Who Wants to Return to the Office? | Hacker News Reader

Who Wants to Return to the Office?

14 pointsrichkane10026 comments

Who wants to return to an office or do you prefer WFH?

If you prefer a hybrid, what % would you prefer in and out of the office?

I never want to go back to an office. At home, I set my hours. No commute. I can create my own setup, and not be forced either into open offices, nor "office furniture". I can work from my back yard, my recliner, or even my trampoline. I get work/life balance by simply living my life around my work... or working around my life, however you want to look at it.

All I need is a standing desk and I’m good

In a perfect world, it would be more hybrid (probably either 3 or 4 days at the office, the rest at home).

But, given the choice to stay at home or go back? I am having trouble saying that I miss the office. I never worked remote before this. I'm not sure our team's productivity is hurt, I'm saving tons of money on gas, and saving all the travel time as well. There is also a personal component - I just plain don't miss the office.

3 days at home for working on technical problems with less distractions.

2 days at the office to make higher level decisions with the team. Code reviews in person and planning out the next week's goals. Plus I get exercise riding to work...

>> Who Wants to Return to the Office?

More like I want the kids to return to school :-)

I'm quite happy with my home setup - dual monitors, window view, etc. I'd love a bit more quite though because I've got two kids running around.

Where did you get your furniture from? Anything missing from your setup you want?

Working from home has many benefits and I prefer it but I'm more than ready to return to the office. This entire WFH situation has made me realize that my coworkers are absolutely awful at communicating.

Absolute basic things like due dates are not communicated, attention to detail is slipping, responsiveness is low. Things I didn't have a problem with because I could just walk over to your desk ask you to explain something to me. Now I have the most difficult time wringing basic information out of people.

Are you a manager of a certain job function like developers? It seems that managers are having a harder time

WFH is probably a 2x improvement in my quality of life and increases my productivity as well. Sure I miss out on the small interactions but that doesn’t outweigh the benefits.

Good quiet office at a walking distance from my home, with dedicated desk spaces, dual monitors and respectful colleagues? - 100% office and 0% WFH.

My own pre-virus situation of having to take public tranport in a big city, "hot-desking" (basically not enough space for everyone and no assigned desks) and having to work from a laptop in the office - 60-40% split between office and WFH.

I had the best of both worlds where I only had to go in once a week. I say “had to” but I enjoyed it. We made bigger decisions and become more cohesive as a team.

I can’t wait for this to go back to normal.

I would strongly prefer some kind of hybrid model. To actually code or write something complex, WFH is great. But some interactions with colleagues just can't be replaced, even with slack and zoom.

The percentage should be flexible, depending on the current task and phase of the project.

If it was a hybrid, I guess that would mean a smaller office would be needed by your company. Do you think that is an opportunity for companies to think about moving their office out of expensive city centers or you think it is still necessary to be centrally located for talent/client interactions?

I had an ideal flexible schedule. WFH was already an option, so I was spending 2-3 days in office and the others at home with no real fixed scheduled.

I miss the change of scenery. My WFH setup is great, but sick of being in the house 95% of the time.

No, thanks. I like the current setup; Only go into office for HW issues. The team has got more done since all of us were forced to WFH. That whole "open office" env really does suck.

What sucks about it?

try coding at Home Depot in the lumber section

Haha - I imagine no good headphones could help with that. Damn sales guys...

Pants

100% WFN since 2013: never want to go back.

What did you hate about it?

Typically it provides a very poor environment for designing and developing software.

The environment is optimized around other notions.

I didn't hate it -- quite the contrary, I have quite enjoyed working in various offices, but working from home is better. Unlike some people, I find online interaction with people is fine. And I get much more flexibility and control over my life when I don't have to go somewhere else to work.

I do.

Diverging from the majority here, but I prefer a hybrid solution, maybe about 50-50 where I can determine when or ad-hoc type wfh where I can do it whenever I feel like it. I've been wfh full time in the past and now during COVID-19, and I'm not a fan.

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