From Newsgroup: sci.electronics.design

_Worship me at the office altar: Why narcissistic leaders resist remote work_

<https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0749597826000300>

TL;DR:

"Long before the pandemic, the opportunity to work virtually helped to motivate and retain employees, who continue to show a clear preference to join and stay in organizations that offer flexibility. Given that remote and hybrid work are here to stay, and organizations face increasing challenges in attracting and retaining employees, flexible work arrangements are likely to become even more valuable. Our findings show that narcissistic leadersrCO cravings for power and status are key barriers to embracing this new workplace reality. The pursuit
of authority and glory may be an enemy of flexibility."
--- Synchronet 3.22a-Linux NewsLink 1.2

From Newsgroup: sci.electronics.design

On 6/22/2026 2:41 AM, Don Y wrote:

Originally sourced from
<https://www.nytimes.com/2026/06/22/opinion/office-work-wfh-bosses.html> [paywall]

_Worship me at the office altar: Why narcissistic leaders resist remote work_

<https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0749597826000300>

TL;DR:

"Long before the pandemic, the opportunity to work virtually helped to motivate
and retain employees, who continue to show a clear preference to join and stay
in organizations that offer flexibility. Given that remote and hybrid work are
here to stay, and organizations face increasing challenges in attracting and retaining employees, flexible work arrangements are likely to become even more
valuable. Our findings show that narcissistic leadersrCO cravings for power and
status are key barriers to embracing this new workplace reality. The pursuit of authority and glory may be an enemy of flexibility."

--- Synchronet 3.22a-Linux NewsLink 1.2

From Newsgroup: sci.electronics.design

On 6/22/2026 5:44 AM, Don Y wrote:

On 6/22/2026 2:41 AM, Don Y wrote:

Originally sourced from
-a-a <https://www.nytimes.com/2026/06/22/opinion/office-work-wfh- bosses.html>
[paywall]

_Worship me at the office altar: Why narcissistic leaders resist
remote work_

<https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0749597826000300>

TL;DR:

"Long before the pandemic, the opportunity to work virtually helped to
motivate
and retain employees, who continue to show a clear preference to join
and stay
in organizations that offer flexibility. Given that remote and hybrid
work are
here to stay, and organizations face increasing challenges in
attracting and
retaining employees, flexible work arrangements are likely to become
even more
valuable. Our findings show that narcissistic leadersrCO cravings for
power and
status are key barriers to embracing this new workplace reality. The
pursuit
of authority and glory may be an enemy of flexibility."

There are upsides and downsides to it. You have to be pretty
self-motivated to work in a home office for long periods without ending
up fucking off in your underwear half the day just because you can often
get away with it, not everyone loves their job so much that they easily
have this ability.

I like electronics and software and it's what I'd be doing anyway even
if nobody paid me so it's easier for me to get motivated than some.
It's also good to have a strong support network of family and friends
outside the office for largely remote work, I think a lot of people like
the socialization, gossip, "office politics" and even finding people to date/marry there.

I never really got the appeal of choosing from the pool of people
capital forced upon me vs. picking from the very large and perfectly
nice array of people out in the world whom I _don't_ share an employer
with. That's a mixed bag, the reality is some people are your "friends"
until the day they have to choose their mortgage and bank account vs not throwing you under the bus. Somewhat understandably they often tend to
choose option A. "We're all family here at the Olive Garden" yeah, not entirely.



--- Synchronet 3.22a-Linux NewsLink 1.2

From Newsgroup: sci.electronics.design

On 6/22/2026 12:37 PM, bitrex wrote:

On 6/22/2026 5:44 AM, Don Y wrote:

On 6/22/2026 2:41 AM, Don Y wrote:

Originally sourced from
-a-a-a <https://www.nytimes.com/2026/06/22/opinion/office-work-wfh- bosses.html>
[paywall]

_Worship me at the office altar: Why narcissistic leaders resist remote work_

<https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0749597826000300>

TL;DR:

"Long before the pandemic, the opportunity to work virtually helped to motivate
and retain employees, who continue to show a clear preference to join and stay
in organizations that offer flexibility. Given that remote and hybrid work are
here to stay, and organizations face increasing challenges in attracting and
retaining employees, flexible work arrangements are likely to become even more
valuable. Our findings show that narcissistic leadersrCO cravings for power and
status are key barriers to embracing this new workplace reality. The pursuit
of authority and glory may be an enemy of flexibility."

There are upsides and downsides to it. You have to be pretty self-motivated to
work in a home office for long periods without ending up fucking off in your underwear half the day just because you can often get away with it, not everyone loves their job so much that they easily have this ability.

You can't get away with it for very long; someone is still expecting
YOUR work to get one (and likely has SOME evidence to that effect).

For me, the more annoying aspect was realizing you can't just walk
to the stationery cabinet when you need a pad of paper. Or, the
Xerox machine to photocopy something. And *you* have to keep the
printer maintained, computer maintained, network maintained, etc.

[I don't drink coffee so am not affected by someone failing to
"make a new pot"]

I like electronics and software and it's what I'd be doing anyway even if nobody paid me so it's easier for me to get motivated than some.
It's also good to have a strong support network of family and friends outside
the office for largely remote work, I think a lot of people like the socialization, gossip, "office politics" and even finding people to date/marry
there.

The NYT article comments that:

"In fact, it turns out that people are most collaborative and creative
when they work remotely part of the week. They can use a day or two
at home to focus on individual deep work and reserve the rest of the
week for communication and collective problem-solving. ItrCOs well
documented that too much togetherness breeds groupthink (not to mention
germs). When we spend some time apart, we actually generate more
innovative ideas and make smarter decisions."

This seems to be consistent with my personal observations. Putting a bunch
of people in the same room and expecting a VARIETY of different ideas to come out AND BE PURSUED "seriously" doesn't seem to happen. Someone drives the decision making process as if it was their intent to "win".

By contrast, interacting individually with others -- over a longer period of time (something that many may not have the luxury or discipline to do) -- lets ideas "stew" for a while. This lets the bad and good aspects percolate out
to be more evident and addressable.

It's always amusing to see how few designers have any real interaction with their target markets! When I was interviewing blind "customers" as to the hypothetical issues that were most important to them, two points stood out (paraphrasing):
- "Don't make it LOOK blind."
- "Make it easy to clean."
The former addressing the fact that most products for that market skimp
on development cost by using OTS enclosures, etc. Nothing "sexxy". So,
any *sighted* individual noticing that plain aluminum prism that they
were carrying just assumed it was something that they "needed". No
genuine interest in what it might be as there likely would be if it
had a flashier appearance! (e.g., injection molded parts)

The latter addressing the fact that the user would likely be unaware
of what it looked like *today*. Oils and dirt accumulating from their
hands making that "sexxy" product look like it was old and decrepit.
(think: "wipe clean")

I never really got the appeal of choosing from the pool of people capital forced upon me vs. picking from the very large and perfectly nice array of people out in the world whom I _don't_ share an employer with. That's a mixed
bag, the reality is some people are your "friends" until the day they have to
choose their mortgage and bank account vs not throwing you under the bus. Somewhat understandably they often tend to choose option A. "We're all family
here at the Olive Garden" yeah, not entirely.

I find control over my time to be the most important criteria in a "job"
(or any task). E.g., having an "appointment" at a defined time is a real nuisance to me as *it* constrains what I can do in that temporal vicinity. Weekly meetings? How is that a good use of a TEAM's time? Does anything really get decided or is it just a chance to force people into the same
room at a particular time?

It's not just *when* but also *how* my time is spent. I'd much rather
invest in learning about some tool/technology that I think has value to
me, personally (vs. the employer or client) than to do things in some
manner *imposed* by others.

[I had a 9-to-5 while in school that had me bringing up kit we were subcontracted to build for another company (a diagnostic computer
intended for use on the flight line -- explosion proof, etc.).
Each time I resolved an issue, I had to fill out a multipart form
(carbons) describing the symptoms, how I identified the source of the
problem and how I resolved it and verified compliance -- along with
how much time (in tenth hours) it took for each of these tasks.
And, place any parts that were replaced in the envelope that formed the
back page of the form.

I started adding another line to the form: "Time to fill out this damn
form!"

My boss approached me, some time later, and told me not to worry about
the paperwork... clearly aware that I was unhappy with it!]
--- Synchronet 3.22a-Linux NewsLink 1.2

From Newsgroup: sci.electronics.design

On 6/22/2026 1:09 PM, Don Y wrote:

By contrast, interacting individually with others -- over a longer period of time (something that many may not have the luxury or discipline to do) -- lets
ideas "stew" for a while.-a This lets the bad and good aspects percolate out to be more evident and addressable.

I spent an inordinate amount of time trying to come up with formal
terminology (this, IMO, being one of the hardest and most important
things to address in a design; if folks don't know what a watchamacalit
is, then they'll never be able to follow your descriptions/explanations).

One of the key concepts in my (object-oriented, capability-based)
design is a "reference" to an object (that also carries the capability).
It's not a "reference" in the C++ sense. It's not an *address*.
Or, a symbolic *string* (like a pathname).

It's more like a file descriptor -- that makes sense only to the task
holding it. And, of course, each task can have a "file descriptor 1"
so "1" is meaningless outside of the task's context.

It's portable. It's unforgeable (unlike a pathname). It doesn't rely on
any external mechanisms (e.g., ACLs) but is self-contained. it is managed entirely within the kernel -- with the cooperation of other kernels that
may eventually have to interact with it (regardless of "where" the referenced object is currently "backed")

I finally settled on the nebulous term "handle". But, even that fails to address names for each of the implementation levels behind it (which are necessary to name when discussing the internals of the code).

E.g., is "123" the handle? Or, the 123rd entry in the object table
for this task? Or... And, what's the server-side of it called??
--- Synchronet 3.22a-Linux NewsLink 1.2

From Newsgroup: sci.electronics.design

On Mon, 22 Jun 2026 02:41:44 -0700, Don Y
<blockedofcourse@foo.invalid> wrote:

_Worship me at the office altar: Why narcissistic leaders resist remote work_

<https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0749597826000300>

TL;DR:

"Long before the pandemic, the opportunity to work virtually helped to motivate
and retain employees, who continue to show a clear preference to join and stay >in organizations that offer flexibility. Given that remote and hybrid work are >here to stay, and organizations face increasing challenges in attracting and >retaining employees, flexible work arrangements are likely to become even more >valuable. Our findings show that narcissistic leadersA cravings for power and >status are key barriers to embracing this new workplace reality. The pursuit >of authority and glory may be an enemy of flexibility."

Goggle this too:

working from home alone depression


John Larkin
Highland Tech Glen Canyon Design Center
Lunatic Fringe Electronics
--- Synchronet 3.22a-Linux NewsLink 1.2

From Newsgroup: sci.electronics.design

john larkin <jl@glen--canyon.com> Wrote in message:r

On Mon, 22 Jun 2026 02:41:44 -0700, Don Y<blockedofcourse@foo.invalid> wrote:>_Worship me at the office altar: Why narcissistic leaders resist remote work_>><https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0749597826000300>>>TL;DR:>>"Long before the pandemic, the opportunity to work virtually helped to motivate>and retain employees, who continue to show a clear preference to join and stay>in organizations that offer flexibility. Given that remote and hybrid work are>here to stay, and organizations face increasing challenges in attracting and>retaining employees, flexible work arrangements are likely to become even more>valuable. Our findings show that narcissistic leadersA cravings for power and>status are key barriers to embracing this new workplace reality. The pursuit>of authority and glory may be an enemy of flexibility."Goggle this too:working from home alone depressionJohn LarkinHighland Tech Glen Canyon Design CenterLunatic Fringe Electronics

I preferred working from home. I didnt have to do other people's
bs. And there were less interruptions.

Cherrs
--


----Android NewsGroup Reader---- https://piaohong.s3-us-west-2.amazonaws.com/usenet/index.html
--- Synchronet 3.22a-Linux NewsLink 1.2

From Newsgroup: sci.electronics.design

On 6/23/2026 1:37 PM, Martin Rid wrote:

I preferred working from home. I didnt have to do other people's
bs. And there were less interruptions.

IME, most folks liked the freedom to work from home -- though
they may not have liked the "forced isolation" that the pandemic
imposed (i.e., visiting neighbors was avoided for much the same
reasons).

As bitrex said, many people rely on "work" (sadly) for their social
life. Or, to "get away from the wife and kids". (These people
have problems that a work schedule will never solve; they're just
avoiding those hard issues...)

I've never seen anyone abuse the "privilege" as they know it
(nowadays) can be revoked in a heartbeat. Enjoy being able to
schedule your OTHER life activities without the fixed 9-5 block
of time chopping up your day? Then, maybe make damn sure you
don't give anyone an excuse to take away that capability!

And, with cell phones, you can always be tethered to your
workmates -- voice OR email/text (not the case decades ago).

One advantage that this "distance" has is that it removes the
immediacy of interactions (much like email does vs. voice
conversation). You can stew on a question for some time
before composing your reply; you're more likely to have
considered more aspects of each response instead of just
"shooting from the hip".

[I got rid of my business phone to avoid interruptions from
clients and prospective clients: "Hey, you're getting PAID to
bullshit on the phone, MY time is coming out of MY pocket!"

It also took some discipline to resist the inevitable "ball park
estimates that clients are so known to request: "Type up some
ideas as to what you want and I'll comment on them -- and EXACTLY
them -- so 3 months from now when you selectively remember PART
of this conversation, I can present you with a copy of the
ENTIRE conversation, including the parts you are selectively
ignoring!"]
--- Synchronet 3.22a-Linux NewsLink 1.2

From Newsgroup: sci.electronics.design

On Tue, 23 Jun 2026 16:37:54 -0400 (EDT), Martin Rid <martin_riddle@verison.net> wrote:

john larkin <jl@glen--canyon.com> Wrote in message:r

On Mon, 22 Jun 2026 02:41:44 -0700, Don Y<blockedofcourse@foo.invalid> wrote:>_Worship me at the office altar: Why narcissistic leaders resist remote work_>><https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0749597826000300>>>TL;DR:>>"Long before the pandemic, the opportunity to work virtually helped to motivate>and retain employees, who continue to show a clear preference to join and stay>in organizations that offer flexibility. Given that remote and hybrid work are>here to stay, and organizations face increasing challenges in attracting and>retaining employees, flexible work arrangements are likely to become even more>valuable. Our findings show that narcissistic leadersA cravings for power and>status are key barriers to embracing this new workplace reality. The pursuit>of authority and glory may be an enemy of flexibility."Goggle this too:working from home alone depressionJohn LarkinHighland Tech Glen Canyon Design CenterLunatic Fringe Electronics

I preferred working from home. I didnt have to do other people's
bs. And there were less interruptions.

Cherrs

The physical presence of other people really changes things.
Brainstorming works much better in person.


John Larkin
Highland Tech Glen Canyon Design Center
Lunatic Fringe Electronics
--- Synchronet 3.22a-Linux NewsLink 1.2

From Newsgroup: sci.electronics.design

On 6/22/2026 4:09 PM, Don Y wrote:

On 6/22/2026 12:37 PM, bitrex wrote:

On 6/22/2026 5:44 AM, Don Y wrote:

On 6/22/2026 2:41 AM, Don Y wrote:

Originally sourced from
-a-a-a <https://www.nytimes.com/2026/06/22/opinion/office-work-wfh-
bosses.html>
[paywall]

_Worship me at the office altar: Why narcissistic leaders resist
remote work_

<https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0749597826000300>

TL;DR:

"Long before the pandemic, the opportunity to work virtually helped
to motivate
and retain employees, who continue to show a clear preference to
join and stay
in organizations that offer flexibility. Given that remote and
hybrid work are
here to stay, and organizations face increasing challenges in
attracting and
retaining employees, flexible work arrangements are likely to become
even more
valuable. Our findings show that narcissistic leadersrCO cravings for >>>> power and
status are key barriers to embracing this new workplace reality. The
pursuit
of authority and glory may be an enemy of flexibility."

There are upsides and downsides to it. You have to be pretty self-
motivated to work in a home office for long periods without ending up
fucking off in your underwear half the day just because you can often
get away with it, not everyone loves their job so much that they
easily have this ability.

You can't get away with it for very long; someone is still expecting
YOUR work to get one (and likely has SOME evidence to that effect).

A decent amount of office jobs don't actually require 8 hours of work in
a day, and if you just give a relatively smart cookie a list of tasks
and let them work the tasks from home without distractions they can
often finish in 2 hours flat and then twiddle their thumbs, or maybe go
work their second job.

Part of the reason a number of employers don't really like the work from
home concept, they don't want their employees "overemployed" i.e. not
being dependent on them. But there are whole subreddits devoted to the practice of being overemployed regardless, and the drama that can come
with that like when both employers schedule meetings at the same time..


--- Synchronet 3.22a-Linux NewsLink 1.2

From Newsgroup: sci.electronics.design

On 6/23/2026 9:31 PM, bitrex wrote:

There are upsides and downsides to it. You have to be pretty self- motivated
to work in a home office for long periods without ending up fucking off in >>> your underwear half the day just because you can often get away with it, not
everyone loves their job so much that they easily have this ability.

You can't get away with it for very long; someone is still expecting
YOUR work to get one (and likely has SOME evidence to that effect).

A decent amount of office jobs don't actually require 8 hours of work in a day,
and if you just give a relatively smart cookie a list of tasks and let them work the tasks from home without distractions they can often finish in 2 hours
flat and then twiddle their thumbs, or maybe go work their second job.

<https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/reality-workplace-productivity-how-many-hours-we-productive-afzal-xo2yf>

<https://myhours.com/articles/average-work-productivity-statistics-2025>

<https://www.apollotechnical.com/employee-productivity-statistics/>

Highlights:
- Employees Are More Likely To Be Productive at Home
- Meetings Are Extremely Unproductive
- The Average Office Worker Is Productive for Less Than 3 Hours a Day
- Freelancers Are Productive 36 Hours Each Week (i.e., 7+ hrs per day)
- 86% of Employees Prefer To Work Alone
- Employers that implement high or rCLradicalrCY workplace flexibility enjoy
a 40% higher retention of high-performing staff
- The top 1% of workers produce 10% of the output
- High-quality talent can be up to 400% more productive than average
employees across various fields (software development, top performers
can be as much as 800% -- i.e., doing more than a week of work in
a single day)

There's a different mindset "in the office" vs. "at home". In the
office, distractions are more welcome as they are seen as "on the
company's dime". At home, they are on *yours* -- you want to finish your
tasks so you can get BACK to "your time".

I periodically meet with colleagues from around the country (offsite or virtually) to compare notes about our respective projects. As we've
had all the time between meetups to stew on each other's projects
(yet AVOID the minutiae of implementation details), we can usually
offer meaningful insights to guide their direction -- things that would
never occur to us in a "OK, let's talk about X, *now*..." environment.

Sort of like getting your best ideas in bed or in the shower -- instead
of sitting at a desk or in a meeting (the mind has a chance to "look away")

Part of the reason a number of employers don't really like the work from home
concept, they don't want their employees "overemployed" i.e. not being dependent on them. But there are whole subreddits devoted to the practice of being overemployed regardless, and the drama that can come with that like when
both employers schedule meetings at the same time..

<grin> SWMBO worked with a guy who would come in bright and early,
unlock his door, turn on his light and computer -- and then head off
to someplace off campus (second job?). This was an open secret
yet his boss tolerated the behavior (despite the guy being responsible
for the fire detection/suppression systems).

I always wonder what would have happened had their been a fire or other disaster that called for an evacuation and accounting for all employees: "OhMyGosh... Where's Bob?? Is he still *in* there???"
--- Synchronet 3.22a-Linux NewsLink 1.2

From Newsgroup: sci.electronics.design

On 6/23/2026 10:03 PM, Don Y wrote:

There's a different mindset "in the office" vs. "at home".-a In the
office, distractions are more welcome as they are seen as "on the
company's dime". At home, they are on *yours* -- you want to finish your tasks so you can get BACK to "your time".

From <https://www.nber.org/system/files/working_papers/w31880/w31880.pdf>:

"This paper shows that physical proximity between coworkers meaningfully
increases mentorship and skill development rCo even among software engineers,
the quintessential digital natives with an array of virtual communication
tools. Face-to-face interaction is particularly valuable for younger and
less-experienced workers, who receive more feed-back from senior colleagues
when co-located and ultimately write higher-quality code.

Thus, an important side effect of remote workrCOs rise may be its scarring
effects on young workers, who struggle to learn from colleagues in an
increasingly distributed world. But mentorship is not free: it impedes the
output of experienced workers who do the mentoring. Firms thus face a
tradeoff: remote work enhances productivity today, as experienced workers
focus on their own output, while sacrificing productivity tomorrow,
as junior workers receive less mentorship and develop fewer skills.

Remote work stands to shift who is hired, with adverse effects for young
workers. Our retailer hired fewer young workers when employees were distant
from their teammates rCo both during the office closures and when hiring
outside the headquarters campus. This mirrors hiring patterns nationally,
where young workersrCO unemployment rates rose alongside the rise of remote
work, particularly in remotable occupations."

I.e., competence benefits from remote work as the overhead of working is decreased. Folks who need hand-holding want others nearby to hold those
hands.

I wonder what will happen when those "senior developers" are AIs;
will they know to "mother" the younguns? Or, will they just focus on
their directives? (Will they have to be *directed* to mother the young??)

And, in the short term (where the younguns loose out on jobs to AIs),
what incentive to bring the inexperienced up-to-speed when they aren't
even in attendance??


--- Synchronet 3.22a-Linux NewsLink 1.2

From Newsgroup: sci.electronics.design

I know counterexamples.
(S. HTTP://Gloucester.Insomnia247.NL/ fuer Kontaktdaten!)
--- Synchronet 3.22a-Linux NewsLink 1.2

From Newsgroup: sci.electronics.design

On 6/25/2026 11:39 AM, Niocl|is P||l Caile|in de Ghloucester wrote:

I know counterexamples.

There are ALWAYS counterexamples for EVERYTHING.

I had an employer, early in my career, who *encouraged* me to take
whatever equipment I needed and work from home -- saving me the
hour+ that I would otherwise spend on the road. No internet or
email to "check up on me" other than phone calls. My responsibilities
were independant of all the other folks at the shop (as was the
case for all of the engineers) so nothing to be gained by sitting
in my office, there.

He eventually asked me to return to the office as the other engineers, operating in nearly identical circumstances, ALSO wanted this ability.

OTOH, I've had employers who watched cars entering the parking
lot to keep track of who was "arriving late" (really? is that
a good use of ANY employee's time?)

Another employer confronted me for taking home some manuals
over the weekend: "Are those company property?" (well, where did
you THINK I got them from?) You're nervous that I could
potentially be "stealing" some PAPER (nothing proprietary to the
company but, rather, a tool we had purchased that I was going to
familiarize myself with ON MY TIME) yet you are completely at my
mercy in the design of *your* multimillion dollar systems that
rely on my competence and benevolence?

Rationalize *that* to yourself when you have the time...
--- Synchronet 3.22a-Linux NewsLink 1.2