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Comment by 46Bit | Hacker News Reader

> Netflix's chairman has said working from home has no positive effects

No positive effects for him. Maybe. And even that is pretty dubious considering we're in a pandemic and nobody is at their best.

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And the layers and layers and layers between Netflix' CEO and non executives probably mean he has almost no idea what he's talking about wrt general employees.

The layers of "Yes men" are likely in agreement with whatever he believes

And in all likelihood have very little to do but attend and hold meetings.

Ya, I suspect this very fact is going to keep wfh from becoming a broad reality. There is a lot of upper middle management that have nothing to do but meet with people. If talking and collaborating is all you do then you are going to push for in person.

Some things are working for some companies some not. I work from home/remote most of my life. But honestly most of companies I’ve worked was never effective as it can be. I must admit, that many companies can be more effective when people work face to face. But they never try to be productive on any reasonable level. And I’m not talking about sacrificing all time, life and energy to boss. I’m about not wasting time on visibility of work.

Eh. It’s a pretty flat org - not a lot of layers between Reed and most employees. He was pretty approachable too - could often be found mingling with employees on campus at lunch, for instance.

A quick google search shows a pretty typical layered corporate structure.

Yeah, I mean I assume most anyone with younger kids is going to have trouble being productive (kids stuck at home, no childcare, no babysitters, no older relatives to help, etc.) which says little about WFH in general.

Yeah. I have two kids. Now that the older is back at school and the yonger is in nursery or with her childminder when my wife is working, it is significantly better working from home. After five months of working a weird split shift pattern it's really nice to be back to a more regular pattern.

(This is in the UK, where our infection rate is pretty low now, how long that lasts remains to be seen)

Yes this nullified his argument to me. Do I think WFH is some magical solution to everything? Hell no. But to claim it has "no positive effects" is disingenuous.

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