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Comment by Draiken | Hacker News Reader

Sure maybe having kids around might sometimes affect your productivity, but how is that any different than being in an open office?

Phone calls, people talking around you, movement everywhere, unwanted taps on your shoulder and a lot more.

Unless your job provides you with a closed office where you can actually focus on, it's pretty much the same as having kids around.

When I worked in an office I remember the most productive hour I had was right after I got there, because I arrived ~1h early (due to commuting BS) and was basically alone.

Once teammates arrive, it's chaos. No matter how good your headphones are, something will interrupt you at random times just like your kids. Except if you do have an office in your house, you can actually close the door and have uninterrupted time, even if it's in small chunks.

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I’ve worked at an open office and its nothing alike, at least with young kids.

There’s screaming and crying, if your help is needed, it needs to be right now, kids wont take no for an answer, etc.

When I was in an open office, people generally kept a reasonable background volume my brain could tune out. As adults, they respected my answers the first time, and certainly no one screamed at me.

My kids didn't scream at me more regularly than coworkers tapped me in the shoulder to talk about random shit or ask questions that could be answered with a single search.

Of course everyone's experience will vary, which kind of invalidates the idea that all of this is because of WFH. It depends on your kids, your home/office, your work office, teammates, commute time and so on.

My point is that blanket statements like "WFH with kids ruins productivity" don't accurately portray the reality and helps bad managers justify unjustifiable RTO policies with anecdotes.

I know you didn't use a blanket statement though. But when I read your comment I could almost feel a bad manager reading it and using it to ruin more people's lives. Sorry about the rant.

I remember the most frustrating usually was coming in extra early so I can get some deep work done and suddenly the whole open office space fills up. People are laughing and trying to get your opinion on the latest Netflix show or worse, something actually interesting.

In-person interaction can be fun and is important for team bonding and meta work communication but it would be so much better to facilitate that explicitly, outside of the work space.

Optimally this would mean 95% remote plus cool getaways together (at minimum, actually fun evenings out).

It’s like with conferences, the most important learning usually happens outside of the premises.

Why not be smart about that fact?

I've definitely worked in small open offices or team rooms that were a lot more productive than being at home with a kid.

But the one most-of-a-floor-of-a-highrise open office I worked in, for a "more mature" company than the little startups I usually work for... that was a whole lot worse then even at-home-with-kids (and, not coincidentally, was the least "mature"/professional place I've ever worked, despite on-paper looking far more serious than other places I've worked).

I don't know how anyone got any work done there. I suspect their handful of fully-remote senior devs were doing most of the actual work. WFH with small kids would have been a big improvement.

Kids are different. I didn't have any of the above issues. Once kids get older it's even easier.

Kids are way more disruptive than open space. Depending of the age they are dependent for simple thing like getting a cup of water. Then the list grow fast to get snack or to go to the bathroom. Then it continues by being bored after 10 minutes. I would say that any kid under 10 years old require some supervision. Of course, some children are more independent and trustworthy. However, 8 hours of work with a child or 8 hours in an open space is very different for most parent.

Assuming there is only one parent available to look after them.

Depends on your workplace culture. Big companies always seem to have the social butterflies, but a lot of smaller places I've been at are almost always "put your head down and get to work".

Do you have kids?

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