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Marc Benioff: “I don’t work well in an office”

fortune.com

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Re: Marc Benioff: “I don’t work well in an office”

#51

Post by NullPrefix »

sgt101 wrote: post #42
FirmwareBurner wrote: post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It is, but companies are too stubborn.

As soon as the accommodation strategy needs a refresh this changes. If you can reduce the office footprint you can save money. Bringing people in often means increasing the footprint post wfh. Wfh will win where it actually succeeds because it saves money. If it doesn't work then only companies that bring people in will succeed. My feeling is that about 75% of the non manual non hospitality economy will go WFH

>Wfh will win where it actually succeeds because it saves money.

>If it doesn't work then only companies that bring people in will succeed.

This implies fair competition between the two

Re: Marc Benioff: “I don’t work well in an office”

#52

Post by isilofi »

sfjailbird wrote: post #40
isilofi wrote: post #35

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Remote work used to be an earned privilege for workers who were self sufficient and didn't need any management. I'm coordinating with developers in Europe, South America and East Asia. The customers are all over, but mainly North American. I'm in Europe. I've seen some of the customers once or twice in person, I see many of my European colleagues at the yearly get-together. But all the contact and all the work is o…

Not to mention the trend that had long been going on, to make the office ever more impersonal, with increasingly more open floor plans, hot desking, having to move your stuff in and out of lockers at the start and end of the workday, etc. WFH should be the ultimate dream of these companies, they can finally get rid of those pesky meatbags and their 'emotions' altogether.

Yes, but unfortunately sometimes no. I've also seen a rush to get along with less office space but still have all the people come in, e.g. with hot-desking and an early-morning desk lottery at the gates, huge soulless open-plan offices (but at least the shared desks are wiped down twice a week now, hurray!). Yet attendance at the office was still mandatory, even if your team got a seat 3 floors and 200m away somewhere else in the building (because they had to bring kids to school and didn't get their pick at the desk lottery).

So management wanted to have their cake and eat it, too. Everyone in an ever smaller, ever more unusable but supposedly cheaper office. Concentrate all the smaller offices in the suburbs into one huge big-city campus, making the commute a nightmare. But people have to be at their desks, or else. Remote was officially rolled back.

Unofficially, even middle management wised up and just ignored the back-to-office mandate, because they wouldn't know anyways who was in and who wasn't.

Re: Marc Benioff: “I don’t work well in an office”

#53

Post by intended »

FirmwareBurner wrote: post #18
rgrieselhuber wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think more remote is inevitable. Think of how much time is stolen from you in a daily commute. Remote is better for the environment too.

It is, but companies are too stubborn.

Old companies are too stubborn.

Re: Marc Benioff: “I don’t work well in an office”

#54

Post by hdjjhhvvhga »

Gigachad wrote: post #24
rgrieselhuber wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think more remote is inevitable. Think of how much time is stolen from you in a daily commute. Remote is better for the environment too.

> Think of how much time is stolen from you in a daily commute Not that much. And I just read hacker news while sitting on the train which I was going to do if sitting at home anyway.

>> Think of how much time is stolen from you in a daily commute

> Not that much.

OK, let's assume it's not 90 minutes but only 20 minutes a day. That compounds, and it's a lot of time I could spend on what really matters to me, not work. Why should I do it, if I have a choice? Time is the most precious thing we have. I will never come back to the office, period.

Re: Marc Benioff: “I don’t work well in an office”

#55

Post by malermeister »

sgt101 wrote: post #42
FirmwareBurner wrote: post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It is, but companies are too stubborn.

As soon as the accommodation strategy needs a refresh this changes. If you can reduce the office footprint you can save money. Bringing people in often means increasing the footprint post wfh. Wfh will win where it actually succeeds because it saves money. If it doesn't work then only companies that bring people in will succeed. My feeling is that about 75% of the non manual non hospitality economy will go WFH

Problem is that the board and investors are usually also heavily invested in commercial real estate, to the point where artificially propping it up is worth more to them than the company.

Re: Marc Benioff: “I don’t work well in an office”

#56

Post by isilofi »

FirmwareBurner wrote: post #41
isilofi wrote: post #35

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Remote work used to be an earned privilege for workers who were self sufficient and didn't need any management. I'm coordinating with developers in Europe, South America and East Asia. The customers are all over, but mainly North American. I'm in Europe. I've seen some of the customers once or twice in person, I see many of my European colleagues at the yearly get-together. But all the contact and all the work is o…

Can I ask where in Europe? I'm also looking for something remote friendly as most companies in my area have pull everyone back in the office and I hate it.

Germany, a company formerly part of (and still somewhat associated with) Siemens. But I'm not sure I can recommend it, depending on which department you land in, it is the proverbial German corporate bureaucracy. And depending on the department, they can be anything from totally-100%-homeoffice-friendly to totally-100%-opposed. And all the other big-corporate-clichees times 1000.

Re: Marc Benioff: “I don’t work well in an office”

#57

Post by Gigachad »

hdjjhhvvhga wrote: post #54
Gigachad wrote: post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Think of how much time is stolen from you in a daily commute Not that much. And I just read hacker news while sitting on the train which I was going to do if sitting at home anyway.

>> Think of how much time is stolen from you in a daily commute > Not that much. OK, let's assume it's not 90 minutes but only 20 minutes a day. That compounds, and it's a lot of time I could spend on what really matters to me, not work. Why should I do it, if I have a choice? Time is the most precious thing we have. I will never come back to the office, period.

It’s 20 minutes where I catch up on the news get a bit of walking in from the home to the train station and generally wake up to arrive at the office ready to go.

Re: Marc Benioff: “I don’t work well in an office”

#58

Post by Gigachad »

WeylandYutani wrote: post #27
Gigachad wrote: post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Think of how much time is stolen from you in a daily commute Not that much. And I just read hacker news while sitting on the train which I was going to do if sitting at home anyway.

A train that has seats left in rush hour? I envy you.

I either leave slightly earlier and beat rush hour, or even if I don’t, I can still use my phone standing.

Re: Marc Benioff: “I don’t work well in an office”

#59

Post by BlargMcLarg »

alophawen wrote: post #43
khuedoan wrote: post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Only if you live in a country with decent public transportation. The rest of the world still have to deal with traffic jam and polluted air while commuting (cars are difficult to get in many countries).

> Only if you live in a country with decent public transportation So only in every country in the world except USA?

Only Japan would remotely apply unless you're cheating the system by checking only hotspot cities and trying to claim they are the entirety of their country. Suffice to say, most people don't live near Amsterdam, let alone able to afford it.
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