[throwaway803453]

* Everyone seems to increasingly be in it for themselves

I was fortunate to have had a career with mild autonomy to help other team members even if it was slightly out of my job description. But this only happens in a shared office environment where you can see when someone is falling behind or overhear a problem. That physical presence also creates a bond with co-workers that's often more powerful than the corporate mission.

But working from home for the past years I feel like I mercenary working among mercenaries. Working with people that have never met and will never meet and for whom work isn't about the mission or the customer. If I get work done early, I now just call it a day. Why bother with ad-hoc testing, documentation, checking in on that new hire, proposing a conference paper, investigating technical debt, etc. It's liberating but it's also depressing.

[Buttons840]

> If I get work done early, I now just call it a day. Why bother with ad-hoc testing, documentation, checking in on that new hire, proposing a conference paper, investigating technical debt, etc.

Office workers can have this attitude as well. If you'd think poorly of others having this attitude in the office perhaps you should look at your own attitude with remote work.

I have formed bonds through remote work, and yes, they are different, but a lot of the difference you describe is because of you. That's ok, people are different, just don't assume everyone else is the same.

[kizer]

I know. I'm mixed on this, but isn't it ultimate work-life separation?

Getting a little sci-fi here, but imagine not even knowing the names of your coworkers, project, manager, or even employer in the future; the system is so well-designed that you just have to do the little mission and there are communication channels minimally restricted to just the questions you'd have. Once such a system got up and running it would be the closest thing to a genuine "AI" or rather the more general case of an emergent intelligence; emergent since none of the actors are directly cooperating with the other actors, and hypothetically such a system could independently evolve and evolve with nobody at the steering wheel.

For an example of a compartmentalized operation, see CIA, NSA. I'm not saying these organizations are anything like what I described above. Just examples of highly compartmentalized work systems.

Anyways, just got me thinking ;)

[PragmaticPulp]

> I know. I'm mixed on this, but isn't it ultimate work-life separation?

Work-life separation originally meant that you were done with work at 5PM, didn’t have to worry about staying late or answering e-mails at night, and your weekends were 100% yours.

This latest iteration of work/life separation has gone to an extreme where you’re supposed to suck the life out of work and pretend all of your coworkers are just faceless screen names instead of actual people.

Work/life balance is good.

Sucking the life out of work is not fun, IMO. I’d much rather work with people, collaborate, and build relationships than be reduced to a robot taking tasks from the queue.

[servercobra]

This sounds like a corporate/team culture issue with remote work, rather than remote work as a whole. I can still tell when my coworkers are falling behind and check if they need help, as well as building bonds. The bonds certainly aren't as strong as when we used to all go out for lunch or drinks every so often, but they're still there.

[imbnwa]

>I can still tell when my coworkers are falling behind and check if they need help

I mean there're only so many ways to effectively bullshit in standup, for one

[civilized]

I know you didn't personally insult me here, but I hate this comment.

I'm a remote worker and I spend a large chunk of my time every week helping other team members. I'm very, very good at it.

From now on, I'm going to ask everyone about their attitude towards remote work during interviews, and I'll be a hard NO on anyone with the attitude displayed here.

You can have employees who hate remote or you can have remote employees. You can't have both.

[rvba]

Lots of people have that attititude (80%?) - and it is not connected to remote work.

They do just the absolute minimum.

In some ways it is debatable if they arent right. Also: if you are the one who cares in a team of those who dont (which is the usual situation), then you are in a world of pain. Snafu.

[civilized]

Blah blah blah, cynicism and disengagement is correct and right, etc. I know it's a prevalent attitude.

People can live their lives how they want but I don't want such people on my team.

[BeFlatXIII]

Unless you’re a prestigious non-profit, good luck finding anyone at all to hire if you’re filtering on attitude.