Isn't it interesting that the millions and millions of people with the opposite opinion never get their thoughts shared via articles like this? If there was legitimate, rational, discussion on the topic, wouldn't you expect to see people with differing opinions on the topic get their thoughts promoted in a similar way?
Return to Office Is Bullshit and Everyone Knows It
531–540 of 913 posts
Re: Return to Office Is Bullshit and Everyone Knows It
#532Earlier quoted context omitted.
Proprietary telepresence systems have been around for a long time and they are good enough for keeping international relations going between country's governments, so they probably would be good enough for your company. They are more expensive than you might think they should be until you get into the engineering and understand what it takes to make it seamless and reliable. The question is, does your organization ac…
We had a Cisco conference setup for two joined conference rooms back in 2014? It was like $500K per site. It was terrible, picture quality was 1080i with bad sound, but something an exec would love cosplaying as a member of the NSC. The thing couldn't easily handle conferees using webcams etc. Got torn out when the support contract ended and converted into a traditional conference room.
That number sounds high to me.
Is your contention here that the technology to make this seamless and reliable experience doesn't exist, or are you agreeing with me that it's not trivial to implement?
Re: Return to Office Is Bullshit and Everyone Knows It
#533We must all remain forever vigilant and be prepared to stand our ground against tyrrany, irrespective of the cost we will have to pay.
I wish a social assistance service existed for tech workers where we pay a small monthly amount in and receive support for bills if we are fired for refusing RTO and being laid off. Such a group service would seriously blunt the sharpness of the sword at our throats by these bosses who think they have all the power.
Re: Return to Office Is Bullshit and Everyone Knows It
#534Earlier quoted context omitted.
> Walking over and talking to someone is still far superior to any online communication. The reason it isn't, for me, is that I'm usually answering questions about Why we do something, or How something is supposed to work. I'm usually giving a quick response, with a link to a design, or a code snippet, or a git commit, or a Code Review link, or something online. So I have to provide an online response whether you ask…
Yeah I guess the difference is that at my workplace there's a lot of tribal knowledge. Even when there is a design document it often hasn't been updated or requires nuance to interpret that's only really in one or two peoples' heads. Often the question/discussions is about engineering priorities, some discovery was made during coding that would alter the design, and half the time simply bringing up the topic with the…
So this is such a good example of why the office is actually a major liability. Being in person allows you to get away with creating a culture where documentation doesn't really exist and that tapping people on the shoulder is more efficient. Everyone will be better off if instead knowledge is shared efficiently.
A good analogue is the culture of "the smoke break"(see the Friend's episode The One Where Rachel Smokes for a funny example). It's easy to say "the best decisions are made during smoke breaks therefore smoking is necessary for efficient businesses." Clearly that's absurd. It's not the smoking that makes good decisions, nor does the ability to tap people on the shoulder make for good documentation. Depending upon an accidental formation of office culture is never going to go well in the long run.
Re: Return to Office Is Bullshit and Everyone Knows It
#535There are so many “habits” left over from industrial work. On an assembly line everyone needed to be in sync but this generally isn’t true for most office work. You need to be present at the factory to do the work, hasn’t been true for office work for awhile now. Yet we still operate synchronously. Everyone commutes through traffic/crowded public transport and risk catching the latest novel virus, to arrive at work a…
Walking over and talking to someone is still far superior to any online communication. So unless you have a job that requires minimal communication on a day-to-day basis, an office is superior for productivity. Perhaps if everyone working from home were constantly available to screen-share/video chat it wouldn't be as bad, but my experience with WFH is people get distracted by kids/pets/etc and half the time I wait h…
This is so weird to me. I’ve worked in wildly successful global companies to which I have contributed wildly successful work collaborating with people I have never once met in person, over years of working with them. I am, emphatically, not questioning your perspective, but I have literally never, over 3 decades, found a need for in person collaboration that could not be satisfied electronically. If anything, post-COVID norms such as Zoom/Teams replacing conference calls have improved my daily work immeasurably, even with much less shared space work.
I actually go to the office a fair amount but, far from a shared collaboration space, it’s largely a refuge for people who specifically want not to be bothered (by the dog, the kids, the neighbor’s leaf blower, etc.).
Re: Return to Office Is Bullshit and Everyone Knows It
#536Earlier quoted context omitted.
Prior to COVID, everyone understood that remote work was supported by some companies and not others. It was also a type of work that was preferred by some employees and not others. As a result, everyone peacefully self-selected into their preferred employment relationships. Companies got the type of workforce they wanted and workers chose the type of environment they wanted. It was great. Today, as some companies are…
Times change and so should companies. It's also not unreasonable for people to expect more from their job than a simple transaction. Before COVID, most places operated without tools such as Microsoft Teams and an assumption that remote work is untested and unproven to work in their setting. This is now not the case, and people are rightly questioning why a return is necessary. They've proven they can make it work and…
> When the internet goes down, why aren't people simply just sending faxes?
My phones are 1) a VOIPphone, and 2) a mobile device. The former relies on the internet; the latter can't send a FAX. PSTN is 90's technology, fewer and fewer people have a PSTN line.
Re: Return to Office Is Bullshit and Everyone Knows It
#537Earlier quoted context omitted.
Give it time. The (RTO) companies are on the wrong side of history. Ideally these mandates are something the (employment) market will never forget. It will be interesting to see in the near future how many of the RTO execs at these companies will be whining about their struggles finding talent and/or having to pay a premium to attain and return the level of talent they need. Of course few, if any of these execs will…
Eh, people forget. Heard about Blackwater lately? Or was it Xe? Or Academi? And they always complain about stuff like that, even when they aren’t playing games!
Yes and no. What needs to be factored in is, does the best / top talent forget? Or are they ones with more focus and memory? Does their marketability allow them to be more selective?
I think you see where this is going :)
Re: Return to Office Is Bullshit and Everyone Knows It
#538I am beginning to think, somewhat uncomfortably, that due to industry consolidation most big corps don't have to worry about having great talent anymore. They are squeezing more money out of an established business model in a market that no longer has real customer choice, as long as they have good enough people to keep things going it's not a problem.
I totally agree
These companies know they could lose a lot of excellent talent, and backfill with mediocre talent. Their employer brand names will remain strong carry them through, with enough junior candidates that will backfill the "industry expert" and mostly nobody will notice.
Re: Return to Office Is Bullshit and Everyone Knows It
#539The author hand-waved away the whole "exception" thing with "good luck getting C-level approval in time!" But if he was really as valuable as he claimed, all he had to do was just say "No" and he would have gotten C-level approval.
Re: Return to Office Is Bullshit and Everyone Knows It
#540Earlier quoted context omitted.
Are you suggesting that they might not have social skills and send creepy text messages to female colleagues because they're a furry?
There was nothing in GP's post that indicated they thought this (and for me personally, that doesn't even compute, as I see no connection).
There's nothing to suggest that they would have no social skills, or send creepy messages to their female co-workers either.