We hear a lot of backlash when prominent CEOs call for a return to office work culture, but I'm curious if others may feel opposite of the public sentiment?
I support the option for people to work remotely within an org if their roles and responsibilities can be performed asynchronously, but my personal preference has always been to operate in-office. That was taken away from me as a result of the pandemic as my company ended up shuttering the local office.
After spending these last 3 years working 100% remotely, I find myself with a renewed desire for a hybrid working environment. It's not an option with my current company, but I can't deny that it's what I think is best for my career progression. I'm far more effective with some in-person collaboration on a regular cadence. Do you share similar sentiment, or do you find yourself freed by remote work?
Let me know your thoughts in the comments below β¬οΈ
Top comments (38)
We just had an in-person team retreat. Not everyone could make it, but it was a real breath of fresh air.
There are things about working remote which are really awesome. There are parts that are really brutal.
I think somehow before the pandemic it was a little easier to be realistic about the good parts and the bad parts, but I think it's become a more religious issue that isn't super realistic about the problems and tradeoffs.
For what it's worth, I partly work from a co-working space which is really good for breaking the monotony, though not a full replacement over the positives of actual side-by-side collaboration.
Before the pandemic, the people doing remote understood they had to learn it, that they had to explain it, they had to find ways to compensate the bad aspects.
This all got thrown away with COVID because
Hopefully after those thesis and anti-thesis, we will slowly move to the synthesis that it's all about choice
Not at all.
Personally, I see no drawbacks with working remotely, and plenty with working in an office or hybrid.
But everyone's different, and some people will have a better home-working environment than others. There can be distractions in both. Offices and neighbours both have people putting up shelves with hammer drills from time to time, and both can have problems where the Internet connection drops out. Offices can have canteens and fire drills, homes can have a private kitchen and a dog you have to walk.
I accept that some people need to be around others, whether to explain things face to face rather than over a screen, to enjoy a chat over coffee or for the pure pheromones of it, but I don't understand them on an emotional level.
We shouldn't penalise people for wanting social interaction, we should help them.
I think the idea of companies paying for shared environments or whatever is fair enough. We should support people who have had difficulties working remotely but we should look on it as a combination of practicality, environmentalism and accessibility.
We should understand that offices can be expensive but can also cut costs by sharing resources.
We should try to cut down on energy costs and unnecessary pollution by encouraging people not to use cars to commute. That can be working remotely but it can also be using a cycle-to-work scheme.
Above all, we should try to make the work environment as inclusive as possible, and that includes providing both remote support and shared spaces for people who have difficulty working alone.
Not really.
Going remote was the best thing I did. I did it in 2014, and would never go back.
The whole pandemic didn't even bother me from a career perspective.
Time zones are a bit of an issue, but if you work with people who prefer remote work, they're usually more invested in good communication and mindful of keeping synchronized meetings (i.e., calls) down to a minimum.
For me, going to the office would only lead to additional overhead, and while I liked my co-workers, I wouldn't call them my friends or something. So, staying at home, saving a few hours a week on commute, could be nicely reinvested into my private life.
But I understand it, some people don't have much going on besides their work and are good friends with their co-workers, if that's suddenly gone, they fall it a hole.
I love reading all these different perspectives on it, and despite all the mixed feelings I have about remote work, I definitely like the new options that have opened up (at least in my bubble) after the pandemic.
Personally, I found it really difficult to be forced into a remote setting as a Junior Dev - I felt like I was missing out on a lot of context and many things that could have been picked up in water cooler conversations, got lot in the void. Even when things went back to somewhat "normal" the hybrid model meant a lot of akward semi on-site video calls and left a feeling of a compromise gone wrong.
I would have never thought that I would actually one day enjoy remote work - but these days I work for a fully remote company and I am still so surprise at what a difference it makes if a company is founded remotely from the start, everybody opts in consciously and makes a real effort to connect.
Humans are hard-wired to desire camaraderie and closeness with others - both as a survival mechanism and as means of growth.
I've felt the same way since going 100% remote. As much as I value being home and having the "freedom" that entails, I also see so many negatives to this new lifestyle - something we don't talk about enough.
I'd noticed my social skills had greatly diminished due to lack of practice with face-to-face communication. I'd also seen my social anxiety skyrocket - especially in and around large groups of people. Even things like being able to read other's body language is much harder to do (likely because it's much more difficult to do over a zoom call or slack thread).
I've had to make a conscious effort to take myself out of my comfort zone and practice spending time around other people. Some things that have helped me are: booking a co-working space a few times a month at least to get out of the home office, being deliberate about scheduling time away from home with friends and others, and plugging into community efforts through church.
Everything is a balancing act in life - finding your balance - your center - is the journey we are all on and something we should not ignore.
I would never go back to commuting and open floor plan offices. But I can see why some people like the office.
The office can be a social outlet, a way to compartmentalize the stress of remote work, and a way to avoid the distractions that home might have. And some people just find it easier to collaborate in person.
Remote work and hybrid are both better than office-only. I think it makes sense for some businesses to allocate money that would have gone toward a lease or building expenses for an additional employee perk: co-working funds.
While also highlighting the value of on-site collaboration and productivity, there is no doubt about how impactful the rise of remote work has been. Itβs clear how it has improved productivity and business results and also helped employees have a better work-life balance.
Thatβs why, rather than rejecting this work model or being completely in its favor during this new adaptation process, we believe itβs important for companies and professionals to consider individual experiences, adapt to changing dynamics, and continually assess and refine approaches to create a supportive and inclusive work environment for all.
Nope. I've been working remotely 100% since 2018, before that I worked remotely in 2014 and have done contract and freelance work too. I am no stranger to remote work.
The first thing I want to point out is remote during the pandemic is not what proper remote work looks like. Sadly, a lot of people were thrown into the coals of remote work at a time when we couldn't leave our houses. And even myself (a seasoned remote worker) felt the mental strain of being at home. But, that wasn't remote work.
I am not sure if you've noticed, but the cost of literally everything is going up. The cost of food, electricity, transport, rents, mortgages (in Australia we don't have mortgage duration fixed rates, many of us are on variable or short term fixed rates).
Travelling into an office is expensive. If you're driving there is the cost of fuel and tolls. If you work in a CBD, you might have limited parking and have to pay. If you catch public transport, that's gone up too.
On July 1st, 2023 my annual electricity bill is increasing 21% a year. The cost of public transport is increasing over current inflation at 8%. Despite the fact I get paid well for what I do, if I had to travel to the office even three days a week, I would be worse off by thousands a year. I haven't recieved a 21% salary increase, let alone an 8% one. Have you?
And you're probably thinking, "Isn't working in an office cheaper then?" I get to claim electricity use as part of my tax return. There are incentives for me working remotely I can claim on. So, no, I'm not bearing 100% of these costs.
Remote work not only saves money but also saves time. Commuting to an office takes a considerable amount of time and can be stressful, especially if there is traffic or delays on public transport. By working remotely, you can avoid all the stress of commuting and use that time more productively. Additionally, remote work can offer greater flexibility in terms of work hours and location, which can improve work-life balance and overall well-being.
I consider myself extremely fortunate to have had the opportunity to witness my children's growth and development over the years. Being present for their milestones and achievements has been a truly rewarding experience that I wouldn't trade for the world. Additionally, my wife has been able to pursue her academic ambitions, which has been a fulfilling and empowering experience for her. As for me, I have been able to take on the responsibility of school drop off and pick up, which has allowed me to spend more quality time with my kids and engage with their scholastic pursuits. All in all, I am grateful for the life I have been able to build with my family, and I look forward to continuing to cherish these moments for years to come.
If I want to socialise, I'll call a friend. I'm a firm believer that remote work has not only made my marriage stronger, but also my friendships. It has allowed me to have more free time to connect with my loved ones and build stronger relationships.
I've always found it strange that people feel the need to bond and socialise with their colleagues on a personal level. Let's face it, they're not friends or family. If the company needs to downsize, they won't hesitate to fire you. Your colleagues are likely more focused on their own career advancement than on building lasting friendships in the workplace.
I always found the notion of working in an office ironic. When I did work in the office, I would usually be wearing headphones and employees would communicate through messaging tools and emails despite being in the same office. How is remote work any different? Apparently being in an office magically makes you more productive? Have any of the people saying this worked in an office before? Long lunches, regularly leaving for coffee, sneaking out early. I procrastinated more in the office than I do at home.
Understandably, remote work is not for everyone. However, people should get the choice to choose. Isn't it funny the most vocal proponents of remote work are middle aged white billionaire men? Elon champions sleeping in the office and forgoing family and friends. Easy when you have skin in the game and benefit from working more. The average employee no matter how well compensated doesn't.
Overall, I believe that remote work has had a positive impact on my social life and has allowed me to build stronger connections with the people I care about.
I've been working remotely since 2015 with 2.5 years break in between. And I always had some issues with it. It's not good for work-life balance, at least for me. The communication is also harder and pairing is especially difficult.
Sure, I got used to it and figured out most of the stuff, but I'm definitely not an evangelist of remote working as a cure for all problems. It takes away some problems, it adds different ones. A game of trade-offs, as usual.
But what many people find especially surprising is that I miss commuting (for long time I actually commuted to remote work; mind blowing, I know). It was a pretty cool routine, I always had time to catch up with tech news on my way to work and with "general" news on my way back. Unless I felt like reading some book, then I read a book for about half an hour. I guess people like me really like this kind of routine and it was brutally taken away from us with COVID-19.
My team is geo-diverse, so it kinda makes no sense to pose the question in the first place, BUT some of us reside in the sam city.
This depends on work styles, really. No disrespect, but developers who aren't self going, should group in person. Self going developers should if they want to. A project like Linux wouldn't be possible with people working in an office. But some might like to meet up and fo m a group locally.
So there is no right way. It should be decided on a team by team basis. In my company some teams hardly ever meet, unless to go to a restaurant and hang out. (That is important.)
When work isn't - well working, it's because team leaders or middle management don't know how to manage geo diverse teams. It's not easy. You have to assign tasks and measure on when and how tasks are delivered. Not easy. Nothing I would ever want to do. But my boss, who manages 7 teams manages. We have no team leaders. We self-govern. We have trust and support and a boss who helps us solve problems of resources or politics, when we need it. We don't have to do that. Just focus on doing the best we can with the resources we have.
So it's all about skill and interest. Your team must want (or need) to work remotely AND the skill level of management must match. Only very skilled teams can pull this off, but they will leave your company if they aren't allowed to work how they want.
The important thing here is dialogue. What does the team want and need. What does the company want and need.
Happy grouping and work.
Short answer: No
Long answer: Not at all
Longer answer: Since remote work is a reality for me I live with less stress, have been able to spend more time with my family, have less expenses related to moving from one side of the street to another, have more freedom to manage my time as I see fit, I'm less exposed to any kind of risks involved from things like going outside late due to some overtime work, etc.
On the other side, I guess the main drawbacks are the communication to be a little less effective when comparing virtual to in-person meetings and some chitchat with colleagues, however, both were neither that frequent due to the nature of my position to even consider them relevant.
With all due respect to my in office colleagues and with the understanding that what I'm about to say doesn't represent everyone, I have to express my extreme scepticism of people pushing for in office work.
Here's the summary of my thoughts. You can't pretend to work while you're at home because there's nobody to see you pretending to work.
To expand on this, working from home means that the one and only thing I'm being judged at is the quality and timelines of my work. At my job other than my direct superior, my bosses don't know me from Adam, but they know my work, because it's damn good work. They're not impressed with me because we have nice chats in the office kitchen or because we socialize during smoke breaks. We haven't spoken a word in person and exchanged less than 10 lines of text over slack or Email, but they know I'm a good employee because I do the work I'm given, on time and the quality is consistently good.
Every article that talks about RTO, without fail mentions "proximity bias" as a benefit from being in the office. People at home don't get promoted they say. Nether do people in the office if all they're doing is working.
While I accept that some tasks,like onboarding and probably some roles do work best in person, and some people just don't have the conditions at home to get any work done, my strong suspicion is that a large part of the back to office crowd doesn't really care about how the office affectes their work. It's their clubhouse where they can hang out with friends. It's where they're on the prowl for someone to hook up with, it's where they can hide from work or try to hide bad or slow work and rub shoulders with the people in charge to get some of that "proximity bias" working in their favor.
I get it. It's playing "the game". Who you know is more important than what you know and all that. But that system has been grossly unfair and disfunctional since forever and it needs to be called out. A lot of the people who want to go back want to be judged by how fun they are again. They want to be able to do nothing and get praise because they did nothing until it got late. They want to be seen as a team player, not for any contribution to the team, but for helping the boss decide where to go to lunch.
So much of working in the office is just looking busy and acting like you're doing something important and it needs to be called out. People working from home are constantly accused of being lazy because we don't want to play make believe. We don't want to put on a suit and tie so it looks like we're serious office people, but we want to, need to do the work, because it's the only thing of ours that people can see.
Office culture is a sham used to mask inefficiency and incompetence on every level. Work from home is exposing that.
In my experience It's very hard to find a company that works fully remote... I can count the number of companies that don't have atleast one day in office on one finger. The majority are hybrid with 2 or 3 days in office again. I don't mind days in the office when they are productive and collaborative, but in my experience they're not. You either just sit there alone, staring off into the distance longing for your dual screen setup at home, with your own music blaring through the room, or you sit in pointless meetings with no clear agenda, that take way longer than they should and you can't do anything in the meanwhile like you can during a zoom meeting.
Everyone keeps missing the sophistication of project management / collaboration software that to a large extent makes being in the office not necessary. Also for team meetings get togethers etc why not use coworking space?
While I don't disagree that remote work cultures could better leverage tooling, I can speak for myself in saying that tools won't address my growing desire to have some in-person collaboration.
If I was still in an individual contributor role, I'd be more satisfied in a remote culture but as a Sr. Manager scaling departments, you face a different set of challenges. Not impossible to overcome in remote, but significantly hindered when you need to engage in synchronous activities in a culture primarily dominated by asynchronous work.
Smuckers has a plan that actually might work. J.M. Smucker is ordering workers to be at its Ohio headquarters for 22 βcoreβ weeks. It is a strategy that may resolve the tug of war over how we work. The rest of the time you can work remotely from wherever you want to reside. The cost of traveling between wherever you reside and it's headquarters in Ohio is on you. I do not know what online project management and collaboration tool they are using, but that would be an interesting piece of knowledge.