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Comment by tmpz22 | Hacker News Reader

Don’t forget the 5 coffee breaks, multi hour conference room meetings, lunch meetings, etc, that can take up half your work week if you give in to that sort of stuff.

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Call me weird but it feels like those 5 coffee breaks gave me enough situational awareness to avoid 5 hours of meeting.

Most times it's out of your control, though. Someone else booked the meeting, a higher uo decided you should go, and those hours are lost.

My meeting load increased with wfh, what could normally be accomplished by walking by someones desk and chatting for 5 minutes now takes a dedicated meeting for 30 minutes. As it's a dedicated meeting it requires inviting a bunch of optional folks to ensure they feel like they had a voice in a decision/discussion. Finally this all requires scheduling into everyones swiss cheesed calendars.

In a modern tech company with all the wfh and productivity bells and whistles I now watch as my productive days vanish into 6 hours of meetings.

This is all true for me. Although one benefit is no more people dropping by for 5 minute chats. On the other other hand I miss those a bit.

Truth clearly lies in the middle. Maybe on average .. a workplace is a better concentration of means and dedication even though it's obvious that it's a very very inefficient place most of the time.

The truth is almost never the average. (What's the average handedness of a population?) But it's a convenient aggregate despite a likely heterogeneous population.

The truth lies in admitting actual productivity. He's claiming 0.68 or 5 hours and 26 minutes of productivity when WFH. That's a huge number to have both consistently and exceptionally. I bet the average person gets 2-3/day if they're honest about it.

Japan is also famous for its salarymen who will fall asleep at their desks to avoid leaving the office before their boss. Time in an office does not equal productivity.

How do you stay caffeinated at home?

Caffeine isn't really beneficial for work, right? Most of its effect is because it's addictive and you need to prevent the withdrawal. The point of a break is that it's an excuse to stand up and walk around.

You should definitely stand up and walk around even when working from home.

True, the coffee is just one of the devices to take your mind off things. My ex-girlfriend had a dog and when she was sick I had to walk it 3 times a day. Even though by that time (shortly before our breakup) I didn't like her or her dog, the walks were extremely therapeutic.

All coffee and smoke breaks actually are aimed at taking a step back and gain some small extra energy to keep going.

> The point of a break is that it's an excuse to stand up and walk around.

I agree. And its value and time commitment needed does not change if you work from office or home.

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