
Longtime Silicon Valley CEO says coronavirus could kill the open office - enraged_camel
https://www.marketwatch.com/story/welcome-back-cubicles-longtime-silicon-valley-ceo-says-coronavirus-could-kill-the-open-office-2020-04-24?mod=home-page
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greendave
"She said it is also likely that more companies will continue to allow or even
prefer employees work from home if they can, which could also eliminate the
cost of some office space."

I'm all for allowing WFH, but I fear when the up-front cost savings become
more apparent, there may actually be pressure on people to do so regardless of
how well it works for them. My impression is that the widespread adoption of
open offices was largely for the same reasons (costs).

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smt88
> _I 'm all for allowing WFH, but I fear when the up-front cost savings become
> more apparent, there may actually be pressure on people to do so regardless
> of how well it works for them._

I don't think that's an accurate way to think of work from home, and the
"home" part is likely the problem.

Office culture is mandatory. Work-from-home is more like "office optional".
Employers will likely continue to have some office space -- just less of it.

If you like noise, socializing, and structure, you can go to your company's
smaller office, a coworking space, a coffee shop, or a friend's house.

If you don't like those things, stay home. Or mix it up.

Either way, eliminating office-mandatory culture is going to lead to more
freedom and individualization, not less.

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Hamuko
Yeah, I fucking wish.

Unless COVID-19 kills offices entirely, executives will continue to find ways
to fit the most amount of people into the least amount of space.

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kgin
Most amount of people in least amount of space = don't have an office at all.

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Hamuko
Yeah, but then you enter the territory of "if an employee works at home and no
one is around to see it, do they do work?"

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hinkley
There is almost a Feudal Lord timbre to the way some people talk about their
employees. Must. Control. Everything. Especially. Minutiae. I've no idea how
prevalent it actually is, especially since some practitioners are exceedingly
loud about it. I really hope it's just confirmation bias.

At its worst I occasionally have to resist the urge to blurt out, "You know we
live in a Democracy, not an Aristocracy, right?"

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mythrwy
Well, until you go to work. Then it's dictatorship which you can leave when
you chose but until you do it isn't democracy.

If you have to work, the best you can do is a benevolent dictatorship rather
than one with authoritarian people who are usually clueless at top. Which
sadly is many and maybe even most workplaces.

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hinkley
We put an awful lot of limits on what can be asked of people at work. That
management bangs against these like a 10 year old testing boundaries is a
little unsettling.

I've always preferred to think of myself as working on a team, but I guess
even a team gets yelled at by a coach quite a lot.

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znpy
I really hope that cubicles come back.

