, improve my diet, avoid the majority of stressors (aside from pandemic-related ones). I ended up leaving that job for one that was intentionally full-time remote. Working remote has been the best thing to happen to my health in years. I've lost 40 pounds, eat healthier, and have total control to manage my day.

I know others prefer the office, but I don't think I'd ever want to go back regularly.

medwards666• 4 years ago

Given that I dislike being around people in general the pandemic has been fantastic for me in that it enabled me to work from home, and I've now managed to continue that with my current employment contract which has my permanent place of work listed as home.

Overall, not having to commute to the office (and pay for trains, fuel, lunches, etc) is saving me over £8k/year, and I still have the advantage of being able to go in when needed (such as if there's a social planned for the evening or suchlike).

konart• 4 years ago

Work from home. Office may be an okay option but only if it is not an open space and if don't have to spend more than 1 hour commuting both ends (which is almost impossible here in Moscow).

executesorder66• 4 years ago

Personally I don't miss working from the office at all. Working remotely is better in every way when it comes to doing actual work.

What I do miss though, is hanging out with my colleagues. It's nice to go for a coffee break or lunch break with a co-worker and just chat about (mostly non-work) stuff. We can organise socials etc. but it's not the same.

I do have my own friends and family that I hang out with anyway, so it's not really a problem for me.

antoniuschan99• 4 years ago

It’s not even close!

For “I like a mix of both” I would like to see what that mix is. From 1/5 days office/home all the way to 4/5 office/home mix :P

Also reason why for either side would be interesting (no separation between office/home, want to be away from kids, no commute, etc)

011000112• 4 years ago

I desperately want my company to announce their permanent WFH stance so I can find out if I can WF a real house outside of a tech hub instead of WF a tiny apartment that has turned into a cage for the last 2 years.

As it is, I think I have one more year of SiValley before I can't stand the competitiveness or the iciness of the tense, joyless local population. Financially it was a good move for a while, but joy is too precious to sell for a few more dollars.

dusted• 4 years ago

In the beginning I enjoyed WFH a lot, I thought it was really neat, but that declined quickly (to be honest, I should have seen that coming, because I've also had a fully remote position before, and it didn't suit me, for the same reasons).

To me, it's just less friction to be in the office, where I don't have to care about anything and can just do my work without distracting tasks like making sure there's coffee and food and avoiding doing chores "oh, I could clean a bit while thinking through this..."

holoduke• 4 years ago

I can't do anything from home. Pure lack of motivation. Too much distraction from other things. No social interaction. I think I need to have interaction all day. Not via a computer screen. I hate working from home really.

pmontra• 4 years ago

Work from home and be self employed is the best if you can manage it.

Saturday shitty weather, I work. Sunday shitty weather, I fix stuff at home and visit friends. Today wonderful sun, I get on my bicycle and go on the hills near home.

jillesvangurp• 4 years ago

I miss having a place to meet the people I work with but I don't need to meet them every day. I actually have been working with remote teams for the last six years or so. So, I've been used to not having a permanent office for quite long. I actually signed up with a co-working space four years ago just so I would get out of the house a bit more.

And during the lockdown they were open throughout. My frequency of going there roughly stayed the same (once or twice a weak). A co-working space gives you most of the comforts of a workplace. Except my direct colleagues are not there and I don't have a fixed desk.

It's great. Even just the bustle of other people around me doing whatever it is they are doing puts me in a mind to do something myself. I actually go there when I want to focus. When I have online meetings, I prefer taking them from home. It's more quiet there and it's just easier.

During the lockdown, I actually joined a local startup as the CTO. Most of us are in the same city (Berlin). But we rarely meet in person. I meet some of the people for coffee or socially once in a while but we run the company like it is a remote company. We don't even have an office. It works but it's not ideal and we are eager to fix our office situation as soon as funding permits. Specifically, I'm eager to get our engineers (the usual selection of mostly introverted types) in one room to force some communication to happen a bit more naturally.

We use a mix of discord, google meets and slack to meet online. None of these is ideal but collectively they have a feature set that's workable. Google meets, makes my CPU spin like crazy. It's alright when all you are doing is attending the meeting. Slack is on permanently but we never use its audio/video features. When I want to do pair programming with engineers, we tend to use discord. We could probably lose slack completely since discord has most of the relevant features. But for historic reasons we just have it and we get very little out of moving over. We are on a freemium plan with both.

During the lockdown, I also started doing long walks. That's something I now actively make time for since I usually feel great after having one. I can walk for hours if time permits. I'll put some BT headphones on and listen to podcasts. Sometimes I bring my camera to shoot some photos along the way. For a lot of people, a commute more or less fills the same role.

hycaria• 4 years ago

I work two jobs, the second one is not possible remotely. Now that the first one (SWE) is fully remote, my interactions with coworkers in job 2 are more intense and I feel much more a part of Company 2 than before.

So I need human interactions but it’s fine if it’s another group of people. I have hobbies outside with people too, but the mandatory aspect of a job, and the variety of people (compared to a hobby where we all like the same thing) just makes it better.

bradlys2• 4 years ago

Gonna add to the noise. I know this will go mostly unnoticed so I’m gonna unhinge my jaw here.

I like a mix. The last 2 years has been basically hell on earth for me. I live in the peninsula - one of the most expensive parts of SFBA. I feel my money is mostly wasted due to this. I’m unfortunately unable to afford SF proper in the way I’d need to in order to be happy. I can afford the peninsula in the way I need to get by. (Detached in-laws are more common here) I live where all the children and spouses are but I am a childless divorcee. It’s miserable AF area to live because of that - yet I can’t move due to needing to be in the area.

The big issue is that I fucking cannot stand the way people interact online. Zoom calls are a plague. Most of my coworkers are already socially awkward - add in another layer like Zoom and it just goes through the roof. It feels like everyone has Asperger’s when they’re on Zoom. Even for my more “social” coworkers who definitely think they’re highly socially skilled (PMs, execs, directors, biz ops, sales, etc) - they are 10x more inept over Zoom or especially Slack. For some of you, this might not be an issue. You’re anti-social yourself and treat your job very much as a 9-5 clock in and clock out thing. I’m extremely social and don’t have the mentality of someone who can clock out. I’m someone who is obsessed with getting ahead and being at least 2nd best at everything. This means that my ambition levels are unparalleled and so anything that gets in my way (e.g. social stupidity) is very aggravating. I’m not going to explain how this aggravates or gets in the way of advancing - someone who is social already knows what I’m talking about.

Not being able to work with people in person has shown that most of my coworkers treat each other like they’re not real people. They’re just faces on a screen like hostages in a cs_assault. They don’t care and really see them as an objective and a means to an end. Again - for some of you - this is ideal because you’re a borderline sociopath who shouldn’t really be interacting with anyone to begin with. For the rest of us - it’s banal spoon death. This treatment is lessened when people see one another in real life. Thus, I prefer hybrid. I’d like full in office being the default with the option of being at home if you want - but the office would need to be really good. I’m not into shitty loud open offices where loud sales jockeys with gongs and noise makers are going off and shitty music playing the same 60 minute set in the background - I’m not talking that. I also don’t need offices or whatever. I just want a sane office environment. Not a bull pen. Not a library. Something that has a reason to go in besides all your coworkers being there too. (A gym, basketball court, parks nearby, good meeting rooms, food, etc.)

Anyway - I’m annoyed. I lack all of the good of WFH and the good of office. I mostly experience the worst of both so far and I’m very bitter about it.

jll29• 4 years ago

The important bit is: I like to choose where I work from and when.

"home" and "office" are not the only choices, I sometimes enjoy working from a third location (e.g. a cafe).

amir734jj• 4 years ago

I'm single unmarried and no kids. At the start of the pandemic I preferred working from home because it gave me flexibility to work on my part-time schoolwork and no more commuting to work.

However, my mom lives with me and recently she has been suffering from various health problems and I don't see myself going back to the office even now that I'm done with my schoolwork.

Stay healthy everyone.

rebeccaskinner• 4 years ago

I find almost everything about working from home nicer than going into an office. I have a larger desk, a more ergonomic workstation, better coffee and more options for lunch. I have a spouse who is also home and I live in an apartment building with sometimes noisy neighbors, but it’s still a better work environment for deep focus than sitting in an open office with hundreds of other people. The things you often lose with remote work, like opportunities for spontaneous collaboration and socializing with co-workers can be retained in a distributed team if the team wants to learn and puts in the effort.

For all of the benefits of working from home though, it’s really a tertiary concern for me when I prioritize remote work. Much more important are the larger set of opportunities I have not being limited to one particular region, and the greatly improved quality of life I get from not commuting.

As someone who lives outside of a tech hub, the value of having access to remote work can’t be understated. There is certainly enough work for a software developer in my city, and some of it pays well enough even if it’s a bit lower than what I can make doing remote work, but none of the companies locally are invested in technology as a business strategy. If I were restricted to local work I’d be stuck working as a cost center at a regressive thinking Big Corp adding features to a decades pile of technical debt. Even if I relocated to a tech hub, I’d be stuck with the startups in that particular city plus the companies large enough to open satellite offices around the world. As it is, working remotely I can stay in a town where I have friends and family and work at jobs that are interesting and let me stretch my skills wherever they happen to be.

tehbeard• 4 years ago

I enjoy the mix, but I hate the commute, and I don't have dedicated space at home to compartmentalize it from "home".

captainbland• 4 years ago

I mostly just despise commuting. It's a huge waste of time, money and energy and broadly pointless. Not to mention how uncomfortable and unreliable the situation can be regardless of mode of transport - your car can be stuck in gridlock, your train will be delayed/cancelled, your bus can get diverted...

I'd rather just go up sporadically for socials as and when they occur. If I could just walk into an office that would be great, but that's impractical because flats/houses in walking distance of major employment centres are really fucking expensive (or extremely poor quality for the price, you decide!). Not to mention that I have a partner who works in a completely unrelated field such that we wouldn't both be able to benefit from that arrangement.

And if everyone who works in an office or from home tried to benefit from living within walking distance of work, all at once, they wouldn't be able to because there's just not enough accommodation in those areas for it to work.

synthc• 4 years ago

I'm working from home now, but it gets lonely sometimes and for some discussions face to face contact is just better.

I'd love to work in an office if I had my own room, or share one with a few team members at most, but nearly all jobs have open offices with tons of distractions. My last office had 12 employees in a room designed for 6: it was draining my energy and cut my productivity in half.

I'd work in an office if it was actually a place conductive to work, but I'm never working in an open office again.

throwaway22032• 4 years ago

My poll option isn't here, but I voted for "Work from home, prefer working from the office".

It's not really the _location_ that I care about but the environment. Going into the office and shooting the shit in a care-free manner with my co-workers.

My industry kind of just disappeared when WFH came in and I've been on a sabbatical since.

I don't want to go into an office and then do video calls, or have to work around some silly "if bit of paper says this then half the office does video calls", or listen to some sort of speech about responsible standing or whatever, so at least for the time being I've left software and I'm studying instead.

I was, for a while, waiting for 2019 office work, but that's probably just gone forever, which means I'm not a professional software developer any more, I think.

Basically I'd need to find an office in which everyone agrees with me that corona is an overblown threat. Most of my friendship groups and meet-ups are on the same page there, but barely any companies are if any.

lsferreira42• 4 years ago

After starting working from home i got to quit a adiction that was ruining my life, i got to threat my depression with the first signs of success in a long time, i will fight for my home office like my life depends on it, because it might very well do

nikau• 4 years ago

When people ping you on Slack or email and ask you in a really curt/terse way for something it can feel very transactional without the occasional small talk to humanise your coworkers. And I find it really hard to do that sort of small talk remotely/virtually.

I'm the opposite, its work and everything is a transaction.

Nothing worse than pointless 'hi how are you?' Slack messages where the other person doesn't give a shit about your response, just ask your question as concisely as possible.

philwelch3• 4 years ago

As someone who prefers private offices to cubicles and cubicles to open offices, I prefer working from home purely because it’s the only way to balance the business’s unwillingness to pay for private offices with my unwillingness to work in an open bullpen.

smattiuz• 4 years ago

Depends on the days really, I generally don't like WFH anymore (was fine during lockdown#1); I am going to the office daily now, even when it's empty. Better lights, better desks, a monitor, seats, noise. I do quite like hiding away in a coffee/restaurant etc, if I don't have meetings. But having a buzz and people around is important indeed.

fidla• 4 years ago

I teach mandolin and Fiddle online. I work from home

kmm• 4 years ago

For context, I'm a PhD researcher in physics. I can't imagine ever going back to working from home, and I'm dreading the inevitable day the next pandemic hits. The experience of being able to casually to someone's office and sit around a blackboard, having a discussion, is something I just never managed to replicate with teleconferencing. Curiously I am not the only one here with this experience, and almost everyone here in the institute I work at has returned to the office full-time. This is even despite working from home being mandatory by law in Belgium, and I'm unclear how the administration deals with it, as I doubt they can argue in-office presence is necessary for theoretical physics (i.e. we don't even have the excuse of having to run experiments).

Though another issue is that my home office is also my bedroom, and after a while of working from home I get an intense feeling of being cooped up that doesn't go away even after going outside. On the other hand, my office at work is very quiet and isolated. I realize for people with a decent home office but who have to work in some kind of open office at work, these experiences might be the other way around entirely. Apart from that, I was already allowed a lot of flexibility in choosing the hours I come and go, so I never had an issue with commuting or taking breaks for things like appointments with doctor/dentist/hairdresser/... etc...

Either way I'm genuinely happy for people who prefer WFH having that choice more and more, and occasionally I enjoy the flexibility of WFH for a day or so.

discord23• 4 years ago

I prefer working from home. On a good day the commute to work is an hour, plus an hour back. Rain? Snow? Accident? Add more time to that. Snow/rain + Accident? Forget about being home before 8PM. That's just the commute though. Traffic over the years has gotten much worse, I used to do the same commute in 40 minutes on a good day.

The office itself is another matter. Like most offices, mine is an open plan office, so continuous noise, constantly people talking, phones and the works, and that's not counting casual interruptions. There's days where I arrive at the office, some people see my face, and I know in advance they'll drop by one after another to "talk".

I take countermeasures for the noise. I work with noise suppressing headphones on, playing some music that gets me "in the zone". A large chunk of my work requires long periods of concentration, so with some downtempo music I hardly hear the guy in the desk next to me shout on the phone about god knows what.

The interruptions are what gets me most. Just as you're "in the zone" working on an interesting problem, that guy who saw your face in the morning decides to come by to have a chat. They've got a problem they want your opinion on, which for the most part is okay, or they want to have a short pre-meeting to prep an actual meeting which is almost guaranteed to be a waste of time. The problem is that you get pulled out of "the zone", and you need a few minutes to get back in there and get back to your line of thinking. There's days where the interruptions are almost continuous. A coworker once joked I should setup a system with tickets at my desk, like at a butchers shop in the '80s, so you can call a number for the next person to step up. There have been days in the office, where I have done very little except for getting in the zone, being interrupted, having to find the zone again, and being interrupted.

There's a hurdle now with WFH for the real time wasters, the useless pre-meetings have all but disappeared except in the cases where there's a problem that actually requires an in-depth discussion beforehand, which I suppose would be "useful" pre-meeting. I've also noticed that the casual problem solving discussions have become more well thought out in most cases, because for some reason people seem to think more about the problem before asking my opinion, so I'm quite pleased with that.

We keep the teams together via an informal coffee break twice a week. It's basically a lunchbreak where someone plans a half hour meeting, invites a bunch of people and you talk about whatever you want to talk about. The topics vary: sports, news, entertainment, rumors, sometimes just talking shop. The coffee breaks at the office tended to sometimes lead to interesting conversations and ideas. I suppose that if I were to miss something, those conversations during the random coffee break would be it.

The commute disappearing has given me a lot of time to spend on something useful. Sometimes that's more work, most of the time that's spent on myself and the people around me. In general I'm happier nowadays, gained some time to exercise, spend more time with loved ones, and in general things feel less rushed than they did before. Having more time on weekdays has made the weekends less busy.

For work-home separation I have a ritual. I have a small office setup at home, desk, comfy chair, monitor and something to play music on. Every morning I make myself a thermos of coffee, walk into my office and close the door, grab my laptop from my bag and set it up, and start working. At the end of the day, I put the laptop back in the bag, clean up the desk, grab my thermos and wash it out in the kitchen. It creates a mental boundary, a moment in time where "home ends, work begins" and "work ends, home begins".

I've been to the office once this year, which was a matter of necessity to physically deliver something. I have zero intention of going back to the office multiple times a week. Company policy has changed and WFH will remain the way it is now, but if it changes back to the way it was, I will likely start looking for other opportunities. I won't mind going to the office every now and then, for example once a week on average, but I don't intend on doing that commute again every day.

There's some thing that are less convenient with WFH, but for the most part, the benefits have largely outweighed the detriments.

dwild• 4 years ago

There's a choice missing. I prefer working from the office but I also prefer saving the 350 hours of daily travel a year (god damn it, just realized that it's literally 10 weeks of works for me...).

jdmoreira• 4 years ago

I love working from home and it has made made me at least 1.5 times more productive.

That being said… some people lack the mental fortitude and responsibility to sit by themselves at a desk and deliver their work when no one is watching. I notice people all the time that must be slacking a lot! There can't be any other explanation. They simply can't work by themselves.

coryfklein• 4 years ago

My ideal is working remotely from home, but coming into the office once a quarter for the whole week, and spending that time doing interpersonal things. I come away from that week feeling very refreshed and enabled to dive into work again with solid focus.

I'll rarely make any progress on my "sprint" tasks during the in-office week, but I organize fun social events after-hours for all the other remotes that fly in at the same time (and any locals that want to spend after-hours together). Last time I did a screening of Princess Mononoke in the main office gathering area, and then we went out for drinks & dinner 2-3 times that week. One evening we all went out to play ping-pong.

lcooper• 4 years ago

Add to the question whether you have kids or not in home.

loco5niner2• 4 years ago

Ever since my company moved our office to another state (upped my commute to 30 minutes both ways), and put us in a horrible open office design, I've been pushing hard to get to work from home. FINALLY it happened, and I never want to go back. With the success we've had WFH in the last 2 years, I think leadership is finally listening.

Happy employees are better employees.

Poll: Do you prefer the office or work from home?

Related Stories