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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

#721

Post by brewdad »

screwturner68 wrote: post #331
Roark66 wrote: post #283

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>I'd do it because I think it's better to have separate work / life areas; right now my WFH spot is also my PC gaming spot and the bedroom and the place where laundry dries, and I wouldn't mind more distance between work, leisure and private life. Long time ago I used to rent a room in a shared house 5 min walk from work. My housemates were all cool people, but working on a laptop sitting next to the bed I slept in e…

There was a study about that and there was a direct correlational between the size of you home and your desire to return to the office, people with small apartments enjoyed the office much more than those with larger houses. I'd also guess that the people with larger homes live father away from work than people with smaller homes so a longer commute comes into play.

That makes total sense. My house is about 1900 sq ft over two levels. During lockdown, my wife converted our guest bedroom into her office. My HS aged son did online school in his bedroom and I basically had the entire downstairs. Our cats moved around throughout the day depending on their mood.

This would have been much more uncomfortable in a smaller 2BR apartment and almost unmanageable in any space smaller than that.

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

#722

Post by rocqua »

captainbland wrote: post #156
btbuildem wrote: post #131

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It won't. The push for open-plan spaces was motivated by cost-cutting. Layouts with many closed offices would cost far more to build, and take up more square footage to host the same number of employees. At a time where savvy businesses have dropped their commercial leases / gone full remote, and the more conservative / less accepting of change ones are left holding the bag, I would not expect anyone to make big inve…

To be honest I think with hybrid, open offices make a lot of sense. Realistically you want to be able to hot desk because that's where the cost savings are made in a hybrid situation. You sort of fractional-reserve your office space. Of course it works only so long as nobody calls an in-person all hands. The in-office days are social collaboration days so it doesn't make sense to keep people in separate boxes for the…

That works only if everyone is hybrid. If some people are 80% office, they need a place for real work.

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

#723

Post by tkiolp4 »

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…

It’s not just that. With a WFH policy I can work for companies in Munich living in a town in northern Germany. That’s the big deal of remote work for me. Being limited to the companies that are located in the same city you live is a huge downside.

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

#724

Post by dbbk »

steveBK123 wrote: post #335
dustincoates wrote: post #319

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Because I was curious, here's what I found on the Goldman CEO story: https://www.bloomberg.com/news/newsletters/2021-03-15/goldma...

To put some numbers on it "Associate" is a $150-$250K TC role vs DJ CEO making $25M.

He DJs as a hobby, people are allowed to have hobbies, I don't think it's relevant.

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

#726

Post by yogthos »

hibikir wrote: post #628
yogthos wrote: post #454

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The only meaningful way to look at class is by looking at class interests. On the one hand, you have the capitalist class who own significant amount of capital and use this capital to further their wealth. On the other hand, you have working class people for whom selling their labour is the primary source of their income. These two classes have largely contradictory interests. People who own companies want to cut the…

It's still more complicated than that, as ultimately a non trivial number of people end up making more from investments than labor, just from savings and time. Basically every 45 year old developer in the US that tried to save at all is a capitalist in your book. If capital gains hand someone 300k a year, they aren't quite workers, but they aren't playing the same game as someone who is still playing the accumulation…

I don't think it's that complicated actually. The basic question is whether the individual has to keep going to work to maintain their lifestyle. Pretty much every 45 year old developer out there wouldn't last long without having a job. They probably have a mortgage to pay on their house, they have car payments, credit card debt, and so on. They're not living off their capital even though they might own some capital.

An actual capitalist makes a living by using their capital as the primary vehicle to create further wealth for themselves and to sustain their lifestyle.

Again, the key distinction is in terms of class interests. What sort of social policies would be of interest to each type of individual is the question.

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

#727

Post by Zetice »

acuozzo wrote: post #709
Zetice wrote: post #676

Earlier quoted context omitted.

We've since invented air conditioning (among other things), so I doubt this is a relevant point.

Air conditioning existed prior to The Great Depression.

So? The AC you’re referring to isn’t what is cooling my home right now, nor is it what will stop people from deciding to live in the woods.

But you knew that.

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

#728

Post by hgsgm »

ryandrake wrote: post #659
benterix wrote: post #643

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> it's never been my experience but it's a thing Yes it is a thing. It starts when you get promoted to a more senior role. The thing is, nothing much changed inside or outside, so many people feel they need to make a point. They start to dress differently, behave differently, introduce distance - to make sure others understand who is in the "superior" position. I noticed thin in insecure types or those who need some…

There are executive-class perks in most medium-to-large companies, but at least in tech, they're kept on the down low so you have to kind of look for them to find them. Personal assistants are probably the most visible. Private meeting rooms / bathrooms / entrances for the executives, chauffeurs, cooks, masseuses, access to corporate jets, hard-to-get tickets to sporting / arts events, separate housing allowances and…

Almost all of those perks have been given to line techies since Google was founded.

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

#729

Post by rurp »

Macha wrote: post #693
nebula8804 wrote: post #686

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Reading the text messages from that court case extinguished any questions I had about Musk and his cronies being super geniuses.

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

#730

Post by hgsgm »

nebula8804 wrote: post #686
derefr wrote: post #535

Earlier 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 are just normal people but with billions of dollars to sling around, so everything is more expensive and impressive scale.
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