It sucks because you don’t need to wake up earlier than needed to be ready for work.
It sucks because you don’t need to drive or take public transportation to go to the office.
It sucks because you save time and money on commuting.
And that time you can spend with your loved ones.
But I really believe that it sucks most of all because your boss cannot look over your shoulder to see what you’re doing on your computer.
As you can see, I’m being sarcastic here since I’m one of the biggest advocates for remote work. I’m aware of its benefits and I can tell you how much my life, health, both personal and professional, have improved since I started working 100% remotely.
It’s all about the freedom to do what you need to do from wherever you are.
For me, it’s nonsense to travel to another place just to sit in front of a computer all day when I can do exactly the same thing at home.
I believed that the pandemic had already taught us this lesson in the hardest possible ways that we could imagine, but it seems that some companies have poor memories and don’t remember anything anymore.
Without remote work, most tech companies would have collapsed during these last years.
So I can only see these “Return to Office” (RTO) movements happening in multiple companies around the world as something similar to “Returning to the Industrial Age.”
We are in the “Technology Information Age,” practically in the “Artificial Intelligence Age,” a new disruptive age that is starting (I would say that it started long ago, but that’s a subject for another post).
For me, there is no surprise in seeing people leaving their jobs at Google or any other high-paying big tech company, especially in cases where a change of address becomes necessary to return to the office.
People are starting to realize what is “Working to Live,” and rejecting “Living to Work.”
That’s also my life philosophy, and I’ve truly believed in it for many years, with many results.
What do you think about it? Just let me know in the comments section below.
See you in the next post!
Original Post from https://igorfragadev.com/thats-why-remote-work-sucks/
Top comments (17)
Yep. All the this.
At the time COVID hit in early 2020, I had several major shakeups in my personal life that were completely unrelated to the pandemic. I was struggling to stay afloat as a dad and a spouse, and a lot of my personal world was crumbling around me.
Then we all were told to stay home.
And boy, did my life change... in a phenomenal way. The lack of a commute + the lack of taking kids to school + the quick-swap time at the end of a workday + the lack of a dress code for work + the peace and quiet at my house rather than the busyness around the office... plus so many other things I can't think of right now... made me happier, healthier, more productive, just... better... in every way possible.
Even though it didn't fix all the problems in my personal life, it gave me the mental slack to be able to handle them without breaking down myself.
Now that I'm back on the job market, remote-only is pretty much table stakes for me to even consider applying. I don't ever want to go back. I love my colleagues dearly... but I don't need to be cooped up in a building with them all the time to bond with them well.
Hi @linkbenjamin , I truly agree with you in every point you've just added.
Before remote work, I was losing 4 hours per day with commute, not sleeping enought and no health at all. That's even hard to remember. Today, I have a little 1 year old baby and being able to see her grow is priceless.
I'm really happy to see how remote work helped your life as much as it did to mine.
Take care!
I agree with your points, and I also can't imagine ever having a tech job where I'd be forced to commute every day. Home office became an essential part of my work life.
However, being with my colleagues in person is so much better than being remote. On personal level, as it's much easier to spontaneously talk to them and have fun together. This directly translates to professional relationships, as it's much easier to meet new people and discuss important things ad hoc, without having to schedule a meeting in few days earliest or thinking that I am disturbing someone.
So I see it as a trade off, where I gain but also lose something. I am sure full remote is great when you have a family, but I personally wouldn't mind going to the office maybe once a week, given my colleagues would do the same.
One of the things I set up was an open room. I had a Zoom room with a static link that we kept open all the time. Sometimes folks were in it, sometimes they were not. It was by no means a requirement for anyone to be in the room, but it was very helpful for folks to have a place to go to have as basically an online watercolor. Frequently on Friday nights, we would keep the room open and have a "cocktail hour" (well, several hours). Folks would be coming in and out all night, talking about anything and everything. It REALLY cemented our relationships and even though I left almost a year ago, I'm still close with the folks I worked with there.
Hi @kmsimpson , I have been in a team that they also used this same strategy to be more closer to each other, specially when pair programming, that sometimes is helpful but I find better to have scheduled calls or just reach out on text and open a call if needed with anyone in the team, specially when your schedule is usually busy.
I think you may be misunderstanding what I was discussing. Think of it like a virtual version of leaning over to the programmer in the next cubicle and saying, "Hey Fred, did you work on that Jira ticket? I have a question." Like I said, it was not required for anyone to be there, but there were several folks that simply liked being in there to be able to work together, ask questions, joke around, etc.
If someone's schedule was busy, they did not have to be in the room. Keep in mind, we also had Slack and email to use as well, but the room saw a LOT of action as it was very helpful. Also, keep in mind, getting answers this way was MUCH faster than email and we could always open a private room if needed.
Hi Daniel, thanks for commenting your views, even loving full remote, I would accept to be in person once in a month, just to see my colleagues, but that would be only in the cases that your office and company are close to you.
For my actual scenario, working for a company in another country and also thinking about working globally for any company around the world, what would be great is to have at least an in person meeting once in a year, so people can program to travel to the company's country and meet each other, have a happy hour and stuff like that.
There is another very important thing going for remote working and I'm amazed by how little it is discussed. Unless people use fully electrified means of transportation that use either renewable or nuclear power, every single person that works from home represents less carbon emissions. Just imagine removing all the emissions of all the people that work in jobs that can be done remotely, essentially almost everyone working in an office, except for public facing roles.
Plus, it is the cheapest thing we can all do to fight climate change, and a win-win for most stakeholders. It is great for workers. It is cheaper for bosses as they can downsize office space (the greatest cost for too many is to their egos). It is great, even for those whose roles are incompatible with remote work, as they see less competition in traffic and transit. And, above all, it is great for the planet as a whole.
It baffles me that we were able to adopt remote work massively to deal with the Covid emergency, yet fail to see it as one of our best tools to fight climate change, which is also an emergency. Right now, at a global scale, it is the most pressing one.
Absolutely Rui, reducing the carbon footprint is noticeable, but as you also mention, even if you go fully electrified, having less unnecessary cars in the street is way better for everyone, but not for the ones that earn with having the streets full of people.
On my side, I'll always consider having a better life quality, and that's as working remote to any company around the world. I've already spent too much time of my life in extremely large commutes, without sleeping well and not having time for living, just to go to a building sitting in an uncomfortable chair in a desk to do something that I can do perfectly better from my own office, at home.
I've been remote for well over a decade. When COVID hit, I barely acknowledged it as far as work. Last year, I took a hybrid job because I had literally forgotten how much I hated the office life. Quite honestly I'm job hunting for fully remote again. Having to get ready early for work, having to wear REAL clothes instead of my tee shirt and shorts, a commute of an hour minimum each way, and the fact that I have no poker face during meetings has made this just a mess on my life.
I had been fully remote for so long, I did not really have a car. I've been using the family truck and the gas mileage was no big deal when most of my trips were under 10 miles. Now, it's a different story. Here's hoping my AI + Cloud certifications will get me back to fully remote.
Good luck with your "Return to Home" Kathleen. Looking into past, I remember back in 2018 I was dreaming of working remote full time. At that time, I had only worked single days from home when extricty necessary, but the culture from my country were absolutely against remote work at that time. Only after COVID things started to change a little bit, but as I've mentioned in the post, looks like the companies are forgetting all the benefits for both sides, or they want to pay rent on offices. I don't get why they are changing it now and I'll be working on my best to never go back to an office, except for a happy hour with my team mates if this happens someday, but we don't need an office for that, we need a bar/restaurant :D
Igor, thank you for the wishes!
I love WFH, and it's afforded me time and experiences that I know I could never ever have again if I had to go to the office. I'm sad that the experiences of people who were forced into WFH (and not suited for it) have translated into a "return to office" culture for many companies.
At the same time, I think it requires a conscious investment from companies that many don't make. Your employer has to work pretty hard to create a remote work culture that makes you and your team successful. Not doing so makes it far too easy to ignore you, and disconnects you from your team and the business. People who work in the same location will naturally work together more, and make less effort to connect to remote workers to get their job done. It's a slippery slope to remote work(ers) looking like the problem.
I'm a big advocate of remote working and will push for it in every role I take on for the rest of my career. But I don't think I'll expect it to work everywhere anymore.
Hi Miko, you've mentioned some real good points, the remote work culture is something that I do see in lack on many of the customers that I've worked, some of then wants to work with the mindset of presencial work, thinking that everyone is available at any time, others just forget about your existence, and if you don't look for your team, they don't even remember that you are there.
And also, there is something that concerns me the most, exactly what you've mentioned, having companies returning to the office, how will they manage the ones that are not in the office? They will need to have an open camera with open audio in the meeting room to the ones that are not present in the office. But until when?
If the company abandons the remote culture work, working remote starts to die in that company, and the one that loses the most are those companies. Loses talented people that will not go back to an office, loses money having more people at an office, with rent, power, coffee and water and loses global talents.
The freedom to work!
The freedom to choose!
The freedom of life!
I love remote work, and while I agree that working in a good office is also good, my priority lies in remote work as it allows me to spend more time with my family.
Just so you know, I'm still a CS student. 😆
I do lots of other stuff, so this is based on my personal experience.
Absolutely! Your appreciation for remote work's flexibility resonates with the satisfaction of home improvements. Both are about crafting a space that works for you.
Just like remote work frees you from rigid schedules, home improvements and gardening empower you to personalize your surroundings. You're not confined by a pre-designed office; you're creating a comfortable haven. The same goes for your lawn. Taming it with a trusty Bobcat zero-turn mower (though troubleshooting occasional problems can be part of the fun) brings a sense of accomplishment and pride in your outdoor space. In the end, it's all about creating an environment, whether workspace or lawn, that fosters well-being and unwinding after a long day.
Once I'm skilled enough, I'll choose Remote work.
Else for me its Hybrid work.
Never ever going back to full time "on-premise" work 😂