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As a disabled woman I need fully remote work. The longer I’ve worked in tech the more I’ve seen that an office really isn’t needed. If you like being in an office and the company wants to provide one then that’s great but there is no reason to require it.
Depends on the tasks at hand, I think.
Just writing code or discussing things in meetings feels much better remote. IMO things like mentoring juniors or on-boarding new colleagues is pretty hard when you’re not sitting next to each other.
And that’s why I love my company’s policy. Basically, we have two days “mandatory” at office (i.e. you’re expected to be in, unless you have obligations), and our VP has committed to three days minimum remote and stuck by that. And we’re totally cool with people doing full remote for a month or whatever if they are doing an extended trip or have some other reason why coming into the office is impractical.
So all of the mentoring and whatnot happens on those two days. It works quite well because the barrier to collaboration is lower those two days, and people still have the majority of their work remote for better focus and comfort.
We’re not a tech company, but I do have a tech job, so I’m very happily surprised that my org is so sensible.
Yes… let’s make people return to the most EXPENSIVE cities on the planet.
I know like three tech workers who permanently moved to Appalachia, the Ozarks, etc. They ain’t coming back. They can get another tech job in 3 days or less. So, they’re just going to do that.
This is a GREAT time for smaller companies who’ve been desperate to hire talent. They will be more than happy to accommodate remote work.
I recently left a tech job that was 100% remote for one that requires 2 days a week in the office.
When I started the remote only job it was good, I had people I talked to on a daily basis, we did all our ceremonies (bi-weekly meetings) over Teams, we were pretty productive and there were few distractions.
Over time though they pushed for more people to be back in the office, but as someone who lived the other end of the country this wasn’t really an option for me. I gradually felt more isolated, I started dreading the ceremonies because everyone else could have proper human interaction and they often forgot about the one or two guys at the end of the Teams calls.
I don’t love my new commute - it takes too long, there is too much traffic - and eating out in the city is expensive, I’m often distracted because of office chats that really don’t need to happen, and I don’t get to take my kids on the school run every morning.
But I don’t get forgotten about and I get to talk to adults who aren’t my wife and kids a couple of times a week.
So far it’s working and I’m pretty happy, but I really hope they don’t start wanting more than two days a week in person.
Sounds like the problem here is that your colleagues are your only social circle outside of family rather than remote work being isolating. I think it’s unhealthy to have work relationships take up a significant part of your social contacts in general, because you’ll have a less rational perspective on your job when you associate it with friends. You might be reluctant to leave a job with poor compensation and hours because all of your friends are there, for example. My commute to work and back takes over 2 hours a day and it’s much easier to be peer-pressured into working overtime when you can see everyone else doing so. All of this only benefits the employer. I’d rather work remotely and spend the saved time with people I choose to be with.
It’s super interesting to see this develop. I was working in a super fancy office before the pandemic and I do have to say I miss the serendipitous interactions and the ease of making connections.
I never bought into the “remote is universally better” message some of the tech CEOs touted in 2020. It’s all trade offs. I do think in-person by default, with flexibility to work from home 1-2 days a week, plus some teams being 100% remote is probably a good sweet spot. But I love all the experimentation going on right now.
I agree with this whole heartedly. I think the issue, remote or at work, comes down to the fact that it isn’t the workers making the choice, but their boss. For me, I don’t do tech work, so I have to go into work because I’m legitimately doing work with my hands. And I like it that way. I know that if I had to work from home, I would become miserable QUICK. That’s just my personality.
But the choice is made from up high, from people who don’t give two shits about the workers. As with all things.
Workers have power though… although I guess mostly though if you’re either in tech or in a union. Or both.
