Comment by mufty | Hacker News Reader

Comment by mufty | Hacker News Reader

Contest matter as I have learnt. I held a similar opinion to yours sometime back. But like most things in life it’s all about trade offs.

My previous role had a hybrid policy WFH 3 days and then from the office. To a large extent it really didn’t matter where you worked, so long as work got done. I however rarely WFH. My office was about a 15 minute walk from my where I lived, that commute was never a challenge for me. I even used different routes sometimes just to walk a bit more. I did enjoy the occasional developer discussions as well, I was almost always in the office.

Fast forward working for new company now and I hated commuting to work. Having to sit through traffic is a complete waste of my time imo. After a few weeks I had renegotiate my schedule with my employer. If WFO becomes a hustle in doesn’t benefit any party.

Getting work done should be more important than being at work. Employers should be able to trust that employees will execute. Also always being at the office wouldn’t save my bum if my employer wants me gone. People should have the peace of mind needed to work.

I agree but meeting your team is really important, not only for you but for the team itself. People tend to care a lot less about the team or the company when they are not on site to socialize with coworkers. It means people may not think twice about getting another job, a remote job is only seen as a source of income, at least that was my case. So in the company's PoV, I would not hire full time people but hybrid seems fine, or at least people who come to the office one full week many times a year.

Perhaps a solution to the problem of people not caring as much about the team and company is not implementing a WFO policy, I wouldn’t be surprised if it works in the opposite direction.

In the current market, employees really want to have a flexible schedule. Keep in mind you’re competing with other companies for these talents. If you’re bent on having people in the office, chances are you might have to hire fresh talents or probably beneath the standards you want. And hope they don’t jump train when they build some experience.

Then again people resign from full remote roles also. It’s really in the control of the employee to continue the contract if they so wish

Just maybe it’s the Employer’s responsibility to ensure employees are productive even when they only care about their task, imo that should be enough if the company knows what they’re about. Also a job is primarily a source of income before anything else.

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