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Comment by bitcharmer | Hacker News Reader

So you're saying everyone is more productive when WFH individually, but somehow the team as a whole isn't.

Could you please explain how that works?

Maybe just a management issue, but my team is full of people being really productive at their pet project. When it comes to accomplishing business goals, less so. An effective team needs to effectively work together, and that largely is not happening with remote.

I understand but having worked across multiple remote teams something tells me it's not WFH to blame, rather how it's implemented in your company.

We're doing exceptionally well and my friends from other tech shops have similar experience.

This is just "works on my machine" applied to businesses. If most businesses are struggling with remote work, saying "just get good at it" won't help - they would if they could. Fact is a lot of companies are going to be forced back to in-office because they can't stay competitive otherwise.

Companies struggle with it because they're not really bought in and have a bias against it. WFH weakens control over the labor pool.

This just confirms what I suggested. A "works for me" situation is a clear indication of something wrong with the environment rather than the method.

I think we agree. WFH itself can work with the right environment, but I question wether certain kinds of companies are realistically capable of fostering that environment. Personally I think that if a company finds that it can't do WFH effectively, it shouldn't even be doing tech, and should contract that work out to a company that can WFH. It's like, a code smell for business.

I think it’s a perception issue. We perceive ourselves to be more productive because we have a bias for WFH. Some folks may actually be, but now the whole is no longer greater than the sum of its parts where once it was.

> I think it’s a perception issue. We perceive ourselves to be more productive because we have a bias for WFH

Even avoiding the time lost in the commute would make someone more productive. If you add how you avoid having to go through the cognitive load, wear & tear that the commute causes, even further.

Perhaps, but that hits more for personal productivity rather than work productivity, although I agree there could be a slight gain to start without the early commute. However, what I have observed in myself in colleagues is there are more midday distractions in WFH (dog walks, answering the door to solicitors, attending to kids, etc…) that don’t generally happen at the office.

> there are more midday distractions in WFH (dog walks, answering the door to solicitors, attending to kids, etc…) that don’t generally happen at the office.

Yes, that's a prominent situation with WFH. People may think that you can 'just do stuff' because you are 'at home'. It takes some adaptation to get things work in an organized way so that they wont get in the way of work.

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