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New Yorp New Yorp posted:Yeah, "flexible on location" and "public transportation friendly but not anywhere in the northeast" are basically contradictory. Truckee has free public transit 😁
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Jul 22, 2020 05:30
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New Yorp New Yorp posted:Yeah, "flexible on location" and "public transportation friendly but not anywhere in the northeast" are basically contradictory. You can live a reasonable car-free life in some western cities like San Francisco and Seattle, but I wouldn't recommend it. A happier medium is not needing to commute or accomplish most everyday errands in a car, but still owning one for longer trips/hauling and getting out of the city. Being a one-car, non-commuting family is very easy in SF, Seattle, Denver, Portland, etc. I imagine that'd apply to several cities in New England and other parts of the country as well. Living in a walkable neighborhood and minimizing car dependency is great, but it'd be really hard to give it up entirely. Half the appeal of living somewhere like Seattle (beyond the figgies) is getting out of the city to all the great places within a couple hours' drive. Guinness fucked around with this message at 06:07 on Jul 22, 2020 |
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Jul 22, 2020 06:02
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The best solution is to have a car but park it somewhere cheap. The most important part of living in a walkable neighborhood is being less than 10 minute walk from a real grocery store that serves fresh meat and fruit/vegetables. If you can't walk to the grocery store it's not actually walkable. Any more than 10 minutes and you'll get lazy and be inclined to drive.
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Jul 22, 2020 07:01
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Guinness posted:You can live a reasonable car-free life in some western cities like San Francisco and Seattle, but I wouldn't recommend it. You can do that in San Francisco if you live and work in exactly the right places, but I can't imagine anyone keeping that up for more than a couple years.
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Jul 22, 2020 13:03
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every time americans start talking about commuting, public transportation and living close to shops it feels like you're talking about a different planet. it's so weird also makes me double glad to work remote
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Jul 22, 2020 13:21
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Kilson posted:I haven't kept track of how many jobs I've applied for. I feel like it's a lot - maybe others would say it's not? I've never gone through this process before at all, so I'm kind of lost. This sucks for everyone who goes through it, it’s not you specifically. You just gotta keep grinding out applications - it always feels like you’ve sent out a million but until you have a job it’s not enough. (Do keep track of statistics.) Most third-party recruiters are going to ghost you eventually, but use them anyway, because all they cost you is time, and you’ve got more of that than you can spare right now.
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Jul 22, 2020 13:56
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I'm really curious how the current situation with covid and "white collar" remote workers impacts the perception and the demand for making this a permanent thing. I sure don't feel like going back to the office any time soon, and I might jump ship for a remote only option once things start settling down (in a couple of years, how things are going). I have a feeling there will be a glut of people who also got a taste and want the same, and I'm sure a lot of companies will realize that it'll get them better choice of talent, but it won't be all of the companies. My satellite office signed a lease for a new, larger space just before all this hit, so I expect the leadership to try to drop the remote option when convenient just to justify the expense. Man, I'll be ready to even take a significant pay cut if the work is something I believe in, like social justice. I'm tired of not caring about the bike-shedded products I build. I'm getting too old to spend the rest of my life as a wage slave considering that I'm one of the lucky ones with options in this distopian capitalist end-game. </rant>
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Jul 22, 2020 13:57
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Yea I'd happily take even a 5% cut if it meant full time remote
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Jul 22, 2020 14:11
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Sab669 posted:Yea I'd happily take even a 5% cut if it meant full time remote I've been full remote for ~4 years now and I don't know if I'll ever go back. The ability to work when I'm fresh and focused, and to go take a nap when I know I'm not being productive, seems like a no-brainer for actually getting things done. I get more exercise, run errands at non-peak hours, generally have tons more free time because I'm not spending hours commuting when everyone else in the entire city is also commuting.
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Jul 22, 2020 14:42
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New Yorp New Yorp posted:Yeah, "flexible on location" and "public transportation friendly but not anywhere in the northeast" are basically contradictory. It's doable in Chicago, as in the actual city, not the suburbs.
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Jul 22, 2020 15:43
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You got Chicago, Seattle and San Francisco. Is there anywhere else? Maybe some parts of Boulder or Denver if you bike everywhere, and even that's going to be pretty iffy in the winter.
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Jul 22, 2020 15:45
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We just had an all hands where this question was brought up. My company is all remote for the foreseeable future but our CEO said something about the importance of spontaneous collaboration something something yadda yadda and WFH will definitely not extend past the pandemic. I am still going to push hard for at least a flexible WFH policy. Many of my coworkers have young children and can’t wait to be back in the office but my wife and I don’t have any and are both so very happy working from home. My productivity is up by every measure (tickets closed, commits, PRs merged, code reviews). My sleep schedule is better, I’m cooking more, and I save nearly an hour a day by not commuting. My hours were flexible before, but remote work takes it to a new level. It’s fantastic when occasionally I’m not feeling super energized in the afternoon to just take an hour to rest and get back to it later. I don’t miss the incessant chatter and sound of mechanical keyboards in the open office. I really don’t miss the fluorescent office lights. My team has even set up a virtual happy hour on Friday, providing some much-needed social interaction. All this is to say I absolutely love working from home. For me there are very few drawbacks and I never want to go back to the office.
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Jul 22, 2020 15:55
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Sab669 posted:Yea I'd happily take even a 5% cut if it meant full time remote As someone working in Western NY, it would probably be break-even or even a wage increase to land a remote gig. For Austin, it's about a 20% cut vs an in-office spot in town. But I'll happily take that for the quality of life gains of remote work.
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Jul 22, 2020 15:56
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Yea I suspect I could stay in my current pay range, maybe even a small raise, if I found a remote job. I've been looking, but not very hard. Market is competitive and I'm not  I've been thinking about flat out saying that to my boss but I don't think he'll go for it.
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Jul 22, 2020 16:02
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dantheman650 posted:We just had an all hands where this question was brought up. My company is all remote for the foreseeable future but our CEO said something about the importance of spontaneous collaboration something something yadda yadda and WFH will definitely not extend past the pandemic. . You could probably pull statistics off Slack to show that spontaneous collaboration didn't go away, it just changed form. Combo that with stats from something like codeclimate velocity to show productivity gains, can make a great case for it.
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Jul 22, 2020 16:04
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vonnegutt posted:I've been full remote for ~4 years now and I don't know if I'll ever go back. The ability to work when I'm fresh and focused, and to go take a nap when I know I'm not being productive, seems like a no-brainer for actually getting things done. I get more exercise, run errands at non-peak hours, generally have tons more free time because I'm not spending hours commuting when everyone else in the entire city is also commuting. Not saying there’s anything wrong with remote, but if you’re in a place that living not too far from work is possible then the flexibility stuff can just be a workplace thing not a remote thing.
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Jul 22, 2020 16:05
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kayakyakr posted:You could probably pull statistics off Slack to show that spontaneous collaboration didn't go away, it just changed form. Combo that with stats from something like codeclimate velocity to show productivity gains, can make a great case for it. I did, at least as far as Code Climate does. I’m not sure what statistics would be useful from Slack. I got back that there was a subjective feeling among the C-levels that communication surrounding planning and new work has been more difficult. It’s funny because I feel the opposite is true. Communication has always been an issue at my company but I feel remote work is forcing people to actually include stakeholders in real meetings with agendas precisely because they can’t just go tap someone on the shoulder. I feel way more included in early planning when I’m a stakeholder on a project than before. But that’s just me. I can’t speak for the rest of the company. Which is exactly why I advocate for a flexible WFH policy.
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Jul 22, 2020 16:14
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I've definitely noticed less communication outside my own team and project. I miss that social aspect of it, but it's not like I can't reach out to others via slack if I need them. I'm definitely more focused on work than on discussing if pizza is a sandwich, and one would think that c-levels would be pleased with that. But no -- gotta "culture".
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Jul 22, 2020 16:33
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Regardless of what the numbers say, if your boss doesn't feel like you're being productive when they're not watching your monitor, you're coming in.
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Jul 22, 2020 16:57
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ultrafilter posted:Regardless of what the numbers say, if your boss doesn't feel like you're being productive when they're not watching your monitor, you're coming in. Good sign you need a new boss.
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Jul 22, 2020 16:59
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vonnegutt posted:Are you targeting your resume and cover letters to the companies you're applying for or just using online forms for everything? I was doing more targeting at first, but I was still getting a horrible rate of response, so I've resorted to a shotgun approach which seems to do about the same. I've abandoned the cover letter, as it mostly seems useless. I currently have about 50 automated response emails in my box for applications I've sent in from the past couple weeks. Not every application generates one of those. I've gotten 5 real responses from those (either a phone call or a flat rejection), and a couple more "we want some more information so fill out this form/profile and we'll get back to you" sort of things (they haven't). Anyway, thanks everyone for the advice and suggestions.
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Jul 22, 2020 17:16
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e: ^^ PM your resume?dantheman650 posted:I did, at least as far as Code Climate does. I’m not sure what statistics would be useful from Slack. I got back that there was a subjective feeling among the C-levels that communication surrounding planning and new work has been more difficult. It’s funny because I feel the opposite is true. Communication has always been an issue at my company but I feel remote work is forcing people to actually include stakeholders in real meetings with agendas precisely because they can’t just go tap someone on the shoulder. I feel way more included in early planning when I’m a stakeholder on a project than before. number of messages before covid and after would be a real indication of where collaboration has gone.
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Jul 22, 2020 17:41
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vonnegutt posted:I've been full remote for ~4 years now and I don't know if I'll ever go back. The ability to work when I'm fresh and focused, and to go take a nap when I know I'm not being productive, seems like a no-brainer for actually getting things done. I get more exercise, run errands at non-peak hours, generally have tons more free time because I'm not spending hours commuting when everyone else in the entire city is also commuting. Maybe it's being more management focused but I can't even conceive of that even while working remote. Taking a nap would mess up my whole calendar. We're in the same boat here that we were scheduled to go back at labor day, but everyone can tell that's not happening. I hope they don't piecemeal it and just push it out at least to 1/21 or even 4/21. We've also are leasing additional space to lower the density of the office for when we do come back (And improve people's Seattle area commute.) And we're hiring for fully remote more than we had in the past. I know my personal plan is WFH 3 days a week and be in office for 6-7 hours in the afternoon the other two.
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Jul 22, 2020 18:02
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Hughlander posted:Maybe it's being more management focused but I can't even conceive of that even while working remote. Taking a nap would mess up my whole calendar. The meetings have been the biggest drawback of switching into a management role. And not really the meeting aspect (cause I don't mind meetings, really) but more the tension that it's provided with my fiance because my office is set up in the living room and has given us limited options for places we can go. She is not working right now and feels like she's sitting in on meetings with me. About things she realllllly doesn't care about. Having converted one of the bedrooms into a nice yoga room for her has helped. I should probably work on turning the other into an office, but right now it's filled with a bed and piles of junk. My daily schedule is meetings from 10-12 or 1, then a giant ?? in the afternoon depending on if it's Thursday, if I have 1:1's, or if someone scheduled something one-off for the afternoon. Sometimes I can catch a nap. Sometimes I can't even use the restroom.
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Jul 22, 2020 18:18
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Yeah, exactly that. I love meetings (more fun than doing real work, just show up and riff some poo poo and then gently caress off at the end), but I hate that my schedule is now extremely back to back and I have to block off my calendar defensively so that I have time to i.e. make coffee, eat lunch, post on SA. A good day is 10-11, 2x 30mins 11-2, 2-3. A bad day is 8-530 with an hour of downtime spread throughout that's dedicated to prepping for the next meetings (hello yesterday) Mao Zedong Thot fucked around with this message at 18:28 on Jul 22, 2020 |
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Jul 22, 2020 18:24
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Hughlander posted:Maybe it's being more management focused but I can't even conceive of that even while working remote. Taking a nap would mess up my whole calendar. Probably, managers get roped into way more meetings. I'm so glad that my team/company encourages folks to avoid over-inviting to meetings. We are also encouraged to block off multi-hour blocks of time for ourselves if we want, and every Wednesday is considered a "no meeting" day (with some limited exceptions). We've also somewhat taken to the Amazon model where you don't call a meeting without an explicit agenda and a well-written document to review as the objective. Engineers without big open blocks of unstructured time don't get much engineering done. My focus doesn't necessarily always happen during the working hours of 9-5, and I am happy that I can flex that time around. Even though we've theoretically always had flexible time, and hell our office even has nap rooms, it just doesn't manifest in the same way in the office. Lack of focus usually means water cooler banter, extra coffee/snack breaks, and just general dicking around to sort-of appear busy. But at home it means I can cut the pretense and go take a nap or a walk or whatever and come back later, and I'm much more likely to actually follow through.
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Jul 22, 2020 18:32
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Mao Zedong Thot posted:Yeah, exactly that. I love meetings (more fun than doing real work, just show up and riff some poo poo and then gently caress off at the end), but I hate that my schedule is now extremely back to back and I have to block off my calendar defensively so that I have time to i.e. make coffee, eat lunch, post on SA. Last week was a good week. I actually got to help out with some development work. I had 1 meeting Monday afternoon, nothing Tuesday afternoon, 1 30 minute Wednesday afternoon, my normal big thursday, then a clear friday afternoon. Such a relaxed week and was fun to do development for a little while. This week started with back-to-back 3 hour sizing marathons on Monday and Tuesday afternoons. When a meeting gets that long, the team starts to get really silly somewhere around the 2 hour mark.
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Jul 22, 2020 18:38
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I'm at a small NZ subsidiary of a larger company. Things are mostly back to normal here (for the moment) but we've been continuing WFH anyway. The corporate overlords would want us signing a bunch of liability waivers before going back to the office and lol at that. The most likely scenario is that we'll have some arrangement of 2 "core" days at the office with the rest WFH. I'd had an arrangement like this before in the SF bay area and it was the most productive I'd ever been, just because I was able to organise my time between meeting days in the office and heads down days at home.
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Jul 22, 2020 18:48
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Progressive JPEG posted:The most likely scenario is that we'll have some arrangement of 2 "core" days at the office with the rest WFH. I'd had an arrangement like this before in the SF bay area and it was the most productive I'd ever been, just because I was able to organise my time between meeting days in the office and heads down days at home. This is what I hope eventually becomes our new normal. If my whole team were on the same schedule, 2 days in the office to bulk schedule all the meetings and collab time, and then 3 days remote for focus work would be amazing.
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Jul 22, 2020 18:53
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lol focus work. on the remote days you will have remote meetings. you think management is gonna go a day without an update?
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Jul 22, 2020 19:08
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there are many times when i go several days in a row where my only contact with the team is one half hour (tops) standup a day with 2 meetings is a bad day
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Jul 22, 2020 19:33
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Inacio posted:there are many times when i go several days in a row where my only contact with the team is one half hour (tops) standup 
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Jul 22, 2020 19:34
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Progressive JPEG posted:I'm at a small NZ subsidiary of a larger company. Things are mostly back to normal here (for the moment) but we've been continuing WFH anyway. The corporate overlords would want us signing a bunch of liability waivers before going back to the office and lol at that. how's nz for software development (and more specifically, if you know, web dev)? i'd love to work there
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Jul 22, 2020 22:37
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Inacio posted:how's nz for software development (and more specifically, if you know, web dev)? Speaking from the point of view of trying to get a job there it can be a little tough unless you are in a real niche. They have to prove they couldn't hire locally for any given role, it takes a while.
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Jul 22, 2020 23:02
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Guinness posted:My focus doesn't necessarily always happen during the working hours of 9-5, and I am happy that I can flex that time around. Even though we've theoretically always had flexible time, and hell our office even has nap rooms, it just doesn't manifest in the same way in the office. Lack of focus usually means water cooler banter, extra coffee/snack breaks, and just general dicking around to sort-of appear busy. But at home it means I can cut the pretense and go take a nap or a walk or whatever and come back later, and I'm much more likely to actually follow through. This is exactly my experience as well. Over time I've discovered that my personal "core" hours are 7am - 2pm, which means I usually spend the morning coding and the early afternoon doing meetings / emails / whatever. I have time to actually study now, or do what I did today, and read the documentation for three hours. If I get really heads down in something I can turn off all my communication devices and be guaranteed not to be interrupted. My company has customers in every timezone now, so our management encourages us to take whatever "core" hours we want. They specifically hired a few devs this year overseas and on both coasts to cover as many timezones as possible, as we're a remote-first company and can do that. Meeting times can get pretty wonky, but since everyone is aware that someone is awake specifically for the meeting, it tends to cut down on useless update meetings or impromptu, agenda-less ones. In terms of company culture it's the best one I've ever been a part of. I feel like I'm actually being evaluated on the strength of my contributions.
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Jul 23, 2020 01:14
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Honestly I really dislike remote work. My role is not conducive to it. I miss ad-hoc socialization and Teams/Zoom/Slack is absolutely not a replacement for me. My focus and motivation has hugely suffered as a result of not having ready access to my test equipment - the “workaround” has involved having to coach someone on-site through complex processes that aren’t a part of their daily job so they don’t really care about it. The only upsides to remote work for me have been:
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Jul 23, 2020 02:35
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True benefit of working from home: I actually get to have a loving office (and it's huge because I live in Midwest.) I despise the noisy cattle bays of the open plan.
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Jul 23, 2020 03:11
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gbut posted:I despise the noisy cattle bays of the open plan. i still dont know anyone who *likes* open plan
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Jul 23, 2020 13:24
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Inacio posted:i still dont know anyone who *likes* open plan The people who have to pay for floorspace.
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Jul 23, 2020 13:30
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Inacio posted:i still dont know anyone who *likes* open plan Really? I feel like I've spent most of my career around self-hating people who could find ways to justify any horrible decision made by the company
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Jul 23, 2020 13:42
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