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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

#571

Post by giraffe_lady »

heisnotanalien wrote: post #478
giraffe_lady wrote: post #247

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I simply do not get much if any of my human connection needs met by coworkers. I have a family, neighbors, close friends I see frequently and less close friends I see occasionally. A church, relationships based on volunteering, hobbies and interests, teens I mentor and their parents I shoot the shit with. Coworkers are so far down the list of priority socialization that my life isn't negatively affected by not intera…

Me me me. Other people exist apart from you!

I'm not the one trying to change everyone else's work environment because I can't meet my human needs elsewhere! (and I don't think you are either?) If you value human connectedness then build it into your life. If you don't then learn to live without it. Don't try to shape the lives of others around you in order that they meet your needs merely because they are easily accessible as coworkers.

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

#572

Post by closeparen »

philwelch wrote: post #341
ibejoeb wrote: post #301

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

If you are content to have your household and neighbors as your entire social world.

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

#573

Post by legohead »

mytailorisrich wrote: post #30

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…

If work gave me an office I would come in every day vs. the mandated twice a week we have.

I worked for a company that gave everyone an office. Just long hallways of offices with floor to ceiling windows and a door. It was a startup that grew to 200 people and was the best job I've had, a large part due to the atmosphere, and part of that was the office setup.

When my current workplace shutdown the office for covid, they sent out an email asking for suggestions for a new office setup. I told them to make everyone offices. We have a huge open floor and it wouldn't take much effort, just money. Money they are planning to spend anyway. Instead they raised the height of cubicle walls, added a ton of glass (disease spread fear I guess), and gave everyone whiteboards and motorized standup desks.

Now on my required days in the office I am annoyed by the constant chatter and noises around me which I cannot escape even with headphones.

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

#574

Post by 121789 »

webdood90 wrote: post #288
makingstuffs wrote: post #66

People need to stop trying to make things return to the original office model. Employees have realised we are equally as effective working from home and simply do not want to waste 2+ UNPAID hours of every day travelling to a corporate building for the sake of it. Nor do people want to spend £10+ a day on food and drinks which they have in their fridge, at home. Then there is also the social pressure of having to go…

I suspect the lines are typically drawn between introverts and extroverts, so it's unfair to generalize here. I work remote and we don't have an office near me, but I'd love to go back. My job is where I spend the majority of my life. I like to get to know the people I work with by socializing over lunch, after work social events, etc. It's how I meet people. Collaborating remotely also sucks. You miss out on a lot o…

I don't think that's the only line - I am pretty introverted but like having a place outside of my home where I can work. It's enough of a "default mildly social" situation to not feel isolated or restless if I want to do something like watch a movie or read at night (and I have a partner but that's not the same). I'd say most of the variability can be explained with three questions 1. Do you have a long commute? 2. Do you have a nice working environment at the office? 3. Do you have kids?

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

#575

Post by rayiner »

ElFitz wrote: post #376
FredPret wrote: post #318

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

A 150k-250k analyst isn’t upper class. Nor is it really middle-class (although that would depend on the cost of living). It’s that weird in-between, where one still needs to earn a living and make even more money for someone else. A 25M / year CEO is far past "earning a living" and really only works because they want to.

This recent (and self-serving) tendency of reducing “class” to only the extremely wealthy and everyone else is reductive and obscures important economic dynamics. It’s ridiculous to treat a master plumber that owns a plumbing business as “bourgeoise” while treating an Amazon engineer who has tremendous human capital as being a “proletariat.” Even in Marx’s time, there was substantial debate about how to classify the salaried professionals that served as the agents of the capital owners.

In the modern economy, capital owners are reliant on a class of non-fungible white collar workers that bring their own human capital. The two groups have myriad common interests. Those interests are in many cases in opposition to those of ordinary workers who lack human capital and are fungible and easily replaced.

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

#576

Post by strikelaserclaw »

jwells89 wrote: post #128
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.

Also, schedule flexibility. If I hit a point where my brain is a smoldering pile of ash I can get up and go do chores or get some sun by checking the mail or something, instead of sitting at my desk staring at my screen praying to the gods of productivity that my brain will start functioning again.

this is a big thing for me, some days the switch in my brain turns on at night and not during the day time, so should i sit and stare at my computer for 8 hrs, go home and then start working for real? It is much better for me to rest or take care of errands in the morning and then roll up my sleeves and get to work at night.

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

#577

Post by steveBK123 »

mytailorisrich wrote: post #461
ElFitz wrote: post #376

Earlier quoted context omitted.

A 150k-250k analyst isn’t upper class. Nor is it really middle-class (although that would depend on the cost of living). It’s that weird in-between, where one still needs to earn a living and make even more money for someone else. A 25M / year CEO is far past "earning a living" and really only works because they want to.

A junior analyst at Goldman Sachs who's having lunch in the Hamptons, in a restaurant the CEO also goes to, is probably upper class, just very young/recenly graduated though we don't know the details. Social class is not just about your current salary, although 200k soon after graduation isn't exactly 'average'... Some might even say that walking up to the CEO like that indicates upper class self-assurance...

Taking the other side - the junior was out to lunch with a bunch of coworkers.

In the office setting the CEO would never been seen anywhere near the same floor that such junior people are working or eating, never having the opportunity to introduce themselves. One bank famously had a special CEO elevator so the guy could seamlessly get from the garage to his high-rise executive suite without bumping into a single soul.

I recently found myself out to dinner a table over from a C-suite exec at my company. I did not introduce myself because I'm a socially damaged introvert.

It's a pretty easy bet that the kid was a major extrovert on the other hand, more than some assumption they must already be upper class.

You'd be surprised about the class mobility on Wall St vs other industries. When I graduated, Google famously did not even recruit from anything other than a small handful of schools and screened out a pretty high GPA minimum like 3.75 or so. Meanwhile every bank came to my college and I had like 5 offers. A good number of my coworkers spent some time at community college, had parents without college degrees, are first gen immigrants, etc.

Outside of glad-handing networking roles that lean on peoples connections like in IB, "already rich" is the exception rather than the rule. Bear was famous for saying they didn't hire MBAs, but instead PSDs — poor, smart and had a deep desire to be rich

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

#578

Post by NegativeK »

bluedino wrote: post #433
criddell wrote: post #246

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That’s the benefit of having your own office — you can make it comfortable. In mine I have music playing, I have a guitar for when I need to stop thinking about a problem, I have a bookshelf of books I love, I have a plant I care for, I have my own whiteboard, I have artwork, I have a balance board, and (fortunately) I have an amazing view. When I need a break, I can close my door to read, watch something, call a fri…

>> That’s the benefit of having your own office — you can make it comfortable. >> In mine I have music playing, I have a guitar for when I need to stop thinking about a problem I had a chessboard in my office at one time. It was basically a decoration, I think it was a secret santa gift or something, and it was never used until another guy and I started playing once every other week or so, at lunch. One day, over lun…

Your boss failed you.

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

#579

Post by declan_roberts »

gspencley wrote: post #70
Tokkemon wrote: post #6

I'm not going to endure an hour's commute and all the expense involved with that to just sit in another box where communication will just marginally improve.

Does it even improve marginally? I can see this being highly variable for the type of position / work. As a software developer the ability to schedule face time and use messenging for low-priority is way more productive than an unexpected door-knock that demands an immediate response. Apart from that, I was going to comment saying the exact same thing. Not having a commute is non-negotiable for me. That said, I have…

Even if it improves dramatically, so what?

The point of life is not to provide your employer with unrestricted access to your time for their convenience.

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

#580

Post by nkjnlknlk »

generic92034 wrote: post #549
steveBK123 wrote: post #375

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes, even well paid worker bees are still worker bees. The queen bee who owns a share of the hive, decides how many bees to hire/fire, where they work, when they work, what % of the honey to share with the worker bees, etc.. now thats a different class.

What about managers/trainers of sports teams, if the stars of the team get a significantly higher salary? The manager/trainer might order them around, but does that make them belonging to a higher class, even if they earn way less than their "subordinates"?

Players have not been subordinate to managers (in most sports) for decades.
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