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Why workers are calling BS on leaders about returning to the office

fastcompany.com

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Re: Why workers are calling BS on leaders about returning to the office

#101

Post by pinkybanana »

mywittyname wrote: post #54
darth_avocado wrote: post #34

The whole pushback against remote work is absolutely nuts. When the companies were staring at shutdowns and loss of revenue, everyone gladly accepted the idea that people can work from home. And contrary to the popular belief, productivity increased (our own CEO admitted at one point in an all hands). But the minute there was a sign things are opening up, there's a complete opposite viewpoint being pushed from the sa…

Just wait for the mass exodus. Remote work is turning out to be a requirement for hiring people. So once the company starts bleeding (good) people who find remote jobs with other companies, they are going to be difficult/impossible to replace. At some point, the execs will have to suck it up and offer remote work.

If remote work is a winning concept on the market, why we needed coronavirus crisis for it to get adopted? Are markets not working?

Re: Why workers are calling BS on leaders about returning to the office

#102

Post by djs55 »

ItsMonkk wrote: post #81
Fordec wrote: post #56

Earlier quoted context omitted.

On point 4, I think this is where co-working spaces have a moment to shine. A fully remote environment that you still get to leave the house to go to and no impact on how the rest of the team live their lives.

College was by far the best time in my life because of the environment of campus, even with the pitiful dorm room sizing and sub-average dining options. If I could move to a campus - perhaps that was focused on people in their thirties - where people from many companies would go to work remotely and live, that would be an absolute game-changer for me.

I feel exactly the same way. College had just the right amount of private space, lots of shared spaces for social occasions / group working and a maintenance department to look after all the tedious domestic repairs. Bliss

Re: Why workers are calling BS on leaders about returning to the office

#103

Post by dred_prte_rbrts »

narrator wrote: post #82
phkahler wrote: post #71

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The problem with fully remote work is that once you accept that a job can be done from anywhere, you have to compete on a global level. It can be done from India, China, Pakistan, or any other place where they have smart people willing to work for less than you! So don't get too excited about it ;-)

This is why it's good to be a lawyer. It's one of the last remaining guilds of knowledge workers with any power. It's literally illegal to have someone from wherever do certain tasks if they are not properly licensed.

I would point you at board certified doctors.

Re: Why workers are calling BS on leaders about returning to the office

#104

Post by EMM_386 »

As a software engineer, I will never, ever work from an office again. There are zero reasons to.

And this isn't even related to Covid, I've been working remotely for 6 years.

Everything I do is carefully tracked. Every line of code is logged and timestamped. All my assigned tasks are viewable by anyone, with every associated line of code one click away. When I am connected to the VPN to access work resources, everything is carefully logged.

If we need to do a meeting, we use Microsoft Teams. You can chat with me whenever you want, and can schedule a video call whenever you need to.

At least with my job, a senior software engineer, there is zero need for an office.

I realize not everyone is in my position, and there are plenty of jobs that do require you to go into a physical office space. This career is not one of them.

Re: Why workers are calling BS on leaders about returning to the office

#105

Post by itronitron »

lotsofpulp wrote: post #73
itronitron wrote: post #51

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Also, anyone that is vaccinated can still 'catch Covid' and potentially pass it on to family members that are not yet able to be vaccinated.

Anyone can catch anything and potentially pass it on all the time. But at least the CDC thinks the risk is sufficiently low that it is not worth worrying about: https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/vaccines/fully-vac... >If you’ve been fully vaccinated: >If you’ve been around someone who has COVID-19, you do not need to stay away from others or get tested unless you have symptoms. I don't know what this caveat r…

CDC has lost a fair bit of credibility from my perspective over the past several years. A lot of their guidance, or lack of it, has been politically influenced.

Re: Why workers are calling BS on leaders about returning to the office

#106

Post by ferdowsi »

narrator wrote: post #82
phkahler wrote: post #71

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The problem with fully remote work is that once you accept that a job can be done from anywhere, you have to compete on a global level. It can be done from India, China, Pakistan, or any other place where they have smart people willing to work for less than you! So don't get too excited about it ;-)

This is why it's good to be a lawyer. It's one of the last remaining guilds of knowledge workers with any power. It's literally illegal to have someone from wherever do certain tasks if they are not properly licensed.

Plenty of typical lawyer work is ripe for automation.

Re: Why workers are calling BS on leaders about returning to the office

#107

Post by tpxl »

nullc wrote: post #41
emc3 wrote: post #2

In-office work needs to be compensated differently than WFH. They will try to decrease WFH compensation initially, like the loss of benefits threat in the article, but the number of potential employers is higher for WFH workers, giving them leverage.

> In-office work needs to be compensated differently than WFH. Do you mean pay you more because the office no longer needs to provide space and power for you, but you provide it for yourself? ... and because you can be called 'in' faster without the 45 minute commute? :P

No joke - yes. If my company gets big enough to need employees, I plan to compensate them for home offices.

Re: Why workers are calling BS on leaders about returning to the office

#108

Post by brnt »

mywittyname wrote: post #54
darth_avocado wrote: post #34

The whole pushback against remote work is absolutely nuts. When the companies were staring at shutdowns and loss of revenue, everyone gladly accepted the idea that people can work from home. And contrary to the popular belief, productivity increased (our own CEO admitted at one point in an all hands). But the minute there was a sign things are opening up, there's a complete opposite viewpoint being pushed from the sa…

Just wait for the mass exodus. Remote work is turning out to be a requirement for hiring people. So once the company starts bleeding (good) people who find remote jobs with other companies, they are going to be difficult/impossible to replace. At some point, the execs will have to suck it up and offer remote work.

I hear Dublin is already draining and the real estate market folding. The latter a very good thing for non-expats of course.

Re: Why workers are calling BS on leaders about returning to the office

#109

Post by GavinMcG »

wrs wrote: post #36

I'm trying and failing to think of any important part of "company culture" that only works for people in the same room. Culture is made of shared values (codified in actions, not PowerPoints), communication norms, peer reactions, shared history, inside jokes...all of that stuff can work remotely. If your company has more than one office it already has to work remotely.

If your company has more than one office, they each have their own culture, which hews more or less closely to the cultural commonalities between offices.

Shared values, communication norms, peer reactions, shared history, and inside jokes can exist when people aren't in the same room, but that culture tends to be a lot thinner. It would be more fruitful to discuss whether that's a good or bad thing—the bare existence of culture isn't what anyone is talking about here.

Re: Why workers are calling BS on leaders about returning to the office

#110

Post by bluefirebrand »

Andrew_nenakhov wrote: post #33

Office is a space where complete strangers can become a collective, sharing common goals and establishing bonds that can help achieve great things. This is possible with remote work, but much harder. In my experience, remote workers are generally rather detached from their colleagues and projects. YMMV, but I vastly prefer working from office.

This strikes me as a very romantic view of what offices are.

Maybe it is possible for an office to be like this, but I would suspect that it is an exceptional case.

Mostly offices are where people go to do sufficient work to get paid, and the only real goal coworkers have in common there is a desire to receive paycheques and make sure the company doesn't go under so they can continue receiving paycheques.

If people didn't have to make money they absolutely would not spend their days pushing paperwork around and sending emails as part of some shared collective goal.

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