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15 Comments

WFH? No thank you

I have come across many article declaring that in-person is dead and if you want to retain (or attract) employees, you'd better start offering WFH. Forever.
I started my first job as a Jr dev in January 2020, two months later I was working from home full time. I felt like my career trajectory took a sabbatical. I was able to do what I was currently doing but I was not asked for more. Heck, I didn't even commit my code for most of the pandemic, rather giving a coworker control of my screen and allowing him to do it.
Once back in office however, within days I was taking on different projects and in general getting more involved. So for the sake of my career, I say to work from home: thanks, I'll pass

  1. 9

    This is one of those posts I would downvote. Clearly WFH is not for everyone, but if you truly love something , it doesn't matter where you work from.
    And yeah, I've been doing WFH for 17 years now.

    1. 3

      This comment was deleted a year ago.

      1. 1

        True dat😁Yeah, I was doing WFH waaay before it became the norm. So I know pretty much all the good things about it -- and yeah, there's a LOT of advantages. And yeah, you need to be responsible. And if your spouse/family is living with you, then I would say you need your own room.

  2. 5

    Being a software engineer for 14 years professionally, I can just tell you one thing, stay humble.

    Your feelings are completely justified now, because as a junior, you want to learn a lot more then just coding. You need to learn how to work with other developers, how to get your ideas around and most importantly, how to gain credibility. In simple words, you need to learn the soft skills, which is the hardest part of being a software engineer. That's why we as a joke often wish each other "I hope that all your issues at work will be of technical nature".

    Anyway, your feelings towards remote work will change, once you reach a point where you no longer need much mentorship. And that will happen relatively soon. So I'd say, don't jump to conclusions too quickly. You might find yourself writing here in 6 moths from now, having entirely different perception.

    Cheers :)

    1. 1

      For some odd reasons, folks in some industries just have a hard time to stay humble. CS being one of those industries.

  3. 5

    Yes in person new employee on boarding is much easier than remote. Therefore it should be all in person for everyone forever?

    I think the future world of work will include cheap environments where jr devs can be helped without dragging everyone into work.

    But the article you wrote is still correct - once you finish getting up to speed the inefficiencies of traditional office interaction on the ability to focus and code will start to bother you also.

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      I work now in a hybrid office, which I feel is the best of both worlds, people see you exist with several days a week for quiet, uninterrupted work.

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        How is that organized? Is it like Mondays and Fridays WFH? What happens to people who want to live in a cheaper area - is their pay docked?

        I did hybrid for a while but found it starts to collapse under its own weight when the at home days are so much more productive (or potentially at some places vice versa if they do remote work incorrectly).

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          I work with a very small team, all are home Friday and another day of the week of their choice, with the condition that there's at least 1 dev in the office. The hybrid situation is still relatively new so we'll see how that weathers

  4. 2

    well, it's your personal opinion.

    I would rather to work from home, and make my own thing, so I can spend time with my closest ones instead of an office...

  5. 2

    I agree with this. Junior staff can benefit greatly from in-person time. Senior staff need to be part of that otherwise it's juniors leaning from juniors. Seen that before and they just repeat old mistakes.

  6. 1

    Thank you for all those who took time to post their opinion, whether to agree or disagree. My intention was merely to highlight the other side, as I started off by saying that most articles that I've come across were explaining that In-person is dead. I believe I posted my personal feelings and was only interested in seeing if anyone else felt the same.

  7. 1

    I do agree. I've been working from home the last year because of Covid which has gone fine, but much prefer working from the office. I find working from home, the friendly banter you have with who your work with doesn't really happen as you just call each other to do a specific thing about work, but when you're in the office you have a friendlier relationship with everyone.

    We hired someone at work during the pandemic but while restrictions were briefly relaxed but within a couple of weeks working from home again, which defintly made it more difficult (although not impossible) to train the new guy that joined, we were lucky as we had a couple of weeks in person. I'd hate to start a new job, completely remote from the start, I think I would likely avoid a job if they spec'd it as full WFH.

  8. 1

    I agree 200% with you. I too started my career as a developer in January 2020. And then shit happened and I had to WFH for almost a year when in March 2021, my company allowed us to join back in office.

    For me, productivity @ office >>>> productivity @ home.

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      This comment was deleted a year ago.

      1. 1

        Agreed. I'd rather be at home, but for my career I realize in person is better for me.

  9. 1

    One thing I like about remote is not teaching juniors unless it's a specific task I've been given time for and agreed to do. Far too many juniors expect huge amounts of help and then disappear 6-12 months later on to some other company.

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