I will name some the reasons I like to work from home and none involve a commute:

- I'm in an open office situation.

- Standing desk is awkward when everyone else is sitting.

- If I make a loud noise eating or sneezing or something like 5 people stare at me trying to figure out what is going on.

- I can't have twitch or a baseball game on in the background because nosey co-workers will walk by, see my screen, and comment or internalize that I'm a slacker because I like a running commentary instead of music when I work.

- Constantly being pulled aside for conversations that can be answered in a sentence or two via slack or email. (not having me in person forces people to think about and write down exactly what they want to say or ask before they actually say it)

- My home setup is significantly nicer than my office set up.

- Open office means I hear all about everyone's past or upcoming weekends, vacations, etc.

- I enjoy stretching or doing small exercises throughout the day, which is super weird to do while in the office (plus no yoga mat).

- People low key hate me because I am the only person with a mechanical keyboard and make lots of noise when I start typing a lot. (I've learned to ignore the not so subtle stare downs)

So probably my biggest thing is the open office problem. As a programmer, being in the middle of a group of chatty 20-30 somethings all day is not great for productivity.

Yeah, all but one of your complaints would be solved by a door[1]. Are there actually programmers who prefer the open-office setting? It's not like I magically stop socializing if you put me in an office.

The only thing worse than open-office for me is a setting where my back is to a space that people are walking through. I can't even have my back to an open doorway in an office (assuming the hallway outside is somewhat busy), or I spend much of my time in a low-grade fight-or-flight situation.

If you put me in an open office where people are regularly walking by behind me, you are probably getting (at best) 60% of my productivity in an office with a door. Actually, in this job market, you are getting 0% of my productivity because I will work elsewhere.

1 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Door

> Yeah, all but one of your complaints would be solved by a door

most places if you close the door your office is cut off from the nearest thermostat, so you get too hot or too cold.

...assuming your office was even a reasonable temperature to start with. and that the HVAC is working that day. and that your office mate isn't some 70 year old who is cold all the time but can't just put on a sweater.

Well also, my preferred attire (work or otherwise) is barefoot+gym shorts+shirtless, I would enjoy nothing more than consecutive full days without human contact during the week, the ability to fart and pick my nose without hesitation, and not having to worry the bathroom stalls are full when I need to take a shit, but I realize most of those are unreasonable to ask of an office so I left them off the list. However, those are more reasons unrelated to an open office I would prefer to work from home on the regular.

You forgot climate control too. Office buildings always seem to have their HVAC poorly calibrated and controlled by some mysterious ghost.

There are so many reasons... I think you either get it, or you don't.

>Are there actually programmers who prefer the open-office setting?

Yes, I prefer it. I can very easily drown out everyone and everything in the room by simply listening to music when I need to, and I like the proximity to everyone else that the open office provides.

> Are there actually programmers who prefer the open-office setting? It's not like I magically stop socializing if you put me in an office.

Me. I like having the background activity and don't find it distracting. I've only done it in small group / company settings though.

Good luck finding a decent employer that'll give you an office with a door these days.

Open office plans are awful, just as bad as cube farms where they mix their yacking sales people in with engineers. I've spent brief time working in many different office layouts and none of them were places I'd like to work. One startup had this guy with the loudest mechanical keyboard I've ever heard. I was in the complete diagonal opposite side of the office and it sounded like brief bursts of ping pong. It was the most distracting thing of any of the offices I've been in. Not one single office I ever went to did the right thing and gave engineers their own office with a door.

The last line stands out. I have office friends that I love but sometimes if I get to work and see a certain person hanging around I know my productivity is going to drop due to chatter. I enjoy the chats! It's just that I need to get stuff done.

>Constantly being pulled aside for conversations that can be answered in a sentence or two via slack or email.

Personal pet peeve: questions that I answer by literally pulling up the commit message for the last commit that changed the line in question.

I work from home because I work better on a quiet environment like you and I agree with every other of your points.

I guess there are different kind of personalities, some people prefer working from an office others prefer working from an Starbucks. I have a coworker who prefers the library.

My ultimate "office perk" is no meetings over skype/hangout/zoom/gotomeeting.

https://twitter.com/woloski/status/605788426546221060

> not having me in person forces people to think about and write down exactly what they want to say or ask

This alone is a major productivity booster

It basically forces the person to do a small amount of rubber duck debugging before they ask a question or comment on something. Catches a lot of issues before the person actually hits enter on their slack message or email.

What can you really concentrate on when there is commentary somewhere oO?!

There is a fucking difference between commentary and music and radio btw.

I am a high performer (because my boss is a dick...I'm my boss) and I work everyday with a twitch stream of Hearthstone running on my laptop. It's background noise that helps me focus. When I need a little break, I tune in and pay attention.

Try not to project your own limitations on to other people!

There are enough studies which tells you that we are not good in multitasking. It costs you more resources.

Depends on what I'm doing. If I'm grinding through stuff I know exactly how to do, but can't automate away, I find having something like people talking or an audiobook I know well running in the background actually helps me focus. It occupies just enough of my mind that I don't feel tempted to get distracted by the internet.

I have a whole range of preferred noise depending on the task, from dead silence for hard, tricky problems up to what I just described for easy but important detail work. I even know exactly what kind of music I want to listen to for different tasks, and whether or not I want vocals in it.

There is no one-size-fits-all solution to what works for people.

I do the same thing. I can listen to talk radio and read a book at the same time. I get similar responses to what you have said here.

There's probably some relation between this and growing up with the TV on 100% of waking hours, even when no-one's watching (which is really common).

I can set my own hours. I don't have to commute. I can setup my home office exactly how I'd like it. I don't get distracted by non-work things at the office, such as loud noises or conversations not related to what I'm doing. I can also quickly prepare my own meals then and there, and play music or podcasts from my computer instead of using headphones. Honestly, it's a pretty amazing experience if you have people who knows how to work with a distributed team, namely being consistent about communication windows.

And for others, it gives them a chance to spend more time with their kids. Or live in a place that is far more relaxing and calm than wherever the office might be located.

I understand preferring to separate work from home, or being more productive at the office, but I don't understand people who don't understand why people like working from home. I don't mean to be offensive but it just doesn't seem that complicated to imagine some of the benefits people prefer.

The lack of commute is a huge part of the appeal. If the office is half an hour away (which really isn't that bad if you live or work outside of a city), and you work from home, you get a whole hour back every day. I don't think I would ever make it to the gym if I had a long commute.

At a previous job I worked from home 2-3 days per week. My commute was 45-60 minutes depending on traffic. When I worked from home, I'd actually start working when I'd typically head out the door and work until the time I'd typically get home. The company got more from me and I didn't have to endure the commute (or the wear-and-tear on my car with stop-go traffic).

Getting that time back in the evening, when needed, allowed me to schedule local appointments or meet a friend at a more reasonable time.

You may even save more than the hour commute. When I work from home I also eat lunch at home. Since I normally go out to eat just to get away from the office for a little while that's even more time before I get home vs. being done for the day when working from home. So the 10 hours out of my day when going to the office with a 1/2 hour commute becomes 8 1/2 hours.

i have a 25 minute bike commute and a gym at the office, so i am actually get at least a good hour of workout for free everyday which i really enjoy as its quality thinking time too.

What I want is flexibility.

I've worked in an office before, I work from home now. Really what I want is to work from home some days, in an office some days, all depending on my mood or schedule.

I recently watched the Ali Wong comedy special on Netflix and she really crystallized the major benefit of working from home that I could never put my finger on. Pooping in your own bathroom. I am 100% serious and not being glib at all. I want to poop at home and not in a bathroom I share with 100 people that can watch me coming and going and might try to chat with me while I wash my hands.

There's more to it than this. Your own bathroom is private, so you don't have to worry about going in there and there not being any stalls. You don't have to sit on the pot while someone else is right next to you, separated only by a flimsy partition where you can see their feet. You don't have to smell other peoples' crap odors. You don't have to use shitty one-ply sandpaper-ish toilet paper. You can install whatever toilet you like, instead of having to use whatever is there; you can even install a bidet if you want. You can keep it as clean as you like. You don't have to worry about someone else peeing on the toilet lid or smearing their crap on it. You can dry your hands with a real towel, instead of shitty sandpaper-ish brown paper. Your house might have a bathroom fan installed. You can set the temperature however you like.

I really, really, really hate the bathroom at my current workplace.

That, and the snacks I buy and put in my fridge are better than the free snacks at work.

Also I can take a shower in the middle of the day. Which is the best time.

> Also I can take a shower in the middle of the day. Which is the best time.

I'm intrigued. Why is that the best time?

I work from home and a shower can be an incredibly helpful way to take a break from the computer and think about technical problems. I imagine it's a bit like meditation.. Being able to do this at the right time is key.

Showers can be a great "ideas that magically solve your problem" catalyst.

That was really mostly the case in the cold of winter.

And I can take my ~4pm quick nap to recharge and reset.

We have showers at the office, but I can just as easily walk home and take a shower and then head back to work.

I've recently swapped a short commute (15 min walk) 5 days a week for working from home 2 or 3 days a week with a 1 hour commute (5 min drive, 10 mins at station, 30 mins on train, 15 min walk).

At the moment after a couple of months I still rather enjoy the commute - helps that it is scenic (along coast and then across Forth Bridge into Edinburgh) and I can always get a seat.

Edit: Getting a house in the country, even relatively close to Edinburgh, that has decent Internet access speed was very difficult and quite stressful as you can't really know what speed you are going to get until after you move in.

Perhaps is it because you actually have an office, with a door? I hate driving in sometimes because I know I am being forced to waste an hour of my life in traffic to sit in an open floor plan to be distracted for 8 hours and produce minimally quality work, only for me to have to go home and work some more to actually get the job done.

"Well sounds like you should get a new job" people always retort -- nope sorry, this open floor plan bullshit has permeated everywhere, and I have no desire to move to the west coast.

Nope semi-open floor plan office. A totally open floor plan would be annoying, but even when I worked in that kind of office, I still preferred to be at the office for work.

>this open floor plan bullshit has permeated everywhere, and I have no desire to move to the west coast.

Um, what does the west coast have to do with it? In fact, isn't it even worse over there? It seems like that's where this stupid open-office fad started.

If there's some region where open offices are not the norm, someone please tell me so I can start making plans to move there.

Sure, the commute plays a role. You know what plays a bigger role? The peace and quiet to actually focus instead of the stress-inducing noise, motion, and interruptions of an open office. Remote days are my most productive and least stressful days.

I like working in the office too, working from home is boring as hell and I did it for years. But it s the commute, it kills the little free time you have in the evenings. You get back home later and much more tired.

I still choose to work from home one day every week or two in order to take care of various other stuff like going to the dentist or checking up the car.

We have a flexible WFH system, in that we can work one or two days from home a week as desired/required.

It's a 20-25 minute commute to work, and I really notice the difference in the quality of my day when I work from home. I can work, go to the gym, make food, do chores, and still have time to do something worthwhile after work hours.

When I commute, all of the little things end up and my day feels so much shorter.

That said, I like going into the office, even if it is cubicle land. Spontaneous design conversations are valuable. If people are having a problem, I can hear it, and jump in if I can contribute. It would be challenging to be 100% remote in my role, which involves communication, mentoring, and team organization in additional to technical work.

If I lived two blocks from the office, I'd have the best of both worlds :)

I like working from my home. I don't understand people that like working from an office.

Possible confounding variable: I hate commuting and being in less privacy and comfort than I am at home. Perhaps, in actuality, people like convenience and comfort?

I too prefer working from the office, for the most part. My commute is easy. My setup at work is far better than at home.

However, if I could not be in the office, that means I could find a mountain cabin in the winter, and go ski after work, or a beach cabin in the summer, or just go travel the world, while still working during the day.

These are the kinds of benefits that are extremely desirable.

I think I could get behind a nice remote mountain cabin for working. Or a sail boat.

IIRC much of tech.coop was developed from a sailboat.

I live less than five minutes from my office.

I make a point of making myself available at the office a couple of hours per day, but I vastly prefer -- and am more productive -- working from my office at home. Fewer distractions, less noise, and I can work when I want. For somebody that's severely ADHD and has always been a night owl, it makes a huge difference.

I still prefer getting some face time to quickly talk through some issues, which is why I do physically go in to the office most days (and I'm about to head there now), but if I had to choose to go strictly one direction or the other, I'd choose remote work without any question.

For me it's 100% the commute. I like my office, and have zero problems with open plans or noise (my office is quiet, but I don't mind noise). What I despise is driving. My commute is not very long (< 30 minutes), but every moment of driving sucks the life out of me. I will never understand people who like cars and/or driving.

My office is in the city, and unfortunately living within walking distance is not really an option. Plus, if I ever change job the odds of being nearby the new job are not that high anyway.

>I will never understand people who like cars and/or driving.

Driving is fun!

Driving in traffic, not so much...

Same, but I also get free food at the office and other nice perks.

Also, I like my coworkers so coming to work seems like playing sometimes.

I like working from my office even though I have a long commute. It's because I have a toddler at home, so it's hard to get work done there. The commute is the most peaceful time of my day and allows me to get a lot of studying or side-project work done.

Ding ding ding. Got it in 1. My commute is actually pleasant (nice days I bike 50 minutes each way, bad days I train 35 minutes each way) but I'll still trade that time for other things a lot of the time.

If I had to drive to work I'd be even more into WFH.

I agree. I like a clear separation of activities. I dislike phone communication and like to discuss ideas in person and/or on a whiteboard if at all possible.

On the other hand my commute is 11 minutes. So that makes it easy.

I work from home and love it, but a large part of that, as you theorize, is the lack of commute.

If I lived within walking distance of a job I'd otherwise enjoy, I'd strongly consider it.

Right, this isn't the only reason but is the biggest reason for me.

Have you tried both?

Yes. I used to write and sell shareware from home. If I ever did something like that again I'd rent a desk in a shared workspace.