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

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

#311

Post by Florin_Andrei »

achow wrote: post #166
hn_throwaway_99 wrote: post #42

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…

For more than half of those, the actual thing you're looking for is a bar or pub. Y'all are confused.

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

#312

Post by weakfish »

stemlord wrote: post #233
awsthro00945 wrote: post #214

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Relying on your employer for these items seems unwise. Why? Work is where you spend one third (or more) of your time during your adult life. Why the hell would I not want such a significant portion of my life to not also provide great benefits like opportunities to make friends, meet people, eat great food, and have fun? If you scoff at people who want to make their workplaces more welcoming and happier, no shit th…

But part of the value of WFH is the ability to lower work-time to something even less than one third. I've always found it extremely difficult to foster worthwhile relationships and have truly fulfilling fun in a corporate PC environment anyway.

PC environment?

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

#314

Post by nklop »

hn_throwaway_99 wrote: post #305
nklop wrote: post #248

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not me. My career networks are online. Offices are full of people trying to give each other eating disorders through passive aggression, politics and generally pointless power games. That's the perception we have in our groups. We meet up weekly face to face to share air when possible.

> Offices are full of people trying to give each other eating disorders through passive aggression, politics and generally pointless power games. Seriously, does half of HN work in the real-life equivalent of "The Office"? Yes, office politics exist, but this idea that it's some sort of scheming, back-stabbing environment is a caricature I have never experienced in my nearly 30 year career.

So you've not seen layoffs? I have. It was a mad scurry of people running around looking busy and indispensible.

Bullying? I've had it done to me and another time had to sit in with HR on someone else's behalf.

People being performance managed just because? I saw a bunch of 40 somethings get targeted and zeroed out. It got ugly.

30x1 is not the same as 1x30 or 6x5 or 15x2 or 10x3. They all look like the same equation but the experiences can be vastly different.

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

#315

Post by jq-r »

bregma wrote: post #231
bluGill wrote: post #142

Earlier quoted context omitted.

But in person companies believe that personal interactions will make the people they can hire better than the WFH companies so it works out. WFH is hard to manage. A lot of things that get shared in "hallway communication" become formal meetings. I make no claim as to who is right, but there are downsides to everything.

It's hard to have a hallway conversation when you're constantly being watched to make you keep your bottom in your seat.

To add two points to that. First, people here always point out about the boss looking over the peons in their open space office. That may be true for a lot of situations, but what is also depressing is that even if there is no boss/manager/whatever overlooking the employees, those will watch each other.

Second, I can second the hallway conversations, those never happened at the places I've worked. If anything, it was more akin to "send me an e-mail/message" about it.

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

#316

Post by yupper32 »

klipklop wrote: post #191
philote wrote: post #101

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Before the pandemic FANGs seemed to want everyone in the office as much as possible. That's why they have their own cafeterias/restaurants, daycare, workout rooms, etc. They wanted employees in the office, working a minimum of 40 hours a week. I'm guessing even though remote work is going fine for now, they're concerned they're not going to be able to keep getting over 40 hours of week out of employees. (This is conj…

Sure it's N=1, but I worked more than 40 hours every single week when I was at a FANG. I used to laugh at all the perks because who actually had the time to use most of them other than interns. Times I used a climbing wall or nap pod: 0 In the end even the free lunch was annoying. (Yes I am going to complain about "free" food.) It just lead to short lunches where people go back to their desk as soon as they could. I…

See I was the opposite. I had no time as an intern but have plenty of time as a full timer.

It seems like it's almost completely self-inflicted if someone doesn't have time as a full timer (at the 2 Big-N tech companies I've been at). I didn't have time as an intern because I wasn't confident and felt I needed to prove something. Now, many years into it, I know I can work my 40 hour weeks, enjoy the perks for what they are, and relax most of the time.

I've never understood why people consider perks like food as traps to keep you on campus. Nothing stops you from leaving campus for lunch, as long as there's not some meeting you scheduled. Nothing stops you from working 40 hours a week, unless you choose to work more to get ahead faster.

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

#317

Post by some_hacker »

ProjectBarks wrote: post #62
hn_throwaway_99 wrote: post #42

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…

This is the exact sentiment I hold as well. I think the demographics of hacker news may be slightly swayed towards people who already have established networks and industry experience.

Slightly?

If you’re suggesting HN is old and cranky…

You’d be correct.

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

#318

Post by 0xB31B1B »

I think too much of the blame here gets put on the "executive/managerial" and capital class for the back to office drive and not enough gets put on the soulless HR machine at these mega companies. A huge amount of the value and work the HR org does is manage things in the office, mange in person conflicts, manage relationships, etc. With remote work, so much of the impetus for these busybodies is gone, and the scope of the chief of HR role is decreased quite a bit. I think a lot of the "back to work" chatter is these type of people making up more or less baseless justifications for the amount of influence they had 18 months ago.

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

#319

Post by gowld »

ItsMonkk wrote: post #175
achow wrote: post #166

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Sounds great, but there's nothing like college and work for bringing people together all day. Without the structure, most people won't come together.

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

#320

Post by Tycho »

dcolkitt wrote: post #15

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…

Maybe their plan is to have all the workers on big-city mega wages, currently working remotely, quit, and then hire replacement workers in remote locations at much lower local labour market rates.
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