[tyre]

> There's still zero evidence that WFH reduces productivity or that RTO increases productivity.

Depends on the team and the job, which is what I appreciated about this employee's question. He brought up that for his team, there were 7 people scattered around the globe. RTO didn't make sense for them.

I manage two teams with 10 direct reports total. 9 of them are in NYC. Having some days in office absolutely has benefits. Personally, mandating 5 days in office doesn't make sense to me. People come in 3 or 4 days and that's great.

There isn't zero evidence that working in person has benefits. That's silly.

[winocm]

Complete anecdote, but my personal life experience is that offices only cause me to get more easily distracted and forget what I'm doing (which costs me time and productivity), whereas at home I can actually concentrate and not lose track of my own mental models, leading to better results.

It's kind of sadly become necessary after having some traumatic brain injury, since I wasn't quite like this a decade ago.

It really depends on what you're doing and what dynamics the task at hand requires.

[kadushka]

Do you believe RTO leads to productivity increase? Why? Is there data to back that up?

[pcl]

I can’t imagine how I would have learned the programming trade if I hadn’t been in the office with more experienced engineers guiding me. I feel for all the young engineers out there today who have to deal with reluctant audio-only calls with senior team members or — worse yet — people who insist on all communication happening over text.

I also find it amazing how many people focus on “my productivity” and “my ability to focus” rather than on the team’s productivity. Professional software engineering is a team sport.

I don’t think 9-5 for five days a week is the right answer, but I also believe that frequent time in person is crucial for an excellent team.

[kadushka]

How is learning to program from someone sitting next to you breathing down your neck better than learning to program via a Zoom code pairing session?

I’ve been writing software in and out of offices for 20 years, and I honestly don’t understand what do you mean.