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Why will we have to see? It's not like this is the first time anyone has worked remotely. People have been working remotely for decades, which is proof that it

Why will we have to see? It's not like this is the first time anyone has worked remotely. People have been working remotely for decades, which is proof that it works for those people. In fact entire companies recently (last 5ish years) have created entirely remote companies.

rossdavidh 6y ago
In at least some companies (e.g. Yahoo), they decided it worked, and then later decided no, it didn't. I wouldn't be surprised if we see a lot of backpedaling on remote work, after six months or so.
- 6510 6y ago
  Elsewhere on HN I read mention that it works wonderfully until you want a raise.
- redis_mlc 6y ago
  The Yahoo situation was that mgmt. counted people who said they worked remotely vs. "vpn" connections, and mgmt. said that they found employees were lying about actually doing work. Some of the things not clarified were: - engineers had alternate vpn and connection methods, so what was the breakdown of engineers vs. non-engineers? Were all VPN connections counted (I don't think they were.) - a large percentage of the staff had mentally checked out, evidenced by the gym being full between 1 pm and 5 pm. That was a bigger issue, since showing up is meaningless if you're not engaged. This isn't as bad as it sounds, as Mayer's job was to preserve the value of the Alibaba holdings, not do anything at Yahoo, hence the logo font change and ymail facelifts. - does one have to be on a vpn connection to do work? Employees can edit a Word document without being connected. - I think the parking lots were full, so some staff staying home was a good thing, rather than circling the block for who knows how long. So if you're going to use stats, they should be based on results, not something as fuzzy as "vpn" counts, as in the Yahoo case. Unless your agenda is "let's ban remote work." Source: worked there.
6510 6y ago
The doubt sits with those who don't want to work remotely but now have to.

rossdavidh 6y ago

In at least some companies (e.g. Yahoo), they decided it worked, and then later decided no, it didn't. I wouldn't be surprised if we see a lot of backpedaling on remote work, after six months or so.

6510 6y ago
Elsewhere on HN I read mention that it works wonderfully until you want a raise.
redis_mlc 6y ago
The Yahoo situation was that mgmt. counted people who said they worked remotely vs. "vpn" connections, and mgmt. said that they found employees were lying about actually doing work. Some of the things not clarified were: - engineers had alternate vpn and connection methods, so what was the breakdown of engineers vs. non-engineers? Were all VPN connections counted (I don't think they were.) - a large percentage of the staff had mentally checked out, evidenced by the gym being full between 1 pm and 5 pm. That was a bigger issue, since showing up is meaningless if you're not engaged. This isn't as bad as it sounds, as Mayer's job was to preserve the value of the Alibaba holdings, not do anything at Yahoo, hence the logo font change and ymail facelifts. - does one have to be on a vpn connection to do work? Employees can edit a Word document without being connected. - I think the parking lots were full, so some staff staying home was a good thing, rather than circling the block for who knows how long. So if you're going to use stats, they should be based on results, not something as fuzzy as "vpn" counts, as in the Yahoo case. Unless your agenda is "let's ban remote work." Source: worked there.

6510 6y ago

The doubt sits with those who don't want to work remotely but now have to.