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Employees are returning to the office to sit on zoom calls

bloomberg.com

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Re: Employees are returning to the office to sit on zoom calls

#61

Post by seibelj »

bob_roberts wrote: post #10
Apocryphon wrote: post #3

Have any of the pro-RTO folks on HN experienced this phenomenon? There's definitely a contingent here who do not prefer remote work, curious to read what they think of going back into the office only to have to continue to call in order to collaborate with coworkers.

I prefer going to the office at least a few days a week, because (a) I like to socialize with other humans, and (b) I want to get out of my "home office", aka corner of the living room. I work with a distributed team, so I definitely don't go in to collaborate. In fact, on days with a lot of meetings, I'm more likely to work from home.

The needless socialization at the office killed my productivity. I don’t need to be interrupted and I don’t need an hour lunch. I socialize off-hours with real friends and family. Work is for (more effective) working

Re: Employees are returning to the office to sit on zoom calls

#62

Post by ByteJockey »

JohnBooty wrote: post #57
walls wrote: post #54

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's very likely you're the kind of person who makes everyone want to wfh.

What is going on in this conversation thread?

There are two camps that want something mutually exclusive (work from home vs work in office). Additionally, in order to get what they want, they need the other group to comply.* The struggle is spilling over into the comment threads.

* If everyone works in the office, and the work from home people are still remote, they get passed over for promotions and basically have a good chance of tanking their career. If everyone works from home, the work in office people lose a lot of human interaction that they need on a human level.

Re: Employees are returning to the office to sit on zoom calls

#63

Post by walls »

JohnBooty wrote: post #57
walls wrote: post #54

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's very likely you're the kind of person who makes everyone want to wfh.

What is going on in this conversation thread?

Resentment from people who have been held mentally hostage by their socialite coworkers who wander around interrupting others for a significant portion of their day.

Re: Employees are returning to the office to sit on zoom calls

#65

Post by JohnBooty »

ByteJockey wrote: post #62
JohnBooty wrote: post #57

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What is going on in this conversation thread?

There are two camps that want something mutually exclusive (work from home vs work in office). Additionally, in order to get what they want, they need the other group to comply.* The struggle is spilling over into the comment threads. * If everyone works in the office, and the work from home people are still remote, they get passed over for promotions and basically have a good chance of tanking their career. If every…

I still find the replies to my personal experience very baffling. I didn't say what anybody else should be doing; I didn't present it as a universal truth.

It seems very clear to me that there is room for a variety of workplace types. Strictly in-office, hybrid, and strictly remote.

I said I enjoyed getting together with my coworkers; I also said my ideal situation would involve spending a majority of time remote.

Re: Employees are returning to the office to sit on zoom calls

#66

Post by JohnBooty »

walls wrote: post #63
JohnBooty wrote: post #57

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What is going on in this conversation thread?

Resentment from people who have been held mentally hostage by their socialite coworkers who wander around interrupting others for a significant portion of their day.

I enjoyed one single week of office work after four years of being fully remote, and plainly expressed my preference to continue being remote a majority of the time.

I also don't interrupt others in the office, thanks very much. I've worked with those sorts of people (who hasn't?) and I resent them as well.

You enjoy being remote 100% of the time? Cool. I think there is clearly room for a variety of employment arrangements: fully remote, hybrid, fully in-office (yuck). I think you should do what's best for you.

Re: Employees are returning to the office to sit on zoom calls

#67

Post by walls »

JohnBooty wrote: post #65
ByteJockey wrote: post #62

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There are two camps that want something mutually exclusive (work from home vs work in office). Additionally, in order to get what they want, they need the other group to comply.* The struggle is spilling over into the comment threads. * If everyone works in the office, and the work from home people are still remote, they get passed over for promotions and basically have a good chance of tanking their career. If every…

I still find the replies to my personal experience very baffling. I didn't say what anybody else should be doing; I didn't present it as a universal truth. It seems very clear to me that there is room for a variety of workplace types. Strictly in-office, hybrid, and strictly remote. I said I enjoyed getting together with my coworkers; I also said my ideal situation would involve spending a majority of time remote.

Requiring any amount of office time completely eliminates the most meaningful advantages of working remotely.

Re: Employees are returning to the office to sit on zoom calls

#68

Post by idunno246 »

slavapestov wrote: post #35
PeterisP wrote: post #27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes, and that's why hybrid doesn't make much sense - even if you have 80% in office and 20% remote, then you have to have 100% of the processes/costs/downsides of remote work (because almost everyone needs to work as if you were remotely), but you get only 20% of the benefits of remote work.

Isn't it pretty standard to have video conferencing equipment in conference rooms or are there actually companies where people literally sit in a meeting room and dial in with Zoom from their laptops? Sounds pretty silly, and easy to fix with minimal cost.

my company turned off all our conference room video conference hardware to force people to dial in individually. the argument being that the remote people have less representation if theyre a small box on a screen vs everyone in the room

Re: Employees are returning to the office to sit on zoom calls

#69

Post by poink »

ByteJockey wrote: post #62
JohnBooty wrote: post #57

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What is going on in this conversation thread?

There are two camps that want something mutually exclusive (work from home vs work in office). Additionally, in order to get what they want, they need the other group to comply.* The struggle is spilling over into the comment threads. * If everyone works in the office, and the work from home people are still remote, they get passed over for promotions and basically have a good chance of tanking their career. If every…

I think there’s a lot of WFH folk who are worried less about promotions than they are the availability of WFH jobs in general.

People who favor that style of working viewed COVID as a transformational event, and are going to push back hard on anything/anyone suggesting a return to the previous status quo, where WFH was something you had to be a relatively special snowflake to be afforded by many/most companies.

Re: Employees are returning to the office to sit on zoom calls

#70

Post by cjmb »

JohnBooty wrote: post #60
flurie wrote: post #56

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It could be an example of Lake Woebegon effect[1], though I'm not sure that's the case here. On the other hand, making broad proclamations about nationalities based on anecdotes has another name. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lake_Wobegon#The_Lake_Wobegon_...

I've worked on a number of crap, toxic teams over 20+ years. This one's good. I'm absolutely dumbfounded at the replies here. I make an offhand remark about my current team being a pleasure to work with, and I have multiple replies suggesting that there is something fishy afoot? "The Lake Wobegon effect, a natural human tendency to overestimate one's capabilities" Oh, cool. Because I say my coworkers are good and I e…

Don't let it bother you man. It's just an example of cross-cultural confusion crossed with some blunt HN mannerisms (to put it politely).

The tell is the callout that this is an "American thing" -- which, well, it is. America has a culture, and especially SF has a culture, that's pretty distinct from elsewhere. Talking up the raw intellect of one's coworkers is a very SF thing, and a very-non-European thing (not to say the person you're responding to is from the EU, I'm sure there's other similar places).

How it reads to an American: "this commenter is psyched to go to work with their colleagues, whose contributions and company they enjoy"

How it (could conceivably) read to someone from a culture very different from SF's: "this commenter is bragging about the IQ of their coworkers relative to everyone else's, which is either uncouth or sycophantic."

Commenting on it is of course ridiculous. Happy your team is good :)

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