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Why Bad CEOs Fear Remote Work (2021)

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Re: Why Bad CEOs Fear Remote Work (2021)

#41

Post by gibbitz »

knallfrosch wrote: post #5

I don't think a May 2021 article – before widespread vaccination even made return-to-office policies possible, and before the tech layoffs – is the best starting point. Okay, calling CEOs that demand a return "bad" and "fearful" is a provocative take, but the article doesn't back up these assumptions. Much less does it actually explain the reason why bad, and only bad, CEOs "fear" remote work. With, for example, Appl…

In the article the author does call out not doing research or at least cognitive bias toward research that agrees with RTO. They provide examples like Citrix who have been doing this for years. I would agree that a CEO who doesn't look at all the research and just does what Apple and Amazon do because they should have "done the research" is a bad CEO. Especially if the reason the big companies did it was to paint what would otherwise be layoffs in a way that they don't have to disclose to shareholders. Of course these "bad" CEOs may be doing this too. That just makes them bad to employees which is kind of a unspoken truth...

Re: Why Bad CEOs Fear Remote Work (2021)

#42

Post by A4ET8a8uTh0 »

bevacqua wrote: post #8
johnnyanmac wrote: post #3

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>those who were once bullish on full remote, would like to see some form of hybrid setup if it makes sense. interesting, so many of my peers are full on the remote train. I guess it depends on the age of the workers? I know for sure I haven't heard any one of my coworkers > 35 ever preferring hybrid to WFH.

Count me as anecdotal evidence in the 35+ bucket of those who went from full remote to hybrid and highly prefers hybrid (after a decade of full remote). Having a thriving office has been a breath of fresh air for when I want to see people. The key is it being optional and up to employees to decide what's best for them.

I am starting to think that part of the issue is 'one size fits all' approach that we centered our society around. I genuinely hate hybrid. I would rather have either full remote or full office, because hybrid messes with my routine and sleep pattern.

Unfortunately, employees choosing their preferred mode means more headaches for employers ( they want to track it somehow ).

I know what I prefer. I know what is possible. As humans, we do not agree on what is the 'right' way. And in US, employers used to hold all the cards ( which is part of the reason they are praying for a recession ).

Re: Why Bad CEOs Fear Remote Work (2021)

#43

Post by sshine »

cajunboi34213 wrote: post #20

The hard part about remote is collaboration outside of meetings is hard. Chat is soul-less and leads to a lot of misunderstandings with tone. Video is too formal. Phone is interrupt. For the past 6 months we've been using a walkie-talkie app that transcribes and it's pretty magical. It feels like it's solved some of the issues with unstructured collaboration. Plus the bonus is you can add anyone to a discussion and t…

> Chat is soul-less and leads to a lot of misunderstandings with tone.

Chat isn't soulless.

Chat being async has benefits over conference calls.

> Video is too formal. Phone is interrupt.

Work lacks cheap interrupts, which is not a remote-only problem.

In my most recent position, when working from home, I've made a habit of writing to people on chat if I can bother them for 5-20 minutes. It works great. I have typically interacted with at least one customer and 2-3 colleagues during a day at home.

But I can only interrupt certain people. Having sat in the office with them before, we have built a relationship.

Re: Why Bad CEOs Fear Remote Work (2021)

#45

Post by szundi »

jawns wrote: post #9

I am at a point in my career where I can be selective and only consider 100% remote roles. I am also a manager, so I understand some of the management challenges that lead people to dismiss or be skeptical of the claim that remote work can be just as effective as office work. One thing I will admit: It is harder, as a remote manager, to manage low performers or people who show signs of disengagement. You can get more…

Even though I had this team all the time who are pretty engaged, lot of people are not motivated and a lot of them cannot be ever motivated enough. They had a childhood that killed it.

Until we have 40% unemployment, these people are working under certain CEOs. After some easy deduction, lots of CEOs have to decrease/kill the Home Office for these people if this is true what parent commenter wrote.

Re: Why Bad CEOs Fear Remote Work (2021)

#46

Post by aniforprez »

rrr_oh_man wrote: post #35
hahamrfunnyguy wrote: post #27

In 2008 or so I worked for a consulting company where most of the workers were remote. Eventually, they opened up an office where I lived. We were encouraged (required?) to come into the office a few days a week. We free parking, table tennis and a cooler stocked with pop and beer. My teams were always remote but I found the social aspects to be beneficial.

> My teams were always remote but I found the social aspects to be beneficial. Yeah, but did you use those "office days" for work, really? Or for socialising? (Not saying socialising is unnecessary in a good team)

This was basically sort of my experience wren my company turned hybrid

I'm sure I might have some undiagnosed attention issues but it became supremely hard to concentrate once at the office because of the open office plan and people constantly distracting me with questions or requests (I don't begrudge them this though). I had to essentially monopolise one of the office mini conference rooms to actually do any work. It got to the point of 3 days of the week essentially being close to useless because I'd get more done once I was back home. Not helped by the company hiring across the country and not having all the staff at office which meant we were still teleconferencing all the time

Re: Why Bad CEOs Fear Remote Work (2021)

#47

Post by marginalia_nu »

rrr_oh_man wrote: post #32
jawns wrote: post #9

I am at a point in my career where I can be selective and only consider 100% remote roles. I am also a manager, so I understand some of the management challenges that lead people to dismiss or be skeptical of the claim that remote work can be just as effective as office work. One thing I will admit: It is harder, as a remote manager, to manage low performers or people who show signs of disengagement. You can get more…

> You can get more out of an office worker who lacks intrinsic motivation than a similar remote worker. No, you will have them sitting at their desk. That's not work. That's the appearance of work. Unfortunately, that's enough for bad managers.

It's a spectrum.

It's indeed true you probably can't get someone who's completely disengaged to be particularly productive. They'll do the bare minimum to make you go away but mostly just phone it in. These people probably should be encouraged to leave anyway, if nothing else for their own sake. Odds are they're in a late stage Office Space-type burn out and could really do with a change of scenery.

That said, there are personalities who genuinely benefit from hands-on management. Some just don't have a lot of initiative and will just do nothing until they're told what to do next.

Re: Why Bad CEOs Fear Remote Work (2021)

#48

Post by RHSeeger »

prmoustache wrote: post #24
bevacqua wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Count me as anecdotal evidence in the 35+ bucket of those who went from full remote to hybrid and highly prefers hybrid (after a decade of full remote). Having a thriving office has been a breath of fresh air for when I want to see people. The key is it being optional and up to employees to decide what's best for them.

> The key is it being optional and up to employees to decide what's best for them. Agree. My issue is not about remote, hybrid or onsite, but more about some management mandating one way of working for everyone.

The problem is that that doesn't really work. The people working in the office don't get the benefit of in person social connection if others aren't coming in, too. Either you have people coming (win for the office people, loss for the remote) or you have people working from home (the reverse). Leaving it up to everyone to work it out on their own doesn't really solve the problem.

That being said, working it out "per team" is generally reasonable. I've had hybrid stints, and I always coordinated with my team so that we all came in on the same day. Then we could do the social thing together at the office.

Re: Why Bad CEOs Fear Remote Work (2021)

#49

Post by robertlagrant »

fendy3002 wrote: post #31
jordanpg wrote: post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Framed this way, it seems like remote work can actually be an effective filter that can identify and screen out low performers.

It is. It's almost impossible to fake performance since there's only one parameter to measure: work / result / etc. Good performers will produce better / more result, more initiative, and more responsive. However it's also easier for a bad, micromanaging managers to make their team appears low performant. That's basically the trade off.

I disagree. Someone who's always getting Slacked with requests and keeps unblocking people won't be doing the work you're measuring, but they're helping 20 people do their work in half the time.

Re: Why Bad CEOs Fear Remote Work (2021)

#50

Post by robertlagrant »

osigurdson wrote: post #44

One thing that should certainly be considered is the externalities associated with on-premise work as more roads, transit, infrastructure, emissions, etc, is required. Taxes should probably be lower for companies embracing remote work.

Taxes only in theory pay for those things. In reality lots of borrowing from the future, and inflation, pay for them as well, so proportionally it's not that much.
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