IBM is ordering its work-from-home employees to stop working from home | Hacker News Reader

IBM is ordering its work-from-home employees to stop working from home

washingtonpost.com

24 pointsmolecule11 comments

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=13603831

And more recently here: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=13922235.

I use to think that remote work was goal I should be aiming for but after have a few friends did it and I thought more about it I've decided I would hate it. On the surface it sounds great and while I fully support working from home a few times a month I can't support any more than that.

One of my good friends that did it has an interesting take, he said that since he was more introverted he thought he was perfect for remote work when in fact it made him miserable. His dad worked remotely for a large part of his life but was an extrovert. He concluded that contrary to what may seem like common sense introverts do worse in remote work because the office is where they get a majority of their human interaction while extroverts are going to make that happen regardless of if they go into an office every day.

I have no experience with working from home for a long period of time but I know calling into meetings is the worst and that there are a TON of decisions/conversations that you get ZERO input on (most of the time you don't even know they happened) when you are remote. I have never been so happy that I didn't get a remote job I interviewed for a few years ago.

As much as I hate companies giving a perk and then taking it away I can't help but think this is the right move for IBM.

PS: Yes HipChat/Slack/Jira/GitLab/GitHub/etc/etc/etc can help with this but you are fooling yourself if you think that the people in the office are going to record every single interaction/conversation/etc of note. Remote-only teams might be an exception but even then you really do lose the ability to roll over to co-workers chair and have an impromptu conversation.

I think you're absolutely correct.

I work in a distributed team that is located at about 4 offices in a 15-20 radius, we started doing weekly leadership meeting via big fancy videoconference units. I always find a reason to be where the boss is in person. The conversation in the hallway or immediately after the meeting is always more valuable than the meeting itself.

So you have never tried it but think you won't like it because something your friend's dad said?

Something my friend said about his bad experience with remote work, his dad loves remote work. Also from my experience working from home on occasion and from working with remote team members.

Work from home should not be considered a perk but standard.Those who get hired in cities like hong kong where you cant afford to buy/rent close to the office have to often cope with commute times > 40min and home offices can relieve the pain. For example in my company we have home office every friday as we are not starting anything big before weekend.

I agree and disagree. Workplace interaction has been critical where I work. But we all work from home a day or so each week. I struggle to mesh with those who work exclusively remotely/from home.

Like most things in life, balance works best.

I agree balance is best. With the craziness of open plan offices, I like to have a day or two at home, so I can get the non-trivial programming done.

I like the idea of smaller distributed offices, with some dedicated locations and co-working in the more expensive markets.

Our Team in IBM tried work from home every friday. it didn't work, i hate it. you can't grab people fast, communication is terrible.

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