Ask HN: Will “In Person” become the new luxury item?

11 points by mrharrison 5 years ago | 4 comments

I've seen many blog posts about how work has permanently gone remote and it's for the better. I have done both remote and in person, and believe hybrid is best. Allow workers to work remotely from time to time by adding it on to their vacation trip or WFH on Monday or Fridays. Human connection is very valuable and good for our health, as we have already seen remote can be negative for our health via zoom fatigue. I've also had more physical injuries working remotely, because I didn't get up and move as often. From a company perspective, costs savings are huge and they may only allow the most valuable employees to keep a physical desk on premises. All that being said, will in person become the new organic and remote become the new Monsanto? Extreme metaphor for comparison, but the comparison is meant to stir up some ideas/emotions.

drewnick 5 years ago |

Good question. We have an interesting situation developing, for sure. In Person will be valuable for the foreseeable future. While it is the pipe dream of HN crowd to be able to work from anywhere / WFH, there is still value in face to face meeting. I manage a cross-country team and can attest to the value of meeting In Person and bonding. Our meetings online are less effective.

In Person will still be very important until technology (4k cameras, better audio, etc) improve significantly.

giantg2 5 years ago | |

VR/AR would play a big role in moving to a more remote-friendly world as well.

uvw 5 years ago |

> I've also had more physical injuries working remotely

That's surprising to me. Why not take half an hour after lunch and go for a walk? Your commute is 10 seconds now that the distance between your bed and office desk is much smaller. Why not leave your desk and use that saved commuting time to go for a run, or a walk or lift some weights or do 7 min HIIT or unroll a yoga mat and do some yoga? You can always hop back on your chair and work till you fall asleep.

mrharrison 5 years ago | |

Instead of biking to work I walk 10 feet to my desk. Instead of walking to a meeting I stay at my desk and VC. Instead of walking to a co workers desk I stay at my desk and slack them instead. Surprisingly more movement is built in with office work.