Eden2
Laurie VossI think I speak for all of us when I say get fucked, Sam https://fortune.com/2023/05/05/openai-ceo-sam-altman-remote-work-mistake-return-to-office/
flere-imsaho 🇺🇦@seldo and of course it's all about the feeling of being in control, and nothing else.
Paul Armstrong@seldo For the most part, you only hear the C-levels in favor of everyone returning to the office. 🤨
I've heard more junior people feel they would benefit from in-person, but beyond that level, the desire to return is negligible – and believed that it would greatly reduce productivity.
Logan McGrath 💅@paularmstrong @seldo management at $work has explicitly stated that they expect us to be less productive now that we’ve returned to office, but it’s ok because it’s about fostering $culture
suldrew 🚲🏳️🌈@seldo he truly is useless
Jeremy KahnSo Say We All.
Old Man Mike@seldo why do people keep giving a fuck what technobros say? Oh yeah, money.
Sapphic HazardI already knew that dude was a bit of a doofus, but wow.
The corp that I work for has adopted a hybrid structure: Desks in the office for those that want to park at them, but everybody else is WFH, and here have been the effects:
1. Less sick time used; Less vacation time used
2. Higher productivity
3. Higher morale
I get how a guy who trying to sell AI as an employee replacement might not find those to be factors in its favor, but he comes off as the kind of guy who drinks his own Flavor-Aid.
@seldo oh also 4. Lower real estate costs. Kinda a big one.
Also what I suspect amounts to the reason why Apple, and other companies in their position have so strongly opposed WFH: They have a new building to rationalize the cost of, and no cost-effective way to get rid of it.
Dominic 🇪🇺 🏳️🌈 🇺🇦@seldo I said what I had to say last time this nonsense came up: https://findthethread.postach.io/post/working-from-home-is-good-actually
Working From Home Is Good, Actually
It’s an obvious time for people to think and write about working from home. I did my own bit yesterday, and today Kevin Roose joined in with this article in the New York Times, with the clickbaity title "Sorry, but Working From Home Is Overrated". Mr...
Jhooper@seldo Isn't he quoting Regan when he ended the school bussing program that was trying to integrate schools? Because that was shut down predicated on a lie too.
Luke Shiru (he/him)@seldo I don't know if you are speaking for all of us, but definitely you're talking for me. Fuck Sam! WFH is great 
Tormod HalvorsenSo, the article was paywalled, why I did not read it. However, it seems from the opening blurb that he is talking in the context of "start-ups"?
From that POV, I think he might have a point. 12 or so people in a new company working to get it started, I imagine a shared location would be beneficial in that context.
Most of us do not work in start-ups, so can disregard advice on how to run one.
Anders EknertRight, and as they all collectively eat and sleep there, you might argue they are in practice "working from home" :)
Joking aside, the reason for choosing this crunch culture is a willingness to gamble that 1) it is a temporary arrangement and 2) it may provide a significant pay-day to compensate for the inconvenience.
@airwhale the price is “inconvenience” only in the best scenario. More commonly it’s your mental or even physical well-being.
Johan Halse@airwhale @seldo @anderseknert I toggled Reader mode on my phone to bypass the paywall. They interviewed Keith Rabois too, so obviously the journalists were looking for work-hard-neglect-your-family-rah-rah assholes to speak to. Rabois can get fucked too.
Hardcore hacker, you! That worked? That is so bad... :)
Thanks, I will try the same, but I guess it won't change my mind about hybrid and remote work.
@airwhale no, it’s not the sort of article that changes minds. Just more of the zeitgeist: we have the money, we’re in charge, the good days are over and you should go back to fearing for your job and sitting where we can see you
Yeah, just read it, using your tip - thanks. It's about the valuation, and my guess is that the majority of his team hold something close to nothing of the total value.
strwbrryJen@seldo theres something ironic about this, like Mr tech bro, the whole point of your tech in this case is like to let the peeps do less work. i would say wtf but i think this is the capitalists being capitalists
kikebenlloch@seldo I guess only companies that do it wrong need to roll back. I'm amazed at specific examples I know of and how, whenever the workers have lunch together on a special occasion, you couldn't tell which were hired before/after RW became so widespread within the company. Some members of the staff almost never meet face to face daily but work perfectly fine together nonetheless. You either work well or do not. 100% remote or 100% face-to-face have nothing to do with that.
Dino Dini@seldo He can't control his creation anymore, so instead he wants more control over people. Classic.
J.H.Noyes@seldo I think offices are safest when employees are able to sue for preventable workplace injuries like SARS-CoV-2 infection.
Dan Ciruli
EVHaste@seldo I’ll believe that an executives concern over “creativity loss” is genuine when they start paying creative roles like artists and writers fairly.
Ron DeSantis's BDE@seldo
Really amazing how many puff pieces CEOs buy in Fortune.
Sam Altman isn't in touch with workers. OpenAI has 706 employees.
Why are his opinions "news?"
Oh, right, because he bought ad space in the form of an "article."
Farbs@seldo My one complaint about fireside chats is nobody ends up in the fire.
arensb@seldo "He also worries some might be freeing up time by using A.I. tools like OpenAI’s ChatGPT and GPT-4—time that his company isn’t utilizing."
Area CEO troubled at the thought of employees eating their own dog food.
Area CEO troubled at the thought of employees eating their own dog food.
Newtman@seldo he truly is a terrible human being
⛈️ Information ⛈️@seldo "My monthly service fee for an AI chatbot that I claim can basically run your company via text interface? That's money well spent. Finding workers at a fraction of the cost and being safer and more diverse? That's a failed experiment, the only time people are really working is with face time."
Ego Placebo 🏳️🌈🇦🇺@seldo
Personally I'd love to WFH, but instead I work alone in an office 5 minutes from home, occasionally interacting with co-workers in other locations via email and phone, which is like almost the same thing except with the inconveniences of:
* leaving my house
* taking a packed lunch (or buying)
* limited kitchen facilities (mw, sink & fridge)
* noise disruptions from neighbouring offices including music lessons (noise cancelling headphones not particularly helpful)
* occasional ppl wandering in looking for some nearby business
* leaky toilet that doesn't flush properly
* crappy heating and cooling
The only upsides for me, as far as I can see, is I am in a convenient location for very rare meetings with clients.
I firmly believe the only reason I am required to work in this office instead of at home is so that my boss can pop in randomly (average once a week) to check in on things because he seems to prefer face to face than electronic communications, and he wouldn't feel comfortable dropping in at my home.
The brief (in my location) period of lockdown when I had to work from home for a few weeks, I definitely feel I was more productive because I was in a more comfortable environment (not to mention using a more powerful computer)