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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

#591

Post by caseyohara »

steveBK123 wrote: post #512
HWR_14 wrote: post #479

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In real numbers, it's a DJ ($5k) CEO ($25MM).

Yes, but the funny thing is that.. for a guy worried about how hard his worker bees are working / how focussed they were during COVID.. he dropped A LOT of tracks during COVID. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_M._Solomon In fact, almost his entire track history was during COVID.. in a time that the company he runs has had some headline-grabbing losses in their consumer division. So I think its fair to say he sho…

Did Solomon actually produce those tracks though? I always assumed it was a ghost producer.

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

#592

Post by notyourwork »

steveBK123 wrote: post #69
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…

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…

This is a really good take. I have some experience with it though I'm not a C-Suite person. Over my 15 years of software engineering I've always had a job that had flexibility to let me work the way I wanted. Some offices and some buildings were worse than others but in general I was always able to set my hours, work from home or from a random place (i.e. coffee shop, park, mall, whatever) as I saw fit.

There were always times I needed to be present in person and I never scoffed at those. What I found recently, is employers are trying to shift from one extreme (fully remote) to the other. I hope we land back in the middle because I'm happiest when no one tells me what to do. I want to be treated like an adult and measured on merit and performance, not physical attendance.

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

#593

Post by awslattery »

freetanga wrote: post #494
awslattery wrote: post #266

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> unless perhaps the office is a 5 minute walk from home WFH for 2012-2023 here. With our first home purchase in 2018 being on the smaller size, and the introduction of our first child to the family in 2021, I started keeping an eye on nearby options. In March of 2023, a perfect little spot opened up that could support me and another employee in the same town. Pitched it to our small company, and now I have a dedicat…

Nice, and I agree with you. In my line of work would not be so easy, as large corpos have a bunch of job safety and info sec standards, beyond internet connection. Clean desk policy, no take-home printouts, clear whiteboards with confidencial information, etc… I had a WFH employee who once burn himself at home while making coffee with his own coffee pot, and sue the company as he claimed was a job-related accident. W…

> In my line of work would not be so easy, as large corpos have a bunch of job safety and info sec standards, beyond internet connection.

Having worked DoD in the past, I can completely echo that it would be quite a challenge to explore something like this for many organizations.

> I had a WFH employee who once burn himself at home while making coffee with his own coffee pot, and sue the company as he claimed was a job-related accident. We had to settle and pay him, or have Unions making a big fuzz.

"This is why we can't have nice things," personified.

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

#594

Post by ryantgtg »

jefftk wrote: post #413
rqtwteye wrote: post #295

Earlier quoted context omitted.

" I'd rather take a 50% paycut than go back to the office." People should stop saying this. Otherwise it will soon be the standard to take a serious paycut for WFH. .

"you'd have to double my pay to get me to commute everyday?"

As well as "I'd rather leave my current job than go back to the office."

My company has spent the last 8 months trying to explain why they want us back in the office for hybrid work. At first it was, "mentoring young staff." And lately it is, "It doesn't look great to potential clients when they visit an office and the office is empty." This new argument sounds like a BD edge case.

It seems to entirely be senior leaders and senior empty nesters pushing for this, while everyone else is not in favor.

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

#595

Post by jen20 »

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…

I would be far more tempted to an office (and to reclaim a room for use as another guest bedroom in my house) if I had a private office. Open plan or shared offices are an absolute no, though.

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

#596

Post by red-iron-pine »

FirmwareBurner wrote: post #411
lmkg wrote: post #369

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Your employer should actually pay you more to WFH. Aside from saving them rent on the office space, you should be able to expense several office-supply things that they would have provided previously. Office chair and desk, internet bill (pro-rated by usage), maybe printer ink.

>Aside from saving them rent on the office space, you should be able to expense several office-supply things that they would have provided previously. Office chair and desk, internet bill (pro-rated by usage), maybe printer ink. Let's not get carried away. Back then you were paying for your own transportation costs and your commute time. Which is more valuable? Commuting to work every day to enjoy free office supplie…

aye, and the difference is the commute and its resources -- gas, new tires, oil changes, etc. -- ain't coming back.

meanwhile, i bought a standing desk and it's mine, and it'll go to my next house and next job.

they can drop ship me a laptop and docking station, and if they wanna be nice throw me a couple hundred as a "office stiped", which would be way cheaper than buying business grade furniture.

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

#597

Post by red-iron-pine »

CamperBob2 wrote: post #356
rqtwteye wrote: post #295

Earlier quoted context omitted.

" I'd rather take a 50% paycut than go back to the office." People should stop saying this. Otherwise it will soon be the standard to take a serious paycut for WFH. .

(Shrug) If that's what it takes, that's what it takes. Commuting is for suckers, regardless of how many numbers are on your paycheck.

agreed. unless its like an easy 20 min walk or bike or something, i don't plan on commuting regularly for anything less than a Director role.

on the Dir level? fine, different story, and being present to have official off the record chats may be required.

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

#598

Post by afiori »

gochi wrote: post #420
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.

Have you heard of phrases like "old money" and "new money"? Or "upper middle" and "lower upper"? The reason they're used more is because there is a very clear distinction between groups even at high levels of wealth due to the need to socially signal. This is what causes CEOs to flip out that an analyst is trying to casually talk to them at a non-work event as if they are equals. This is class dynamics in action, it'…

There can be many class horizons, it could very possibly be that the young analyst would dislike a plumber (as in someone owning a plumbing comapany) talking casually to him, the plumber a retail casher, the retail casher an homeless person.

Upper vs working the most important divide (IMHO), but not the only one.

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

#600

Post by gspencley »

dom96 wrote: post #522
gspencley wrote: post #98

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> 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. Not only is it unpaid, it actually costs the employee money. In the worst case you need a car + the insurance, fuel and maintenance costs associated. In the best case you still need to pay for public transportation. > Nor do people…

That's all fair, though there is one clear advantage that commuting has (via certain modes of transport) and that is exercise. I say this as someone that loves working from home, but before I did so I would get thousands of steps in every day running towards the tube in London and around all the platforms. Dunno, maybe the positive health benefits of the steps are outweighed by how polluted the air in London (and lik…

This will depend on how you commute. I agree that exercise is important but if I were commuting within the city that I live, I would be driving to work and walking maybe 10 steps to my car and 20 steps to my desk. In a large urban centre where you are dependent on public transit then this might be a benefit.

Edit: I will also point out that, in my opinion, when I'm choosing my own "WFH" arrangements, the onus is on me to make whatever choices suit my health and lifestyle. The employer has no obligation or responsibility to actively promote and encourage any lifestyle choices in my opinion (I actually get really annoyed when employers try to do this - just let me do my job and stay out of my personal life). But they sure as hell have a responsibility to reduce risk and hazards while on the job to every reasonable extent.

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