Modern white-collar work wil never go back to the way things were (nor does it need to). Pros and cons to that of course. The path of least resistance (saving the costs of lighting/heating/cooling/plumbing/office-maintenance, etc) will triumph.
Want employees to return to the office? Then give each one an office
691–700 of 838 posts
Re: Want employees to return to the office? Then give each one an office
#692If they want me to return to the office, then I need a private trailer with my office and it's own facilities in it. Don't shove me in where I'm forced to share air and virus with anyone else.
Re: Want employees to return to the office? Then give each one an office
#693Earlier quoted context omitted.
Not even. He was upset because the presence of his middle-class employee in his previously-upper-class restaurant — especially with the employee visibly performing middle-class behaviors like a lack of consideration of discretion (and then not being told to sit down by the restaurant staff!) — was tarnishing the restaurant's upper-class image, i.e. the usefulness of using eating there as an upper-class shibboleth. Or…
I would love to hear the "backchannel" conversations happening between people like Musk, Altman, the Google guys and their cronies. It often "feels" like they are planning something nefarious longterm but I can't exactly see the big picture so im not sure.
The sad thing is that when it's come out (e.g. the twitter court case), it's been shockingly vapid. And free of people challenging each other even when the ideas are so obviously bad.
Re: Want employees to return to the office? Then give each one an office
#694Earlier 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.
Class is in no way related to salary.
I miss when the Wikipedia articles for American working/middle/upper class had an image of the typical car they would drive on the sidebar.
Re: Want employees to return to the office? Then give each one an office
#695Earlier 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.
Exactly! It's like Musk demanding everyone comes into the office while he is only in the office at individual companies 1 or 2 times a week. CEO of Tesla, a publicly traded company spends all his time in the privately held offices of Twitter. Can other of his company employees work multiple jobs including their own personal company? If the answer is no then it's 100% a class thing
The funniest bit to me is that Musk owning and working as the CEO of multiple companies is admitting that CEOs don’t actually do much tangible work.
Re: Want employees to return to the office? Then give each one an office
#696Earlier quoted context omitted.
You think software engineers aren’t fungible? Facebook hires SWE’s based on generic technical interviews and doesn’t even assign them a team until week six.
That just means they’re not literally irreplaceable, not that they’re fungible. The pool of people who could do the job, even with training, is a tiny fraction of the overall population.
Gold is rare too.
Re: Want employees to return to the office? Then give each one an office
#697Earlier quoted context omitted.
> 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. That’s not populist at all. It’s just another example of the white collar class enjoying the benefits of technology and globalization while everyone else gets left behind: https://www.epi.org/blog/wage-inequality-continued-to-increa... . Before the pandem…
> Before the pandemic, I already made a lot more money (as a lawyer) than my middle class neighbors. Now I also get to work from home three days a week, and get a lot more quality time with my kids, while they have to go to work every day because their jobs aren’t knowledge work. With all due respect - so what? This seems like crab in a bucket mentality, just because some of us crabs managed to climb to the top of th…
You’re not a crab, you’re the chef cooking the crabs. You might work for the restaurant owner, but your material interests aren’t aligned with those of the crabs.
The wages versus capital distinction overlooks the nature of modern businesses, where ownership is diffuse, and businesses are run by a vast class of skilled professionals. For example, Tim Cook owns just 0.02% of Apple stock, but he runs the company. Many executives below him have tremendous power. Individual engineers can have a major impact on the direction of the whole business. Most importantly, the executive roles are typically filled from that same class of people.
These people aren’t Steve Jobs in terms of their ownership interest in the company, but they’re not Apple Store workers either. Their self interest is fundamentally more aligned with those of the capitalists than with the interests of labor.
Re: Want employees to return to the office? Then give each one an office
#698People 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…
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Re: Want employees to return to the office? Then give each one an office
#699Earlier 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.
upper middle class is the common term. or to use an older one: petit bourgeoisie
"petit bourgeoisie" used to mean "lower middle class".
Re: Want employees to return to the office? Then give each one an office
#700I don’t think people understand how cheap people in Ukraine, Poland and other countries are willing to work if companies go fully remote.
That argument always gets used as a threat which makes no sense. Outsourcing has been a thing for decades. If they were remotely serious they would have done so already and reaped the premiums. They don't so the only response is to put up or shut up, and they sure aren't putting up.
Before they could have people in the office to manage. Now that developers appear to refuse to show up, what’s the difference? Do you think there aren’t talented devs in Ukraine, South America, or Poland?