Hacker News Reader

Comment by leni536 | Hacker News Reader

I appreciate that a barrier is desirable for WFH, but that can be established without having a dedicated physical space for that. A separate work computer that is shut down at 5pm (or whenever you "leave" work) and not having company chat/email on your personal phone could go a long way.

Having said that this has to go hand-in-hand with company work culture and no expectation that you are available for work throughout the entire day.

View on HN

There's another side to this: not being able to leave home to work. I, and many of my work colleagues, have small child or children and not enough rooms to dedicate one purely to work. I have my space and my wife does everything she can to help me, but it's really hard to argue with 10 month old child that wants to be held for a few minutes. Due to this, my productivity at home is nowhere near the productivity at the office. I do appreciate the possibility to work from home (I'm actually at my "home office" right now), but I use it as a last resort, not my default mode.

As for the space, some people don't have enough of it to replicate the "designed to work" tools at home. At my office, I have a large eraseable board behind me, printers, fast coffee machines, sometimes lunch is provided, easy access to people for "quick question" (chat/email doesn't have the same responsiveness), not to mention two huge screens and way more comfortable chair than I can fit in my home space. If my company will pay me to replicate this environment (which would have to include bigger place), I'll happily move to WFH for as much as possible.

At the same time I recognize the different preferences regarding WFH and I don't want my colleagues to be the victims of "some people prefer to use the desk at work so everyone needs to RTO". I personally advocate for individual approach, because I can see that many of my colleagues work better from home - overly social office space for them isn't really better than their comfortable home.

> I have my space and my wife does everything she can to help me, but it's really hard to argue with 10 month old child that wants to be held for a few minutes.

I am sure this is both a positive and a negative. Being available at home while your 10 month old child is at home must be great, and even if it's frustrating when you have to break away from work to hold him/her, this must be great for bonding. There must be a reason that you still work from home, and not, say, from a nearby coffee shop.

I am (or was) also in your shoes recently, WFH with a small child at home. She's almost 2 now, still isn't in nursery. I would say that we are very lucky that we can do this and I have no regrets that I am not going into the office to be more productive and potentially earn more. Sure, I do also have the luxury of having a small dedicated office space in the house though, I appreciate that not everyone can have that, and without it it probably doesn't work while a small child stays at home too.

This is also how it is for me. My son just turned 2, and I love that I am able to observe him napping between long meetings. I could also have a small chat with my teammates after 5 PM, and sometimes our kids hop into conversation and say hi to each other.

WFH is great for life, not always great for work. Depends on your priority at the moment.

I’m not sure what your personal situation is, but for most people in the real world, being able to be a certain degree of productive at work is a mandatory part ensuring that they can, say, pay their mortgage, or many of the other things that comprise or sustain the “life” part of work-life balance.

Did you know most people work to live? They don't live to work.

When I went remote, I went all-in with a dedicated home office. Not a bedroom with an office chair, but an actual separate outbuilding on the property that I had to walk to (even if it was only a few second walk) to "go to work." Comfortable chair, many screens, whiteboard for brainstorming and designing, sound insulation, mini-kitchen with a coffee maker, a bathroom... basically everything I need to pull an entire day of work without "commuting" back home to get something. My family knows when I'm out there I'm working, and they don't disturb me.

Understood this is extreme, and not everyone is fortunate enough to be able to build something like this, but it is possible to do remote work and have a hard, clear separation between home and work life.

I disagree. Physical space and distance helps, a lot. I can’t explain why, but the commute home helps establish a different psychological setting.

For you. Everyone's different, and I have no problem closing my laptop and psychologically switching from "at work" to "at home" almost instantly. But I absolutely appreciate that other people need the physical separation and temporal separation to make that switch. I don't begrudge anyone that wants to work from the office and commute each day. Please, do what works for you, but that's not what works for me.

Exactly my point.

“that can be established without having a dedicated physical space for that”

… for you.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com