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Comment by fnordpiglet | Hacker News Reader

Maybe people should focus on working the way they work best rather than explaining how other people are wrong for working the way they work best.

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At issue is that folks wishing to return to the office explicitly want EVERYONE ELSE to do so as well, because their issue with working from home isn't the location. It's that they need people around them, whether they want to be there or not.

I think this is true of some (I have suspected it among people I work with too) but there are objective advantages to being in the office just like there are advantages to working from home. For example, asynchronous communication over Slack or Teams is distracting and inefficient sometimes. I know there are also drawbacks to being available for people to bug you but nothing beats being able to communicate in real time when you're trying to solve a problem. I have been contending that in-person work is actually preferable but it has become so fraught with problematic work and management practices that we can't stand it anymore. I think that while working from home solves some issues, it's not the newer and better work practice that it's cracked up to be.

Literally I think different people work differently and that’s ok. I think managements true challenge in this isn’t creating conformance with a standard but ensuring individuals can work in the environment and mode they work best.

Truth is a neurodiverse person will not feel as stressed when working in their home environment and will be considerably more productive. The marginal benefit to the extrovert being able to interact with that neurodiverse person in an office is relatively small, and much less than the impact on the neurodiverse persons productivity. By allowing people to organize along their preferred mode and management working hard to facilitate that environment the aggregate productivity gained by simply letting people be happier in their day to day life will swamp the frictions between the two styles. Nothing makes productivity happen better than a human who is comfortable in their environment.

This where management should be expending their energy - figuring out how to make it work rather than figuring out how to cajole people into being unhappy.

I agree with a lot of this. It's about finding the nuance and letting people work in the way that's most effective for their context. There's no reason people shouldn't be able to work from home if they need to. But I think what gets lost in this conversation is that a lot of people aren't making altruistic decisions about how to do work best - they just want to do what they want. Some people who like working from home would benefit from being challenged to return to the office and some people in the office would probably do better working from home.

You are willing to give up 1-2 hours of your personal time a workday (avoided commuting time) to gain the supposed efficiencies of working in an office? I find it hard to believe many people are willing to make that sacrifice anymore when there are now options to work from home.

Not everyone would have a 1-2 hour commute but I do think shaving that time off is a fine reason to work from home. Or getting to work for a company that's headquartered thousands of miles away. It's why I myself work from home. But there are a lot of benefits from working in the office. Although it may be beneficial for some people with certain needs or contexts, WFH is not a categorical improvement over working in an office for every person ever.

Most people have commute times within that span. For me and I believe most people, the supposed benefits of the office are far outweighed by the advantages of avoiding a commute and having a quiet place to get work done.

Granted that onboarding new workers may be more challenging, but this can be improved by creating a more efficient process for new employees that in the end might be better than the onboarding experience pre-wfh.

Have there been any studies showing why people are choosing to work from home that you're drawing the "most people" from? Also, home is not a quiet place for some people. I have two kids and my home is absolutely not a quiet place to get work done. Indeed, most days I do brave the commute it's because the office is a quieter place that facilitates increased productivity. Again, I'm all for working from home - for myself and others. But it's not a panacea.

Yep. Most people who prefer the office really prefer that everyone be in the office.

I need to be around other people to feel energized. I've considered WFH jobs, but have stuck with lower paying positions that allow me to socialize at work.

I know I can be a bit annoying. Maybe I'm an energy vampire.

You don’t have to work literally from home. Public libraries can be great places to work from. You have people around which don’t bother you, and eventually you start to socialise with the other regulars. To start, consider inviting a remote working friend (doesn’t have to work for the same company) to go with you.

I agree. I can see a future where companies differentiate based on pure wfh and a hybrid office/wfh model, and employees can pick what works for them.

My problem is when I explain that I personally get more energized out of being on a team that I see in person regularly, posters basically tell me I don't know myself and am just plain wrong.

Yeah exactly. You’re not wrong. You are you, and you are different than everyone else in your work place. As are they. That’s not a problem to solve, it’s an opportunity for work to be less painful and stressful to our organism by forcing us to conform to unnatural (for us individually!) environments. By tending to the organisms needs for comfort we free the persons mind to engage in the essence of the work, rather than surviving the day.

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