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Comment by kreeben | Hacker News Reader

Why not?

We are going to have a massive problem with taking on juniors, particularly younger people. Without many people visiting the office, there is a lack of banter, encouragement, confidence building. Imagine you were 16 and your introduction to the world of work was sitting in your own bedroom!

Honestly, I don't know how we deal with it unless we create a schedule where there has to be certain people in the office on certain days so that a junior can get the interaction and support which is as much of job training as anything they can do online.

So that's one example of when can do != should do

Firms stopped investing in talent decades ago. Go ask new grads if anyone wants to train you anymore. All the job ads I see are a laundry list of skills and they expect you to hit the ground running on day one.

Once it became necessary to look for a new job every 1 - 2 years to stay current with the market, firms stopped with the training, "they will just leave in two years" they cried. In this world your arugment no longer holds water.

Yeah. I think it's good that we are exploring what WFH options look like and where they can work, but I think a part of that needs to be recognizing where they don't work, too.

"What about the juniors" is not a super convincing argument to me since I've been on-boarding them throughout the pandemic but also prior to that, quite successfully, through the use of basic video linking and sharing of screens. Out team is scattered around the world and that has always been the case. What are some other examples of when WFH doesn't work?

As a junior who started in late 2019 I completely disagree. My contact with coworkers greatly decreased when we went remote. Partially that's my fault, partially it's the companies, but the reality is that this is really a hard problem to solve.

They are pointing out "can" vs "should" sure you can onboard them remotely and try to build team cohesion remotely but it's just worse then in person.

In what way is it worse?

This is the weirdest take on "think of the children!" that I've heard in a while.

young people are very well acclimated to social isolation and only "connecting" using online means. The younger generations are more mentally equipped (or handicapped) to wfh than any other.

Sink or swim. I think it's actually a really good way to weed out do nothings.

"Can" doesn't tell you if the job is done better or worse, happier or unhappier.

Exactly. I work remote. I am fully planning to work remote for the rest of my career. But I can imagine a number of scenarios where camaraderie, productivity, confidentiality, and quality of work are improved by having people in close proximity.

So I understand why some companies and teams bias toward everyone working in an office. And my choice to work at home will prevent me from being hired at those places. I'm blessed there's plenty of work available for everyone, remote or not.

Social interactions.

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