There was a 40-day period this Spring when I spent most of my time in the NICU at a children’s hospital. The sights, sounds, and smell of the place will forever be etched into my memory. The wonderful people too. Important things happened there, things with real consequences for the rest of my life and the lives of everyone in my family. I made memories and one of my personal goals in life is to make memories. It was suffocating at times, but also deeply meaningful in the best way possible. There was a … heaviness to the whole experience.
When I left the NICU and returned to work, Walmart was publicly starting a major Return To Office (RTO) push. I have been Working From Home (WFH) since I joined Walmart. To make matters worse, Walmart has closed their one office in Southern California since I joined. I am now forced to think about the personal costs and benefits of working from home versus working from an office. And about the (im)practicality of potentially moving a family for a job.
Working from home feels lighter than having to go into an office. After the worst work meeting, I can walk to the living room and decompress. Actually I can’t do that anymore because the babies have taken over the living room. I now sometimes work from a shared office space. This is a very casual workspace.
Nothing in my professional life has ever been as heavy as my time in the NICU. But a few experiences have seemed to weigh more than others. This post is about the heaviest and lightest of my past work experiences, what worked and didn’t work, and what I’ve concluded. As usual, I ramble and navel gaze and probably humble brag. Hopefully this post is interesting nonetheless, maybe as a guided tour of a few interesting work experiences.
Kyoto
I have participated in a few exchange programs where I worked on projects overseas for months at a time. Being someplace unfamiliar all day, every day, triggers memory making. I find workplaces overseas heavier than workplaces in the US, generally speaking. There are less creature comforts. People’s bonds with their coworkers are deeper and matter more.
My most heavy professional experience was probably when I spent two months doing research at Kyoto University. I struggled in Kyoto. I definitely suffered from culture shock. This despite being relatively well traveled and having a personality that I’ve been repeatedly told is … Japanese-like. It was still an awesome experience. If you are a graduate student reading this, please look into programs in Japan managed by the NSF and JSPS.
My colleagues and I would spend 12+ hours a day in a relatively small shared office. It was summer time and, if I remember right, the office didn’t have air conditioning. My colleagues and I would always eat lunch together. We would also often hang out together after leaving the office. This wasn’t some mandated effort to be hospitable to the foreigner. This was just what was done.
I have fond memories of hanging out, chatting, and lighting fireworks by the Kamo river. I also remember hating having to spend so much time in the office and having to “show face” when I was in the office. I avoided being in the office when I could, and sometimes when I really shouldn’t have. I wasted a lot of time, often on purpose. My colleagues would take naps at the office. This was just what was done.
It’s hard to evaluate the whole experience, even in hindsight. The conditions were ripe for making really good connections, I think. I largely failed to do so. Were the conditions ripe for doing good work? I am not so sure. I am not impressed when I look back at the research work I did in Kyoto. But that is my own fault. Others in the lab did really good work, I think. Maybe if I had developed the strong connections that I could and should have, it would have led to worthwhile research years later.
I miss Kyoto. I miss that life. I also know I was not particularly happy when I lived it.
Could I repeat the experience now, with a family? Definitely not right now, with newborn babies at home. I think I could and would want to work for a few months in Japan later on. It could be good for the children. But it would certainly be difficult, for all of us. I’m not sure the 12+ hour days in office would be practical.
Uber
The most intense work environment I ever experienced was probably at pre-IPO Uber. I find tech workplaces, especially startup workplaces, heavier than other workplaces in the US, generally speaking. It might help that most of the workers were raised in other countries and are used to heavier workplaces.
I was part of the Marketplace Matching team that sat in the middle of the main Uber office at 1455 Market St. There was constant noise and motion. Like in Kyoto, people routinely worked long hours. A month after starting to work at Uber, I was on a flight to Cairo to inspect local Uber operations. Everything was go go go.
There was a culture to Uber in those days. It was brash. It was also smart. Especially on technical topics. Hard working. Productive. Berkeley is apparently the second best Civil Engineering department in the world. RAND is “the kind of place where everyone speaks in complete paragraphs.” But my colleagues at Uber impressed me more than my colleagues anywhere else. Have I offended everyone yet? Maybe the youthfulness or busyness of the place biased me. It certainly felt worlds away from the public policy research world I had come from.
If you’ve heard about the culture of Uber before, you probably heard negative things. A lot of those criticisms also ring true. As I hinted in another blog post, it felt like there were no adults in the room. The one woman I worked with closely felt and, I think, was marginalized. Meetings that should have been based on science were often boisterous. Quiet voices were ignored. There were cliques. There was occasional bad behavior. My coworker was laid off while he was at the hospital for the birth of his child. OK, now I’ve offended everyone.
The conditions were ripe for making strong connections that would fade the instant one person or the other left Uber, if that makes sense. The conditions were also ripe for doing really good work. Uber HQ was maybe the most productive place I ever worked. Or it felt that way. A lot of that was the people though. And the people were good because Uber had a good reputation in tech and because it paid well.
I don’t miss Uber. I am glad I worked there. It ended up being a valuable experience. That wasn’t guaranteed though. There were times when I worried I gave up a stable and good career for a place that could not have cared less about, well, people.
Somehow the idea of working at Uber now, with a bunch of newborn babies at home, seems less plausible than working in Japan. I’m sure there are some roles at Uber where I could work. But the lifestyle I was living is not feasible for a family man.
Industrious
My friends are building a startup while also raising a newborn. I am impressed. They work out of an office in a shared workplace in downtown Pasadena managed by Industrious. They gave me a key so that I can come work with them and escape a home now filled with the sounds of newborn babies. The space is gorgeous. The people are nice.
One of the best things about the Industrious space for me is the location. Time and energy wasted on commuting is minimal.
The space and the arrangement feel airy. I breeze in and out of the office when I feel like it. I chit chat with the cheery receptionist and with other people working out of the space. Everyone does likewise. There are characters there, like the quirky professional photographer and the tall, always dressed up business man. A lot of time is dedicated to eating or deciding where to eat. Maybe that’s just me. We never really move beyond exchanging pleasantries. Maybe that’s just me. Everything feels light. A lot of people I meet at this office say that they hate traditional, heavy office life. Their mental health is better working out of the Industrious space.
The conditions are great for light networking with people who may or may not work in a similar industry. It’s Pasadena so lots of creatives and people working with robots. I do have fairly strong connections to 4 or 5 people I work with at Walmart who obviously aren’t working with me out of the Industrious space. Slack helps.
The conditions in the shared office space are okay for doing serious work. I sometimes find the place distracting if I’m honest. On the other hand, the space is precious to me now. Working from my home, in its current state, is sometimes pointless. Flexibility in work arrangements is key when you have small children and, I think, even when you do not. I have found that I most productive, especially on the most meaningful stuff, when I work in several small bursts a day. Spend 2 hours in the Industrious space and knock out that prototype. Spend 2 hours at home and optimize that model. Spend 2 hours at Starbucks and write up that paper. Having the shared office space is great as it adds another convenient and comfortable place to go.
Conclusion
I can see why tech executives are pushing for RTO and yearn to build something like the atmosphere of Uber HQ circa 2018. This environment doesn’t work for everyone. Personally, I can’t imagine working at a place like that now.
I am glad I spent the time I did in Kyoto and at Uber. I sometimes miss those lives. Maybe I will return to a heavy work space in the future. Just not now.
Was I more productive in such a space? No, not as a general rule. A lot depends on other factors. I think I am most productive with much more flexible arrangements, especially now.
Most companies seem to be implicitly trying to compromise with their employees and moving towards a hybrid model where people must come into the office certain days of the week and WFH the other days. My first thought is that this might be the worst of both worlds. You get neither the energy of Uber HQ nor the freedom of the Industrious space. You have to live close to the office even if you don’t go there that often.
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