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0 pointstigeroil2y ago0 comments

At first I was concerned about abuse of WFH by employees too, but then I realised, people in the office often aren't particularly productive either.

From my own team, if I had to guess, the actual number of productive hours are similar.

Granted, I think it probably varies dramatically by company / team, and I get the impression that some places take WFH much less seriously than we do (as in, not goofing off).

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5 comments · 2 top-level

phpisthebest2y ago· 3 in thread

For us it varies dramatically by team, but the problem is a WFH policy needs to be company wide for the most part. All it takes is for a few teams to cause a problem for everyone.

>>people in the office often aren't particularly productive either.

Some of that depends on how you define "productive", having non-work related conversations while in the work place may not be "productive" but it is team building

Watching netflix, or doing your laundry when you should be working on a report is neither team building or "productive"

Further lots of informal conversations are how many many many many business decisions are made, and how lots of information flows through a company.

So many times I have been made aware of new projects, changes, or other things happening in the company simply because I happened to see someone in the hall and they happen to mention it... That would never happen on a formal call. meeting, etc in a fully remote environment.

ipaddr2y ago

Those hallway conversations are less productive compared to someone doing laundry while thinking about how they will approach issues.

Those hallway conversations are wasted time. You should be at your desk doing your assigned working not socializing. Corporate team building is a guided exercise run by experts not doing work hours

Informal meetings exclude stakeholders and don't allow for documentation. Informal meetings are duct tape over process issues.

phpisthebest2y ago

>>Those hallway conversations are less productive compared to someone doing laundry while thinking about how they will approach issues.

No not really, as you have clearly misunderstood the point I was making. It is not about brainstorming how to solve a problem.

>> Corporate team building is a guided exercise run by experts

I really hope that is sarcasm.

willio582y ago

This is it. I’ve actually found it’s down to the discipline, like our tech team is fully remote and that works super well even though the sales team is in-office.

Not only is our tech team fully remote, we’re spread out in the US so there’s no small part of our team that’s more often meeting up in person to work.

xhkkffbf2y ago

Absolutely. Everyone in my office is pretty considerate, but all it takes is one pair of people in the bullpen and the quiet is gone. We all get to listen to the discussion. When I first joined, I learned a ton by eavesdropping. Now it just stops my workflow by distracting me. I'm easily 10 times more productive at home.

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