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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

#691

Post by devnullbrain »

whstl wrote: post #559
zero_shift wrote: post #190

At $org, we too are undertaking a mandatory RTO order, enforced with door access logs. People are up in arms, particularly those in our smaller locales, where the offices we have are perfunctory at best. The rationale is the usual one: collaboration, watercooler chat, unspecific evidence / "research" about productivity (that we are told definitely exists, but is yet to be shared). I remain baffled by executives' obse…

A previous company I worked at has a satellite office with one single employee, and mandates office 3 days a week. The excuse is that “people in bigger offices will feel bad if we open an exception”, so they’re spending a few thousand a month on real estate to make some poor sod miserable.

The efficiency of private markets in action.

Re: Microsoft is officially sending employees back to the office

#692

Post by nemomarx »

aurareturn wrote: post #673
mulmen wrote: post #667

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It’s not mentioned as a possibility because nobody has ever been able to substantiate that claim.

Shouldn't we trust that the execs have this data and can see productivity metrics that aren't available to the public? Unless you think all RTO is a conspiracy.

Why would they not use those metrics internally as part of the RTO policy then? Surely they would be picking particular stats out to highlight the benefits of RTO, talk about how well everyone is doing afterwards, etc.

Re: Microsoft is officially sending employees back to the office

#693

Post by simoncion »

wiseowise wrote: post #604
reenorap wrote: post #396

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I remain baffled by executives' obsession with RTO It's because although many people do work well in RTO, the vast majority don't. And the various TikTok videos showing "Day in the life of a remote worker" didn't help the cause either. I worked at a fully remote company during the pandemic and trying to get people online was almost impossible. They would disappear for hours and I would be blocked by them and it was…

> They would disappear for hours and I would be blocked by them and it was one of the most frustrating experiences in my career. If you’re being blocked by someone online, you’d be blocked offline too.

And if a coworker is refusing to speak with you on the system that the company provides you to speak with them, why haven't you complained to your manager (or your manager's manager) about the clear and obvious blocker to getting your work done?

One of the following is true: OP is the biggest doormat in the world, the company OP works for is incredibly dysfunctional and cannot be saved, or OP's story could be found in the "Things That Never Happened" Jeopardy category.

Re: Microsoft is officially sending employees back to the office

#694

Post by wiseowise »

wongarsu wrote: post #169
tokai wrote: post #66

Commute time should be salaried time. Then the whole office/home work discussion could be taken with the true costs involved.

Nobody's stopping you from moving closer to the office, and incentivizing people to move further away is the last thing we should do Yes, rent 5 minutes from the office is likely very high, and it's much cheaper two hours away, and that's why most people live far away. But that is already a factor in salaries. If the office is in a high-cost-of-living area they have to offer higher salaries to get an equal caliber of…

> Nobody's stopping you from moving closer to the office

Tell me you’re single in early 20s without telling you’re single in 20s.

Re: Microsoft is officially sending employees back to the office

#696

Post by regularfry »

oblio wrote: post #587
yepitwas wrote: post #533

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's pretty funny to watch e.g. some little FOSS console game system emulator—an actual toy, or at least, a project in service of a toy and of game-playing, to a large extent, but also technically more challenging than a lot of corporate work—or maybe some FOSS MMO server re-implementation coordinate development across continents with nothing but IRC, email, and Github (if that, LOL) and do it efficiently with little…

KDE was supposed to run on Windows, starting 15 years ago. Linux was supposed to flawlessly support laptop sleep and hibernate, 20 years ago. Gimp was supposed to support 32 bit colors (I think) 15 years ago. Etc, etc. The money is there so that things that are desired happen mostly on time.

The question is who they are desired by.

Re: Microsoft is officially sending employees back to the office

#697

Post by aurareturn »

nemomarx wrote: post #692
aurareturn wrote: post #673

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Shouldn't we trust that the execs have this data and can see productivity metrics that aren't available to the public? Unless you think all RTO is a conspiracy.

Why would they not use those metrics internally as part of the RTO policy then? Surely they would be picking particular stats out to highlight the benefits of RTO, talk about how well everyone is doing afterwards, etc.

Because they don't want the public/employees to misconstrue those metrics? Maybe they don't want employees to know how they view productivity?

Surely if they're presented with solid evidence that WFH increases productivity, they'd keep it. Execs make millions in bonuses if the performance of the company hits certain goals. It's baffling that people here still talk about real estate conspiracy theories.

Re: Microsoft is officially sending employees back to the office

#698

Post by sokoloff »

JustExAWS wrote: post #479
xtracto wrote: post #278

Just out of curiosity, how much compensation would people be willing to leave on the table in lieu of "Remote" work? (this is different to, how much would you ASK to go from remote to a new in-office job). 10%, 25%, 50%? I've worked remotely for 5 years now, and there is NO way I would return to an office based job. I even have moved to a small town where there are practically 0 tech jobs; and at this point there's N…

I’ll give some real world numbers. Right now I make a little over $200K. I am 51, never struck it rich in tech and make the same as former intern I mentored when I was in BigTech between 2020-2023 and when they got back. They got promoted to an L5 (mid level) earlier this year at 25. We both worked in the Professional Services department. I’ve said no to opportunities that would have paid $250K - 280K that would have…

> I can honestly say there is no amount of money that would convince me to go to an office.

I enjoy remote work quite a bit (after thinking I'd hate it).

There is absolutely an amount of money that would convince me to take an in-office job though...

Re: Microsoft is officially sending employees back to the office

#699

Post by simoncion »

wiseowise wrote: post #606
aprilthird2021 wrote: post #575

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I still have no idea where it comes from. I work at a company that tracks productivity in many ways and even the screentime of each employee. I'm quite sure remote employees or even hybrid employees on their WFH days, spend less time on the screen or doing things productivity trackers track compared to in office colleagues.

Productivity tracker that tracks sport/fashion/travel chats for hours, dozens of smoke breaks and employees shitting every 16 minutes – very advanced tech.

Productivity tracker that tracks the fiftieth complete train-of-thought derailment from the fiftieth loud-ass boisterous conversation initiated by the sales guys across the room from me in the exposed-concrete-from-floor-to-ceiling open-plan office.

Very advanced tech Corporate has paid for!

Re: Microsoft is officially sending employees back to the office

#700

Post by ReptileMan »

mrweasel wrote: post #688
bilekas wrote: post #663

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Backdoor layoffs. It's always backdoor layoffs. If they really appreciated and needed you at the company, they would cater for your needs when you're delivering your work.

If it's layoffs aren't there a very real risk that the most talented people, who enjoy working from home will simply leave, while the less talented returns to the office because they'll have a harder time finding new jobs? So you're doing backdoor layoffs, but you're laying off the people you'd most likely want to keep, leaving the company with the less experienced/talented people.

>If it's layoffs aren't there a very real risk that the most talented people, who enjoy working from home will simply leave, while the less talented returns to the office because they'll have a harder time finding new jobs?

The corporate structure is not created around talented people, but around mediocrity. In Dilbert land you have no use for brainiacs.

In my current environment one line bugfix takes 3-4 workdays to release. Does it matter one bit if you will do the fix in 10 or 100 minutes if it will be overshadowed by the time THE PROCESS consumes.

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