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The worst part of working from home is now haunting reopened offices

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Re: The worst part of working from home is now haunting reopened offices

#171

Post by giantrobot »

kamaal wrote: post #89
ricardobayes wrote: post #78

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Out of sight, out of mind

So many people don't realise this. You haven't seen your cousin or a friend for a while? What is your perception of them now? I am sure all that Facebook liking and commenting hasn't given you a clue of what they are now, and more importantly even the perception of them from when you last had a chance to see them often has now been long forgotten/hazy. The facts here are anybody you don't see often, you don't know th…

> The facts here are anybody you don't see often, you don't know them well enough and they don't figure anywhere in your list of top people to give anything.

Then you leave and find work with someone that doesn't have the attention span of a goldfish. If you're producing work of value you should be compensated. If the company is doing well then all of the employees should be doing well. No one should have to put on a song and dance for their managers to get their work recognized and rewarded.

If your manager can't remember you unless you're in front of them at all times they're not fit for their job.

Re: The worst part of working from home is now haunting reopened offices

#172

Post by Nextgrid »

matwood wrote: post #151
fcatalan wrote: post #70

"Emergency" WFH at my workplace have been slashed, everyone back in full since the start of the month. No reason publically given, been privately told "not about people like you, but some others have taken a 2 year vacation so management is fed up". I have emails from the CEO personally thanking me for my commitment in going way over what was expected when basically saving the institution during lockdown, so now I al…

> "not about people like you, but some others have taken a 2 year vacation so management is fed up" Then it's time to let people go. Early on in COVID leeway definitely needed to be given with daycares closed, people transitioning to WFH, etc... But at this point, if someone can't get their work done remotely, then they should find a non-remote job. We went fully remote prior to the pandemic, and I remember someone i…

Alternatively, if these people have taken a 2 year vacation and the company appears to be operating fine, maybe there's no problem?

I don't understand why this issue is being raised now - surely they already have existing processes in place to deal with people who underperform, in which case those same processes can be applied regardless of WFH status. The fact that they haven't suggests that in the end work is being done satisfactorily and someone is just jealous or on a power trip.

Re: The worst part of working from home is now haunting reopened offices

#173

Post by spaniard89277 »

showsover wrote: post #68
spaniard89277 wrote: post #56

Earlier quoted context omitted.

We rearely do that. We just type the stuff we need in teams and the occasional formative talk once a month or so. Meetings are about twice a year, and they appear in my teams calendar so I can plan ahead. When I feel we need a serious discussion I write a long ass text, and people usually follows without needing a call. It's like forums, so that's something I'm used to. But again, my job is very jump in, jump out. I…

That sounds like a dream to be honest. I wish I could work without having meetings where nobody likes to say anything and it just drags on. Wrt the SW job, it might be more difficult in the beginning as it takes some focus to understand the system and how your work fits into the bigger whole. After a time it becomes easier to understand and to jump in, jump out. Of course this completely depends on the company and jo…

It's not a dream job because it barely pays above minimum wage. I have a hard time saving. And that's cos I live in a cheapish city.

I hope jumping into software makes this better and can finally be financially confy.

Re: The worst part of working from home is now haunting reopened offices

#174

Post by lukaslalinsky »

Many years ago, I tried working at a bigger company. I made a mistake and accepted a job in a satellite office. I did not realize it would cause exactly this. I was supposed to be in office every day, but most of the relevant people were in the HQ, so all discussions were done online. It felt so pointless and even lonely to spend the time in the office. I tried doing that for a few months and eventually left. I really wonder what will happen now that people experience this on a larger scale.

Re: The worst part of working from home is now haunting reopened offices

#176

Post by mattcwilson »

mjevans wrote: post #122
endymi0n wrote: post #108

Earlier quoted context omitted.

To say it with the words of my first boss that stuck with me: "Love it, change it or leave it. No amount of complaining will ever do anything else than paint you as a naysayer." Was a hard pill to swallow, but my own experience proved me again and again he was spot on.

In this case, would the 'change it' option be to just work from home and see what happens?

I read “change it” as encompassing any modification to the status quo short of quitting it altogether. So, yes. But so also would be writing a petition to reinstitute work from home as a “performance bonus” and getting it signed by as many other company bright-lights as possible. Lots of options.

Re: The worst part of working from home is now haunting reopened offices

#177

Post by nvarsj »

Gigachad wrote: post #129
joaodlf wrote: post #51

I love coming in to the office. Granted, I live a 20 min walk away. The walk in is through a beautiful county park, surrounded by nature. Most of my colleagues who live further away have stopped coming in. Understandable, I wouldn't want to get in a car to get here, traffic in the UK is horrible. It's all about personal circumstances, really. Living close to my workplace, having access to a nice office that is (now)…

The office is not as bad as people make it out to be. Its commuting that really sucks. I used to hate working in the office and then I moved to an apartment next to work and I decided to walk in even while WFH was an option because I did slightly prefer going to the office and being with everyone.

Exactly my feeling. I love working in the office, but I hate any kind of commute. Commuting in London is particularly atrocious, but I guess it could be worse (any US city apart from NYC).

Re: The worst part of working from home is now haunting reopened offices

#178

Post by wu_187 »

burner556 wrote: post #33
feq543ni0g wrote: post #23

My workplace requires me to visit the office once every two weeks. And even then I only go for a friendly one-on-one type of lunch with my boss. Nothing we ever discuss justifies the two hour commute, the same things could be discussed in Zoom. And yet, I am supposed to visit every two weeks. Now it turned out that during my last visit my boss had already been infected with covid. So not only me, but my wife and my t…

Use your sick time dude not vacation days

Almost all jobs have gotten rid of sick days and have you use PTO. The US labor laws suck.

Re: The worst part of working from home is now haunting reopened offices

#179

Post by giantrobot »

thawaya3113 wrote: post #50

> all the benefits of working from home (no commute, more focus, hanging out with the dog, whatever it may be) More focus…hanging out with the dog… These things literally contradict each other. The fact that someone can type this out and not even realize that just goes to show why everyone is convinced they have become so much more productive WFH, when companies dhar actually track their employees and their productiv…

> Facebook, Google, etc would not be calling people back to the office which only serves to increase their costs, if they didn’t have the data to back it up

Yes they would. Both companies have the same toxic management types that see their direct reports as serfs in their fiefdom. They bitch and moan to upper management to get their serfs back in the fields.

It's not difficult to focus while hanging out with a dog. The sort of attention they want typically isn't the same as a coworker standing over your desk. Petting a dog releases endorphins and oxytocin while dealing with the hovering coworker only generates cortisol.

Re: The worst part of working from home is now haunting reopened offices

#180

Post by syshum »

Nextgrid wrote: post #172
matwood wrote: post #151

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> "not about people like you, but some others have taken a 2 year vacation so management is fed up" Then it's time to let people go. Early on in COVID leeway definitely needed to be given with daycares closed, people transitioning to WFH, etc... But at this point, if someone can't get their work done remotely, then they should find a non-remote job. We went fully remote prior to the pandemic, and I remember someone i…

Alternatively, if these people have taken a 2 year vacation and the company appears to be operating fine, maybe there's no problem? I don't understand why this issue is being raised now - surely they already have existing processes in place to deal with people who underperform, in which case those same processes can be applied regardless of WFH status. The fact that they haven't suggests that in the end work is being…

If they can take a 2 year vacation and the company is operating fine then their roles should be eliminated because they do not serve any function to the company

A Company is not a charity, people are not kept on payroll just because

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