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‘Great Resignation’ gains steam as return-to-work plans take effect

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Re: ‘Great Resignation’ gains steam as return-to-work plans take effect

#181

Post by rcpt »

acituan wrote: post #117
klipklop wrote: post #59

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Nobody wants to give up a something once it becomes a part of their life that they enjoy. The FANG workers got a taste of not having a daily long commute and don't want to give this small life improvement back. Getting back several hours of your life is pretty big. FANG companies however have gotten a taste of nearly unlimited power and have not heard "no" in years. They too don't want to give this up. This is why th…

> This is why they demand the butts back in the cramped open seating office It is also the astronomical real estate money they had sunken into new office spaces.

I don't think that's true. 1B is a big office but it's only a couple days of revenue

Re: ‘Great Resignation’ gains steam as return-to-work plans take effect

#182

Post by Spooky23 »

dahfizz wrote: post #118
burlesona wrote: post #109

As a hiring manager, a lot of candidates I’ve been talking to lately have been telling me they are looking for a new job in part because their company has decided to stay all-remote and they hate it. The first thing they want to know is if we have an office and/or will open one soon. People just have different preferences. I think what we’re seeing right now is a significant expansion of remote roles. Previously if y…

> People just have different preferences. I'm always surprised how HN treats WFH as _obviously_ superior and desirable in every way, to the point where OP is claiming these mega corps may collapse if they ask their employees to come into the office.

There's a bias towards tech company and startups here. Those are concentrated in places like the Bay Area, NYC Metro, Boston Metro, Atlanta Metro, DC Metro, etc.

Those places are all commuting hellscapes, so there's almost no scenario where you wouldn't do WFH if you could. My dad did the Queens-Manhattan bus/subway/express subway/walk treadmill for most of his career -- not fun.

I live in a small city with a 6 minute commute, my preference for WFH varies by weather (I mostly work outside) and whether my wife blocks my car in the driveway. Overall, I like both -- WFH has advantages for focused tasks, but I tend to work longer hours. Interacting with colleagues in person is much more productive in an office setting, and it's easier on my family. It's tough for my 8 year old to not be able to talk to dad when he gets home from school.

Re: ‘Great Resignation’ gains steam as return-to-work plans take effect

#183

Post by jhickok »

lotsofpulp wrote: post #148
baron_harkonnen wrote: post #120

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> perplexed what the FANGs are even thinking in being so aggressive about pushing an end to WFH I think the divide between WFH and return to the office boils down to something surprisingly simple: how much longer does your current lease last and/or how much office property do you own. Companies that are about to have a lease expire, or are growing at a rate that they would need to soon lease an even larger building a…

I agree with this line of reasoning. Owners of real estate, either directly or indirectly via owning interests in a company with real estate will have an incentive for everyone to return to office. Middle management may also have an incentive to return to office, lest they be found redundant. Otherwise, I am sure most people by and large would enjoy would enjoy not wasting their life transiting back and forth to work…

>Otherwise, I am sure most people by and large would enjoy would enjoy not wasting their life transiting back and forth to work.

I personally find this true, but I think there are a lot of younger tech people that use the workplace to fill a social gap that is hard to fill otherwise. I have nothing but anecdotal evidence but my company sold quite a few properties-- their leases were either up and they didn't renew or they outright sold commercial properties they owned-- and our younger employees have openly expressed concern that we are full time wfh.

Re: ‘Great Resignation’ gains steam as return-to-work plans take effect

#184

Post by thatguy0900 »

ItsMonkk wrote: post #175
achow wrote: post #166

Earlier quoted context omitted.

From a single, young: I miss the office for.. - Free and convenient food. - Social chatter & engagement. - Making friends with employees who I don't know and connecting with new employees. - Work life separation (balance). - Proper workstation, climate controlled environment. - Sense of belonging - team outing, after hours beers.. - Intra and inter company sports and games. - Meeting potential dates. [Not me. Just em…

I experienced all of these to a much better degree during college. Are you sure you don't just want to live in a city that provides plenty of shared spaces? Relying on your employer for these items seems unwise.

Especially looking for dates in the workplace as a selling point.

Re: ‘Great Resignation’ gains steam as return-to-work plans take effect

#185

Post by jonahbenton »

The Departed said it best:

"World needs plenty of bartenders."

Every employee- and every manager- at every not-trivially sized firm is replaceable.

Resigning is ABSOLUTELY THE WORST response, both individually and collectively, for those interested in enshrining a more remote friendly ecosystem.

Re: ‘Great Resignation’ gains steam as return-to-work plans take effect

#186

Post by dml2135 »

baron_harkonnen wrote: post #120
dcolkitt wrote: post #15

I’m honestly perplexed what the FANGs are even thinking in being so aggressive about pushing an end to WFH. Sure it could all work out fine for them. Maybe employees will grumble for a bit, then settle back into office life. But maybe it wont’t . There’s a very real possibility that you lose a non-negligible percent of your staff (disproportionately the most talented who have other options), handicap your ability to…

> perplexed what the FANGs are even thinking in being so aggressive about pushing an end to WFH I think the divide between WFH and return to the office boils down to something surprisingly simple: how much longer does your current lease last and/or how much office property do you own. Companies that are about to have a lease expire, or are growing at a rate that they would need to soon lease an even larger building a…

Exactly, this is why you're seeing such a push for returning to the office from financial institutions -- commercial real estate makes up a large portion of their portfolios.

Re: ‘Great Resignation’ gains steam as return-to-work plans take effect

#187

Post by spoonjim »

dcolkitt wrote: post #15

I’m honestly perplexed what the FANGs are even thinking in being so aggressive about pushing an end to WFH. Sure it could all work out fine for them. Maybe employees will grumble for a bit, then settle back into office life. But maybe it wont’t . There’s a very real possibility that you lose a non-negligible percent of your staff (disproportionately the most talented who have other options), handicap your ability to…

FAANGs don’t need that much monster “talent.” They need some, like the Jeff Deans and whatever. But most of the jobs at a place like Google require just basic top 10% software engineering skill which they make too much money to ever have a problem hiring.

Re: ‘Great Resignation’ gains steam as return-to-work plans take effect

#188

Post by cmrdporcupine »

iandanforth wrote: post #132

Mozilla serves as an interesting example here. They are very much a Silicon Valley company and have a ton of that same energy. Even before the pandemic they had a globally distributed workforce and so had to develop processes that brought people together. Twice a year, for example, they had a company all-hands event to bring everyone to the same place. Usually somewhere fun. Now they aren't a large company by any mea…

Anecdotally I personally know several people who have left Mozilla in the last year, and not because they were laid off but because they were very frustrated with how things had been going internally (not necessarily with remote work.) They just went through a huge round of layoffs, but I see job postings from them constantly. Somethings not right over there.

I interviewed with them a couple years ago and it didn't work out; I feel like I dodged a bullet.

As for offices/WFH -- in that case I was specifically attracted to a hybrid model (work remotely but go into the local office 2-3 days a week). I would have not been interested in a purely remote model. I suspect many companies flirting with pure-remote will run into this.

Re: ‘Great Resignation’ gains steam as return-to-work plans take effect

#189

Post by jhickok »

BooneJS wrote: post #125
pc86 wrote: post #74

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's certainly possible :) Even as someone with over a decade of work experience it's somewhat aspirational to work for a FAANG and get that big paycheck and all those RSUs. But no WFH is a deal-breaker unless they start opening up offices in Milwaukee soon.

Google and Amazon are both in Madison.

I know the Google building but I was not aware Amazon was in Madison in any substantive manner. Is it an Amazon building or a company they acquired?

Re: ‘Great Resignation’ gains steam as return-to-work plans take effect

#190

Post by sylens »

himinlomax wrote: post #103

Hypothesis: an underestimated reason why people don't want to go back to the office is not (just) because they like WFH, but because offices suck hard for knowledge workers when they need not. The reason why is based on a major historiological mistake, see the book Deep Work ( https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/25744928-deep-work )

This is it. Who wants to go back to open office floor plans? Give me a shared office and maybe my answer changes
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