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Want employees to return to the office? Then give each one an office

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Re: Want employees to return to the office? Then give each one an office

#141

Post by btbuildem »

steveBK123 wrote: post #96
AvAn12 wrote: post #9

Joel Spolesky has made this very point many times in the past: "Private offices with doors that close were absolutely required and not open to negotiation." I work on a Data Sci team that moved to an open floor plan in 2018. What happened? Anyone who needed to work intensively on a project would work from home instead of in the office.

Open floorplans are especially problematic if your team handles any mix of development & operational tasks. Wall Street tech it's pretty typical to do your own SRE/L3 and honestly even L2/L1. Everything from business user "hey how do I.." customer service questions down to "the server is on fire, alerts are coming in .. ". Open floorplans mean even if you have an agreed PagerDuty type rotation, everyone gets sucked i…

Open floor plans are even more problematic when the R&D team shares the space with sales / marketing. In that setting only one of the teams is getting any work done, I'll leave you to guess which one.

Re: Want employees to return to the office? Then give each one an office

#142

Post by tfandango »

klysm wrote: post #13
plagiarist wrote: post #7

Give me a laundry and dish service to replace how I am able to start appliances during a break.

This is such a huge perk for me, last thing I want to do when getting home from a commute is hit a wall of chores. Much better to spread them out through the day

I often do dishes or laundry during longer calls. I find it easier to follow the topic when I do this over when I'm on a call AND a computer where I quickly end up working on code and ignoring the call.

Re: Want employees to return to the office? Then give each one an office

#144

Post by boo-ga-ga »

_fizz_buzz_ wrote: post #27
1970-01-01 wrote: post #3

At home, the benefits are extreme. Full office, private bath, private bed, private kitchen, garaged parking, asset security, and a 30 second commute. The next wave of office workers will want it better than this, or it simply won't work.

I think a lot of people on here have not been through a real recession. Not saying that everybody will go back to working in an office, but thinking one can simply demand anything only works when employment is high. During a recession, it is either social assistance or one takes the job that is available.

I don't think even recession will necessarily affect this. All the employees have tasted remote work. And many (if not most) people see it as a huge benefit. So any company that forces people to visit their office for whatever reason will get a market penalty. Some will pay for it with higher compensation or other goods, but I'm sure many will seize the opportunity and will happily continue working remotely.

Re: Want employees to return to the office? Then give each one an office

#145

Post by kzrdude »

goodpoint wrote: post #127
kzrdude wrote: post #81

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Eating out is a net positive for me. I get better, more varied food and feel better if a professional does the cooking. It's not worth saving money on what I eat - it's so important for health.

There is nothing healthy in eating out.

That depends on where you go to eat, I think

Re: Want employees to return to the office? Then give each one an office

#147

Post by commonlisp94 »

mrbgty wrote: post #57
Zetice wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Won’t work? How will these non-workers pay for things? They’ll have no choice but to work.

How will the company stay in business without workers? They'll have no choice...

They have plenty of choices, including:

- visa workers who have no bargaining power.

- younger people who are mobile

- moving offices to other places

There have been a few recent posts about struggling to find jobs... every time it turns out they are only applying to online listings for remote jobs, and have high standards. That's not a situation you're likely to stand out in.

I just don't see how global remote work as the norm is "pro worker" for anyone except those already well established in their career. Besides being more disposable, what happened to complaints about companies not providing job resources or training? Did we give up on that one?

Re: Want employees to return to the office? Then give each one an office

#148

Post by DebtDeflation »

Personal office is irrelevant to me.

My criteria - Is there a reason for me to be in the office on this specific day? Will my team be there? Is there an upcoming milestone where having everyone in a room together for most of the day will make us more productive? If the answer to all three questions is yes, then I want to be in the office that day. If it's just to go to a physical location where I will be on Zoom calls all day with team members all in offices in other locations, then hard pass on going into the office and it doesn't matter whether it's an actual office or a cube.

Re: Want employees to return to the office? Then give each one an office

#149

Post by Someone1234 »

_fizz_buzz_ wrote: post #27
1970-01-01 wrote: post #3

At home, the benefits are extreme. Full office, private bath, private bed, private kitchen, garaged parking, asset security, and a 30 second commute. The next wave of office workers will want it better than this, or it simply won't work.

I think a lot of people on here have not been through a real recession. Not saying that everybody will go back to working in an office, but thinking one can simply demand anything only works when employment is high. During a recession, it is either social assistance or one takes the job that is available.

Can you explain what point you're making?

Seems like it is that employees should never ask for better working conditions because, it may be taken back when conditions allow employers to be more abusive? Is that really a point worth making?

Re: Want employees to return to the office? Then give each one an office

#150

Post by carpetmucher »

shortrounddev2 wrote: post #99
kjkjadksj wrote: post #83

Earlier quoted context omitted.

See if I lived five minutes walk from work, I’d want to be in the office even less. Why sit there between meetings if I am five minutes from my home? Why bag a lunch when my kitchen is down the block? I’d probably show face at the obligate meetings then just go home for the day if I could.

I used to live 5mins from work. The office catered lunch every day, but I still went home every day to eat lunch with my wife instead. Hated being at that place

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