i’ve gone back in to the office a few days just for change of pace.
i’d forgotten that they buy the cheapest kleenex, and the cheapest toilet paper.
but hey there’s an endless supply of sugary drinks to tempt me all day.
Forget going back to the office – people are just quitting instead
141–150 of 434 posts
Re: Forget going back to the office – people are just quitting instead
#142Earlier quoted context omitted.
It is most definitely a control thing. Companies are afraid to lose the iron grip they have over the lives of employees.
> iron grip Jeez, give it a rest. Companies don't give a crap about your life. None have ever showed the slightest interest in anything I do when not at work.
> None have ever showed the slightest interest in anything I do when not at work.
Right, but they do what they can to increase the time you are at work. I'd say requiring 40 mandatory hours in an office is a start to that, and they do plenty to try to grow those 40.
Re: Forget going back to the office – people are just quitting instead
#143Personally speaking, I cannot wait to have the opportunity to be back to the office 100% of the time. I just cannot cope with the lack of proper division between my home life and work life.
Some of my colleagues agree, but I obviously recognise the fact that most do not.
Even before the pandemic our organisation had hybrid working conditions and I’m pretty sure that’s what they’re aiming for again in the near future; for good or for ill.
Re: Forget going back to the office – people are just quitting instead
#144Earlier quoted context omitted.
If this was really the case, WFH would be a no-brainer and would not meet so much resistance from management. Most companies clearly care more about the fact that they can account for the time you’re in office, as opposed to how productive you actually are.
So you think there is absolutely no difference in the kind of collaboration that can be done online vs. IRL? People should get to pick a role where they work from wherever they want, but they should be realistic about both up- and downsides of their preferred location. FWIW, I'm mostly pro-office - even after all this time - but I'm making a career change because I don't want to deal with living in the West anymore.…
>>So you think there is absolutely no difference in the kind of collaboration that can be done online vs. IRL?
Office is not the only place where face-to-face collaboration can happen. Coffee shops, for example, are one of my favorite co-working environments.
Re: Forget going back to the office – people are just quitting instead
#145Despite a lot people leaving the workforce permanently, the stock market keeps going up, GDP forecasts are very strong, and so are corporate profits. It goes to show the remarkable ability of companies to adapt in the face of adversity, and also the resiliency of the US consumer ,especially the high-end consumer. "If 50% of employees quit, fine, we'll just boost the productivity by 100% of the 50% who remain using cl…
The stock market has been going up because the Fed has not stopped pumping money into it.
Re: Forget going back to the office – people are just quitting instead
#146My last job was remote even before pandemic, but the pandemic was used as an excuse to fire people... who a few months later turned into off shore replacements. Thankfully I received an SBIR which will cover half my salary for a few months. But it’s also a good time to quit due to child and health care tax credits!
Re: Forget going back to the office – people are just quitting instead
#147Can’t imagine not having at least partial WFH after this pandemic. If my office doesn’t let me WFH, I will also be leaving. A good portion of my team is similarly minded, but management is insistent on disallowing WFH. I can’t wait to see their faces when the company bleeds massive swaths of engineering talent. It’s about damn time that companies realized that they ought to treat their employees like the adults that…
Companies that don't allow partial WFH confuse me. All my employers, even before the pandemic, have allowed ad-hoc WFH whenever. It worked fine. If the team had a meeting or day where we all needed to be in we just said so and worked around anyone who had to WFH at certain times or days. There was never any official policy, people were just trusted to be sensible. Got a GP or dentist appointment near home, just WFH.…
That kind of ad hoc WFH is very common, but it's different from a policy that permits N days a week WFH.
Re: Forget going back to the office – people are just quitting instead
#148Earlier quoted context omitted.
The hybrid model is such a joke. For most, working in the office might as well be the 21st century business suit: an antiquated formality designed to demonstrate your obedience to authority. The hybrid model is a suit on a t-shirt. And forcing employees to be in the office X days a week means productivity on those WFH days will be nonexistent, especially if they butt against a weekend. But of course while the WFH lif…
I think a hybrid model where the office is essentially a private coworking space could work pretty well. The company would be run like they're fully remote but there would be an easy place for people to meet up when necessary.
>The company would be run like they're fully remote
You sort of have to if some people are in-office and some aren't. For example, and I know a lot of folks don't want to hear this, but it's a good practice that everyone does video calls from their own desk.
I also hear of companies looking at reconfigurations of their spaces to be more collaboration-oriented, e.g. more space to conference rooms and enclaves with a lot more emphasis on hot-desking for the rest.
Re: Forget going back to the office – people are just quitting instead
#149Earlier quoted context omitted.
I’ve always held a belief that a lot of America’s social and economic inequalities are fueled by the consolidation of good, high paying jobs around a few major cities. I’d get behind any party that tries to tackle this by incentivizing the distribution of these jobs across America. If cheaper, quieter lifestyles result from this, all the better.
At the very least, crowding the most intelligent and ambitious people into the country’s lowest fertility metro (the Bay Area) certainly seems like not a good idea from an inter-generational perspective.
It seems like you might be mixing up cause and effect. I'd assume that the Bay area is the country's lowest fertility Metro precisely because it's filled with ambitious people.
Re: Forget going back to the office – people are just quitting instead
#150Earlier quoted context omitted.
The hybrid model is such a joke. For most, working in the office might as well be the 21st century business suit: an antiquated formality designed to demonstrate your obedience to authority. The hybrid model is a suit on a t-shirt. And forcing employees to be in the office X days a week means productivity on those WFH days will be nonexistent, especially if they butt against a weekend. But of course while the WFH lif…
I'm struggling with the idea of hybrid WFH. It still means that I need to live near the office. Instead of a cheaper, quieter place far away from cities. Besides making middle-management happy, I'm not sure what is the benefit of having one required day per week at the office.
I find in person meetings more effective. I’d rather meet once a week or 2 and get all the big meetings done then go away to code, than have Zoom meetings every single day.
I predict that in all the full time WFH companies, some small group will start having in person meets once every X. Or some other startup will innovate past an incumbent by having a hybrid model.
Then hybrid will be the next “new” thing.