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Microsoft is letting employees work from home permanently

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Re: Microsoft is letting employees work from home permanently

#101

Post by netcan »

ChuckNorris89 wrote: post #4

IMHO companies need to either embrace WFH fully or not at all. This current "we're kinda mostly WFH but not really sometimes" is the worst, as you have archaic processes still in place from pre WFH days that are still enforced, and most importantly, if management is in the office and you're not, over time, the colleagues who will be in the office will seem to get really lucky in regards to promotions and opportunitie…

In a sense, those are the breaks.

Companies don't exist to be fair, and fairness isn't built into promotion/advancement necessarily. This might just be another one of those insider edges that you may or may not have. Companies are already full of these.

Re: Microsoft is letting employees work from home permanently

#102

Post by mc32 »

vsareto wrote: post #98
mc32 wrote: post #57

Earlier quoted context omitted.

?? That’s a total non-sequitur and has no connection to the other. Slackers will slack against themselves (hire a responsible home contractor vs one who slacks off and one who shows up whenever and does things half arsed). So it’s not about revenge or getting something back (that might be a motivation for some malcontents, but most slackers aren’t malcontents.

I'm just saying: a demotivated or lied-to worker resembles slackers pretty closely. I think it's less about personal flaws than we think.

I don’t think so. Demotivated people are troubled by the situation. They do not seek the situation that put them there. They want to be productive, but the system undermines them. Slackers just don’t give a care either way. They just wanna slack. They make a million excuses. It’s really not the same in any way.

Re: Microsoft is letting employees work from home permanently

#103

Post by driverdan »

Charles808 wrote: post #85
kethinov wrote: post #67

Buried in the article they also talk about cutting the pay of people who move away from big cities based on their "geopay" scale, a new trend that I have a hard time seeing as anything other than corporate greed we should vigorously oppose. I understand not every company can afford to do Basecamp's "pay everyone SF wages" thing, but any company can afford to set uniform pay grades at some level and one would think th…

Overhead cost of providing a physical workspace is easily 50%+ of base compensation costs. Companies save a fortune by having employees work from home. "Geopay" scales are exploitation. Employee X should be compensated in relation to the value they bring through their efforts, not at the minimum possible level that the employer can get away with.

At low paying jobs sure but when you're talking about $100k+ tech employees it does not cost 50% of base compensation for the physical workspace.

Re: Microsoft is letting employees work from home permanently

#104

Post by netcan »

The geopay stuff seems unstable as a norm... if that's the way we're going.

It makes sense atm, maybe, for tech companies.

The tech companies, currently, are extremely flush with cash. They don't need to be all that ruthless. This takes off a lot of pressure. But as things go on, "geopay" is going to become an optimizable cost structure. There will be uncomfortable conversations as people move to higher geopay places. False addresses. Optimisations on all sides.

Maybe I'm wrong, but this seems like a mess, as the games play out.

Re: Microsoft is letting employees work from home permanently

#105

Post by mmmmmbop »

marketingPro wrote: post #65
dsr_ wrote: post #43

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Because the USA has a fundamentally broken healthcare system, which it propagandizes as the best in the world despite actual evidence that it is not.

I put most blame on the American Medical Association who is a top lobbyist and created the Physician cartel. 300 to 600k per year salaries are not natural, German Physicians don't make that much or go to school for as long yet have similar outcomes.

While the physician salaries in the U.S. are indeed much higher than in Germany, I believe the time to become a fully accredited doctor is roughly the same.

In the U.S. it's 8 years of school plus a 3- to 7-year residency program, versus 6.5 years of school plus a 5- to 6-year residency program in Germany.

Re: Microsoft is letting employees work from home permanently

#106

Post by JohnJamesRambo »

tuna-piano wrote: post #32
popotamonga wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How come its so expensive? The top top insurance in my european country is $100 and a pretty good is 30.

Well for many reasons (good and bad) healthcare is more expensive in the US than any other country. But why is healthcare bought individually more expensive than healthcare an employer buys for all their employees? One is real and one is hidden. The hidden price difference is that most employees think they pay $200 per month in health insurance, but actually their employer is paying $600 and chips in $400 so the empl…

I never thought about that last part, thank you that makes sense.

Re: Microsoft is letting employees work from home permanently

#108

Post by JohnJamesRambo »

marketingPro wrote: post #65
dsr_ wrote: post #43

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Because the USA has a fundamentally broken healthcare system, which it propagandizes as the best in the world despite actual evidence that it is not.

I put most blame on the American Medical Association who is a top lobbyist and created the Physician cartel. 300 to 600k per year salaries are not natural, German Physicians don't make that much or go to school for as long yet have similar outcomes.

But their admission letters all say they want to be a doctor "to help people."

Re: Microsoft is letting employees work from home permanently

#109

Post by MattGaiser »

netcan wrote: post #104

The geopay stuff seems unstable as a norm... if that's the way we're going. It makes sense atm, maybe, for tech companies. The tech companies, currently, are extremely flush with cash. They don't need to be all that ruthless. This takes off a lot of pressure. But as things go on, "geopay" is going to become an optimizable cost structure. There will be uncomfortable conversations as people move to higher geopay places…

I have a evil theory. Geopay will act like as an assumed filter. Top go getter types who are the future leaders will (in theory) come to the office and get the high pay. The less ambitious but still capable workers will move to cheaper places and earn less and be more easily replaceable.

Re: Microsoft is letting employees work from home permanently

#110

Post by wbl »

iso1631 wrote: post #80
popotamonga wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How come its so expensive? The top top insurance in my european country is $100 and a pretty good is 30.

Healthcare is provided for everyone in my country from central taxation - same as police, education, defence. You can top it up with private care which can offer you things like more convenient appointments, quicker appointments for non-urgent cases, nicer accommodation if you do have to stay in, etc. For a healthy, non-smoking 35-year-old you're looking around $80 a month. For a healthy, non-smoking 70-year-old you'…

Excess=Deductable?
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