That seemed like an awful lot of words to describe the entirely predictable fact that the job market will pick up significantly as we shed pandemic restrictions and that workers in low-wage service jobs tend to quit a lot. A few anecdotes about people liking WFH doesn’t make the trend any more mysterious or novel.
Forget going back to the office – people are just quitting instead
291–300 of 434 posts
Re: Forget going back to the office – people are just quitting instead
#292As a 59yo I have come to appreciate how my future post work (fulltime) life may look, and what limits I'd need to place on EITHER WFH or Back-To-Office life.
So thank you plague, for showing me what my future holds.
Re: Forget going back to the office – people are just quitting instead
#293Earlier quoted context omitted.
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've found that it's much harder to form social bonds, especially cross-team, when working remotely and never seeing people in person. Socializing via Zoom is not the same. The lack of lunch and hallway conversation hurts a lot without even getting into the outside of work socializing. That in turn leads to minor issues exploding because no one has a sense of empathy built for anyone else.
Yes it's harder for most people to form bonds online.
I have worked with people whom only have friends, and social time, through an office setting. I've worked with people who can't wait to get away from their family by going to work. My dad couldn't wait until monday.
I was that guy that socialized, and made friends through work. I'm still that guy kinda? The hour grooming, and the two hour commute is making me think I should reach out to people whom I come in contact locally.
That said, some people don't need the social experience going to an office provides.
They have full lives, and don't need to show up to the charade. If they are good employees, why force them back?
Smart employers will let them work from home.
Re: Forget going back to the office – people are just quitting instead
#294If people haven't been changing jobs in the past year, and a typical tech turnover is 15%, we can probably expect a lot of turnover this year. It's going to be an interesting amount of churn.
Re: Forget going back to the office – people are just quitting instead
#295Earlier quoted context omitted.
I've found that it's much harder to form social bonds, especially cross-team, when working remotely and never seeing people in person. Socializing via Zoom is not the same. The lack of lunch and hallway conversation hurts a lot without even getting into the outside of work socializing. That in turn leads to minor issues exploding because no one has a sense of empathy built for anyone else.
I’ve worked at the same company for nearly 20 years. I’ve had precisely 0 lunch and hallway conversations in all of those years. Lunch time is when I go work out. If I’m not working out, I’m sitting at my my desk working. Socializing is for non-work hours. However, I’ve learned a lot more about coworkers (some of whom I’ve worked with for more than 10 years) during the pandemic from talking at the beginning of zoom c…
Autist idiot.
Re: Forget going back to the office – people are just quitting instead
#296Can’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.…
I've been remote/WFH for the past 20 years, and it gets more common every year. For the past 4-5 years, I haven't even worked for companies in the same time zone/continent. Its never been an issue for me personally/professionally. The EU companies I've worked for seemed based around the 'life happens, just get your work done' premise.
Re: Forget going back to the office – people are just quitting instead
#297Earlier 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.
Did your parents dropped you on your head as a baby?
Re: Forget going back to the office – people are just quitting instead
#298Earlier quoted context omitted.
No one said your co-workers must or should be your only social connections. Simply that it helps if they are A social connection. You're still going to deal with your co-workers eight hours a day. Dealing with people who think of you as a friend is a lot easier than with people who don't.
I want to deal with my co-workers as professionals, definitely not as friends. They are not my friends, I’m paid to work with them. Companies are more productive when you remove social drama, not less.
friendship /= drama
Please never hire at a company near me, thank you
Re: Forget going back to the office – people are just quitting instead
#299IMO these people are shooting themselves in the foot long term. If companies learn to WFH full time these people will eventually be replaced with cheaper labour from oversees.
I wouldn't be so sure. Many overseas contractors I've worked with lack communication skills that Americans have. Whether it's due to cultural differences, native language, or something else. And these gaps can waste a lot of time.
Re: Forget going back to the office – people are just quitting instead
#300That seemed like an awful lot of words to describe the entirely predictable fact that the job market will pick up significantly as we shed pandemic restrictions and that workers in low-wage service jobs tend to quit a lot. A few anecdotes about people liking WFH doesn’t make the trend any more mysterious or novel.
I think we've gone a little overboard with the whole, "unprecedented times" stuff. Sure, pandemic economics are weird, but they're not "up is the new down" weird, basic economic principles apply, and we're not throwing out the whole book, just writing a new chapter.