Comment by ultimafan | Hacker News Reader

Comment by ultimafan | Hacker News Reader

Parent Full thread

I see a lot of people on HN claiming to be more productive at home and honestly think they are the exception rather than the norm. Maybe there is a bias here because the kind of person who is "locked-in" enough to their career field to browse and discuss work-related articles and threads outside of work hours happens to be the same kind of person who cares enough about what they do at their job to be productive even at home.

I suspect for the majority of people though, working from home lacks the mixture of accountability and shame that comes from having to work side by side alongside your coworkers/managers/bosses and at least have to do some level of work to appear minimally productive. If no one is watching you and you feel that work is just a means to an end you might be tempted to goof off or drag your feet.

I personally noticed that my productivity plummeted during work from home and skyrocketed when return to office was mandated. Probably it is at least somewhat related to the above. If I'm at home I might be tempted to go on a walk / do some chores / read a few chapters of a book / go workout / take a nap because I don't feel shame for it and no one can tell me otherwise. I would feel significantly more uncomfortable doing any of those things in the office and will more likely than not actually be forced to get some work done out of boredom and with no other options or distractions.

What’s wrong with doing chores or going for a walk? Doing such things increases my productivity. At a certain point you hit a cliff where further effort doesn’t increase productivity.

When I worked in an office, I would often go on walks by myself or with colleagues, explore the campus, etc. It’s hilarious to believe you can’t fuck off and play hooky when you’re in an office.

Nothing is inherently wrong with that if you still get your work done. And I agree that you can find ways to slack off in the office just the same.

I'm not saying everyone needs to be glued in butt in seat 8 hours a day 5 days a week to be productive. I'm saying I suspect that for a large and noticeable enough amount of people it is more shameful to slack off in office when they have to spend all day sitting next to / passing by / talking to the people they are accountable to than when they spend their whole day at home with no worry that they're being judged by anyone. It's no doubt much easier to justify goofing off all day instead of working when your boss and coworkers aren't in constant visual range of you.

Companies probably noticed this (I don't think a degree in psychology is needed to acknowledge that most people act differently alone vs in social settings) and are making people go back.

Your suspicion overlooks the substantial data showing productivity remained stable or even improved with remote work. Being physically visible doesn’t inherently equate to accountability or productivity. It often just encourages performative behavior (“looking busy”) rather than genuine output. Effective management relies on outcomes rather than proximity. If someone is “goofing off” excessively, that’s fundamentally a management issue, not a remote work one. Companies forcing RTO based purely on perceptions of productivity misunderstand or disregard the evidence and real metrics showing remote work effectiveness.

I'm going to make a guess that you only began working from home during COVID, as a lot of people did. It takes discipline and doesn't suit everyone, and during COVID a lot of people who were not suited to it were forced into it.

Sure, some people are more effective in an office. No denying that. Even just for the social benefit, which some people sorely need. But it's not a universal truth. Some people are better off working remotely.

I live hours from where my company HQ is. RTO for me would mean a 7 hour round trip ever day or staying over for a few nights a week, just so I can sit in a room with other people with headphones on.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com