This might seem like a dumb rant to have but I just started a new job, and I asked my boss about the Work From Home policy and basically, there is no work from home, at all. I'm bummed out because I got into a really good WFH rhythm at my last job and now I have to go into the office every day, even though I am stationed in a different city than the main company office anyway. I'm already remote! Why do I have to pay to come into work remotely anyway!? Argh.

Mostly people don't really get benefits of remote work for employee & employer. Same issue at my job. They now introduced a new policy which allows WFH 2x/month and think this is something revolutionary.

I think it's also a trust issue - which makes me really sad.

Also they don't get working with different distributed teams from one central office is also remote work.

The employer doesn't have benefits from WFH, and there are more than enough IT folks eager for jobs so that accomodating to them just isn't necessary.

I found it mostly trust issues and not understanding what developer job is about.

@Fast-Nop can’t confirm. At least in my bubble companies are struggling to find good people. And allowing remote allows to have a bigger radius when looking for developers. Also WFH as a goodie (means not remote-only but on-demand) pays in a lot in employee satisfaction.

If wfh is so important, doesn't that sound like something to mention during interviews or whatever, not after accepting the job?

@onkelhotte they aren't struggling. What they are struggling with is finding good people who are willing to work for peanuts. The rest of difficulties is caused by incompetent HR that takes weeks until the interview.

@Fast-Nop ok true

But how can they know if you're working if they aren't looking over your shoulder? 🤔

I'm in Colorado and my boss is in California. I've only met him in person a half dozen times. The official company line is that working from home is not allowed, but depending the inclination of your management to look the other way, you can do it here.

But the fear-based belief that people aren't working unless they're under your nose is outmoded, and toxic.

@Fast-Nop I mean if you manage it right it can lower your office rent

@jeeper only if you rent so small that it's not even possible for the whole team to be on-site, and nobody will do that. Besides, that ruins the team, and the lone coder who works without team is not really in demand these days anymore. That was in the golden 80s or so.

Or, if you really offshore and don't give a damn about the team as a whole, then it makes much more sense to hire remote workers from Eastern Europe. They are quite good (way above India) and still inexpensive.

@Fast-Nop meh. Let’s say you rent a place for your support staff, with a conference room for your devs once a month. That’s will usually be cheaper than renting a building with enough offices for everyone everyday. Plus you could do a virtual office with no face to face meetings, but still want English speakers/in country devs

I had a manager that asked me to come in at least 4 times a week. It would take me 3 hours each way. Basically a work day I'm traffic to spend a workday in the office.

The reasoning was team building and morale. Naturally then, when I came in I said some hellos and chatted people up.

I got scolded for not doing my job and being a distraction. The manager wanted people to come in and quietly stare at their monitors all day.

I asked him: "Then wtf is the point of coming in? How are we building morale if we can't even talk to each other in person."

I then got into the pattern of send WFH emails every morning and just not coming in.

After a couple of weeks of this, I decided to make the trek just to spend a day in the office.

When I arrived there was my manager sitting in an building by himself.

Everyone jumped on the WFH band wagon I started.

He said they had to quickly change their policy because they could not afford to lose the entire workforce at once.

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I'm gonna repeat question from before: why didn't you ask about remote work at the interview, especially if you're living far from the job offices?
Sounds like kind of question I'd ask and if they'd say they don't allow that, then I'd look for job bit closer home.

@mazabin my answer is that it started off as remote work acceptable. Then the managers changed.