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Working from home is powering productivity

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Re: Working from home is powering productivity

#131

Post by mvanbaak »

notyourwork wrote: post #73
Terr_ wrote: post #45

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> real-estate value Separately but simultaneously, there are often local tax-benefits which depend on the company "creating jobs", and that's often defined in a way that means butts-in-offices downtown.

Ding ding ding … this is the most overlooked aspect of the RTO/WFH dynamic.

This might be the nr 1 reason.

The hidden layoff round is also high on that list if you ask me. They call everyone back to the office, the people that dont want/cant will not adhere, and thus be fired without the companies having to pay severance.

Re: Working from home is powering productivity

#132

Post by mvanbaak »

kortilla wrote: post #117
azemetre wrote: post #97

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is the case for the city of Boston. The city derives the vast majority of its budget from commercial property taxes, it's why residential property taxes are so low in the city. Use to work for a company that was literally told by the city that if they don't have X amount of people in the building they will lose their tax incentives they got for having the company there. The company slowly mandated hybrid then RT…

Why would the city care about number of people in the office if they are deriving the money from commercial property taxes?

- public transport - spending money in local stores - spending money on housing - spending money on local child care - etc etc etc

Re: Working from home is powering productivity

#133

Post by dugmartin »

ip26 wrote: post #30
ryandrake wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> First-line managers have a similar role, but they are treated like garbage by their superiors, and consider their position a "necessary evil," towards higher ranks. This is because most companies don't have a promotion track above "Senior Software Engineer" that doesn't involve people-management, which is an entirely different job. It's as if you ran a restaurant and in order for your highest rated chef to get prom…

Counter argument: if we accept the military example as doing leadership/management well, you can say the same about their career track. Far as I can tell, there’s no “IC” track above Corporal, which has an average age of 21yo.

I believe this was the reason the warrant officer rank was created.

Re: Working from home is powering productivity

#134

Post by mvanbaak »

SunlitCat wrote: post #122
roland35 wrote: post #110

Number one benefit to companies to allow WFH: they can pay me a senior level pay for staff level seniority, and I still come out ahead living in the Midwest versus moving to SF or NYC.

Aren't there some companies that consider this (where the employee lives) when calculating their salaries?

most are

Re: Working from home is powering productivity

#136

Post by mvanbaak »

hotspot_one wrote: post #124
SunlitCat wrote: post #122

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Aren't there some companies that consider this (where the employee lives) when calculating their salaries?

I see this alot. Has always struck me as very unfair.

it is unfair, but it's very common.

also, we are very hypocritical about it. When it is about india etc, we (us and western europe) think it's normal to pay less, but when it's about different regions within our own countries, we think it's unfair.

In an ideal world, we would pay everyone based on role and output, but this is not how the world economy works at the moment. Dont ask me to explain, because I also dont know all the details, but it is reality

Re: Working from home is powering productivity

#137

Post by bongodongobob »

kortilla wrote: post #117
azemetre wrote: post #97

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is the case for the city of Boston. The city derives the vast majority of its budget from commercial property taxes, it's why residential property taxes are so low in the city. Use to work for a company that was literally told by the city that if they don't have X amount of people in the building they will lose their tax incentives they got for having the company there. The company slowly mandated hybrid then RT…

Why would the city care about number of people in the office if they are deriving the money from commercial property taxes?

Why would the city care if no one is working downtown?

Re: Working from home is powering productivity

#138

Post by beaconify »

tomjakubowski wrote: post #72
beaconify wrote: post #59

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I am not sure. Remote working allows you to instantly pair with someone. No shuffling keyboards. There are a lot of software tools that help. Things like Loom let you async stuff. What isn't is as good is social connection. I have not seen going out to a restaurant emulated well remotely.

Zoom's latency is a killer. It is still harder to have the kind of natural back and forth conversation I'm used to having in meatspace pairing. Maybe I should try Discord.

Havent noticed that even on international calls. But it might depend on the type of convo. Latency for talk seemed a problem last in the 2010s skype era. Latency in what is shown on a screenshare.... yeah! A problem.

Re: Working from home is powering productivity

#139

Post by lolinder »

hotspot_one wrote: post #124
SunlitCat wrote: post #122

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Aren't there some companies that consider this (where the employee lives) when calculating their salaries?

I see this alot. Has always struck me as very unfair.

I'm in a company that doesn't do this—everyone gets paid the same amount, which is way above average for most of the country—and some of the Californians are actively lobbying for location-based pay.

I don't think they realize that they're actually lobbying for most of the company to get a pay cut so they can get a greater percentage of the total salary budget, but that's what it would amount to if they got their way.

Re: Working from home is powering productivity

#140

Post by bongodongobob »

from-nibly wrote: post #125

Articles like this are talking past the RTO mandates. Ignore what the mandates say in the emails. They are trying to lay people off without suffering the PR downsides. They do not care how productive you were or are going to be. They need to fix the balance sheet for the next quarter, THEN they can worry about productivity.

No. Most businesses implementing RTO just want people back in the office, take the tinfoil hat.
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