<story><title>Dropbox Converts to Permanent WFH</title><url>https://www.businessinsider.com/dropbox-letting-all-employees-work-from-home-permanently-2020-10</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>hn_throwaway_99</author><text>I guess it&amp;#x27;s not surprising but I am super disappointed by some of the comments here that show a total lack of empathy for people who aren&amp;#x27;t like you. I mean, you love working from home? Congrats, more power to you. But the number of comments stating that &amp;quot;only people who are good at office politics like going to the office&amp;quot;, &amp;quot;only incompetent managers need to see you in person&amp;quot;, &amp;quot;your co-workers aren&amp;#x27;t your friends&amp;quot;, etc. are, as I would generously put it, tone deaf.&lt;p&gt;For many (most?) people this has been the worst working situation of their lives, and attempts to minimize that are insulting. I believe it will be &lt;i&gt;especially&lt;/i&gt; bad for those early in their careers, trying to find their footing, get mentorship, and build their network.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>hombre_fatal</author><text>I agree that the comments you&amp;#x27;ve cited are a bit ridiculous.&lt;p&gt;But it&amp;#x27;s also important to acknowledge that pre-Covid, only a tiny fraction of jobs were remote at all. People who preferred remote work had very little choice in the matter. Our society assumes that commuting to work and sitting in a cubicle (or worse) is fitting for 99% of the work force.&lt;p&gt;So what I mainly see here aren&amp;#x27;t the comments you cite, but a &amp;quot;ugh but I &lt;i&gt;like&lt;/i&gt; the office&amp;quot;, which gets very little sympathy from me in a society where, virus aside, the majority of jobs are office-only. Like, the world is already tipped in your favor.&lt;p&gt;To put it into perspective, I was so desperate for a fully remote job that I took a $50,000 salary for it when I was making $130,000 in Austin, Texas. Now I live in South America on a beach doing exactly what I want to be doing.&lt;p&gt;I don&amp;#x27;t like the optics of calling Covid a &amp;quot;good thing&amp;quot;, but it must be pointed out that it got offices (like my former job) that were adamantly ass-in-seat only to go remote-only. It spurred fundamental (hopefully lasting) shifts in our work culture. And a lot of them were a long time in the making and waiting. How many of these companies that were firmly ass-in-seat are now fully or mostly remote realizing that the sky isn&amp;#x27;t falling? I hope we reach a better equilibrium.&lt;p&gt;Ideally our employment options would have something for everyone without you needing to go for a $50k job to get what you want. Another culture change I&amp;#x27;d like is for WFH options to come with a signing bonus to get your home office sorted out, something that&amp;#x27;s sorely lacking.</text></comment>
<story><title>Dropbox Converts to Permanent WFH</title><url>https://www.businessinsider.com/dropbox-letting-all-employees-work-from-home-permanently-2020-10</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>hn_throwaway_99</author><text>I guess it&amp;#x27;s not surprising but I am super disappointed by some of the comments here that show a total lack of empathy for people who aren&amp;#x27;t like you. I mean, you love working from home? Congrats, more power to you. But the number of comments stating that &amp;quot;only people who are good at office politics like going to the office&amp;quot;, &amp;quot;only incompetent managers need to see you in person&amp;quot;, &amp;quot;your co-workers aren&amp;#x27;t your friends&amp;quot;, etc. are, as I would generously put it, tone deaf.&lt;p&gt;For many (most?) people this has been the worst working situation of their lives, and attempts to minimize that are insulting. I believe it will be &lt;i&gt;especially&lt;/i&gt; bad for those early in their careers, trying to find their footing, get mentorship, and build their network.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>haswell</author><text>Thank you for highlighting this. As others have said, I could not agree more.&lt;p&gt;As a Product Manager, working remotely 100% of the time is absolute hell. And I say this as someone who was already working from home ~70% of the time before (and I was mostly ok with that).&lt;p&gt;I also wanted to pick on a few of the categories you mentioned:&lt;p&gt;&amp;gt; &amp;quot;only incompetent managers need to see you in person&amp;quot;&lt;p&gt;Some of the best work I&amp;#x27;ve done is when I&amp;#x27;m able to go brainstorm in a room with my leadership. Lacking the ability to do this as we plan our next release, or the next 3 year strategy or whatnot is extremely difficult.&lt;p&gt;Having competent management means that they understand when this is valuable and when it&amp;#x27;s not.&lt;p&gt;&amp;gt; &amp;quot;your co-workers aren&amp;#x27;t your friends&amp;quot;&lt;p&gt;I hear this a lot, and I have to feel bad for people who have never experienced true friendship at work. At each of my jobs, I&amp;#x27;ve made lifelong friends. Friends I&amp;#x27;ve since vacationed with, stood up as a groomsman in a weeding for, etc. This is part of what made those jobs so rewarding.&lt;p&gt;I think the general thought is that &amp;quot;jobs change, so that &amp;#x27;friend&amp;#x27; might not be around next week&amp;quot;, and that&amp;#x27;s true. But in my experience, if they&amp;#x27;re true friends, changing jobs doesn&amp;#x27;t change that.&lt;p&gt;This says more about me than anything, but where else am I going to meet friends?&lt;p&gt;---&lt;p&gt;All of this to say, in addition to being tone-deaf in light of the current reality in the world, these sentiments are also suspect under normal circumstances.&lt;p&gt;These things may be true for some people at their place of employment, or for them personally, but it&amp;#x27;s hard to understand where this comes from.</text></comment>