Hacker News Reader

Comment by ViViDboarder | Hacker News Reader

I think we’re one of the few that requires nearly entirely deep work yet also often work in an environment that isn’t conducive to it.

Many other professionals that do this kind of work have private offices. Painters, architects, lawyers, etc. Meanwhile we cram ourselves together, surround ourselves with physical and digital distractions, and expect near immediately responsiveness from peers.

I’m glad to have my team working from home now.

View on HN

I forget where I read it, but there was a blog post that mentioned how open offices basically turn developers into furniture as part of the job is appearing busy like bees.

This actually happened to me once. Some big investor was coming one day, so we were all to be in our seats for a certain time to show that we were productive.

Happened to us at a small agency. Allowed WFH days were standardized to specific days of the week so we could show a full house on days when we had client visits.

> in an environment that isn’t conducive to it

You may have hit the crux of the problem. Programmers aren't uniquely dependent on deep work, but tech companies seem to be uniquely determined to do everything they can do to make the office as hostile as possible to that. Add to that the expectation of instant availability via whatever messaging and it's clear even among tech company deep workers, programmers have worse conditions.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com