this post was submitted on 17 Jul 2023
51 points (100.0% liked)
AskBeehaw
2003 readers
1 users here now
An open-ended community for asking and answering various questions! Permissive of asks, AMAs, and OOTLs (out-of-the-loop) alike.
In the absence of flairs, questions requesting more thought-out answers can be marked by putting [SERIOUS] in the title.
Subcommunity of Chat
This community's icon was made by Aaron Schneider, under the CC-BY-NC-SA 4.0 license.
founded 1 year ago
MODERATORS
you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
view the rest of the comments
Things I like about working in an office:
Things that sucked:
I've been remote working since Covid first landed. I will happily trade all the things I liked about working in an office to never have to deal with the parts I don't like. If I can help it, I'll always choose remote work. I get so much done here at home in both work and home stuff. Oh I forgot to do laundry over the weekend, no biggie. Oh I need to marinate something, boom 10 minute break. Finished all my planned work for the day? Going to knock off early and go play a game or watch a show.
Remote work has transformed my life and I'll never go back to the office.
It's interesting because I don't mind some of those things. My commutes haven't been bad, they're 30 minutes out of my day and I enjoy the drive time. The small talk is minimal. And with noise I just put in earbuds.
My problem is more the uncomfy chair and desk setup, the lighting, the AC temp, just the general environment is not a productive one for me. Those things inhibit my work. Even just using the bathroom and having to tuck my shirt back in so I can walk back to my desk annoys me.
Think of the chair as an investment if you pay for it out of pocket. I also work for an engineering firm in an office environment and complained about the chairs for years. The safety guy in charge of ergonomic assessments would end up getting me a replacement chair that was identical to my previous chair so I finally gave up on trying that route. I eventually went to a commercial showroom and found a chair that I liked (was a $1200 chair with a 10 year warranty). I followed my company's written policy to get all of the approvals to bring in outside equipment (P&O, my supervisor and the safety guy). They all said I was being ridiculous, but the chair was non-refundable so I wanted to make sure I didn't get told no after the fact. I purchased my chair in 2019 and it was one of the best decisions I ever made. When everything shifted to home in 2020, I was one of the few people from my company that had proper office seating at my home office. A good chair that breathes (or doesn't) can also help with the A/C issues. My logical conclusion was $1200 on a chair is an investment in my health. My back feels better at the end of the day. I don't spend money on regular chiropractor visits. Assuming it lasts for at least 10 years since the warranty is 10 years, it's only $120/year.