> The synergy of having hardware people walk by you and clarify assumptions is priceless.
Is it worth the price of mass daily commuting on the wealth and mental health of employees, and on the planet?
Is it worth the price of mass daily commuting on the wealth and mental health of employees, and on the planet?
That's very context specific. In many cities, employees commuting by public transport to a central location, rather than all individually heating/cooling their houses, is a plus for the planet and wealth of employees. For many people (including me) it's also good for mental health.
Sure, the office costs nonzero dollars and so does commuting - but framing it as morality is misguided. A company can o ly seek to produce customer value in a capital efficient manner, it is up to us (the customer) to value things correctly.
Are you willing to do the work to drop Google services because they want to work from the office and do all that bad stuff?
If you aren't, making people work from the office is the easy choice, their product gets marginally better for very low marginal costs.
This is not how businesses act in reality.
Yes, but the commute is a huge cost.
I spend 80 minutes in traffic every day.
During this time I listen to podcasts, music, call people, and think.
I will be happy to have a remote-friendly job, e.g. when our systems are deployed in dozens of physical locations throughout the country, the DevOps role is essentially only possible as remote. But remote was just not a high priority for me this time. I really enjoy showing up. I'm not very social outside of work.