The Breithaupt Block Phase III | 11 fl | Complete

[Rainrider22]

I guess it depends on the industry and where you work. Sure I can see nobody wanting to pay for an office lease because it's Waterloo Region. In Toronto, office buildings are still busy (statistically less so than some years ago, I'm sure).

Heck I fired some zoomer recently who kept bringing WFH up and spamming the whole office with emails about it. Many days we'd request she come and and she'd be a no-show. "I can do so much of the work at home..." is besides the point. We are a small firm - less than 20 people - but do some rather important work in both Canada and Iceland (with a growing presence in Bolivia), so we expect to have our team members offer a physical presence. It's just better for our kind of work. I don't care if she can run AutoCAD at home, we just want people there to be able to collaborate. A Zoom meeting where half the people aren't paying attention doesn't offer the same team value and degree of collaboration as a couple hours in the office each day. We don't even expect full days or 5 days a week in the office, but we still want people to show up even 4-5 hours every other day. This individual wouldn't listen and went on some ideological rant in emails and it was just silly.

This is very spot on for many types of work.  You cant have good collaboration without face to face.  A good team is a team that has broken bread together.  I have had the privilege to supervise and run many team teams both large and small for the past 20 years.  I need to be able to get to know a person properly to ensure they are on task and have a good life work balance.  I can see how someone that works a call centre, or process insurance claims can work from home without any difficulty. But I still think they should have to come to work once in a while to know them.  Sure you can measure their productivity, but how do you monitor their health and mental health?

[ac3r]

I need to be able to get to know a person properly to ensure they are on task and have a good life work balance.

This...so much! It's incredibly important. I remember once working with someone in early 2021 when the pandemic was a thing, so he was working from home. He was great at his work, but it turned out he had an opiate problem. That would have got noticed if he was able to come into work, but because he was working from home nobody had any clue. The work was getting more and more problematic and then we eventually realized what was going on. Naturally, we had to let him go.

You don't notice that sort of stuff if all you do is see someone on Zoom and maybe once every few weeks in an office. If your work can be done with so little interaction then you're not really providing a real value to me in my opinion. I don't want a machine, I want a human being.

Maybe when the techbros automate themselves out of work or all their jobs are done for pennies by overseas workers in Bangalore they'll understand the value of a physical presence lmao.

[ijmorlan]

Even within my own job, there are some aspects of it that work fine from home and others that don’t. If I’m just putting my head down and implementing a new feature or fixing a bug, I can do it at home, and the lack of interruptions might even make it a better environment than being at the office. But if I’m discussing with others how something should work or which problems we should deal with first, I’d much rather discuss in person. And I agree with the idea that it’s hard to know ones co-workers entirely from a distance; there needs to be some sort of personal relationship or rapport, even if it doesn’t extend outside of work.

[plam]

Even within my own job, there are some aspects of it that work fine from home and others that don’t. If I’m just putting my head down and implementing a new feature or fixing a bug, I can do it at home, and the lack of interruptions might even make it a better environment than being at the office. But if I’m discussing with others how something should work or which problems we should deal with first, I’d much rather discuss in person. And I agree with the idea that it’s hard to know ones co-workers entirely from a distance; there needs to be some sort of personal relationship or rapport, even if it doesn’t extend outside of work.

Remote-first tech companies often organize in-person meetups a few times a year. Saves them the trouble of paying for office space the rest of the year. 

There are a number of results that show that working 4 days a week, in general, is as productive as working 5 days a week, and way better for people. In general I don't really think that being in the office 5 days a week is good for people or productivity.

[westwardloo]

Even within my own job, there are some aspects of it that work fine from home and others that don’t. If I’m just putting my head down and implementing a new feature or fixing a bug, I can do it at home, and the lack of interruptions might even make it a better environment than being at the office. But if I’m discussing with others how something should work or which problems we should deal with first, I’d much rather discuss in person. And I agree with the idea that it’s hard to know ones co-workers entirely from a distance; there needs to be some sort of personal relationship or rapport, even if it doesn’t extend outside of work.

Remote-first tech companies often organize in-person meetups a few times a year. Saves them the trouble of paying for office space the rest of the year. 

There are a number of results that show that working 4 days a week, in general, is as productive as working 5 days a week, and way better for people. In general I don't really think that being in the office 5 days a week is good for people or productivity.

I mean that is kind of a different discussion. I 100% agree that we should implement a 4 day work week in as many industries as possible. It proven to be just as productive and would be a huge boost to local travel/ hospitality industries. Image what people would do if every weekend was 3 days long. 

In terms of work from home vs office. I think over the long term, companies that work from office will be more successful than companies that are 100% work from home. Meeting in person 3-4 times a year will not build the same level of collaboration or team bonding that in office does. I think there could be a good balance though. Maybe 2-3 days in the office or work half a day everyday in the office. 

Commute times are another issue, the main one being over the past couple decades firms seem to only open Toronto offices instead of spreading the workforce out throughout ontario. There was a time that satellite offices in London, Kitchener or Hamilton would have been common practise, now they just expand in GTA. Ontario needs to be better at promoting some of our smaller cities for companies to set up offices space in.

[Momo26]

Pros and cons to WFH. Have now seen it both and am not a proponent of 100% WFH. Even when the work is independently completed there is merit and getting to know colleagues, make contacts, learning through listening and just general banter.

Someone retiring was remarking the other day that those connections are completely gone now. No extended lunches, no after work drinks. Almost nothing and most things now feel forced. Thoughts?

[nms]

Pros and cons to WFH. Have now seen it both and am not a proponent of 100% WFH. Even when the work is independently completed there is merit and getting to know colleagues, make contacts, learning through listening and just general banter.

Someone retiring was remarking the other day that those connections are completely gone now. No extended lunches, no after work drinks. Almost nothing and most things now feel forced. Thoughts?

This is particularly difficult for those in the early part of their career. Casual conversations and opportunities to learn things about colleagues' outside of work in the office is how cohesion happens. However, this kind of workplace culture was fading even before Covid. Common cafeterias or staff lounges (remember coffee breaks?) are largely gone from most work places.