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A comment on Programmers are most likely to work from home. Parent comment

Re:Programmers are most likely to work from home by chrisan on Wednesday April 12, 2017 @01:16PM (#14099691)
My problem with an office or open office is not the noise, I can put on headphones and be fine, but is the actual interruptions.

In an open office it is obviously much easier for someone to just lean over or look around their monitor and grab your attention, but having a private office with a door is still prone to someone knocking (or walking in if not closed)

Working from home, people can email, chat, or leave a phone message and in any case when I am focusing none of those will bother me until I make an effort to check for messages. Emergency calls can get through by calling me twice.

The only reason I'd like to be in an office is often my workmates become friends, and I want to "hang out" with my friends

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Re:Programmers are most likely to work from home by dep_b on Wednesday April 12, 2017 @01:31PM (#14099805)
Let me tell you from my experience as somebody that didn't see the inside of an office for so long I forgot what bad coffee tastes like that the "headphones means go away" rule is not respected by significant others at home.

Actually just playing the music loud over speakers works much better. But YMMV depending on your music taste, mine is perceived as too intrusive by most.

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Re:Programmers are most likely to work from home by beat on Wednesday April 12, 2017 @02:55PM (#14100664)
I don't like wearing headphones for too long. But a nice hi-fi setup with vinyl while I'm working... that I love. And can't do it in the office.
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Re:Programmers are most likely to work from home by dep_b on Wednesday April 12, 2017 @03:05PM (#14100748)
Yeah that's absolutely the best. Some nice warm sounding big speakers on a low volume. Flipping the album once in a while. But alas, everything is still stuck in a crate in another country.
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Re:Programmers are most likely to work from home by Bluestrike2 on Wednesday April 12, 2017 @01:56PM (#14100046)
I wouldn't discount that last reason. There's some research suggesting that friendships between coworkers can greatly increase worker engagement, productivity, and satisfaction.[0][1][2] And a self-report study from LinkedIn suggests that workers perceive workplace friendships as beneficial for both themselves and their work, for what that's worth.[3] Of course, it can also blow up in your face and do the opposite, occasionally slowing down more productive workers as they match their speed to those of their less productive friends when it comes to individual work.[4] That study looked at fruitpickers, but it could be relevant to the tech industry as well.

Paradoxically, at least in the US, we're seeing a trend towards fewer workplace friendships and greater detachment.[5] I/O (industrial and organizational) psychologists have a lot of interesting interpretations for those trends. Almost across the board, employment is far more transitory today than in past decades, so there's less pressure to invest time in meaningful relationships at work. And we're so connected nowadays that it's easier than ever to preserve relationships in some form (regardless of whether they're preserved, or we just believe they are), so we don't feel the need to generate replacements as much.

Having done a lot of freelance work myself for a couple of years, if I'm being entirely honest with myself, this is one of the disadvantages at times. I enjoy getting to work on different projects, but there's something to be said for getting to focus on something with the same team. Even if open offices and talkative coworkers can get in the way at times :).

0. https://hbr.org/2013/07/we-all-need-friends-at-work

1. http://www.gallup.com/services/178514/state-american-workpla... (behind a form)

2. https://www.fastcompany.com/3051290/why-having-friends-at-wo...

3. https://blog.linkedin.com/2014/07/08/work-bffs

4. http://www.lse.ac.uk/website-archive/newsAndMedia/news/archi...

5. https://www.nytimes.com/2015/09/06/opinion/sunday/adam-grant...

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