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The worst part of working from home is now haunting reopened offices

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Re: The worst part of working from home is now haunting reopened offices

#231

Post by prepend »

Gigachad wrote: post #129
joaodlf wrote: post #51

I love coming in to the office. Granted, I live a 20 min walk away. The walk in is through a beautiful county park, surrounded by nature. Most of my colleagues who live further away have stopped coming in. Understandable, I wouldn't want to get in a car to get here, traffic in the UK is horrible. It's all about personal circumstances, really. Living close to my workplace, having access to a nice office that is (now)…

The office is not as bad as people make it out to be. Its commuting that really sucks. I used to hate working in the office and then I moved to an apartment next to work and I decided to walk in even while WFH was an option because I did slightly prefer going to the office and being with everyone.

This is the big thing for me. I have a 40-60 minute commute to drive in. Vs being able to walk downstairs in 30 seconds.

It’s also good for family flexibility where I can take 10 minutes to drop off a forgotten lunch and that would be a 90 minute drive.

Re: The worst part of working from home is now haunting reopened offices

#232

Post by snowwrestler »

m_fayer wrote: post #196
endymi0n wrote: post #108

Earlier quoted context omitted.

To say it with the words of my first boss that stuck with me: "Love it, change it or leave it. No amount of complaining will ever do anything else than paint you as a naysayer." Was a hard pill to swallow, but my own experience proved me again and again he was spot on.

I'm starting to doubt this advice. I'm a "change it" sort of personality by nature - a reformer. When faced with these 3 options, I've chosen "change it" many times. And more often than not, I've found myself in a political crossfire, with new unwelcome knowledge of the various forces (typically some combination of self interest, ego, and turf-guarding) that are responsible for the thing I'm trying to change. My curr…

Creating change isn’t easy. But it is an option.

Re: The worst part of working from home is now haunting reopened offices

#234

Post by motoboi »

Dave3of5 wrote: post #228
0xbadcafebee wrote: post #194

The crazy thing is the pandemic still wasn't long enough to teach companies how to work remote or hybrid. I literally forwarded a list of 10 best-reviewed books, articles, etc about remote working to my org's leadership, and I don't think they read any of them. They certainly never changed the way they work. We still spend upwards of 25% of our time in meetings with no agenda to talk about coming up with a plan to st…

The head of HR at my last job actually took a paid course (I think it's free now) by gitlab based upon a convo I had with her. The company ignored it all and said "back in the office". I suspect that it was because of the CEO who was saying throughout the pandemic that he wasn't a fan of remote work. That's how the decision was made, based on one old guys feelings. They don't care about you as an employee, remember t…

> That's how the decision was made, based on one old guys feelings.

Isn't this how all decisions get made on a company?

Re: The worst part of working from home is now haunting reopened offices

#235

Post by 0xRusty »

I love being back. The office is quite empty, but after two years of not being around 500 people every day I think it would be overwhelming to all be back together in one instant. I'm happy to be in that first wave of those returning. It's not just the office, it's the area I work in. I work downtown, I've forgotten how much I missed all of my favorite cafes, coffee shops, casual lunch places. They remember me too, it really made my day when one of my favorite lunch places recognized me and we had a great chat for 10 minutes. I'd forgotten how much of that life is missed. I live alone, I'm a fairly solitary person, I don't get out much. I always said work from home would suit me as long as I still did a few things in the week (go to a bar once a week, have lunch out a couple of times) but I didn't do any of these things, my friends have become hermits and we hardly see each other even at weekends. The last two years have been hell frankly. I've come to realise my work is my social life. Call that if you like but it's the reality and I actually enjoy spending time with people that share interests with me. Since I've been back in the office I've been to a bar and had a nice relaxing conversation over a beer for the first time in 2 years. Not all of us are lucky enough to have that opportunity to have amazing social lives away from work. I wouldn't go back to working from home if you doubled my salary.

Re: The worst part of working from home is now haunting reopened offices

#236

Post by Spooky23 »

evancoop wrote: post #187
fcatalan wrote: post #70

"Emergency" WFH at my workplace have been slashed, everyone back in full since the start of the month. No reason publically given, been privately told "not about people like you, but some others have taken a 2 year vacation so management is fed up". I have emails from the CEO personally thanking me for my commitment in going way over what was expected when basically saving the institution during lockdown, so now I al…

"...not about people like you." My wife, who spent much of her career in corporate HR, would often note: "People who want to work, will work wherever you put them. People who don't want to work will find a way not to work wherever you put them." The people who used WFH as a "2 year vacation" are the same people who will wander the office engaging in random conversations and scrolling Facebook the remainder of the day…

It’s a level of friction that discourages the worst behaviors.

You probably lock the front door of your house. The reality is, it’s not a meaningful thing in most cases, as a moderately in shape middle aged man, I could likely kick or pry it in in seconds.

We do it because it keeps honest people out and increases the friction for the bad guys - kicking the door down in itself becomes a felony. (Burglary)

Likewise, people are on a bell curve of sorts with respect to motivation. The people on the bottom are a waste of oxygen and require explicit directions for every task, and the other extreme are self-motivated and will create novel tasks to complete without any direction.

Some people need the office to function appropriately on that curve. I have one guy on my team who came to work physically every day during the full lockdowns in NYC because for him, the context shift of being in the office was important. He is probably the smartest person I’ve ever met, but he can’t work at home. Another colleague is living on an island somewhere.

The rest of us are in the middle. Combine that with other business requirements, and you have to make a decision that’s best for the business.

Re: The worst part of working from home is now haunting reopened offices

#237

Post by 0des »

Freak_NL wrote: post #161
rkangel wrote: post #77

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think it is indefensible to bring people back to work in any workplace where mask wearing is needed at your desk. If you're admitting in that way that there is a risk in being in the office then you shouldn't be requiring them to be there!

Wow no indeed. I would be looking for a new job. Masks are a measure for times when no other option is available, not a standard check mark for every employee. From which management level upward do these rules not apply? It probably coincides with having your own private office…

> wow no indeed

Ween yourself off the "yeah, no" pattern.

Re: The worst part of working from home is now haunting reopened offices

#238

Post by cableshaft »

dzhiurgis wrote: post #190
imchillyb wrote: post #184

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Today it's a job-seeker's market, and that is likely to continue for some time to come. If your company won't play ball, it's time to find another field to play in.

If so many people are pissed off at coming back to office wouldn't remote jobs would be super demanded? I've looked at some recently and tons of jobs require office presence. Finding something outside of US is near impossible.

They are highly demanded[1], companies are just extremely stubborn and are trying to force employees to accept their terms.

You could see that the past year and a half in restaurants that are willing to close down entirely (often with a sign saying they're short staffed) for days, weeks, or permanently, rather than raise their wages enough to hire and keep the employees they need to function.

[1]: "Newly published research from the Pew Research Center that surveyed roughly 10,000 Americans from Jan. 24 to Jan. 30 found that nearly two years into the COVID-19 pandemic, roughly 6 in 10 U.S. workers who say their jobs can be done from home, at 59 percent, are doing so from home all or most of the time. Now, more workers say they are working from home out of choice than necessity.

Among those who have a workplace outside of their home, 61 percent said they are choosing not to go in, while 38 percent said they’re working from home specifically because their workplace is closed or unavailable to them.

Interestingly, Pew Research noted just the opposite was true earlier in the pandemic, with 64 percent of people indicating they were working from home because their office was closed while 36 percent said they were choosing to work from home."

https://thehill.com/changing-america/resilience/smart-cities...

Re: The worst part of working from home is now haunting reopened offices

#239

Post by smoe »

joaodlf wrote: post #51

I love coming in to the office. Granted, I live a 20 min walk away. The walk in is through a beautiful county park, surrounded by nature. Most of my colleagues who live further away have stopped coming in. Understandable, I wouldn't want to get in a car to get here, traffic in the UK is horrible. It's all about personal circumstances, really. Living close to my workplace, having access to a nice office that is (now)…

I don't exactly love the office but prefer it. I like to have a strong separation between working and living space/time. I have a room in my apartment that I could use as an office, but I rather use it for hobbies than work. Even when, almost a decade ago, I was freelancing and could work from wherever, I worked from home only an hour or two in the morning before moving somewhere.

That said, me wanting this separation is probably not stronger than a bad commute. It is currently a 15min stroll. Before that, it was an 45min train ride, but in Switzerland where trains are quite comfortable and I could use the time to work, do some admin, listening to podcasts, read a book or chat with friends.

Definitely not in favor to require people back to the office and thus force them living nearby. I like for people to have options.

Re: The worst part of working from home is now haunting reopened offices

#240

Post by nesky »

fcatalan wrote: post #70

"Emergency" WFH at my workplace have been slashed, everyone back in full since the start of the month. No reason publically given, been privately told "not about people like you, but some others have taken a 2 year vacation so management is fed up". I have emails from the CEO personally thanking me for my commitment in going way over what was expected when basically saving the institution during lockdown, so now I al…

> "I hate being back: My gear at home is better, I have to work in uncomfortable clothes and at a room temperature that makes me sweat within minutes. I have to work in an N95 mask since we are packed in small 4 person cubicles and COVID numbers are still too high in my area. I'm spending more on gas and wasting time in traffic. I'm eating worse quality food. I keep getting interrupted by exactly those sames guys that took the 2 year vacation. I feel hard to concentrate and I'm angry all the time so my output has suffered."

We start back at the office next week and this sums up exactly why I have no interest in going back full time.

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