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Comment by hkuo | Hacker News Reader

If these are the only dangers from working from home, I would take that over the dangers from working in an office. I haven't even given those dangers much thought, but I'll start with a few.

1) Commute - wasted time and energy sitting in traffic, plus added stress depending on amount of traffic. (not to mention all that gasoline!)

2) The walk-by - trying to get work done when anyone can just saunter over and ask you a question, or just shoot the sh*t.

3) Noise and smells - people playing music randomly, loud conversations, YouTube videos, someone eating a smelly burrito, chinese food

4) The cold starter - someone has a cold but feels fine or wants to show they got guts, spreads the cold to 50% of the office.

5) Constant trivialities - walkby hellos, lunch anyone?, who's driving?, peeing next to someone in the bathroom stall

Anything else to add?

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That's why I believe in the eventual coming of the virtual business.

9-5 cubicle life will look as obsolete in 20 years as the first Ford assembly line looks to us today.

And I did something about it: I started a virtual company host: http://fairsoftware.net - for now it applies to smart workers only, people who spend their life behind a laptop screen, writing software and apps.

I'm curious if anyone knows where this will go for non-laptop folks. I can think of two options:

a) stays the same, there will always be people needed to do actual "physical" work

b) eventually all work will become digital, so everyone will be able to stay home (imagine what that really means???)

Anything else to add?

Yea, plenty.

- I impose discipline upon others. Since you can't just poke your head in with an "idea", you have to think about it first (imagine that). If your email doesn't include enough data for me, I say so and hit "reply". Same for phone calls and voice mails. Signal to noise ratio increases dramatically.

- My performance metric is WorkCompleted / WorkPlanned because that's all people can witness. Not 101 other meaningless metrics like number of sessions running, time spent on internet, time spent BSing, time spent on cell phone, time spent at lunch, shirt color, or droplets of sweat on forehead.

- Wake up at xx:34 a.m. Start work at xx:37 a.m. (if I want to).

- Wake up in the middle of the night with an idea. Log in and work on it immediately.

- No meaningless team building, HR, or mandatory meetings.

- I eat what I want, when I want, where I want. No more vending machine or carryout crap.

- Headphones or speakers? Oh wait, never mind.

- Casual dress, gym shorts, or warmups. Again, never mind.

- Cats often make better companions than cubicle mates.

- I hate shaving.

Oh my, you couldn't be more correct.

I've got one more to add: people going in and out and in and out for their smokes. Plus the smell they bring in. Quit already!

- Drinking too much coffee

This happens because it is not so easy to just take a nap in most office, and regular office hours make it more likely to end up at the workplace being dead tired. Access to high tech coffee makers does the rest.

Petty power struggles and office romances. You don't even have to be a participant for these to add massive amounts of stress to your day.

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