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Microsoft is officially sending employees back to the office

businessinsider.com

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Re: Microsoft is officially sending employees back to the office

#21

Post by ourguile »

Jagerbizzle wrote: post #17

This announcement is pretty much meaningless, as it's completely up to the VPs of a given org to set the policy. Many teams have already been back 3-5 days a week for over a year, and exceptions aren't hard to get if you're a senior+ employee or otherwise have considerations that prevent this from being feasible.

Anecdotally, I'm at a larger multinational corporation and our site has been mandating a new RTO policy and have not been granting exceptions based solely on seniority. In my personal opinion I believe it's mostly a soft layoff, so they can approve exceptions on a case-by-case basis.

Re: Microsoft is officially sending employees back to the office

#22

Post by sugarpimpdorsey »

The only thing I hated worse than going into the office was our remote employees, who never seemed to be available when you needed them, had their status set to Away (or wouldn't respond for hours if they were green).

It was a privilege, people abused it, and now it's over. And managers were the worst offenders.

Re: Microsoft is officially sending employees back to the office

#23

Post by Jagerbizzle »

ourguile wrote: post #21
Jagerbizzle wrote: post #17

This announcement is pretty much meaningless, as it's completely up to the VPs of a given org to set the policy. Many teams have already been back 3-5 days a week for over a year, and exceptions aren't hard to get if you're a senior+ employee or otherwise have considerations that prevent this from being feasible.

Anecdotally, I'm at a larger multinational corporation and our site has been mandating a new RTO policy and have not been granting exceptions based solely on seniority. In my personal opinion I believe it's mostly a soft layoff, so they can approve exceptions on a case-by-case basis.

No disagreements there (I'm at Microsoft). I should also note that in the part of the org I work, exceptions are re-evaluated every quarter.

Re: Microsoft is officially sending employees back to the office

#24

Post by jaredcwhite »

"As we build [employee replacements that are always 100% remote] that will define this era, we need the kind of energy and momentum that comes from smart people working [not remote because remote is too hard to manage]."

Oh the irony! double facepalm emojis

Re: Microsoft is officially sending employees back to the office

#25

Post by Izikiel43 »

sublimefire wrote: post #16

It mentions this was based on some “data” (in emailsto employees) that it will yield better output but I somehow doubt it. I wonder what happens with the stock. It sort of makes it worse for the teams that are distributed and harms collab between sites in different zones like Europe/Asia and US/Europe. When you are working from home it is easy to stay later or start earlier and join calls. If you are in the office th…

> my bet is that folks will leave to other companies given that the main leverage like WFH is gone.

Where though? I thought the current jobs market for tech wasn't in a nice spot for devs.

Re: Microsoft is officially sending employees back to the office

#26

Post by christhecaribou »

sugarpimpdorsey wrote: post #22

The only thing I hated worse than going into the office was our remote employees, who never seemed to be available when you needed them, had their status set to Away (or wouldn't respond for hours if they were green). It was a privilege, people abused it, and now it's over. And managers were the worst offenders.

And yet here you are, perpetuating the “crabs in a bucket” mentality that continues to be a blight on our industry.

Re: Microsoft is officially sending employees back to the office

#27

Post by SilverElfin »

Terrible. Especially given that the Seattle area has terrible traffic and also issues with safety on public transportation (like many other cities in America). What is the point exactly of getting workers into an office just so they can be on Zoom calls (or Teams, in this case)? This seems a lot like what Amazon was accused of - a way to shake out some workers and get them to quit when they cannot rearrange their life on a whim.

Re: Microsoft is officially sending employees back to the office

#28

Post by christhecaribou »

Izikiel43 wrote: post #25
sublimefire wrote: post #16

It mentions this was based on some “data” (in emailsto employees) that it will yield better output but I somehow doubt it. I wonder what happens with the stock. It sort of makes it worse for the teams that are distributed and harms collab between sites in different zones like Europe/Asia and US/Europe. When you are working from home it is easy to stay later or start earlier and join calls. If you are in the office th…

> my bet is that folks will leave to other companies given that the main leverage like WFH is gone. Where though? I thought the current jobs market for tech wasn't in a nice spot for devs.

Especially when big employers all collude in the open.

Re: Microsoft is officially sending employees back to the office

#29

Post by barbazoo »

gnabgib wrote: post #12

Microsoft: Microsoft updates flexible work expectations to three days a week in the office https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45183560 Verge: Microsoft Mandates a Return to Office https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45184017 Geekwire: Microsoft sets new RTO policy, requiring employees in the office 3 days per week https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45184032

> Microsoft updates flexible work expectations to three days a week in the office

Of all the "voices" I'd like to be able to do, corporate shitspeak is definitely the top one.

Re: Microsoft is officially sending employees back to the office

#30

Post by SilverElfin »

sugarpimpdorsey wrote: post #22

The only thing I hated worse than going into the office was our remote employees, who never seemed to be available when you needed them, had their status set to Away (or wouldn't respond for hours if they were green). It was a privilege, people abused it, and now it's over. And managers were the worst offenders.

That seems like an issue of company leadership and culture. There are many remote companies where this isn’t true. I’ve seen comments from Amazon workers talking about they were much more productive in a remote work situation, even though their leader (Andy Jassy) chose to make the company go back to the office 5 days a week with invasive monitoring of how people badge in and out.
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