The Workforce Is About to Change Dramatically (theatlantic.com) 106
"For the first time ever, the world's largest companies are telling hundreds of thousands of workers to stay away from the office for a full year, or longer," notes the Atlantic.
"If, in five years, these edicts have no lingering effects on office culture, that would be awfully strange..." Ambitious engineers, media makers, marketers, PR people, and others may be more inclined to strike out on their own, in part because they will, at some point, look around at their living room and realize: I am alone, and I might as well monetize the fact of my independence. A new era of entrepreneurship may be born in America, supercharged by a dash of social-existential angst.
Or, you know, maybe not. If companies find that remote work is a mess, they might decide to prematurely scrap the experiment, like IBM and Yahoo famously did. It is certainly curious that the most prestigious tech companies now proclaiming the future of working from home were, just seven months ago, outfitting their offices with the finest sushi bars, yoga rooms, and massage rooms...
Nothing is certain, and every new trend incurs a backlash. Telepresence could crush some downtown businesses; but cheaper downtown real estate could also lead to a resurgence in interesting new restaurants. Working from home could lead to more free-agent entrepreneurship; but if companies notice that they're bleeding talent, they'll haul their workforces back to headquarters. Still, even a moderate increase in remote work could lead to fundamental changes in our labor force, economy, and politics. Remote workers will spend more money and time inside their houses; they will spend more time with online communities than with colleagues; and many will distribute themselves across the country, rather than feel it necessary to cluster near semi-optional headquarters.
"If, in five years, these edicts have no lingering effects on office culture, that would be awfully strange..." Ambitious engineers, media makers, marketers, PR people, and others may be more inclined to strike out on their own, in part because they will, at some point, look around at their living room and realize: I am alone, and I might as well monetize the fact of my independence. A new era of entrepreneurship may be born in America, supercharged by a dash of social-existential angst.
Or, you know, maybe not. If companies find that remote work is a mess, they might decide to prematurely scrap the experiment, like IBM and Yahoo famously did. It is certainly curious that the most prestigious tech companies now proclaiming the future of working from home were, just seven months ago, outfitting their offices with the finest sushi bars, yoga rooms, and massage rooms...
Nothing is certain, and every new trend incurs a backlash. Telepresence could crush some downtown businesses; but cheaper downtown real estate could also lead to a resurgence in interesting new restaurants. Working from home could lead to more free-agent entrepreneurship; but if companies notice that they're bleeding talent, they'll haul their workforces back to headquarters. Still, even a moderate increase in remote work could lead to fundamental changes in our labor force, economy, and politics. Remote workers will spend more money and time inside their houses; they will spend more time with online communities than with colleagues; and many will distribute themselves across the country, rather than feel it necessary to cluster near semi-optional headquarters.
Remote working (Score:5, Insightful)
Remote working doesn't suit everyone, some employees don't work well from home..
On the other hand, many work better, it saves money for the company in the form of office space and for the employee in terms of commuting time and cost. It also enables attracting talent from further afield, and enables employees to live where they want instead of close to where they need to work.
There are also significant environmental benefits due to reduced travel.
Overall the benefits outweigh the downsides.
Re:Remote working (Score:4, Interesting)
It really helps to have some group chat facilities. Maybe not official ones, people need to be able to relax and talk "off the record", i.e. not on a company server. That way you replicate the causal chat in the office and keep it separate from more formal communication between colleages.
Re:Remote working (Score:5, Insightful)
That works until the legal department realises that the employees are creating informal conversations with a logged record - all that office banter is now lawsuit-fodder.
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Isn't that a good thing as far as legal is concerned? The company can only be held responsible for what is said on a private chat service if an employee complains to HR about it, in which case they have a full log of everything said and don't have to mess about trying to determine what the truth really is.
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Isn't that a good thing as far as legal is concerned?
It is good for internal legal matters, like a harassment claim.
It is bad for external legal matters since the logs can be subpoenaed.
Never say anything online that you can't explain to a jury.
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I used to work with someone who was very... bantery. Liked to brag about his sex life a lot, and his way with the women. Graphically. One of his catchphrases was "two in the pink and one in the stink, wahay!" When I mentioned that I was going to travel internationally for a week to meet a friend, his first question was "A girl friend?" and I had to endure a few weeks of him joking about me being drugged and tied up in a sex dungeon.
Now imagine if all that lot was recorded on a logged chat system.
Actually, d
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No you didn't. You just did.
I listened to a crass convo like that at one place. It was particularly abusive of women. I walked to his manager's office and described it to him. His convos became much more professional thereafter.
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Did you first tell him that he's sounding like an absolute idiot, and that you really, really don't like him talking like that? I usually find that people self modify if you're really not up for a particular thread of conversation.
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Yeah, I was thinking that too. Going straight to his manager? You might give him fired, and I don't feel it's right to take away someone's livelihood over some random office banter.
If he continued after you explain to him that you don't feel comfortable having that conversation, that's another story, as he's creating a hostile work environment.
Re: Remote working (Score:2)
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That works until the legal department realises that the employees are creating informal conversations with a logged record - all that office banter is now lawsuit-fodder.
And it already has been for almost a decade of internal use of slacks, discords and microsoft fetted offerings in tracking email and direct messages, and you name it.
Hop off the obtuse train.
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You know they have to have a legitimate reason to access those records, and even then only records relevant to the specific allegations in the lawsuit need to be provided, right?
You don't just get to sue someone and get all of their records. You must make a convincing case to a judge for that information is necessary to prove your case, and then the defending party gets to screen what they give you and only provide the specific information required by the discovery questions.
Re: Remote working (Score:2)
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That works until the legal department realises that the employees are creating informal conversations with a logged record - all that office banter is now lawsuit-fodder.
What makes you think we aren't using signal on the side?
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Indeed. My workgroup quickly established a whatsapp group (which finally forced me to give in and install whatsapp, too, after many years of successfully avoiding it). Problem, though, is, it's always the whole group that's listening to everything. Many typical corridor talks don't happen there.
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I prefer Discord. It's very easy to create new channels for side chats (that are invisible to others) and it has better memes.
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Very much this. I plan 'informal' chats with team members, (preferably not using company resources), both collectively and individually. OK it lacks spontaneity, but in practical terms it works very well.
Since everyone's holiday plans got canned, we create 'virtual' holidays for each other, we have virtual cocktail parties...sounds weird, is actually quite fun.
Re:Remote working (Score:5, Interesting)
Why would I want to casually chat with workmates?
I mean, these are not my friends, they are co-workers and I strive to keep all my talk and interactions with them strictly business.
Doing more so, ESPECIALLY these days...can not only get you into trouble it can get you fired.
I prefer to be professional and yes, I am friendly, but I do not consider people I work with "friends" or people I would share any personal info with more than necessary.
When I leave work I leave the work AND the people behind, and converse with my real friends I've had for years outside the work environment.
Of course, there are the odd exception, but that's pretty much how I feel about it.
Work is work and my time is my time and I try to not let them cross.
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>some employees don't work well from home..
This is likely to simply be a selectionary process. Like modern engineers need to be talented in mathematics, and those that can't do calculus are automatically selected against in the field, fields where people can work remotely will likely soon begin to select against those that don't work well from home.
No wage rises - bargaining power reduced (Score:2)
Re:Remote working (Score:4, Funny)
My wife is an obstretician. I can just see it, coming home one day
"Honey, who the hell is screaming in the bathroom?!!!"
"Stop! don't go there, one of my patients is giving birth, can you bring me some hot water and towels??"
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That's called being an extremely well trained midwife, and it has a lot of growing demand, from what I've heard. Although typically, one goes to the patient's house, not have them come to yours, although to each their own...
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Interesting assumption that you say some, implying not many don't work well, yet seemingly most do. With nothing to back that up. Not saying it's wrong, but ultimately it's the question that doesn't have an answer yet.
Re:Remote working (Score:5, Informative)
Remote working doesn't suit everyone, some employees don't work well from home.. On the other hand, many work better ...
We know that a few work better from home indefinitely. We do not know that many do. A study listed here a few years ago, which I can't find right now, looked at changing between offices, cubicles, open spaces, etc.... any change to work style seems to look like a success for around six months, but the more open the space, the less productivity after nine months. (All from memory, times may be wrong.) Open Offices are touted [spaceiq.com] as more productive, almost always with reasons but not evidence, but studies show the opposite now [forbes.com], except in terms of floor-dollars-per-head.
And, of course, different roles have different needs. Call-center employees may be able to work from home with little or even a positive impact, while a line cook or mechanic clearly cannot... but culture, mentoring, creative spitballing, team building all suffer from WFH also.
From experience as a manager, there's another huge problem: many employees who think they WFH well, really don't. Their output goes down and their quality plummets at the same time as randomizing of the leads increases. The quality, it turns out, is well known and studied. The quantity, I'm guessing, is due to the stronger team/peer pressure of physical presence. (Not mine, but the team they're on.) [hbr.org]
Ironically, I wound up, just about five years ago, having to include in the negotiated PIP for one employee that he shouldn't work from home... it was that big a problem... while essentially forcing another one, a highly-committed high-performer, with a long commute, to WFH at least once a week (which we set on a calendar), to protect his sanity from the commutes. He knew lots of people depended on him and that remote attendance in meetings wasn't as effective, so I ensured no such meetings could occur on his WFH days. After a month or so, he trusted that would work, the commute-break re-energized him, and in less crunchy times, he does WFH 2-3 days a week.
Re: Remote working (Score:3)
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Downtown (Score:5, Interesting)
Been seeing something like this happen for decades in Akihabara.
Akiba (as it is called for short) used to be full of shops selling electronic components, computers, hifi, video games, radio gear and the like. Basically nerd paradise. Over time it has been evolving as a lot of that stuff moves online. In some ways it's a shame, you could go there and browse stuff and there were many rare parts, especially retro stuff. But it was also inevitable, especially as travelling there was difficult for many people so naturally they prefer to bid on Yahoo auctions (still a thing in Japan) or order from a warehouse.
So now there are other kinds of shops too. Lots of manga and character goods, and a huge number of restaurants. Really it's become one of Tokyo's most interesting dining areas now. Another type of shop has appeared too: the "junk" shop. Basically old electronics and computer gear, mostly sold as seen because they can't test it. Really great fun.
Contrast with the high street in the UK which is dying fast. Rents are way too high so when the big chain stores go away smaller ones can't afford to come in. Town centres have little to attract people because they are all the same - same chain stores, same cafes, nothing much of interest and with COVID restrictions on things like trying on clothes there isn't really any reason not to just buy online now.
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So now there are other kinds of shops too. Lots of manga and character goods, and a huge number of restaurants. Really it's become one of Tokyo's most interesting dining areas now.
I feel like Akihabara is good for cheap (but fun) food, whereas if you actually want good food, you're more likely to find it at Ginza (for flashy) or Shibuya (for hip) or Ueno (for good but depressed).
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I suppose most of it is on the cheaper end, but I like that. Kichijoji is really good too.
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Akihabara is one of the biggest shopping districts in a city of 37 million people. Obviously it's going to be more interesting and successful than the high street of an English town with 10k residents...
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It's not that big, and it's more interesting than anywhere in the UK.
business restaurants (Score:2)
Telepresence could crush some downtown businesses; but cheaper downtown real estate could also lead to a resurgence in interesting new restaurants.
Restaurants that are aimed at business lunchers are rarely memorable. They have a different goal.
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Restaurants that are aimed at business lunchers are rarely memorable. They have a different goal.
To move asses across seats, sure. But if they're not memorable, and there is a memorable option, then I'm going there. I used to go well out of my way to go to Royal Taj Indian Cuisine in Santa Cruz because they were the best, they had this kickass Chicken Mahkanwala that was the best I've had anywhere. I'd pay good money for that recipe. They went out of business well before Covid.
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I really like Jalapenos Tacqueria. They have a great Mole. If you like sushi, Mobo is excellent. It's not exactly a "restaurant" but Marianne's Ice Cream is great. Jack's burgers is good. Las Palmas is an amazing deal. Best corn dogs ever at the concession next to the "main" centra entrance to the Boardwalk (near the carousel.) India Joze, used to be at the art center on Squid Row (yep) but I'm not sure where they are now, they're on Fb though.
I think all my other favorites in the city are probably gone now
Yahoo is not an example (Score:4, Insightful)
Yahoo “scrapped” their remote work plan because their shiny new CEO was a micromanaging control freak.
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Yahoo “scrapped” their remote work plan because their shiny new CEO was a micromanaging control freak.
Yahoo had some major productivity issues. My neighbor worked for Yahoo and Fridays were his "work-from-home" days. He spent the day mowing his lawn and trimming his shrubs.
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Hey, good for him. If his work was done, great.
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If the work wasn’t getting done, and the guy still had his job... that’s a problem with management - not remote work.
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The one or two days a week model is exactly what's prone to leading to that kind of behavior. Because the employees are still largely on a old school model of expectations which is show up and you can get by with the bare minimum.
Real WFH models are full time and expectations are based on meeting measurable goals and then supervisors don't (or at least, shouldn't) care how you spend your time. If you can meet your goals in 2 hours a day and goof off the rest of the time, who cares? If you want to take it
Re: Yahoo is not an example (Score:4, Insightful)
If I have no meetings scheduled, I often do yard work or go biking for an hour or two during working hours. It provides some exercise and a nice break from the monotony of sitting in front of a machine for hours on end. I still have my phone with me in case something urgent comes up.
I am more alert and refreshed when I do sit down again. I usually end up working at night for a bit, too. I prefer to spread my work out (with longer breaks) instead of batching it all into an 8 or 9 hour block. That makes sense when you have to commute into an office, and some people might still want to work that way, but not me.
Maybe your neighbor was doing the same?
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Yeah no way yahoo was heading straight down the toilet before Mayer joined as CEO.
The stock price was in a permanent tumble, she joined and despite missteps, it went up a bunch and the company was sold. I'd kill for the kind of disastrous record where I triple the share price...
The pub (Score:1)
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Weirdly enough quite a few local friends are WFH and we all now go to the pub for lunch
...and a side of Covid-19
Who decided... (Score:5, Insightful)
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Get your point, but I've been independent for decades.
I'm fortunate that I've managed to preserve my margins, so I don't really care about big company comp. & ben.
I'll manage my own holidays and sickness and retirement cover, thanks!
Of course, I realise that this is not for everybody...
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Wildly different experience (Score:2)
I know some of those corporations you speak of (Oracle, for example), but some are very different.
I work for a 400-person software company, doing payment processing for those annoying ads that pay for the web sites you like (;-)) Because it's an engineering- and market-driven company, it treats it's employees well, and very much prefers people who stay around. I work with a (brilliant) sysadmin who's been around since the company was founded. Others, like my boss, are recruited to add new capabilities an
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No, it isn't for everyone, BUT...it CAN be a very nice way to work and vey profitable.
I incorporated myself as a S-Corp, helps to save $$ you have to pay in for SS/Medicare...employment taxes.
But if you want to put on your big boy pants and do some extra paperwork, you just need to figure how much you need for your bill rate to cover your medical insur
From now on... (Score:2)
Also, "remote workers" is what the guys standing on the deck of the slave oar-ships referred to the rowers below as.
Welcome to the new economy!!!
Really? (Score:2)
"For the first time ever, the world's largest companies are telling hundreds of thousands of workers to stay away from the office for a full year, or longer,"
Mercedes and BMW are even telling tens of thousands of their worker to stay at home forever, they don't even have to work there.
Remote workers always left behind (Score:1)
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I work to make money and the rest of the office drama and minutia is pointless to me; I have NO loyalty to any company and will go where I can make the most money in the least amount of time.
I don't give a shit about climbing any ladders or getting promoted or winning awards or blah blah blah blah. I don't have anyone to impress or suck up to. I don't care how nice the snacks are in the break room or if there's a free sushi bar and an on-site masseuse. I don't care if there's a Foosball table or weekly cate
Re: In 5 years (Score:2)
Companies like Facebook and Google started WFH in March 2020 and are now continuing it through July 2021. By that point, a sizable percentage of employees will have onboarded, worked, and collaborated without ever having set foot in a physical office.
At that point, habits and processes based on WFH will be the normal, ingrained, and expected ones. Going back to the office will be the unknown, especially if COVID-19 is still around in some form (which it probably will be).
I doubt it will lead to significantly more freelan (Score:3)
Over the years I've had numerous people ask me for advice on becoming a consultant and very few ever left their employer. Even people who lost their jobs recently aren't interested--I even offered to have them do consulting work for me as their first client.
There is a mindset required for running a business and it is not driven by office culture or the comfort of working from home.
One key part of that mindset is the ability to keep pitching prospective clients and not taking it personally when they decline. It was surprisingly difficult the first few times it happened.
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I'll add that it's surprisingly difficult to make the value proposition to your prospective customer as an independent contractor. I was doing niche work, and time and time again the medium/large firms would go with an IBM or Accenture, at nearly 5x the price (ending up closer to 10x after all was said and done) based on name brand, feeling safe whatever. Being a one person shop,it's hard to bootstrap.
I had lots of testimonials from prior clients, work samples, a pretty polished pitch if I do say so, the
Exclusivity (Score:2)
Moving those employees out of sight of supervisors eliminates that certainty. We have to face it, most office-based jobs do not require an employee's full attention for 7½ hours, 5 days a week. A well organised individual could probably complete their assignments in much less time. Especially when they are relieved of the overheads of meeti
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For exactly the same reason you described. Working for someone else on your dime is a conflict of interest with a myriad of legal issues. Not just for you, as you're defrauding your first employer, but for both employers as well (ownership of product).
Only out is if you're working by job, not for salary.
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I mean theoretically I could apply for and accept more than one job while working from home. My employers would never know. I mean *cough* that's what I hear.
But doing that would be 'wrong' somehow, so I'll probably have to quit the one that pays less.
Re: Hidden costs to working from home (Score:3)
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Well yeah in theory, but every office I've ever worked in had connectivity issues from time to time, so while it should be better, it isn't always.
Re: Hidden costs to working from home (Score:3)
Best Buy is still open (where I am) and our power does not go out often. When it does, it might be for a couple of hours. My laptop battery lasts that long and my phone works as a hotspot.
If there is an issue with equipment (say, my laptop stops working, or is stolen) my company will overnight a replacement to me. There is less chance of an equipment problem with the current setup, though, since I am not carting my laptop back and forth to the office anymore - it stays on my desk all the time.
Home or abroad (Score:2)
Re: Home or abroad (Score:2)
Remote work doesnâ(TM)t eliminate the need for meetings and interaction. Time zone and bandwidth/latency of internet connection matter. Good communication skills also matter. Having a good A/V setup for videoconferencing matters.
These are all areas where traditional outsourcing falls short. Some of these problems can be fixed over time, but not the time zone and communications issues.
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Remote work doesn't eliminate the need for meetings and interaction. Time zone and bandwidth/latency of internet connection matter. Good communication skills also matter. Having a good A/V setup for videoconferencing matters.
These are all areas where traditional outsourcing falls short. Some of these problems can be fixed over time, but not the time zone and communications issues.
Good points but working in tech in England, I'm seeing outsourcing to Eastern Europe with people just one hour ahead, good video, good English and a lot cheaper. Turns out shiny offices in London are not as most important as we thought they were.
We under value social environments (Score:4, Interesting)
We are social creatures. Making everyone stay home for work and school is going to result in some profound changes to our society.
Probably the first, and best, change will be the "work from anywhere"; major cities will empty out, smaller towns will gain prominence again. That's about where the benefits end.
Next up; friends, social circles. For most folks, that's where they connect to other people. How many met their spouse either at work, or through social connections from work? Suddenly that goes away, we end up with a lot of lonely people, and probably a stunning drop in birth rate. Absent a social replacement for that environment, this alone is catastrophic.
Also, people need in person social interaction. I say this as a dedicated misanthrope, but even I need a group of people to antagonize. This will not be healthy for our mental health.
What this won't do is spur a lot of entrepreneurial behavior. If anything, due to the lower mental health, it'll result in less. If people are at home and "comfortable", they'll feel less motivated to get out and try to start their own business.
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This will not be healthy for our mental health.
If we end up cowering indoors instead of being rationally safe, then I think you are right. But I hope we learn to mimic other nations that already wear masks and practice rational social distancing. If we do, we could end up making society stronger by changing our social networks to incorporate our neighbors more (less time commuting, for instance, is more time available for a socially-distanced BBQ). If that happens, perhaps we'll reduce a lot of the drama from all of the familial echo chambers we see cu
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...less time commuting, for instance, is more time available for a socially-distanced BBQ
Oh I forget sometimes that the US is still in rampant pandemic mode after...6, 7,8 months, whereas over the weekend I caught up with several mates for a night of fried food and cheap buy-in poker.
There's something to be said about a short hard lock-down that effectively suppresses the pandemic and lets you open back up to nearly the same as before.
When the remainder of kids playgrounds open up I'll be back to normal.
Oh that reminds me I took my kids to a new park development for those push scooters on the
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Work is how we structure how time, our (percieved) value to society and our contact with other people. Working from home will require something else (eg. chilcare, activism/sporting/social clubs) to structure our time and human contact. With increasing computerisation and robotisation, we should already be doing this.
That's been happening for a while for a number of reasons: decreased child mortality, increased cost of education/childcare, smaller housing, decreased wages, and contrary to 1930's predicti
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Next up; friends, social circles. For most folks, that's where they connect to other people. How many met their spouse either at work, or through social connections from work? Suddenly that goes away, we end up with a lot of lonely people, and probably a stunning drop in birth rate.
Don't look now, but that has already happened [observer.com]. Starting with 45% of the American adult population is unmarried and ending with birth rates throughout the developed world dropping below replacement rates. And of those 45% who are single, a whopping 63% have never been married. Now of that 45%, 11% self-describe as being deeply committed to a life partner, which means in many states they're common law married, but that still leaves 40% of the population as genuinely single. And there's a massive demograph
Forget the workforce for a bit (Score:3)
Problem: Health care (Score:2, Insightful)
Employers should pay travel expenses (Score:2)
It should be normal on EVERY SINGLE JOB for employer to pay employee travel expenses to get to work + time spent traveling. This way more preference for those that live closer, unless truly talented, and incentive to let as many people as possible to work from home.
But, we live in society that is hyperfocused on profit instead. Screw quality of life, or the fact that some end up working 16 hour days. Make people come in so you can treat them more like slaves. Workforce gets exhausted after a generation or 2
Umm, Open Office Spaces were great! (Score:2)
You can't do everything 'virtually'. (Score:2)
Otherwise you must be present in the place(s) where the physical thing(s) you must interact with exist.
"Oh, but Rick, you're forgetting that there cna be robots to do all those physical things!"
LOL. Sure, and 30 years ago they were telling us about the 'paperless office', too, and did that happen? No, it didn't.
If all you're doing is pounding a keyboard all day every day then I guess you don't need to leave hom
another pattern (Score:2)
Where I work, usually 2 months on and 2 months off, I do 12 hours a day, 7 days a week when I'm at work. There's a room for me, and meals and laundry. When I'm off, I have big chunks of time to do what I want. If you add a two week vacation to weekends, that's 118 days off a year (Yes, I know many people put in more days.) My favorite thing about my job is the schedule. Even when I worked 3 months on and one off, I still liked having my time off
I could easily do this (Score:3)
A few thoughts on working from home ...
I would love to work from home. Less wear and tear on car, no worry of winter, etc. In fact, I would take small to moderate paycut to be able to do so.
Regarding "striking out on your own" - that's all well and good, however in the USA at least, you need healthcare. Getting healthcare outside of a group plan (i.e. employer sponsored) is not cheap. To me, that's another argument for universal healthcare or whatever you want to call it. Decouple it from employment and you'll see lots of folks be "freelancers" or "small business owners."
It would also force companies to come up with different and/or better benefits, as they could no longer use healthcare as the proverbial carrot.
Re:Stop peddling it, like it is a good idea! (Score:5, Insightful)
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Bingo. A commute is a huge waste of time, money, and effort.
I'm done going into an office, period. No more getting up, shaving/showering, getting dressed, driving to work in the rain, snow, or boiling heat...jockeying for place along with 250,000 other people trying to get to work.
Nah, I'm done with that whole plan. I'll work remote from now. If my employer has a problem with it then I'll fire them and move on. Things are different now.
Re:Stop peddling it, like it is a good idea! (Score:5, Insightful)
I like working from home because it's quieter. I like working from home because people leaving a meeting room won't stand behind my desk for 45 minutes talking. I like working from home because it's SAFER. I like working from home because my social interactions were 90% on chat clients before anyway, 5% were a waste of my time, and 5% were honestly with good people that I like a great deal.
The serendipitous meeting at the water cooler to solve problems is honestly a bit of a myth. Everyone talks about it like it happens constantly, and in 20 years in the games industry, I've only seen it happen a handful of times, and those times were nothing that couldn't be replicated with a little more focus on cross-disciplinary teams. The problem was always that programmers only talked to programmers, and artists only talked to artists, and designers only talk to designers, etc. Set up teams around gameplay units instead (like 'quests' or 'combat') where everyone is chatting in the same channel, and you'll see a lot of the same serendipity pop up. Bumping into someone in the hall is a bad solution to a problem that shouldn't exist in the first place, namely that people with common goals are siloed apart from one another. Stop seating JUST programmers together and put an artist and a designer nearby and things will get done. I've been on teams like that and it's a totally different and more effective dynamic. (Insert your own collaborative units in for my gamedev specific ones. This is obviously not a strictly gamedev problem.)
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Re: Stop peddling it, like it is a good idea! (Score:2)
Well, a nice team is worth a short commute.
So still, your team is shit, and not worth the too long commute.Meaning the business is too big and too centralized.
Try a small local business. You will be much happier. and have bigger chances at heading your own department/branch some day.
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Do you have a psychology degree or something, or is that only your personal kitchen psychology?
Yes, the business world is anti-human, which is because it is designed for profit, not for people. Because its sole purpose is to make profit, not to make people happy. Making people happy comes into it only when businesses either wouldn't find employees otherwise, or when, as an exception, businesses finally get the idea that happy employees are better employees. Still in most places it's only ok if it doesn't co
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As usual, the dumbfuckery flows from your mouth like a river of swill. It seems obvious to me that you're dependent on an office environment to get your ego-fulfillment.
Listen closely, sparky: I like working from home because I don't have to commute, and that gives me back an hour or two of my life. It's a more relaxed pace, and I like that too.
I'm sorry you see your time as so valueless that you're fine with wasting it driving back and forth to a building where you 'work'. I can work from anywhere, why do
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My initial response to your post, barefoot, was to give you the benefit of the doubt and assume you are simply lacking in the relevant facts. You seem to be confusing Introversion with Avoidant Personality Disorder, which are two different things. [avalonmalibu.com]
And, just to further confute your position, Introversion is not a mental disorder [vantagepointrecovery.com]. Perhaps you should read one of the many [amazon.com] books about how great introverts are and how the world needs them.
But....after fetching the above links, I realized who I was dealing with.
Who censored this? (Score:2)
Disagreeing with your triggers or beliefs is not trolling, kids. There's a comment function for offering counter-arguments. Use it!