Comment by joepatel09 | Hacker News Reader

Comment by joepatel09 | Hacker News Reader

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We also need to focus on what this pandemic had meant to us and what we can consider essential and non essential in the long run and use the lessons learnt to our benefit. Certainly the nature of work for a large number of people in Silicon Valley is such that it can be absolutely done remotely. I seriously hope and wish that unless it is absolutely necessary companies like FANG or Intel or NVIDIA or all other tech companies continue to honestly (not just on paper) encourage their employees to work from home. I am sure there are many roles that can continue to work from home in the foreseeable future :

- Software engineers - Software development Managers - Product Managers - DevOps - SREs - Accountants and Finance - Marketing - Solution ArchitectS

It is entirely possible for all these categories of people to WFH with the help of VPN, FaceTime/zoom or other Video and chat/messaging software.

Companies should also stop new constructions or building new office spaces. It is time that tech companies understand that new office spaces are not a tool to increase productivity.

Also in the long run having people work from home as much as possible will significantly improve Bay Area traffic and reduce pollution.

I understand that some folks does not have the space in their home to WFH peacefully , but with childcare facilities opening up and eventually schools ... it can be easily worked out where members of such households establish a rotating schedule and WFH on a partial basis (ie 2-4 days a week).

I certainly like how empty the roads are whenever I go out ... having said that I certainly can’t wait to go back to office but I just dread sitting in the morning and afternoon traffic. What we need is for managers to accept that workers have absolute right to decide when they want to work from home and when they don’t. As long as someone is accountable and is meeting their goals it should be fine to wfh.

If these companies want to take climate change seriously, they in fact should make any role that can be worked remotely, well remote. After apple/facebook/google put in their company wide wfh policy during the initial covid outbreak it was so refreshing to see unclogged freeways and clear air in the sfbay area. I'd hate for california resorting to taxing these companies due to climate change but having a job that can be done anywhere and forcing a brutal commute on employees is bad for the environment, bad for the employees mental and physical health and just doesn't make any sense in a post-covid world.

NVIDIA has already communicated to many of their employees that they will be expected to return to the office once they are legally permitted to do so.

NVIDIA's employees seemed to largely be using desktop computers rather than laptops, and many of their roles require lab equipment, it seems. They were one of the slowest to WFH, and it doesn't surprise me they'd want people to return faster.

Yes I guess chip designers and h/w engineers cannot wfh. That’s why I did not include them specifically in the list. Only reason I mentioned Nvidia is because it falls on the way of my commute and there is a big traffic snarl always right there :D

You might be surprised. Pretty much all of the pre silicon work at the semi companies I have worked at (besides maybe emulation) is done “remotely” from a server farm to begin with. Even with post silicon work, with careful lab set up, you can do a surprising amount of work remotely, or with minimal lab time.

But you’re right, the light at San Tomas and Walsh is a pain.

But office spaces do increase productivity...

Collaboration increases productivity and building new offices continuously is not the only way to increase collaboration, specially for the kind of work that SV companies does. I think from that perspective the OPs post bears merit. However it is also a matter of job security and if you don’t have to go to an office physically you may feel insecure inside ....

That's true, I think a lot more can be done for the WFH perspective. If companies offered all employees a good home setup, good desk, chair, screen, keyboard, mouse, headphones, good mic, good webcam, a good whiteboarding solution as well like maybe an iPad + pencil. And there was an app allowing remote share, remote control, remote whiteboard, and subsidize cost of a good internet. I feel I'd be even more productive at home with all that in place.

We've been looking into this lately, and settled on iPad Pro + Pencil + Explain Everything as a remote meeting and whiteboarding solution. It seems promising so far. Miro is another software option that seems pretty polished, although we haven't tried it yet.

Hopefully someone with more experience can share more tips on what has worked well for them.

Herding people into open office spaces has already been proven to hurt productivity.

Where has this been proven? Personally I find I am much more productive in an office. And if I have to collaborate with others even more so.

I guess it depends on your role and how you execute it to a large extent. The OP mentioned certain roles that are to a large extent possible to wfh. Maybe 3 out of 5 days one can wfh.

Also in respect to Bay Area it certainly hurts productivity if you have to spend 2 hours everyday in commute. Unless your role means constantly blabbering on the phone you just can’t work while commuting. And I would argue if you do spend most of the time yapping on the phone then it shouldn’t matter if you are doing it remotely except for few cases where face to face is absolutely necessary.

> Overall, face-to-face time decreased by around 70 per cent across the participating employees, on average, with email use increasing by between 22 per cent and 50 per cent (depending on the estimation method used).

From Harvard study in 2018 comparing pre/post open-office.

https://digest.bps.org.uk/2018/07/05/open-plan-offices-drive...

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