The Cellar / Remote working

**Posted by TheNeverWas** 3/11/2022 12:56 pm

Clodfobble wrote:
...preferably not made of leather...

Please turn in your Texan card on your way out.

**Posted by BigV** 3/11/2022 8:06 pm

https://www.google.com/search?q=furniture+dolly&rlz=1C1CHBF_enUS962US962&sxsrf=APq-WBvgrMe5SoSyJ0YYV5ejP0Kh9xs-TQ:1647047178453&source=lnms&tbm=shop&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwjmwv_vsL_2AhWCIDQIHRvxBH4Q_AUoAXoECAEQAw&biw=1229&bih=603&dpr=1.56

**Posted by TheNeverWas** 3/11/2022 8:45 pm

Ha!! I was going to suggest putting a pimp throne on a furniture dolly earlier today.

**Posted by bbro** 4/26/2022 8:43 am

I had a huge revelation a couple weeks ago in regards to my schedule that, I think, has greatly improved my chances of working out. I realized that as long as I don't have meetings, if I feel like working out, I can log off and go! It's awesome. I make sure that I haven't taken a lunch break already, obviously, but it's been great. One day, I was super annoyed at work, so I worked out!

Alas, my desk project has utterly failed. I broke down and bought a desk top from ikea to go on top of the ikea legs. I was worried because it is a lot more narrow than the dining room table was, but it's working. The arm for my laptop helps because I don't need to use risers for the monitors anymore. I'm going to get arms for them, too, but it's lower priority since they fit so well

**Posted by Flint** 10/20/2022 8:12 pm

Flint wrote:
My primary computer is a Dell laptop that runs everything (power/displays/peripherals) through a single USB-C cable to a docking station with two HDMI outputs. And I use wireless network, I can pick it up and go mobile by unplugging one cable. Although I did prefer the old physical ka-CHUNK docking stations.

Have I ranted recently about how much i HATE what the "docking station" has become?

My single USB-C connected laptop has taken to going "doo doo DEE" and "DEE doo doo" frequently throughout the day, indicating something (?) is disconnecting and reconnecting. Also, there's a continuous 'USB device not recognized' message in my system tray. Nothing but mouse, keyboard and monitors connected.

The single connection itself is loose and flimsy. If I bump my computer wrong it can disconnect, but THIS doesn't produce the symptoms described above.

**Posted by griff** 10/21/2022 6:51 am

That's lame.

Pete is still mostly working from home which increases security at the homestead, which is apparently needed with all these fucking ATVs.

**Posted by Flint** 10/21/2022 1:05 pm

better than zombies, I guess. unless it's zombies on ATVs

**Posted by Clodfobble** 10/21/2022 2:19 pm

Mr. Clod's employer just shut down one of their main office buildings--multiple floors, maybe 100,000 square feet in total? People have had the option to come in for a while, but basically no one was doing it, so they said, "fine, now everyone who wants to come in will do so at this one central office." I suspect at this point he'll be working from home until he retires.

**Posted by griff** 10/21/2022 3:05 pm

Pete's hoping to minimize office time, but three separate coworkers approached her about being lonely working from home. It's great for us married folk but some singles can't bear it.

**Posted by monster** 10/21/2022 8:45 pm

griff wrote:
Pete's hoping to minimize office time, but three separate coworkers approached her about being lonely working from home. It's great for us married folk but some singles can't bear it.

word.

**Posted by bbro** 10/24/2022 7:43 pm

griff wrote:
Pete's hoping to minimize office time, but three separate coworkers approached her about being lonely working from home. It's great for us married folk but some singles can't bear it.

I don't know it it's as simple as just being single. I'm single and live alone and I like it much more than I thought I would. I have lots of room, though, and I've become more of a hermit in the past few years. I don't need to see people to talk to them. I don't need to use the office environment to fill a social life hole.

**Posted by xoxoxoBruce** 10/25/2022 1:08 am

I haven't worked for 13 years so I have no dog in the hunt.
But I keep having this nagging thought if the job can be done from your home it can be done from any home...
... in any country.

**Posted by griff** 10/25/2022 5:50 am

Everybody has their own level of comfort. Pete is fine with zoom meetings etc... but my work with shorties is not effectively done remotely and honestly I hate being on screen it gives me the creeps.

Getting out of the country before the end of democracy would seem attractive unless you look at the growth of right wing populism throughout the West. We need to hold the line here.

**Posted by tw** 10/25/2022 12:40 pm

Only thing that creates jobs, wealth, new products, higher incomes, better education, new markets, a strong nation, and less debt is innovation. Innovation never happens in meetings (in conference rooms or on Zoom). Innovation happens in informal places such as hallways and cafeterias. Where, for example, HP developed inkjet printers and other innovations.

So yes, some claim to be more productive on-line. They only measure what they did today. Looks profitable on spread sheets. Ten years later, the company is downsizing. Due to innovations that did not happen ten years ago.

Same is with on-line education. We know that reading electronically means about a 10% decrease in comprehension. Now appearing, many years later, in numbers. Long after the damage is done.

Why does a concentration of innovation appear often in only one region? So many innovators are rubbing elbows. Then innovation can happen.

I believe it was Chiat/Day, an advertising firm, tried to implement virtual offices many decades ago. They were famous for major advertising accomplishments including the famous 1984 MacIntosh commercials.

When you were to arrive, an old office resident's materials were removed. And your office was installed in that room - in but a hour or two. Using a theory that one need not be in the office every day. Chiat/Day then stopped being so innovative. Was eventually sold (it was called a merger) to another company.

Only thing that defines one as productive is innovation. Many, instead, mistake that with what they only did today. For same reasons, virtual offices do not do well. Education is also inferior when virtual. Reading electronically also explains why so many cannot read more than a tweet. And then only want to be ordered what to believe.

**Posted by bbro** 10/31/2022 10:25 am

griff wrote:
Everybody has their own level of comfort. Pete is fine with zoom meetings etc... but my work with shorties is not effectively done remotely and honestly I hate being on screen it gives me the creeps.

Getting out of the country before the end of democracy would seem attractive unless you look at the growth of right wing populism throughout the West. We need to hold the line here.

I think this is something that a lot of companies are missing the point of. A lot of people in my profession prefer working from remotely because we're basically just working on our own anyways. I still would send a message to people instead of talking to them. It was a culture thing - if it wasn't something urgent, sending a message would let the person know you needed an answer, but they could do it on their time.

There was also a group of people who had to be isolated in the office because of the confidentiality of the work they did. They were basically coming to work to sit in a fishbowl that no one else could enter. It was dumb to force them back into the office.

But I also recognize that there are people who prefer working around people.

I think the company I work for has a nice balance. It's basically a work anywhere policy. There's people who never goo into the office because they are truly remote. There are others that go into the office when they feel like it, not because it's company mandated. It caters to both all 3 types of workers: 100% remote, hybrid, and 100% office.

**Posted by glatt** 10/31/2022 1:07 pm

I've been at the same firm for 30+ years and have built connections here during that time. It's not unusual at all for people in this place to be lifers like me. We know what to expect from one another and there is a congeniality and respect for one another. As well as high expectations.

We just had a town hall meeting last week (remote because there is no room large enough to house us all) and I learned that there have been roughly 200 hires since the beginning of the pandemic. I thought there were alot of new faces around, but to hear that number surprised me.

If the culture of the firm is built around relationships, then the 200 new hires need the opportunity to make connections with others in order to have a shot at advancing. That's really the only reason to be here in person. And I think it's a good reason. The firm may be able to continue on for 10 years based on the relationships the old timers have built, but it will basically wither away if new relationships are not formed.

The long term future of the place depends on the connections made.

**Posted by Flint** 10/31/2022 1:33 pm

Agreed with glatt-- no chance for new people to "integrate" unless done in person. Maybe this is not true for everybody, but I was once hired in a "batch" of remote analysts. We went on site ONCE for the general onboarding, got our laptops and went back home to jump in feet first. None of us really understood the job, which was mainly, as it turns out, networking and making side-deals. Because Sales sold something to the customer that wasn't exactly what they needed, we as the "interface analysts" were in the position to rig something together out of whatever work we could convince an engineer to do (and haggle for hours with our PM so the engineer would have hours on their timesheet to justify doing the work). We were supposed to fly back out to "shadow" some of the veteran people in our position, but this never happened. All of us struggled, and eventually we were all let go (also due to there not being as much work in the pipeline as they expected). In my experience, it was such a "people" job that expecting to be able to do without ever meeting any of the people in person was just too much to expect.

**Posted by bbro** 11/02/2022 1:23 pm

I think the success of working remotely depends A LOT on the company and people. I've been fully remote at my current company since February and I've integrated fine. I've never felt isolated and I've made lots of connections. There is no hesitation to ask groups for help or information. I don't know everyone across the company, but I wouldn't know them if we were in office anyways. I've been in an office of 800+ employees and didn't feel as included as I do in this company

If there isn't an environment of communication and good management, it's not going to work even if you are physically in the office.

**Posted by tw** 11/02/2022 6:43 pm

What is not seen does not exist. No innovation? It was not necessary. Not heard of others problems? No problem. I am working just fine. It's their problem that they have no contacts, learn nothing from peers, and cannot contribute to the only thing that makes profits ten years from now: innovation.

Rubbing elbows (especially with the new blood) is essential for innovation.

Since I am not wasting time advising other, learning of new problem, and discovering better ways of doing things, then I am being more productive. None of that wasteful stuff is impeding today's output.

**Posted by xoxoxoBruce** 11/03/2022 11:03 pm

**Posted by Flint** 11/04/2022 11:19 am

lol

**Posted by tw** 11/04/2022 1:39 pm

Better than rubbing elbows.

**Posted by tw** 11/06/2022 5:05 pm

A paper by Fort, Keller,Schott, et al examines innovation. Companies that locate manufacturing near their R&D centers produce more patents and citations. A less geographic distance between manufacturing and innovation people means more innovation happens.

Writing in the Wall Street Journal, Kota and Mahoney (2019) assert that “once manufacturing departs from a country’s shores, engineering and production know-how leave as well, and innovation ultimately follows. It’s become increasingly clear that ‘manufacture there’ now also means ‘innovate there’.”

That (not speculation from a spread sheet) defines profits many years later.

Why did HP want large hallways? Major source of HP's innovations happened there - before business school graduates such as Fiorina and Young started using cost controls to increase quarterly and annual profits.

If face-to-face interactions between production and innovation workers affect innovators’ output, then the geographic colocation of these activities may be critical, regardless of the firm boundary

When elbows are not being rubbed, then the real source of profits does not exist four and ten years later.

Last edited by tw (11/06/2022 5:06 pm)