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 ⬇️
Oldest comments (39)
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
I feel you
no
I work in hybrid, 2 days in the office, 3 days at home, it works perfectly for me. It takes just too much time to get ready, travel to the office (I go on bicycle) every day. But I need the personal connections, having lunch together, talk about non work-related things or maybe about some new tool or library someone recently found, etc.
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.
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.
With us, the entire company works remotely and no one feels the negative effects.
The solely purpose to enforce back to office policy is just a false flag. Company says to return to office - if you do not comply they can fire you without looking as the bad guy. Laying off without spreading fear within the market.
I entered the workforce during the pandemic (coincided with college graduation), so I've only ever known remote work! Couldn't imagine what it's like going into an office - being able to customize my working space, taking breaks when I need to, and being able to listen to my favorite soundscapes from the comfort of my own home just can't be beat!
I had it all in the office - of course listening to anything is only an option with headphones.
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.