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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

#341

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My home isn't huge, just a raised ranch. But I was able to build a soundproofed office in a corner of my basement and it's worked like a charm.

I was in an airport a few weeks ago and saw a new array of soundproof "phone" booths fitted with laptop stands and high-output lighting, and it occurred to me that I should have started a business building and selling those over the past 3 years. Anyway, I'm thinking more about city dwellers who generally live in apartments.

> Anyway, I'm thinking more about city dwellers who generally live in apartments.

That’s a lifestyle that makes significantly less sense for remote workers in the long run though.

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

#342
post #236

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Is that a bad thing? Since we started WFH, I’ve heard a lot of stories of oncalls spending an hour on things that could have been handled in 5 seconds if the right person had gotten sucked in on the way back from coffee. “Oh, I recognize this bug from two years ago, here’s what you gotta do.” “That customer’s symptoms are impossible, ask for more details on how they’re doing suchandsuch because they must be leaving s…

Well, yes, until the stuff which has to be delivered by the people sucked in to do support stuff starts lagging and missing deadlines. Then, suddenly, lots of people start being really unhappy (usually at the expenses of the people who were helping). If the oncalls don't have the knowledge to solve the issues they encounter, they need to escalate them and somebody needs to put more time in developing a more comprehen…

But your solutions imply things that you would probably not accept to do if you were the one having to do the work for these solutions.

You are saying that people will be blamed for taking too much time to an example saying it would took 10h of someone's time instead of 5 minutes. Why the company will value more "your" deadline than "the operation" deadline? You are basically saying you are okay with "operation" being the target of people unhappy as long as they are not unhappy with you.

You are saying people should escalate. But on the example, the person who has the solution is the person you say should not be disturbed. So you are just asking to disturb uselessly people who cannot help, so your solution is even worse.

You are saying more time is needed to develop a more comprehensive knowledge base. But who should take the time to fill up the knowledge base if not the people who have the answers, which, in this example, is the people you say don't have time. (and moreover, funnily, those people complaining to be distracted are also very very often not doing any effort to share their knowledge somewhere accessible).

I'm slowly getting very irritated by the whole WFH debate: there is way too much arguments that boils down to "the problem is that _I_ am the one that people distract, so let's do my solution that is sooooo much smarter, let's do something where _I_ am happy even if it makes the situation worse for everyone else". That slowly creates this impression that a lot of pro-WFH are just little kids.

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

#344

People who like WFH will never want to return to the office unless perhaps the office is a 5 minute walk from home (they may be forced to, but they won't want to). For many people the time and cost savings of avoiding a daily commute cannot be offset by a nicer office. Those who are happy to return to the office in general are those who do not like WFH and prefer more contacts and a change of scenery. A nicer office…

Respectfully, this is an example of rigid thinking that isn't productive or accurate. Apply marginal thinking the way economists do. People's propensity to return to the office falls on a spectrum ranging from 0 ( the people who are already back in their cubicles ) to 9 ( "You'll need a SWAT team to get me back to the office" ). A 5 on that scale is a marginal worker. Provide an incentive for them to return, like a n…

Depends on the distribution though, doesn't it. My personal hunch is that it's strongly bimodal, and that there actually aren't that many in the middle.

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

#345

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I had a boss who was a VP in sales. His philosophy was "On the days I go in late, I make up for it by leaving early".

I'm guessing that sales is pretty different from typical software dev, in the sense that sales productivity is very measurable. That probably sidesteps a lot of the guesswork about what makes a person most productive.

Yes and if you're hitting or exceeding your sales goals, your boss won't care how much you are in the office. For at least some sales work, a substantial portion of it may take place outside of the office anyway.

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

#347

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This example is a stark reminder that the complaints are most often not about details but about class . The CEO was upset others were allowed to perform as if they were of the same class. It’s always class when one boils it down, imho.

Not everything is a class dynamic. “Analyst at GS hanging out in the Hamptons” doesn’t scream working class. The CEO and analyst are both upper class, just different levels of power and seniority. That CEO is just a power-tripping asshole.

Actually its extra funny because he is, objectively, a pretty bad CEO! Probably the worst GS has ever had. He will not last much longer in the seat.

The big push into consumer finance has been a complete multi-billion loss making debacle under his leadership.

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

#348

People who like WFH will never want to return to the office unless perhaps the office is a 5 minute walk from home (they may be forced to, but they won't want to). For many people the time and cost savings of avoiding a daily commute cannot be offset by a nicer office. Those who are happy to return to the office in general are those who do not like WFH and prefer more contacts and a change of scenery. A nicer office…

My vaguely populist take is that the pandemic, WFH/remote and hybrid gave the mass white collar class a taste of what the C-suite has had for years.. flexibility. Sure, these guys might go into the office but they do so from their pied-a-terre / 3rd home / whatever within a 5 minute chauffeured drive. They do this while maintaining a nearby suburban/exurban estate and maybe a lake/beach/ski houses where they spend th…

If I had a small-medium company I would hand out money for renting coworking spaces. If enough people do this, coworking spaces will pop up more and more and compete to get the best deals. People who wants to WFH can pocket the difference and those who crave for socialization will have a place for such.

A large company can probably do that with smaller offices or with setting up the coworking spaces themselves and renting the spaces left without occupants.

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

#349
I had a private office once. On a short walk from where I lived. That would be the closest I would get to returning to an office.

But no tech companies set up small offices where I live so remote it is. And that's fine with me. I like where I live, the people around me, etc.

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

#350

People who like WFH will never want to return to the office unless perhaps the office is a 5 minute walk from home (they may be forced to, but they won't want to). For many people the time and cost savings of avoiding a daily commute cannot be offset by a nicer office. Those who are happy to return to the office in general are those who do not like WFH and prefer more contacts and a change of scenery. A nicer office…

Basically this. If companies want people back in the office when they could WFH instead, they're going to have to compensate them, time and costs, for the commute.

when unemployment goes to 7% they won't be compensating for a damn thing and WFH will be a thing of the past.
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