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‘Great Resignation’ gains steam as return-to-work plans take effect

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171–180 of 531 posts

Re: ‘Great Resignation’ gains steam as return-to-work plans take effect

#171

I’m honestly perplexed what the FANGs are even thinking in being so aggressive about pushing an end to WFH. Sure it could all work out fine for them. Maybe employees will grumble for a bit, then settle back into office life. But maybe it wont’t . There’s a very real possibility that you lose a non-negligible percent of your staff (disproportionately the most talented who have other options), handicap your ability to…

In my experience the quip about the "train not swerving off the tracks so far" is mainly just because of the momentum we had from years of working closely together in the office. The longer it goes on, the further my group/department/org fall apart. Communication isn't as good, the new hires aren't trained well and aren't integrated with the team well, a percentage of the employees are obviously just slacking off and not getting much work done, etc. Yes you could argue that those things could be fixed/improved but the reality of the situation is that they're real problems that we're really facing. From what I can see of my situation, it isn't sustainable in my org for much longer.

Re: ‘Great Resignation’ gains steam as return-to-work plans take effect

#172
post #70

In my experience at least talking to some younger people there is a clear dichotomy: despite all the talk about Gen Z being "digital natives", people new in their career are much hungrier to get back into the office because they don't yet have good career networks built up and they're eager for mentorship. It is older, or at least more established workers who are less keen on that. I don't think FAANGs will have any…

They might be able to hire boatloads of new/early grads but attrition of senior staff is no joke. Maybe they’re large enough to throw people at the problem and survive, IDK.

Where are all of these senior people with large, cushy BigCorp paychecks and benefits going?

Re: ‘Great Resignation’ gains steam as return-to-work plans take effect

#173

I’m honestly perplexed what the FANGs are even thinking in being so aggressive about pushing an end to WFH. Sure it could all work out fine for them. Maybe employees will grumble for a bit, then settle back into office life. But maybe it wont’t . There’s a very real possibility that you lose a non-negligible percent of your staff (disproportionately the most talented who have other options), handicap your ability to…

It's about power. How will FAANG get 22 year old college grads to stay at work 12 hours a day writing advertising software if they don't have them eating dinner and playing ping pong in the office?

Re: ‘Great Resignation’ gains steam as return-to-work plans take effect

#174

I’m honestly perplexed what the FANGs are even thinking in being so aggressive about pushing an end to WFH. Sure it could all work out fine for them. Maybe employees will grumble for a bit, then settle back into office life. But maybe it wont’t . There’s a very real possibility that you lose a non-negligible percent of your staff (disproportionately the most talented who have other options), handicap your ability to…

Can't speak for the others, but Google is not being aggressive about return, frankly. Return will be based on regional case numbers, and the expectation is only for 3/5 days, low office capacity at the start, and I'm sure plenty of flexibility will be given.

I personally can't wait to go back, and that's the same sentiment I hear from most people on my team. HN seems to have become a bit of an echo-chamber of people who prefer WFH, but frankly I'm looking forward to the hybrid model.

Re: ‘Great Resignation’ gains steam as return-to-work plans take effect

#175
post #166

In my experience at least talking to some younger people there is a clear dichotomy: despite all the talk about Gen Z being "digital natives", people new in their career are much hungrier to get back into the office because they don't yet have good career networks built up and they're eager for mentorship. It is older, or at least more established workers who are less keen on that. I don't think FAANGs will have any…

From a single, young: I miss the office for.. - Free and convenient food. - Social chatter & engagement. - Making friends with employees who I don't know and connecting with new employees. - Work life separation (balance). - Proper workstation, climate controlled environment. - Sense of belonging - team outing, after hours beers.. - Intra and inter company sports and games. - Meeting potential dates. [Not me. Just em…

I experienced all of these to a much better degree during college. Are you sure you don't just want to live in a city that provides plenty of shared spaces? Relying on your employer for these items seems unwise.

Re: ‘Great Resignation’ gains steam as return-to-work plans take effect

#176

I’m honestly perplexed what the FANGs are even thinking in being so aggressive about pushing an end to WFH. Sure it could all work out fine for them. Maybe employees will grumble for a bit, then settle back into office life. But maybe it wont’t . There’s a very real possibility that you lose a non-negligible percent of your staff (disproportionately the most talented who have other options), handicap your ability to…

Having spent so much money creating billion dollar campuses has them in a sunk cost fallacy IMO.

Re: ‘Great Resignation’ gains steam as return-to-work plans take effect

#178

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I’m honestly perplexed what the FANGs are even thinking in being so aggressive about pushing an end to WFH. Yes, aggressive measures such as: -Allowing employees to apply to be permanent remote employees -Allowing 2 WFH days per week

...which policies were only implemented after significant employee pushback over the originally-announced "everyone will be going back to the office full-time" plans.

Google never announced anything like that. The moment they started talking about return to office there was talk of flexibility, lower capacities, and WFH. And in reality WFH at least 1 or 2 days a week was always a possibility, at least in my Google office.

Re: ‘Great Resignation’ gains steam as return-to-work plans take effect

#179

They sent around a form at my work asking everyone what their preference would be. The first guy replied to everyone with his preference: 100% wfh. Since he replied-all, so did everyone else. We got through about 20 employees, all stating their preference as WFH before a manager shut down the reply-all. A week later we got an email saying people wanted 2-3 days in office.

Yep, a blatant and botched attempt at manufactured consent right there.

If you want to stick it to them you should put out an informal poll with all employees and publish those results separate, show everyone how the company is lying to you.

Re: ‘Great Resignation’ gains steam as return-to-work plans take effect

#180
Interestingly, yesterday I had a conversation with someone who works in HR at a tech company and they said that it's been incredibly difficult to lure candidates away from existing jobs because most are afraid of jumping ship in current economic climate. I know it's anecdotal, but this is currently how I feel myself as well. I realize that there are numbers and stats behind the so-called "Great Resignation" but it does make me question if this is a micro event when looked at on a larger scale.
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