Healthy Living

I am writing this blog with a throat and sinus infection. Just two weeks ago people in my office carried it, I had to go to office because it was the norm, the result, last week I took 3 days of leave and once I got better I went, and this week I am down again. Some virus is circulating. The COVID years were my healthiest, those who stayed clean were spared. I worked from home for a company that was efficient, (there were technical idiots in it mixing ReactJS Development with Rails, that’s another story,) but when it comes to work from home they got it spot on. So when it comes to healthy living, work from home wins.

Traffic

In work from home, I could think more. I could think in times I should worry about Chennai traffic, while people who are drunk drive freely, people get license not by passing driving exams, but by bribing the RTO (there is no other way). In my current office parking is crazy, and I have to go at odd times compromising my sleep. A person who is fully awake at 11AM, is forced to wake up at 5AM. Just to avoid traffic and parking issues.

I am using an electric car, so I am a bit lucky on transport cost, else it would cost me Rs 300 every day to go to my office, thanks to Modi’s inflation. What I can say is even this can be avoided.

Money

This was once in an office where I was working, suddenly a boy jumped besides me asking for Rs 200/-, I asked for what, then he said “boss, that(fucking) …… has her birthday, we must buy cake and treats for her birthday.” Bloody damn. If prostitution was legal in a big way why would these people have to run behind girls dogs behind a bitch I thought.

When it comes to work from home, you can simply say congratz or a thumbs up on WhatsApp and that’s it. Who cares who has the dream of fucking who?

But ya in my previous office there was bloody inefficient team that did want work from office, thankfully it did not materialize. We had to attend in person ceremonies of our manager, because there was no way to avoid it. Fortunately I was in a team that was a bit efficient. I did attend those functions because my project manager was a good person and not because we saw each other every day.

So in work from office you have to shed money for some fucking person just because the fucking person exists, and its no fault of you that one exists.

Team that does not know remote work

In my present office, people went on Pongal leave, out of the 5 or so days they were out, only 2 days were supposed to be holidays, I tried contacting a team member, but to no avail. Teams in my present company are stuck if they are out of office. I wonder if they will survive if they need to work as independent freelancers, launch a product that challenges us and so on?

Just a paying club

Even though people put scene they work 10, 11 hours a day, in reality I don’t think one can work, or code more than 3 - 4 hours a day. I have worked just 1 hour a day and have completed stuff on time. But yes I did use highly productive languages like Python, Ruby, Clojure and so on, with a rock solid test suite. I would in fact encourage a programmer to restrict himself to just 4 hours of work a day (including mindless, depressing and unproductive meetings), to be productive and steady on the longer run.

In software industry, if you claim more than 4 hours of work per day, then it means you do not know to use a computer that makes you highly productive.

In work from office it’s just a club you attend where your boss pays you for your socializing, that consumes the hours more than 4 that you claim to be working.

Leaders insisting on work from office

Why do leaders insist on work from office, even though software today is the transfer of data that can be done from anywhere? One simple reason. Control. Of course in companies where bosses are dumb, and I had to work from home, control was done by having no so transparent appraisal process, everyone in my previous office knew appraisal was a spoof, but in most office, the boss wants to be seen as a strong guy / gal, and it’s far easier to control you in an environment owned more by your boss than owned by you.

Office Rent

In city like Chennai, damn the office rent! Damn the greedy and lazy real estate holders. Who will pay so much? Instead of paying rent, just convert small part of your home to office just for this stupid Indian government compliance purpose and make all things remote. I.T industry is literally loosing billions because ignorant people have risen to the top, and they want to put scene by having large offices.