Remote work is not necessarily a good thing for the worker

-- For the budding young developer who can't wait to show ideas to teammates and demonstrate being a go-getter by asking random questions and finding unaddressed issues to innovate on, WFH might be terrible. You're going to schedule time to fortuitously run into the senior person who takes an interest in your idea?

-- For the working parent whose productivity has been slashed by 50% and stress has gone up by 50% due to parenting obligations, WFH might be terrible.

-- For the middle manager who can coast along and not need to move greatly in his/her career, WFH might be great.

-- For the developer who works by tickets on very concrete things and this is nothing new, WFH might be great.

-- For the small company CEO who relies on force of personality and everyone in the same room urgently working to get something done, WFH might be terrible.

There's a huge variability in what WFH means, depending on what you want from the situation.

But if I were younger I personally would be kind of bummed out for a couple of reasons:

1. It’s just a totally different vibe working with close colleagues in person. Work was just a fun place to be when I was young (and single.)

2. Getting a feel for what else is going on in the company and who might be good to work with seems a lot more difficult. Just prior to the whole COVID shutdown I had been temporarily shifted to a team to work out some specific issues. That has changed and I’m sort of stuck on this team for a bit.

Working on a less interesting thing I feel less connection to my team and much more like a contractor.

Finding other opportunities within the same company, where you want to have a feel for the personalities involved just feels tougher.

It will be interesting to see how this shakes out if it keeps up for a lot longer. It just feels like some places will suffer from a lack of cross-pollination.

However. When you take into account how hostile the modern office is to IC work, it turns out WFH is much better^. I'm not waiting for the open office to quiet down before getting real work done, and I can just focus whenever I want. 1:1 technical discussions are easier to have, because you just Zoom call the one person, and don't have to go around searching for a conference room. Modern offices are designed so poorly, with such a high level of distraction and low level of functionality, that even WFH without any preparation is much better.

^ Having to take on childcare or not having a private room to work in cancels out the benefits.

This became clear to me every time I was hired or transferred into a new job where I had to sit at a desk removed from everyone else on the team. Think issues with not having an empty desk nearby when I walked in the door on Day One or something along those lines, but several times over.

Making yourself routinely, regularly, and frequently visible goes only so far when you're not cubicle neighbors with your direct coworkers or managers.

"Out of sight, out of mind" isn't just for working from home, it can be as easy as working from down the hall or in the next room over. I've done the satellite office thing too, and it's in the bag for this as well.

All this said, I am finally in a position where I -- for the first time ever for me -- can and am encouraged to work from home as much as possible. My boss and those I work with are all very active and proactive on making sure we become, are, and remain glued together as we all play ventriloquist on the job. I'm about to start my fourth week at this place so I'm trying not to have rose-colored eyeglasses during the honeymoon, but so far so good.

There's a part of my brain that works with language, and I need it to write code. If somebody is talking near me (doesn't have to actually be to me), that part of my brain is listening, and I can't use it. It's not under my control, all I can do is try to block the sounds.

Ideally, groups manage to articulate priorities in a planning process and share what people are working on. However, these processes sometimes do not exist, and when they do they rarely identify all the work. People are regularly drawn into unplanned work, e.g. helping other teams. Also, to excel as an knowledge worker (e.g. software engineer) you need to have a few experimental projects, too risky to fit into the planning process and which should not be discussed there. Getting help and mentorship on these can greatly accelerate career growth, and that's often what people do late at night in the office. This is definitely not inclusive, but is how people signal that they are going above and beyond.

Remote work exposes the gaps between official processes and the informal ones that spring up to enable human collaboration. Making these explicit would be valuable for fairness, to help people without experience understand what is really going on.

Doing that is very hard. If these informal power dynamics were documented, indubitably they would be improved; they are very often unfair. Another way of looking at it, is that the informal processes typically fill in gaps in poorly designed formal processes :) It would take extraordinary organisational maturity to be comfortable sharing this dirty laundry.

In summary, companies that go more remote will find ways to fill the gaps that are currently patched over by in person proximity, and this is for the best as it means tackling tough cultural painpoints

- Working remotely adds 10s of micro-frictions (through chats and calls) every day that complicates or even break a sane flow of information, as well as focus. This is not some “technical issue” that will go away as technology improves: speaking to someone in person is as frictionless as it gets, and cannot be matched.

- The social component of work is completely erased, and that matters a lot.

- Private vs working space and time blend into each other, essentially making you “always on”

Work from home is nice when needed, and if the conditions at home allow it; on the other hand, imposing work from home on everyone may create a distinction between “efficient workers” (= with no children) vs “less efficient ones” (= with children)

Work from work, home from home

Fast-forward to 2020 and finally, after 15 or so years, WFH is going mainstream. At least for the duration of the pandemic. The savings in air pollutants, gasoline burned and exhaust emitted, and most of all, time, is huge.

No such consensus is emerging where I am.

Our computer intensive workplace ran a survey and 90% liked WFH and 80% wanted to do it all or part of the week.

Top reasons for, were time saved commuting, saving $250/month parking fees and ability to deep dive for hours without interruptions. Top against, was young people missed social interaction and impromptu teaching/mentoring moments. (I've told them all I am happy to talk, just line up a time, most do)

The bosses are packing death; they signed a long lease on a building even deeper into the CBD of our city. Also they have to write an email detailing what work they actually want done, not walk over and reel off half a dozen brain farts leaving no evidence of what they asked for.

They've now pushing for everyone to come back to work before they move permanently to their holiday homes down the coast.

'Office work is not necessarily a good thing for the worker'

"Why are we always assuming an office-based workforce is a good thing for the worker?"

I wonder what the rest of the year will look like.

Although it will take effort for managers to maintain a human connection with subordinates, managers aren't necessarily empathizing less with remote. They may never have empathized to begin with.

Tech outsourcing has existed in various forms for many decades. It is demoralizing. People will always compete with you for a job, and if the market for talent is unrestricted by geography, there is valid cause for concern.

I thought most of my problems with work stem from working from an office, but in the end being forced to work on an schedule imposed on me by someone else was a much bigger problem.

I don't like having a boss, even if they let me work from home.

I like to work on my own schedule.

No motivation this week? No problem!

I could set up my place to be both a home and an office, but it wouldn't be cheap (for starters, I'd want to rent something bigger). Considering taxes, this would be equivalent to at least a 20k pay cut due to costs being offloaded on me.

I totally see why employers love that.

Additionally, FAANG and startup tech offices often serve as more than an office - they tend to have a lot of shared amenities that are just not practical to have at home. I don't use a 3D printer often enough to own one, but there is one in the office. Gym? Office, and it has more than a pull-up bar. Post office? Office. Inbound packages? Post office. In the office. Grocery shopping? Happens much less often if you eat out. In the office. Why would I want to eat out of my own fridge and pantry (and have to prepare the food myself) when I can grab tasty food prepared by people who actually know what they're doing?

The benefit isn't just that the stuff is free; the benefit is that it's all right there. It's an incredible time saver.

If the office is just an office with no amenities, you have a sucky commute, or you have a family, then I can see why WfH would be attractive. However, if you're young and single, have a nice office, this is going to suck.

I see shades of this in a lot of discourse - is it an alien idea to be for progress even if it means potentially more strife on your part?

Further, I'd say, not necessarily. People think that working from home is this grand new frontier, but cultures and subcultures have existed on the web for ages. It isn't going to be a wide open playing field. You're still going to have networks and self-selection into subgroups.

And finally, there's still a ton of money to be made by the few who are actually good at this. I hope everyone here is or has worked with someone of this type - where something they ship quickly actually leaves you speechless.

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As to the rest of this article, it really doesn't resonate. A lot of the problems listed are problems even in the office. The long and short of it is that the world is changing, and so while we can cherry-pick examples of how companies are failing to adapt, rest assured there are organizations out there that are adapting.

I'd say - keep an open mind, and find ways to get what you need - the most important mental shift you can make right now is to be your own advocate, and be proactive.

While it might put one at risk of getting replaced due to outsourcing, it also opens up opportunities for them to get things outsourced to them which they couldn't due to the previous setup.

While not being in the office may hamper one's career progress may be true, we also over look the possibility of having to put up with socialising and other corporate bullshit to progress at work over actually doing your job. With this kind of setup, values and skills may get more focus over charisma and just good looks.

For me it's hard to say how this will turn out. I think it'll be as boring as most other changes that happen in life where the actual impact is not nearly as severe as it looks from where we are now. Either way, I think the prospect of having the option to work from home for those who are willing and able is a positive outcome. After all, life is about having options :)

But mind you - If I am able to do that job, communicate in my second language, and still get it - maybe there are other problems at play?

The core premise of Remote Work is that it removes an unfair bareer (where you happened to be born)

- Oh no, Women in the workplace? Gonna steal your job!

- Oh no, immigrants? God forbid!

> This will cause your work to “flatten.” Whatever soft skills you bring to the table will be minimized when working remotely

On the contrary - you have to work on your soft skills 3x as hard. I wrote an entire (free) course about making Slack suck less:

https://deliber.at/chat/

> Remote work can stifle your career growth

There is a nugget there, but if you are the one working remotely with everybody else in the office - that is a situation to avoid.

But if everybody else is remote - somebody will progress their career, won't they?

That is beside the point - for me (again, NOT an American worker) this is unparalleled opportunity to get mentorship without uprooting my entire existence. I am a Team lead, and i also lead Americans.

Will it though? Coming from a country(Poland) that is a rather popular target for outsourcing I can tell you that companies pay around $70k per annum(ballpark - don't quote me on this) for contractors over here(the contractors themselves receive 50-80% of that) and there's still plenty of work to go around.

Sure, that's not a lot, but it comes with the additional issue of having the person in a very different time zone, which is not ideal.

I'd say outside of SV your wages are safe.

The only reason I ever wanted to work remotely is so I could juggle my side businesses and work at the same time, without wasting any commute time or using company equipment. When I first started out, it was so I could travel around Asia for a couple of years.

Now, it allows me to spend more time with my family. I see my daughter all throughout the day and it's great.

The downsides are that you just don't get those close relationships with co-workers. If you need that social aspect of work, it will be very difficult (and possibly depressing).

I live in a very small (not USA) city classified as 'rural and remote'. There is no local opportunity to do the sort of work I'm interested in, so for a few years I just didn't (obviously not USA :)

WFH allows me to participate. For some years, it was a complicating liability, and I had to gently massage potential employers to seriously consider a fully remote config. But this year when hunting I found my years of remote experience recognised and valued.

At first (i.e., around the first 2-3 weeks), I loved WFH - because I was very motivated to finish my work ASAP and spend time playing the guitar, or writing, or doing whatever the hell I wanted to do. And because the country wasn't in lockdown, I met friends for lunch/dinner every other day, so I was having fun.

The next 2-3 weeks, I began to hate it, because I hated not meeting people so much (because by this time the country had gone into lockdown), and I felt like shit tbh.

After that, I made it a rule to video call one of my friends/colleagues every day, which improved my life tremendously. Should have thought of this earlier, smh.

Around the same time, I fell into a bad habit. I started to think that I'm not really going anywhere, so why work so much? As a result, my work started to drag on after office hours, and I started to feel more tired. I had to actively tell myself that my work day ended at such-and-such a time, so that I wouldn't drag my my work to after office hours.

Once this entire period of around 2 months passed, I realised that I prefer WFH, and started to dread the day we'd be called back in to work, because of the following reasons: 1. I save an hour of travel time each day, so instead of waking up at 7 to be able to reach office at 9, I now wake up at 845. 2. I'm quite motivated to finish work early and then do whatever I want. 3. Because I'm so new to work, I don't really need to go around meeting people - hence there is no reason for me to be anywhere near office.

None of these are on the worker, though. They're all on the company.

I personally am far more effective remotely. Simply having a perfectly quiet and controlled environment is such a big plus. Not commuting, such a huge plus. I had the best commutes for most of my non-remote life, I walked to work for years (quite a hike sometimes, but I love to walk - but it was still a drag.

I find the timeframes of remote better. When someone walks into your office, you need to respond intelligently right away. You lose focus.

So many of my bugs could be attributed to being interrupted and forgetting to some detail in the code!

Remotely, you can quickly triage interrupts and give an instant response with a time estimate ("On this, will report back within the hour"), finish what you are working on, and then take the time to really look into their question.

(I am very sympathetic to others who aren't. Considering the great savings in resources and time we get, is there some way we can make it up to you?)

Make use of your time. Start some of Your own projects in that new found free time or finally get to work on things you should have done years ago.

Perhaps I am too used to staying at home and sitting at the computer, so that it does not affect me as much?

I for sure liked those extra 2h each workIng day. Sums up quickly.

https://likewise.am/2017/05/19/in-response-to-the-cult-of-re...

and I’m glad to see some of these more global, psychological arguments about the larger role and meaning of work in the human experience are gaining currency. The current wave of uncontained euphoria about remote work in the business press, which began in earnest with Covid at the mass level, needs to be tempered with some blunt realism.

I don’t know about the rest of HN but everything I learned and all my career progression happened despite my various bosses.

Is there a way to search for tech jobs that minimize electronic communication?

It would enable me to live farther from my office, and thus buy a bigger house for less money. It still allows me to meet (new) colleagues and clients in person.

Personally I think either 5 days WFH or 5 days Office would be the worst of any situation.

I want to work with my friends from somewhere while we all work for different companies.

I hate that meetings have already started to spill into Saturdays, Sundays, and beyond 6pm and attendance in those meetings are now being subtly demanded which began as requests because someone’s calendar would be “full”.

I have worked remote for about 8 years now. I used to have to spend 3+ hours in commute each day.

To put it bluntly, those that complain the loudest are those who's career rested on politicking and stealth deferrel of their actual productive work to others.

You aren't 'outsourced' offshore or otherwise because of WFH, you are because your type of job allowed for it. The current crisis might just have woken up the company to it sooner.

BTW, people that have only just now started WFH, don't confuse your current experience with WFH under normal circumstances. That commute time save normally allowed you to have an actual life outside work.

Finally, do not underestimate the huge lobbying going on currently to get us all 'back to the office' from what is called the 'lunch economy' sector. God forbid you would get used to not spending huge amounts on overpriced coffee and sandwiches or junkfood each day.

And, it's more cost effective than slavery!

Pretty modestly & locally though given that major intl travel isn’t a thing right now

* remote work widens the competitive playing field. Boo hoo. If you think non-remote work is somehow immune to offshoring, take a look at the last three decades for counterexamples.

* remote work enables you to be forgotten: sure, if your managers suck. Again, see gestures at the entire industry for examples of people getting "forgotten" at in-person offices.

* remote work breaks large companies: better phrasing - "remote work makes it plainly obvious that large companies are broken"

* remote work can stifle your career growth: again, sure - if your managers suck. They likely suck in person too, in that case.

* Conclusion: "what if instead of remote work companies just stopped acting like companies act"

As a content marketer, Sean is doing a great job of supporting a target customer persona: sucky bosses who are desperate to find a way to get back to an arrangement that makes it harder to spot how much they suck. I'm sure he'll get a lot of clicks.