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Comment on Scientists have been studying remote work for four years and have reached a very clear conclusion: “Working from home makes us thrive”

danielquinn@lemmy.ca ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago

Working from home sucks. Yeah I said it.

I’m a software engineer, and yes, there are days that working from home really does help with concentration and focus on a particular project, but unless you’re a contractor, tasked with “build this and come back when it’s finished”, building anything is typically a collaborative process. You know what sucks for collaboration? Working from home.

There are no tools that can sufficiently replace what the office offers: interaction, chance conversation, camaraderie and socialising with the people with whom you’re trying to build The Thing. It’s why people still go to actual conferences and no one cares about gigantic Zoom calls masquerading as real interaction. Slack sucks, Jira sucks, Teams suuuuuuucks. They’ll do in a pinch, but they’ll never offer real collaboration. For that, you still have to be in the same building.

That’s not to say that offering remote work isn’t great. There are people who work best in isolation, but that’s not all of us. I’d argue that it isn’t even most of us, and headlines like this “working from home makes us thrive” aren’t helping. They’re objectively bullshit. Having been in software development for 25 years, I can categorically state that the more remote the team I’ve been in, the less organised, the more disjointed and disconnected it is.

And don’t get me started on the whole “overemployment” trend, where people try to hold down two jobs by doing neither well at all. Yet another “perk” of remote work I guess.

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ganryuu@lemmy.ca ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago
Hard disagree. From my experience you can perfectly collaborate from a distance, it’s mostly a matter of organizing around it. Of course it can vary on the type of work, so I would think that the better answer is “it depends”.

Yet in your comment you declare that it sucks and mostly does not work as a general rule? I just want to say that your own experience, while relevant, does not necessarily apply to everyone. Maybe it sucks for you, maybe it sucks for most people you work with or talked with about that subject. But one experience, or even a group of experiences, do not make for a universal truth.

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- BCsven@lemmy.ca ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago
  As somebody that has worked from home everyday since 2009, nothing beats in person collaboration. Not saying you need to be in the office everyday, but to truly collaborate and get input and open discussions an actual meet session is better.
  
  You can see who is not onboard by body language, you can see who isn’t paying attention and will miss key details, you get free conversation where a random comment provides a solution to something that wasn’t on the agenda. And I say it as somebody that is 150% more productive at home.
  
  Even in our own company employees often work siloed on collaborative projects, in person forces a discussion.
  
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rumba@lemmy.zip ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago
It works better for some people/orgs than others. My company worked in a Google Meet for 6 hours yesterday in a war room, cracking jokes, socializing, with most cameras off, mostly just voice chat and the occasional screen share. We got the job done, we had fun, and people came and went. The cool part was that we had different disciplines together that wouldn’t sit together. Shit, we had people in 4 different time zones, not even all on the same continent.

Now it’s the next day… do I want to do it again today? No. I’m an introvert and I’m all out of spoons. But the next thing? sure!

AND I saved 1.5 hours of commute and 60 miles of gas/tires/oil

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mriormro@lemmy.zip ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago
Sounds like a ‘you’ problem or a team composition and role disparity issue.

We’ve been widely remote for 5 years now and the data continuously shows the benefits far outweigh the issues.

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audible_obituary@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago
I personally love remote work and I get that it isn’t ideal for some people. I need to read more studies to understand, but I do wonder if a lot of the benefit (in some cases) comes from enabling people to do time theft. Letting people work at their own pace, take breaks as needed, do some chores, avoid commuting- all leading to better overall quality of life, happiness, health, and therefore productivity. Could we get a lot of the same benefits by moving to a 5 or 6 hour work day?

I don’t think work from home should ever be taken off the table since for myself (and many others, clearly) it helps improve focus, happiness, etc. But I think that if we stand to gain more from working in person with other concessions made them we should explore those.

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- danielquinn@lemmy.ca ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago
  I’m not sure I’m comfortable with the phrase “time theft”, but I largely agree. The real benefit of hybrid work is flexibility, and I’d never want to take that away from anyone. I just object to the constant parroting of this lie that remote necessarily means more productive. I’ve never seen it, but I’ve seen many many cases of the opposite.
  
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ilinamorato@lemmy.world ⁨18⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago

There are no tools that can sufficiently replace what the office offers: interaction, chance conversation, camaraderie and socialising with the people with whom you’re trying to build The Thing.

I don’t know what kind of magical offices you’ve been working in, but my experience of offices have had none of those things. Interaction is almost exclusively sports-related. Chance conversation is basically just centered around “can you believe this guy?” Socializing actively avoids any discussion of The Thing or its building.

I’m glad you’re having a good time in the office, but none of that stuff sounds like any office I’ve ever worked in. People would walk in, put their headphones on, sit at their desk for three and a half hours, and go get lunch.

And don’t get me started on the whole “overemployment” trend, where people try to hold down two jobs by doing neither well at all. Yet another “perk” of remote work I guess.

I have a lot of trouble believing that’s something that has ever actually happened in any meaningful amount. I remember seeing a few news stories about it, but they all came from dubious sources and sounded like they were written to capture the attention and suspicion of middle managers, but were light on any real evidence. I feel like most of the ones I’ve seen were about the same random guy who got caught basically right away and fired from both jobs.

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