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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

#351

Post by SavantIdiot »

okareaman wrote: post #161

I was extremely lucky to WFH during the first 12 years of my software career. When I finally got a job in an office I was shocked at how awful it was. The 2 hours commuting every workday, the flickering fluorescent lights, the noise of coworkers, the smell of burnt coffee or popcorn, the boss that drops by to see how you're doing and causes you to lose a hour of concentration so I might as browse the web until quitti…

Cube farms of the 80's/90's were the worst. Cube etiquette was in its infancy. Loud talkers, ice chewers, farters, snifflers, oversharers, too much A/C, too little A/C, awful ergonomics, 6'x4' compressed cubicles, shared cubicles. Then there was the crappy cafeteria food, enormous parking lots with 15 minute walks to your car if you showed up after 8am, ... oy.

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

#353

Post by handrous »

dougmwne wrote: post #327
oh_sigh wrote: post #309

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The 2 hour commute is your fault, not the fault of office job's. My commute is 10 minutes.

I mean, that's a pretty harsh way to put it. It takes a very flexible lifestyle to be able to move 10 minutes from your office every time you get a new job. That is also likely to severely impact your finances. For some workplaces, it would be a financial impossibly to live that close for anything less than an executive salary. Often it's far more optimum to work remote if you want to minimize your commute.

Plus, lots of business/office districts don't have any public schools of even middling—let alone good—quality within a 10-minute commute radius.

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

#354

Post by jordache »

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…

>I’m honestly perplexed what the FANGs are even thinking in being so aggressive about pushing an end to WFH.

There is a general acceptance that for the vast majority of teams, they are most productive when individuals are collaborating face to face, in realtime. I've found that to be true as well.

There is still a gap in remote collaboration tooling that results in this differential. Perhaps if the tooling becomes more robust, the difference can greatly diminish.

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

#355

Post by staysaasy »

Johnny555 wrote: post #340

95% of workers are considering changing jobs That seems awfully high unless "I thought about it, but decided to stay here" counts as "considering". In my peer group, it's probably closer to 20%. It's probably much higher in low paid jobs like service workers, but I imagine that most McDonalds workers consider changing jobs every day even under normal circumstances.

In my experience people regularly spend years/decades on the verge of quitting, occasionally even actively interviewing just to confirm whether the grass is really greener elsewhere.

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

#356

Post by zippergz »

hn_throwaway_99 wrote: post #42

In my experience at least talking to some younger people there is a clear dichotomy: despite all the talk about Gen Z being "digital natives", people new in their career are much hungrier to get back into the office because they don't yet have good career networks built up and they're eager for mentorship. It is older, or at least more established workers who are less keen on that. I don't think FAANGs will have any…

My purely anecdotal experience is kind of the opposite. My friends and co-workers who are eager to get back to the office are mostly the ones who have kids and want to get away from them during the day (which I am sympathetic to).

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

#357

Post by jordache »

Lammy wrote: post #273
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…

- Making friends with employees - Work life separation (balance) Does not compute.

Sure it does. You're seeing this as a binary thing.. It's anything but that.

You can integrate certain aspects of work and personal life (social circle) while keeping other aspects siloed

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

#358

Post by zippergz »

beerandt wrote: post #339
mdorazio wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I can only speak from personal experience, but fwiw I'm currently consulting with 2 non-tech Fortune 500 companies. Both have implemented "hybrid" return to office policies where employees have to live within 100 miles of the office and be able to come in 1 day a week or 1 day a month depending on team. I've talked with executives in charge of large teams at both companies about this issue and so far it looks like th…

>Both have implemented "hybrid" return to office policies where employees have to live within 100 miles of the office and be able to come in 1 day a week or 1 day a month depending on team. This sounds a bit too much like jobs that claim 10% or 25% travel that pull a bait and switch, or don't hire the 2nd opening for your position, so your responsibly to "cover" for the dept really means double work, or same amount o…

This is why I am glad to both be 100% remote, and be so far from the office nearest that there is no way they could argue with a straight face that I need to come in. They could fire me if they decide they don't want remote people any more, and that's fine. But at least there's no pressure to come in to the office "one day a month" creeping to "one day a week" creeping to "three days a week."

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

#359

Post by zffr »

bhub wrote: post #343
hn_throwaway_99 wrote: post #42

In my experience at least talking to some younger people there is a clear dichotomy: despite all the talk about Gen Z being "digital natives", people new in their career are much hungrier to get back into the office because they don't yet have good career networks built up and they're eager for mentorship. It is older, or at least more established workers who are less keen on that. I don't think FAANGs will have any…

I’m 45 and have been working partially remote for 4 years and fully remote since the pandemic. I really enjoy working from home. Spending more time with family and finding a good work/life balance and not having to commute are great perks. I have recently started a new job and was interviewed and onboarded entirely remote. The process was fine and in the future I am not required to be in the office a lot either. Howe…

IMO what's great about slack is that you can send someone a message and they can choose to respond whenever they're free. If async communication is too slow, you can always ask do to a zoom call for a few min.

In an office I think it is pretty hard to tell when someone is actually available. If you make a mistake and interrupt someone while they are actually thinking deeply about a problem, you can cause a pretty big dent in their productivity.

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