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Comment by paxys | Hacker News Reader

Every tech person I know in the Bay Area was already working 1-2 days a week from home, and they are all desperate to go back to the same arrangement. Turns out not everyone has home offices, expensive equipment, good internet, privacy, sound-proof rooms or other home situations that are conducive to productive, professional work. The article itself makes the ridiculous assertion that newscasters broadcasting on Zoom from their living rooms is (or should be) the new normal. WFH isn't some genie suddenly out of the bottle. Most people out there are making the best of a shitty situation, not enjoying it, and would all go back in a heartbeat.

Yes there is always room for companies to be more flexible and accommodating, and I hope that some of them do change for the better as a result of this crisis, but "office culture" is going to go back to exactly what it was a few months from now.

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> expensive equipment

What equipment aside from a computer (which you can take home) are you referencing, here?

> sound-proof rooms

So open office layout is the opposite of this?

I think the distinction here is a person with a "battlestation" (good monitor, good internet, area with relatively few distractions, etc) versus a person that has no area dedicated to using a computer: possibly a shared apartment (noise and space), wifi that drops out, no good computer desk, and a million other "paper cuts" that make it difficult.

Those issues you described can be resolved with $300 in retail purchases: noise canceling headphones, a wifi router, and an Ikea style desk. Add $100 for a decent office chair. It is not an unreasonable amount of money in most of the USA.

"Not an unreasonable amount" various heavily, not just from location to location, but from person to person and circumstance to circumstance. With all the other barriers to employment in skilled disciplines, should it now be a requirement for employment that you have enough liquid cash to pay for setting up your own office?

> should it now be a requirement for employment that you have enough liquid cash to pay for setting up your own office?

Any firm worth working for will have this as either a stipend, or otherwise handled as part of hiring remote workers. Any one that doesn't make it easy and cheap to be comfortable and productive remotely will miss out on talent because of that.

Not to mention, it's tax deductible.

>> Any firm worth working for will have this as either a stipend, or otherwise handled as part of hiring remote workers.

This is just not true. I have never worked for a colocated company that pays for you to set up your home office. Most do not hire remote works either so there is no predefined (and budgeted) setup

We'll also see if in the face of double-digit unemployment (don't think that's going to resolve itself the minute we get back to work) companies that don't have these discretionary benefits loose out on talent...

Just because a position is filled, that doesn't necessarily mean it's filled by the most-talented person.

It's entirely possible to lose out on remote talent by skimping on the remote experience, while still "successfully" filling the position.

That’s like a carpenter showing up for work without tools

Is it really impossible to invest in the tools of your trade?

> What equipment aside from a computer (which you can take home) are you referencing, here?

Large screen monitors, sit/stand desk, adjustable chair, foot rest, anti-fatigue mat, ergonomic keyboard & mouse, computer dock, good quality microphone and webcam, various dongles. All the equipment I use at work on a daily basis put together will likely be in the thousands of dollars.

> So open office layout is the opposite of this?

Every open office has meeting rooms or phone booths in case you need quiet space.

I have 2x 4k monitors at home, a sit/stand desk, and plenty of dongles - less than 1k. Granted, I lifted my Aeron from the last startup I was in that failed, but we're not looking at multiple thousands.

> Every open office has meeting rooms or phone booths in case you need quiet space.

They usually frown upon people using them for the entire work day. More's the pity.

We don't have enough meeting rooms to let half the office spend half the day thinking. We don't even have enough meeting rooms for our meetings.

Shame. One wonders what allowed for the space for the cubicle culture of the '90s. Cubicles were at least semi-individual offices. Maybe because tech companies were based in the South Bay, where land was more abundant?

Screen monitors you can buy for 100usd. I'm not sure every person in office has a standing desk, but ok, you can buy a cheap Ikea one for 100usd.

The rest you mentioned is under 100usd. You can use your phone camera and mic just fine.

I'm not sure where the thousands of dollars are coming from... You can if choose buy a monitor for 3000, but a 100 monitor is good enough.

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