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Comment by eknight15 | Hacker News Reader

I enjoy working remotely because I don't have to lie to myself. There's no faking it for a boss who walks by. There's nobody to impress but myself (and my teammates on chat).

I think that actually makes me far more productive. Now the two cumulative hours I spent pretending to be working while in the office, I spend doing things like exercising or running errands. Then when I return, I'm far more rejuvenated than I would have been mindlessly sitting at the office.

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I think a balance of being in the office and working from home is key. I am much more productive at home as well, but eventually that becomes a tedium in its own right. It's hard to beat face-to-face collaboration with your colleagues. Plus, putting in some face time at the office is still essential for your career. There's no getting around that for the foreseeable future.

100. I worked from home for the last 8+ years and it's been an interesting ride. My experience: was amazing at first (productivity, independence, no office drama), then got slightly uninspiring, then got downright depressing ("why even bother showering today?"). Now I mostly work in a small office, but with a lot of flexibility and some days at home.

The combo is the way to go. There was a time where I worked from home 4 days out of the week, then spent the entire 5th day in the office with no plans of actually getting work done, just getting in-person face to face meetings and collaboration done. That was an ideal situation for me, as I planned those in-office days accordingly and wasn't busy thinking of all the work I needed to do while in mid convo with a peer.

I know someone where people in their department come into the office 3 days a week and they work from home 2 days a week. That seemed like a good balance.

Seems like most people singing the praises of remote want to use it for cost-of-living arbitrage. I wonder how many still support it when they're still required to live near work?

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