I feel like I'm the only developer in the world that truly enjoy going to the office every morning.
I like my colleagues, sometimes we have sushi for lunch, we play boardgames once a week after work and is generally a fun experience to work at the same desk. Being able to share knowledge and discuss with other colleagues face-to-face is really important to me, and the light chitchat at the coffee machine is invaluable.
So while I do understand the benefits of remote working (to be fair, we can do remote at will, and I did a couple of times) I really don't see the value in terms of productivity and social engagement over working physically all together.
What are your thoughts on the matter? Do you work remotely or on site? Are you happy about your setup?
Latest comments (20)
As others has mentioned, it depends on several aspects such as company culture, individual personality, home environment and so on, commuting...
Therefore, I just want to add that for some countries working from home also mean a salary raise compared to local companies.
I've never really done it for more than a couple of days at a time so I don't know how I'd get on. But given that my dream job is basically Jack's job from The Shining I reckon I'd be ok on my own.
I do like working in the office though. I have a desk there with three screens (well, two big monitors and the laptop screen) whereas I just have the laptop if I take it home overnight. Working with workspaces on a Mac is a chore (though they have gotten better over the years and are now on a par with any random Linux DE from about 2010...)
I'm sure I'd eat better at home, too. I can't ever be bothered to make extra food to take in, so I end up eating junk at work. At home I like to cook.
I have a crappy hour-and-a-bit commute each way and would like to get that back.
So I'm happy-ish working in the office, but I'd like to give remote working a proper go, and I'm thinking about trying to convince my work to let me have one day a week at home.
I haven't mentioned people, because, meh, people are people over slack too. I don't feel the need to see faces all the time.
I enjoy both, but at home I have no desk and sitting too long on the dining table isnt comfortable. But, I only have 30 mins to work by Bike. If I had a longer commute, I'd be at home more often.
In your case you also exercise by biking. ;-)
I agree, but the time spent going to the office is quite big, so even though i like going, is not the most efficient option for me :(
My opinion is quite biased since I never worked remotely but I'd definitely like to try.
Unlike you, I don't particularly enjoy working on site because I don't have the whole "social and fun" thing here: I basically sit at my desk in my office for the whole day and I rarely see anyone for more than a few minutes. No coffee time chat (no coffee time at all actually), no lunch together, etc...
I'm quite ok with all this (meaning: that's not an issue that would get me to leave or anything) but in the end of the day, I could do the exact same thing from home, and probably more efficiently.
Thanks for sharing perspective. When the stars align like that, it's great to have a positive working environment.
There can be cases when the office culture is constricting, or there are piles of long, pointless meetings. In those cases, would you rather work remote, or would you just look for a different company?
You could consider going to a co-working space. I am remote from the past 4 months and I am loving it. I use a co working space few days a week.
You are not the only one, but I think that most of of your stated reasons are superficial, you can play games and have fun with your real friends or passionate players (as in, most of the cases, the coworkers are just colleagues, a relationship that will end at rehire).
Don't get me wrong, I worked in gaming studios, we had all these things too, my commute was 20min, but others are not so lucky. Maybe they have lame offices, bad karma and a long expensive commute.
I think that chitchat and knowledge sharing can be done trough calls also, I guess it depends on the people.
Also I found that some teams (and other companies as-well, that do not allow remote and make billions of $), are more productive onsite. We had to respond and pivot quickly, you cannot do these with a timezone difference.
And most of the people I know, that are not used to remote, they would be a lot less productive without their boss in the room.
From all the articles I read I think that best remote teams can be more productive than best on site ones, but most of the onsite teams are more productive than most remote ones. And I mean general mixed teams, not all of them being developers writing code in their bubble.
That all being said; I feel like WFH vs Office boils down to 'right tool for the right job' decision from management.
I work (sync) remotely.
Remotely, you're individually more productive because you can manage distractions better.
But that also means if communications suck, you'll work on the wrong things, so increased productivity is useless.
You can be partly remote (WFH), full sync remote and async remote (multiple timezones). Each has some trade-offs and highly depends on the software you're producing, which is influenced by Conway's law.
I do prefer working on site to socialize with my coworkers and collaborate better. I also wouldn't have the opportunity to work in my current (and previous) job if it wasn't remote. I compensate the lack of socialization by going (and organizing) meetups and just going out more often.
The trade-off for me is still highly positive for being remote.