Hacker News Reader

Comment by wahnfrieden | Hacker News Reader

As an aside, it's a wonder to read casual accounts of office work where teams will play with toys rather than be allowed to go home to their families or other interests

View on HN

> rather than be allowed

This seems like a particularly uncharitable interpretation from the context of the post.

it’s the industry standard to expect defined working hours presence regardless of the work at hand. whatever workers want to do in the lulls or otherwise, that’s great for them. I was commenting on their owners

Ooh, can I play? "It's a shame you dislike your coworkers so much that you'd like to spend as little time with them as possible."

Be careful not to fall for the "we're a family here" corporate tropes and then have an existential crisis once you get fired or laid off. Work is work. Your customers are not your friends and your coworkers are not your family.

Coworkers might not be your family, but it doesn't mean you can't be friends. Some of the people I'm closest to I met at work, however to ensure our interactions aren't constrained to the workplace, we've made deliberate attempts to meet up outside of the office.

Worker friendship and solidarity is fantastic and should be encouraged. I was commenting on their owners

The friend I'm closest with I met at a previous job and we continued talking and seeing each other after I quit that job. Your coworkers are not your family, but they can be your friends if you let them, and that relationship doesn't have to end when the professional aspect of the relationship ends.

I think it's taken for granted that finding even three other people to play couch co-op is very difficult, much less enough people for a 30-person LAN match. Work seems to be a reasonable place to meet people who want to partake in extracurriculars.

Yeah being forced by owners to pass time together would enable that

We don't know anything about their business -- for all we know they could be required in the office to provide availability, but with large downtimes in actual work.

that’s the line given for every instance of it at scale

I have a family and a great work life balance. Some of the fondest memories I have of team building at work is playing video games or doing activities like paint ball or volley ball. So go ahead and judge.

No judgment on you and I’m glad to hear it

I was commenting on the owners, who restrict freedoms unnecessarily and with consequence even if many people are able to make a happy way through it

OK I can agree with that.

Not every office is 100% full of people with kids and a relationship.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com