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by errcorrectcode 1596 days ago
There are a number of problems with WfH.

There's no work community or camaraderie at home. Doggo should count. Kittah jumping on the keyboard is just using you for food and grooming.

There's no grabbing lunches.

There's no visiting X down the hall.

No grabbing a beer after work.

Boss G, H, or J can't see you around.

Colleagues M, N, P, and Q don't have a sense of your performance or amount of work that happens far away. "Out of sight, ..."

Pair programming becomes less effective.

It's typing away by yourself like a writer, occasionally seeing "holograms" of other people on screens, or taking calls like you're working a call center.

7 comments

I disagree on the lack of work community and camaraderie, and I don’t keep animals at home, period. I also don’t see pair programming as a huge plus in any event, but when it’s needed I’ve not found it to be any less effective remotely.

As for the rest, I (personally) don’t see them as positives anyway…

> typing away by yourself like a writer, occasionally seeing "holograms" of other people on screens, or taking calls like you're working a call center

You say this like it's a bad thing .

I think it’s really depending on the specific area someone is working in. For me the main benefit of the office is to discuss things on the whiteboard with three people and everyone is adding something to the discussion chaotically. Maybe that’s a dynamic that isn’t present somewhere else which is fine but that’s what works for me and every alternative that is online simply didn’t work as good. On the other hand when I’m working alone on tasks, WfH is great.
>No grabbing a beer after work.

>Boss G, H, or J can't see you around.

So you're saying you can grab a beer during work without issue? Sounds pretty good to me.

Nothing is preventing you from meeting colleagues for lunch or grabbing a beer after work.
Honestly most of these are positives not negatives.
As an introvert, the majority of these read like upsides to me.