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IBM, a Pioneer of Remote Work, Calls Workers Back to the Office

wsj.com

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Re: IBM, a Pioneer of Remote Work, Calls Workers Back to the Office

#51

Post by kevin_thibedeau »

Matt3o12_ wrote: post #39

A lot of people said that they just use that to fire people but isn't that the most counterproductive to do so because most of the good people who do not have trouble finding another job will just quit while the desperate who need the job and cannot find anything comparable will most likely stay. So wouldn't this hurt the company a lot more in the long run since more talent will be gone and the less talented people w…

MBAs at work. Care only about the financials and never mind the institutional knowledge.

Re: IBM, a Pioneer of Remote Work, Calls Workers Back to the Office

#52

Post by kps »

nugget wrote: post #18
blakesterz wrote: post #13

"Companies began offering generous remote work policies because they expected large savings in office and real-estate costs, said Jennifer Glass, a University of Texas professor who studies telecommuting and advises companies on remote-work strategies. Those savings haven't materialized, Ms. Glass said, so workers are being called back to the office." How is that possible? For large companies in really expensive area…

> It’s unlikely that IBM employees, as they centralize in office hubs, will reap the lavish office benefits and constant supply of free gourmet food that companies like Facebook and Google use to keep employees on-site. They won’t even receive raises after moving to expensive cities like San Francisco and New York. If it's true that they won't offer any COL adjustment for folks headed to SF or NY, then that would sup…

I'm glad I live in a country where such a change would constitute constructive dismissal.

Re: IBM, a Pioneer of Remote Work, Calls Workers Back to the Office

#53

Post by sqeaky »

hackunomatter wrote: post #26
matt_wulfeck wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Of course it's a layoff. It's the same thing yahoo did. When business are doing well they don't force their employees into impossible situations.

Yahoo's policy affected about 180 people. That's about 1.5% of the company. Of those 180, about 60 were allowed to WFH. "Firing" 120 people in such a convoluted way is stupid. But the Internet continues to believe in stupider things, so who am I to ask.

Why is "stupid" for businesses to attempt to coerce employees to quit rather than to fire them? Evil, or assholish sure, but I don't think its stupid.

If they had layoffs they would have to deal with unemployment payments. They might have to deal with lawsuits. Dpending on laws they might even need to rehire some of them. They will certainly have higher short term expenses than if a bunch of people choose to leave.

If they do get rid of a bunch of people who choose to leave they are also getting rid of people who least wanted to stay, which some might see as a benefit. I don't think this is a good way to decide but I have heard much more stupid logic than this.

Re: IBM, a Pioneer of Remote Work, Calls Workers Back to the Office

#54

Post by taternuts »

krzyk wrote: post #10

First they took free tea and coffee in the office ( http://www.rediff.com/money/2009/apr/15bcrisis-no-more-free-... ) now they are taking away WFH. There are fewer and fewer incentives to work for IBM.

Wow! I'd be seriously worried if my company yanked free coffee and tea. I guess on IBM's scale that turns out to be some real change, but I have to imagine the time spent leaving campus for coffee and all is more expensive overall.

Re: IBM, a Pioneer of Remote Work, Calls Workers Back to the Office

#55

Post by Matt3o12_ »

chrisbennet wrote: post #49
Matt3o12_ wrote: post #39

A lot of people said that they just use that to fire people but isn't that the most counterproductive to do so because most of the good people who do not have trouble finding another job will just quit while the desperate who need the job and cannot find anything comparable will most likely stay. So wouldn't this hurt the company a lot more in the long run since more talent will be gone and the less talented people w…

I don't think they really care about the long run. They are burning the furniture to keep warm at this point.

Still, should the investors get upset? Firing a selected group of people is one thing (which many investory see as good) but firing their best people does not sound very smart to them either (and I believe most of them are worried about the long term because they cannot just dump 100k in stocks without affecting their price too much).

Re: IBM, a Pioneer of Remote Work, Calls Workers Back to the Office

#56

Post by hawski »

krzyk wrote: post #10

First they took free tea and coffee in the office ( http://www.rediff.com/money/2009/apr/15bcrisis-no-more-free-... ) now they are taking away WFH. There are fewer and fewer incentives to work for IBM.

It reads like Warning Signs Of Corporate Doom [0]. In case of one company I worked for it was pretty spot on.

[0] http://wiki.c2.com/?WarningSignsOfCorporateDoom

Re: IBM, a Pioneer of Remote Work, Calls Workers Back to the Office

#57

Post by crusso »

matt_wulfeck wrote: post #20
crusso wrote: post #4

The normal trick of opening wsj articles in an incognito window is no longer working for me. Here's a link that worked for me: https://qz.com/924167/ibm-remote-work-pioneer-is-calling-tho... Both WSJ article and the one I linked to are from March.

Off topic to post, but it's fairly easy to track unique visitors outside of cookies.

You mean unique IP addresses?

Re: IBM, a Pioneer of Remote Work, Calls Workers Back to the Office

#58

Post by hackunomatter »

johnnyfaehell wrote: post #40
hackunomatter wrote: post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yahoo's policy affected about 180 people. That's about 1.5% of the company. Of those 180, about 60 were allowed to WFH. "Firing" 120 people in such a convoluted way is stupid. But the Internet continues to believe in stupider things, so who am I to ask.

Didn't Yahoo look at their VPN logs and notice people literally weren't doing any work?

Yes. Most people forget these details and just hate on "Oh noes! Working from home was banned!!".

Re: IBM, a Pioneer of Remote Work, Calls Workers Back to the Office

#59

Post by lovich »

jondubois wrote: post #47

Having worked for both small startups and large corporations, I fully understand why remote work doesn't make sense for large companies. Large companies have a lot of trouble keeping track of what their employees are doing even when they are in the office. I've worked for a couple of large companies where some employees came into the office everyday but did essentially nothing and no one really cared. If those same e…

I can see where big companies are coming from with wanting the people they pay to do work, but if you can't tell if that's happening when they work remotely why would you be able to tell if its happening when they are in the office. The only thing they can tell accurately now is that people are in their cubes/seat/open office plan. They'd be better off coming up with some way to evaluate the output of their employees if this was really about that. However I am of the opinion that this is just layoffs with a different name, and that's why you don't see an effort to actually evaluate output.

Re: IBM, a Pioneer of Remote Work, Calls Workers Back to the Office

#60

Post by jbob2000 »

Harkins wrote: post #8

Hospice recall? When an elderly loved one enters hospice and is unlikely to ever leave, all the family is called back in to gather for their death. Happened with Yahoo a couple years ago. I didn't realize IBM was doing so poorly.

That's a great point! I tried out Bluemix and it was soooo bad! I was awestruck as to how a company as big as IBM could create something so hacked together. Amazon literally paved the way for cloud services, all they had to do was copy them.

I mean, just visit the IBM website. Try to figure out what it is they actually do. It's ridiculous. I have no idea WTF any of their services are.

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