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Comment by 3737hdhd7372 | Hacker News Reader

I agree, something about working hybrid just feels like “why are we doing this?”

It’s like an awkward inbetween

I also don’t get why companies seem unphased about paying for a giant office that is empty the majority of the week

Hybrid doesn't make sense. It's just "working in an office with some days at home" which was something I remember doing in the mid 1990s. Basically as soon as the Internet and laptops existed, it was done.

It seems more like a frog boiling exercise on the way to full in-office (which imho will never return).

For some people it's an intentional exercise into full home office.

Hybrid can make sense _if_ there are scheduled in person activities on the in office days. If you're coming in to the office just to work by yourself then it should have just been a work from home day.

This is what drives me nuts. I don't mind coming to work if we are doing in person meetings or something. I like seeing my coworkers. If I am gonna be alone in an office the whole time might as well be at home where my already purchased food is.

I would suggest a shift in language.

I don't mind coming to work either. If it's in my home. I do mind coming to work if it's in the office ;)

Same. Most of the time when I'm in the office it's 50% or less empty, anyway.

And most of the people there aren't on my team / projects, so it's pointless. Schlep half-way across the city to sit in an empty office and have Teams calls with the same folks two timezones away... like, why leave home?

Not to peek behind the curtain, but it's pretty difficult to hold down 2 jobs when you need to physically be in the office 2 days a week. Which, if my anecdotal evidence in my circle is to be believed, that was definitely happening during the pandemic.

I wonder if there would be a massive boost in productivity if everybody was doing mandatory pair programming.

I have seen companies who have mandated "You _will_ be on video when you're on Zoom calls", which I think is much to the same end, in varying ways (are you working from another office, are you multitasking meetings, etc).

Companies need to give up on this whole "we own your time" thing. Work product should be all that matters. If an employee has two or three jobs, but is able to get their work done with the quality expected of them, that's all that should matter.

(Certainly there are exceptions; working for two competitors at the same time is not ok for hopefully obvious reasons.)

Get serious unless the employee is open about what is going on none of that is ok. And if they are open they won’t be employees by multi employers for long.

Just be careful if your contract says you're working exclusively or 40 hours. Otherwise, agreed.

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