Comment by marricks

Comment by marricks 3 days ago

20 replies

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I went remote a few years before Covid and I felt a bit isolated, but then I realized I had too much of my social life tied up in my job. Having hobbies and interests outside of work is so much better for my mental health and I wouldn’t swap it for anything, especially a 40 min commute.

I also wouldn’t force anyone to go back to office so I could see the humm of their work. If you need that there’s co working spaces for that reason, or places which have in office options.

Large companies mandating everyone work in office is purely a flex for control and probably to save their property investments.

marcosdumay 3 days ago

> Large companies mandating everyone work in office is purely a flex for control and probably to save their property investments.

It's a hidden layoff.

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  • deweller 3 days ago

    As a layoff strategy, I would expect it to be counterproductive. The people most likely to quit skew toward high-performing individuals who feel confident in their ability to get a remote job elsewhere. And vice versa.

    Reply View 16 replies
    • roguecoder 3 days ago

      A lot of companies aren't trying to hire the "best" programmers. Places like Amazon won't let engineers use highly-skilled techniques anyway.

      The high-profile RTO places tend to hire in bulk for programmers that will do as product tells them. Weeding out people who value quality over conformity is a goal.

      Reply View 4 replies
      • senderista 2 days ago

        I work with an Amazon engineer who has been working on storage systems since 1990 (NT kernel) and is an absolute wizard. He could probably write a durable concurrent B-tree in an afternoon.

        Reply View 1 reply
      • philwelch 3 days ago

        > Places like Amazon won't let engineers use highly-skilled techniques anyway.

        I’m curious what you mean by this.

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        • papichulo2023 3 days ago

          Prob need a few dozens to build the frameworks and a few hundreds to glue them to the services that require them.

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    • marcosdumay 3 days ago

      Layoffs in profitable companies are always counterproductive.

      At best, it signals the company is done with growth and is going for a high-profit, low investment (including low innovation) policy.

      Reply View 5 replies
      • jjk166 2 days ago

        That's not always true. Layoffs can spur growth if you are dropping dead weight, for example by eliminating under performing business units, consolidating redundant functionality, or simply correcting previous bad decisions that led to over-hiring.

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      • Malidir 2 days ago

        Depends on how it is measured as to whether it is a success.

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    • nickpp 3 days ago

      Sample of one, but around me best engineers came back to work soon after Covid ended, show up every day, communicate and collaborate.

      The less productive are the ones dragging their feet, coming up with excuses to stay home and hide as much as possible from peer scrutiny.

      Almost like best engineers enjoy coming and working with the team, while the worst dread it.

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      • marricks 3 days ago

        I’m sure the ones who love to suck up and don’t have a social life were chomping at the bit to come back, no doubt.

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Malidir 2 days ago

> but then I realized I had too much of my social life tied up in my job.

Yup! Remote workers need to realise this, and build up a local social life.

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