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Facebook extends its work-at-home policy to most employees

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Re: Facebook extends its work-at-home policy to most employees

#371

Post by __turbobrew__ »

ditonal wrote: post #61
JulianMorrison wrote: post #48

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'd think the obvious rejoinder to that approach is, if they want to work remotely, they take the rough with the smooth. No, they are not going to be as plugged into casual office conversations. Their choice.

That's not what's happening in reality though. I gave you two notable examples but I know of a few more as well. This isn't hypothetical, many companies are actively seeking to destroy their in-person culture (outside of company offsite events). Of course, since every corporate move has to have a feel good PR element to it these days, the buzzword to justify this direction is equity/equality, and that since DEI candi…

This is my experience as well. Companies are aiming for equality of outcomes even though WFH and office employees work in different environments.

I think it is totally fine for an employee to make the decision to work from home and obtain greater freedom at the cost of worse promotion outcomes.

The problem is that if employers say “hey you can work from home, but you are less likely to get promoted than your peers working in the office” they open themselves to discrimination lawsuits. What if there is a strong correlation between those who choose to work from home and a specific demographic? Well it turns out that women may be much more likely to WFH given the choice. Does this mean that the WFH policy is sexist given that women are much more likely to WFH and WFH employees have worse career outcomes?

I believe that this isn’t discrimination by the company because non-women who WFH have similar career outlooks to women who WFH, but there may be a case there and nobody wants to put that case to the test. Instead we get these WFH policies which bring everyone down — to accommodate those who made a choice to sacrifice their career prospects by working from home.

Disclaimer: I love working from home

Source: https://hbr.org/2021/05/dont-let-employees-pick-their-wfh-da...

Re: Facebook extends its work-at-home policy to most employees

#372

Post by xenihn »

johannes1813 wrote: post #165

I've been back in my company's office in person (medium-sized tech company) for the last week with a small subset of employees before we all go back, and I've become pretty convinced that these hybrid models will not go well. Even while wearing masks and social distancing, I feel far more connected to the others that work in the office, and whether it's fair or not, personal connection and trust play a huge role in c…

I don't know the term for this, but in-person contact is important for metagroups/in-groups at work. People who are coworkers, but also friends as well, to an extent. People that you trust more than others not part of the group, and who you might even become friends with outside of work. I've found developing relationships like this impossible while fully remote.

Re: Facebook extends its work-at-home policy to most employees

#373

Post by lotsofpulp »

dreyfan wrote: post #302
chourobin wrote: post #283

Earlier quoted context omitted.

this can't be true, how would you pass background checks?

Uhh, I'm a real person with a clean record? There's no way for a company to ask the IRS if a person has multiple employers.

They can ask Equifax though (assuming your employer participates):

https://theworknumber.com/

Re: Facebook extends its work-at-home policy to most employees

#375

Post by rcpt »

speedgoose wrote: post #366
bradlys wrote: post #344

Earlier quoted context omitted.

10 remote is a bit excessive. You only need like 3 to hit $1.5m and that’s far more manageable.

Where are these remote jobs paying 500k?

Obviously holding down 3 staff engineer jobs at FANG. No problem. Everyone's doing it now c'mon ya doofus

Re: Facebook extends its work-at-home policy to most employees

#376

Post by flukus »

throwaway6734 wrote: post #38
magneticnorth wrote: post #12

I am really curious to see where we'll be in a year, two, three down the line wrt remote/office/hybrid work at major companies. This forced experiment has had some surprising outcomes about the effectiveness of remote workplaces, but working from home for only a year, in pandemic conditions, is clearly not the same as indefinitely in normal times. But there's reason to think that may go even better, not worse; I am r…

My biggest question right now about sustained wfh is how much of the current productivity is the result of relationships that were built in the office. A year ago, I remotely onboarded for a new position and recently I can head back into the office, and there's a massive difference for me between the virtual relationships I built and the in-person ones. I learned more about people that I had spent months zooming/emai…

> how much of the current productivity is the result of relationships that were built in the office.

IME these relationships are a function of how much time you spend talking with people and not of physical proximity. At my last job the person I was closest too was on another continent. We worked quite closely so I spent way more time talking with them then some people that sat a few feet away from me. We knew each others lunch and break schedules better than the people we ate lunch with.

There is a tendency to talk more with people next to you and only zoom someone for direct work discussion, but in both scenarios there's room to force some socialization. In our line of work we even have tools like pair programming to enforce these relationships.

Re: Facebook extends its work-at-home policy to most employees

#377

Post by ssdspoimdsjvv »

jakequade wrote: post #303
johannes1813 wrote: post #165

I've been back in my company's office in person (medium-sized tech company) for the last week with a small subset of employees before we all go back, and I've become pretty convinced that these hybrid models will not go well. Even while wearing masks and social distancing, I feel far more connected to the others that work in the office, and whether it's fair or not, personal connection and trust play a huge role in c…

> whether it's fair or not, personal connection and trust play a huge role in collaborating effectively and deciding who gets what work, who gets promoted, etc. You're assuming a bunch of stuff here. There's something to be said for: 1. Having known people pre-covid, and so having a predefined "connection" with them. 2. The kinds of work that would or would not be more susceptible to personal bias. Web development, f…

Humans are not machines. There will always be some kind of bias.

Re: Facebook extends its work-at-home policy to most employees

#378

Post by adjkant »

tracyhenry wrote: post #197

The title missed one important piece: employees who don't choose remote work are required to come to office at least half of the week (i.e. three days). This is a less of a good news for most people.

Surprised this isn't higher, that's basically "back full time" to me but with a shorter weekly period. Very different than what I understood reading the headline.

Re: Facebook extends its work-at-home policy to most employees

#379

Post by oblio »

dboreham wrote: post #324
throwaway6734 wrote: post #38

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My biggest question right now about sustained wfh is how much of the current productivity is the result of relationships that were built in the office. A year ago, I remotely onboarded for a new position and recently I can head back into the office, and there's a massive difference for me between the virtual relationships I built and the in-person ones. I learned more about people that I had spent months zooming/emai…

I've now spent decades working with people I never met.

If you've been working remotely for decades, you:

A) Have a totally different work experience than 99.99% of folks out there

B) Might have different personality type than a huge chunk of people out there (hard to quantify, a guesstimate of mine would be at least 60%)

Re: Facebook extends its work-at-home policy to most employees

#380

Post by bradlys »

rcpt wrote: post #375
speedgoose wrote: post #366

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Where are these remote jobs paying 500k?

Obviously holding down 3 staff engineer jobs at FANG. No problem. Everyone's doing it now c'mon ya doofus

I figure 3 Big N is comparable to 10 other remote orgs.
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