Why do companies frown upon WFH?
In my exp, most people work hardly 4-5 hours everyday when they work from office. Office also presents lot of distractions and opportunities to slack. Whereas, WFH almost always means people overcompensate.
Everyone is different. There are a lot of people who don't have good spaces to allow themselves to work effectively from home, and there are definitely people who don't have the discipline to work from home effectively. On the flip side, like you mention, there are some who are brilliant at it. The tech industry in general is starting to understand this and has become more flexible with different arrangements, with the understanding that there is rarely a one size fits all solution. That said, there are also some older school companies / managers who want to see you in order to believe you're working, and that hold back adoption of more progressive working practices.
Our company is great with wfh
+1
Yes, heard good things about salesforce
My concern is that lack of trust is because of cultural shifts. I have seen tech culture deteriorate significantly over past 20 or so years. Back in the day, you were (at least I was) treated like adults. It feels like people valued your opinions. Nowadays it seems there are only two kind of people at the tech companies: MBA types - people who are full of BS and leetcode masters who are happy to work for MBA types and who infact aspire to be one of them someday. How can there be trust between them?
I find a balance of both keeps me sane.
You should be able to WFH on days when you need to. Maybe your kid is sick, or you have a contractor coming to your home, or whatever. But here is why people prefer majority of time in office: Easier to collaborate in the office and build trusting relationships with coworkers and a good team environment. You can’t undervalue relationships because they can help get your ideas made, persuade others to buy-in, makes you more comfortable reaching out for help and vice versa, practice mentoring skills, and get mentoring from others. You say you only work 4-5? If you’re not counting meetings, you’re forgetting that meetings are actually important to getting things done, validate that you’re working on the right things, and have a say in decisions that get discussed and made. Not sure what your job is but in my line of work, the impromptu group discussions that happen because someone has an idea or gets stuck and wants to brainstorm out loud are so valuable. The solutions that happen when you don’t plan for it. The ones you overhear and then jump in to help can change their solutions as well. You wouldn’t know about those at home, you’d just miss out. This last one is a personal one but: I’m an extrovert, so WFH everyday would make me hate my job. It would be so boring and lonely. The same goes for the office - if I ever join a company in which so many people WFH that I’m essentially alone in the office, I’d leave.
I’m not advocating WFH everyday. I’m also allowed to work from home once in a while. I’m merely questioning why many companies frown upon it. Even with events like Covid19 outbreak, corporate america is divided on letting people work from home. I know some are encouraging wfh now but it’s only out of necessity. Btw, when I say only 4-5 hours I’m dialing out all the non sensical meetings impromptu or otherwise, lunch/coffee breaks and time spent in gossip etc. I do agree that collaboration is important and for certain roles it is extremely important. For an average individual contributor (engineering), office presents too many distractions everyday. One or two days WFH can actually get your productivity up. I’m a manager and I believe my team is more productive on days they are wfh. They are more engaged and forthcoming about what they are doing. I think having good team environment and relationships with team are important but I’m not sure that’s all of it. At the end of the day, team has a common goal and if people should be able work towards it without need for constant validation from other team members.
From the company perspective, it’s harder to create a team environment when the dynamic is all built over text and not face-to-face communication. Or when some folks are WFH but others are in the office - it causes a split.
You are clearly not in engineering where most people are introverts.
Because most people are not productive at home
This is true, I’m one of those people lol. I never use my WFH days. If managers started asking for reports at the end of the day with results, I then would want to start performing better while at home.
I’m much more productive at home. I have an extra hour (commute) and far fewer distractions than at the office. If I’m working on a really challenging project I almost have to work from home for really focused coding. I also like that I can stop looking at the clock and thinking about when to leave; I can just code code code until I’m done.
I don’t think there will still be offices in 10-20 years. Think of the costs that companies could save. And all these commutes. It’s madness. Companies are just trying to delay the inevitable.
Most ppl work hardly 4-5 hrs everyday? Dang.... I haven’t dont that since I left GM
Being 12 hours at work doesn’t mean you are productive for all those hours. I should have qualified my original post that 4-5 hrs is the effective productivity.
I fully agree. I feel more tired WFH. It does seem while working from home, you try harder to prove you are actually working, while being in office already does the proof part.
This is the answer right here ^