How important is remote work to you? I like working from home, but it's not something that's a must for me. I live alone, though, so I'm guessing people who have families and like spending time with them might feel differently. But my main question is, is it something you'd be willing to quit over? Is it that big of a deal to some of you?
17 replies (most recent on top)
Once companies went to the cubical farms I was over being in the office.
You must have done that a long time ago. Many companies got rid of cubicles and employees are all packed together now. I predict the next “innovation” will be to get rid of desks and chairs (that’s why they’re called LAPTOPS!)
At effective companies large scale development requires technical leadership that can aggregate the issues from their teams and meet with all the other leaders to make sure everything is moving together in the right direction. When I’ve done this on projects with geographically dispersed teams we’d have to have week long offsite meetings regularly to keep everyone in sync and telepresence style solutions never came close to providing the same level of effectiveness. We’d also need time to go from office to office to sync up with individual team members as there is a much faster turnaround in dialog than e-mail and people often hold back needed information in larger group meetings.
Ironically almost every large project I saw at Cisco overran by years in part because of major systems problems resulting from a lack of communications among the (lower case) technical leaders. Also, sitting in the two person teleconference closets with big heads talking into your face from three feet away wasn’t exactly natural or comfortable.
Again, at the leadership level there are times when you need to go off and do research and put things together in a clear coherent way and working from home without interruptions was extremely valuable.
I contrast this with Cisco where you had to be on the instant messaging platform of the day so your manager could give you a new first priority every 15 minutes which is about how much time it takes to truly change focus so you optimally get no actual work done whether you’re in the home or office.
Once companies went to the cubical farms I was over being in the office. No one can be productive sitting on top of each other. it is loud, most conversations are not work related and even before COVID when one person got sick it spread like wildfire. I am perfectly happy having space at home and 90 mins a day back from the commute. Being able to go in once and a while and sync with folks is good enough with me.
@hif+1kRtJ2wx Quality of life is so low in those flyover states though.
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You _______ know WFH and office closures means we sell less networking gear, right? You think security software is making up that gap?
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Keep selling your Signature Box 3 Gavin Belson. 😆
being able to leave high tax democrat states is like an instant raise. WFH, yes please.
I do miss the socialization that working in an office provided because talking face-to-face is very different than constantly IM'ing your peers. I was a lone worker in one site while the rest of my team were "mobile workers" before we all became "hybrid/remote" workers. I could talk w/ people in the break room about last night's college basketball game of the local university if I wanted to, or join a group going out for lunch.
Having my team all wide spread meant no one cared about your local sports matchups and you don't care about their local teams.
As to "being more productive at home" due to distractions, I know some of my co-workers have as many, or more, distractions and interruptions working from home as they do in the office because they have small kids who run into their home office. They're constantly telling their children "Not now, I'm in a meeting."
But, overall, I do find that working remote is more productive, I don't waste my time commuting so I have more work/life balance.
I just wish that the company would provide office quality ergo chairs for use at home and even an adjustable standing/sitting desk if we wanted them. That's my biggest thing I miss about being in the office, is having a quality desk and chair.
You dipshits know WFH and office closures means we sell less networking gear, right? You think security software is making up that gap?
The people complaining about remote work are those that are unskilled and highly dependent on the skilled to get anything done. They want nothing more than to stop by and offload work or ask for help. Thankfully those days are done.
It's just as easy to IM you to ask questions and offload work or ask for help via WxT as it is to walk by a desk. Nothing has changed except that you can ignore their messages until you have time to deal w/ them instead of having them standing in your cubical doorway.
I worked remotely during most of my 12 year career at Cisco.......but I never had a boss or a team in the same location as myself, and my customers were all over the world. I worked weird hours since I could one day work with Asia, and the next day Europe or the Middle East. I was ok with coming into the office if needed, but my commute was only 25 mins, at the most.
After Cisco laid me off (too old) I worked for another company and my boss wanted us in the office most of the time, but was flexible if we needed to work remote on certain days. I didn't mind....it was refreshing since almost 100% of the team I worked with was in one location, and I could work faster with in-office communications (in front of a real person). Never underestimate the power of physical face to face communication......video conference is a poor second for that.
Try working on a 15-inch laptop monitor in a noisy office with constant interruptions from colleagues. I get nothing done in the office. Waste of time.
Working remote is far more productive for the many reasons provided below, its not even close.
The people complaining about remote work are those that are unskilled and highly dependent on the skilled to get anything done. They want nothing more than to stop by and offload work or ask for help. Thankfully those days are done.
My customers and the rest of my team are scattered across the country. My manager doesn’t even sit in the same state as me. Why would I come into the office?
Working from home allows me to have more time for myself in the morning, not waste time and money on commuting, work where I’m comfortable with minimal distractions, etc. I love my home office set up. I would majorly consider moving on if I was asked to come back into the office, because I wouldn’t see the purpose of it other than for me to be a body in a seat.
I agree with these positive views to working from home. I am FAR more productive working from home. I can also more fairly distribute my time across multiple customer accounts. I am an Engineer and there is nothing I can't deploy or fix remotely once "Smart Hands" have Racked & Stacked. This Far more cost effective for all involved.
Why spend out for hotels, rental cars and meals out when I can work remotely? Why spend my life in airports / traffic? Why sit alone in an office when my Team are all over the country? If ELT actually wanted my advice, I would say LR the Real Estate & Travel budgets, and keep the people, (Especially the Top Performers Like Myself)
I can't bear the idea of commuting 90-120 minutes every day only to sit in an office all day. I'm more productive working from home where the environment is quiet and devoid of distractions.
I prefer remote work, have been working remotely for Cisco since about 2015.
- It’s easier on the family life because schools aren’t catered for working parents and adds challenges.
- I’ve been in roles in the BU where I am stuck on back to back meetings from 8am-6pm M-F and often not even time enough to have a bio break or lunch…lots of burnout. Adding an extra 2-3 hours for commute time would make for an even longer day. And for what… to still sit in a room or open space desk somewhere alone and still on Webex meetings. No thank you.
- they closed the local office hub in my city. So I really have no choice, but even when it was open, it was close to an hour and a half drive from my home because it wasn’t centralized in the city. If there was a local office within 30 minutes of my home I would consider driving in…only if there were others on my team also there.
- my team is scattered across the US. So no sense of team building if I were to drive into an office. Also see points 2 & 3 again. Driving into the office now days seems like it’s more fit for local sales teams for a region…. Not the business, operations, strategy or finance teams.
“Working” from home