
Netflix boss: Remote working has negative effects - saos
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-54063648
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dang
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=24401246](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=24401246)

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dvtrn
Absent any other details as to _how_ Mr. Hastings has come to his conclusions
I'm left wondering if

 _“Not being able to get together in person, particularly internationally, is
a pure negative,” Mr Hastings told the Wall Street Journal._

Doesn't _ACTUALLY_ mean "managers not being able to micromanage by proxy of
physical presence is a pure negative", because in lived experience this has
been at the root of much resistance to WFH in my career: managerial loss of
control and influence

~~~
k__
I'm working from home since 2014 and this is the main argument I heared when I
still was employed.

Going freelancing internationally finally shut them up.

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Stubb
Sorry Reid, but I'll never set foot in an office again. Working 100% remote
saves me way too much time, not to mention money, and I've long since sorted
out staying connected work colleagues (I've been working 100% remote for ~6
years).

Not needing to factor in commuting when choosing where to live is a godsend.

~~~
serf
>I've long since sorted out staying connected work colleagues (I've been
working 100% remote for ~6 years).

for those interested, care to mention a few of your solutions?

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Stubb
A big one as been making it a point to contact everyone on the team regularly,
even if there's nothing urgent to discuss. This could be via email or video
chat. If there's no programmatic reason to chat, I'll surely have come across
some new tidbit of information or insight that's at least tangentially related
to work and use that as an excuse. One of the dudes I'm working with is a far
better C++ coder than me, so I'm regularly asking him questions, but I'm also
mentoring some junior engineers, and I'll reach out to point out things to
them.

For colleagues that I'm not directly working with but want to stay in contact
with, I'll email them at least every few months with any interesting problems
that I solved as well as the approach that are might be of interest to them.
On my team, we'll regularly do tech surveys for advancing areas of our
project, and the results of them will also get sent out. I also know their
interests, and if I come across something they might like, I won't hesitate to
send it their way.

It's really easy to buckle down and only address what's in front of your nose.
But people get weird when that goes on too long. Better to take a break a
couple times a week and check in with everyone else. I find that our morning
scrum isn't enough.

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bartread
Whilst there are no doubt downsides to working remotely, and I certainly miss
seeing the people I work with face to face, there is literally zero substance
to this piece.

I mean even Reed Hastings, the subject of the article, fails to enumerate the
downsides he sees to remote working. Without hard - and frankly much wider
ranging - evidence this is just one man's opinion and it's not a particularly
interesting or insightful one either.

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whateveracct
"Purely negative"

Maybe for you, bossman.

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notjesse
Shouldn’t Netflix be in favor of remote work for business purposes?

I would think there is a correlation between the amount of wfh across the
world and Netflix viewership.

~~~
filleokus
Interesting OT question: How much does Netflix care about user "engagement"?
Surely there is data at Netflix HQ, but I guess there isn't a linear
correlation between viewed minutes and canceled subscriptions. If you use
Netflix "enough" for it to feel as a nice thing to have available and not
cancel the subscription, I guess Netflix is happy?

Even if marginal cost is very low, each streamed video have some small cost
associated with it. Is it really worth it to try and increase my viewing, as
long as it's high enough?

(Conversely, will people really get Netflix subscriptions just because they
are WFH, if they din't have them already?)

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jonny_eh
Title should reflect that this is the opinion of one guy, Reed Hastings.

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option
Reed Hastings, founder and CEO of Netflix, who decides work policies for
thousands of his employees.

~~~
jonny_eh
Sorry, I thought everyone here knew that.

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Naac
The actual title of this article is:

"Netflix boss: Remote working has negative effects"

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NathanWilliams
Why does the title exclude “Netflix boss” that is on the original?

Excluding it gives a false impression this is something more than a self
interested opinion.

~~~
saos
I have edited. My bad.

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echlebek
Bullshit. Where is the peer-reviewed research?

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api
This is business! Billions of dollars are at stake. This is far too important
for things like "research" or "science." We make decisions based on the gut
feelings of charismatic white men. Charisma is proof. If reality disagrees
with charisma, reality is wrong.

(Politics is even more this way...)

~~~
tuesdayrain
Was bringing race into this really necessary?

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api
... on the price of real estate in hot markets?

Seriously though: as with everything else, your mileage may vary (YMMV). Some
people and companies are doing great with it and making it permanent. Others
are experiencing issues. It has to do with what you are doing and the
personalities in your organization.

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angelbar
The thing is: At more hours viewing Netflix shows, there is more chance get
the feel of "have seen all" and then cancel the subscription.

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snitch182
Well, of course the experience of the netflix leader is starkly different from
everybody elses. So his day is spend having to give a go for project or in
general listening to ideas. Since he also depends on kategorizing people
quickly he is hindered by videoconferencing. An videokonferencing all day
certainly has its downsides. For other jobs, it says nothing. What a waste of
my time.

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rognjen
He didn't say that there are negative effects but that he sees __no positives
__. Surely anyone who 's carefully considered a position would be able to
point out at least some positives.

~~~
bartread
FTA: "No. I don't see any positives," he replied

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rognjen
Isn't that exactly what I wrote?

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k__
It has a good effect on hiring, I'd guess.

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BallinBige
the effects seem to grow with time...away

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adamnemecek
Gitlab seems to disagree. A lot of this is probably just transitional pain.

