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Comment by scj | Hacker News Reader

One note I have about numbers like these...

Is the question phrased in a way that distinguishes between "working remotely as you have during COVID times" vs. "working remotely post-COVID"

I think it's important to distinguish that in the mind of the responder. At the very least, get people thinking in terms of "What would WFH be like if the kids were at school much of the day?" or "What would WFH be like if we could meet with friends at 17:30?" or whatever.

What we've experienced over the last year is far less social, and far more stressful than what WFH could be.

Personally, I'd like to WFH most of the time, with sprint & release planning sessions in person.

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For me, it probably depends on if I have the option to go to a cafe and how nice my home office is. Right now, I'm stuck in my bedroom basically 24 hours a day because I have roommates (1 of which also works from home) and don't have room to move outside of my bedroom. This is extremely depressing. I absolutely hate it and I'd say I'm probably operating at 60% productivity or less and have been for most of the last year. But, I'm moving in May and will at least have my desk not in my bedroom. Even then, I'd rather be in person for most meetings. I think it's extremely important to have face-to-face communication the majority of the time both for social reasons, but also because it's just more efficient. Understanding on what the team is doing over the last year has dropped significantly as well, and the (remote) barriers to communication are real and have a larger than I think people realize impact.

So you want other people to go to the office to deliver your preference for face to face meetings?

Your company has to pay for desk space and for meeting space?

> So you want other people to go to the office to deliver your preference for face to face meetings?

Yes, I think that's an entirely reasonable expectation to be the norm. It's what was the norm/expectation when I started and I do not see a reason that should change. My boss has said that it will most likely be the expectation once it's safe to return to the office, so I am not alone.

> Your company has to pay for desk space and for meeting space?

Yes, actually. They aren't paying for my home office and it wasn't an expectation in the original employment contract. Further, we work with specialized scientific hardware. We need the space anyway.

I've been WFH for a few years and liked it. I did not like it because of the COVID baggage:

* At home schooling * More people needing help at odd hours (nights/weekends) * Lots of normally well adjusted folks stressed/angry about minor things

That and there was a lot of corporate "make sure to take time for yourself" and "be realistic about schedules", however there were clearly roles/orgs where that was not an option.

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