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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

#801

Post by timcobb »

blacklion wrote: post #714

It is funny to see how in one (IT) culture there is two narratives, often supported by same people: 1) Office is bad, people more productive working remote from their homes, and corporate C-levels issue and enforce RTO, which is silly and anti-productive. 2) All jokes about Zoom/Meet/Teams, with all these «Each meeting consists of “are you hear me?” questions», etc. Maybe, I'm unique (I'm sure I'm not), but I was twi…

The issue is that it's mandated. I bet most people would say they like hybrid.

Re: Microsoft is officially sending employees back to the office

#802

Post by William_BB »

nonameiguess wrote: post #113

This is going to lead to these abstract discussions of subjective perceptual "productivity" as it always does, but by the actual economic definition of labor productivity, revenue per employee, Microsoft has gone from $143 billion with 163,000 in 2020 ($877,000 per head) to $282 billion with 228,000 ($1.24 million per head) so far this year. They've become the 2nd largest company in the world by market cap, in large…

I'm sorry, but this is a meaningless stat when evaluating remote work productivity.

Microsoft is a huge company with a lot of momentum and so many products that you can't reasonably conclude anything about remote work from this stat alone. Worse, you don't even account for inflation (!).

What about revenue per employee before covid? What if I chose any arbitrary time period in the last 20 years? Lastly, maybe revenue per employee could've grown significantly more during 2020-2024 if everyone was in the office?

Re: Microsoft is officially sending employees back to the office

#804

Post by notepad0x90 »

Rohansi wrote: post #466
notepad0x90 wrote: post #427

Why don't they just pay people less if they think WFH causes less value to the company? Give them an option to RTO or take a pay cut. Why would you want people who don't want your company to succeed anymore working for you? I can't imagine anyone used to 3-4 years of WFH (and liking it) wanting the company to succeed after RTO. If they stay, it's probably because they don't have a choice and they'll probably be the l…

> Give them an option to RTO or take a pay cut. How much of a pay cut? They could (and probably do) claim that WFH employees are not doing anything so they are worthless.

Makes sense. I would say if productivity is below 30% of RTO then it's RTO. I can't imagine that though. Most people are productive 3-4h at most in office jobs, it shouldn't that difficult to measure output/productivity. Just meetings normally takes at least 1-2h on average out of most people's work days.

Re: Microsoft is officially sending employees back to the office

#805

Post by scarface_74 »

bluGill wrote: post #750
scarface_74 wrote: post #471

Earlier quoted context omitted.

$1019 a week - the maximum in Washington - is not nothing. But it’s not life changing.

It is enough to survive if you cut back, hopefully long enough to find a new job. If it is worth that risk is up to you. I won't call you stupid for not taking it. You can also accept it for the moment and start sending out resumes while working. It will take a little longer but there are other jobs.

Well in my state it maxes out at $275 a week…

Re: Microsoft is officially sending employees back to the office

#806

Post by scarface_74 »

bluGill wrote: post #457
renewiltord wrote: post #453

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I mean I get it. It’s just that unsolicited advice to talk to a lawyer is kind of useless? In this particular case it’s worse than useless because you’ll never get a good lawyer to take this case. It’s like some automated LLM response.

most talks with lawyers do not lead to court. They can give plenty of useful advice in many other situations. Just knowing how to frame things with the next job for example. now granted it isn't worth it for most of us to bother. However if there is any doubt ten minutes and a few dollars is worth the cost.

Yes a lawyer is going to be able to give you career advice and tell you how to phrase the answer to the question “why did you leave your last job”?

I already knew what to do. Remove any connections from LinkedIn of anyone who knew that I was PIPed. I knew that any employment verification would go through TheWorkNumber and all it would know were dates and comp amount.

Not that anyone asked…

Re: Microsoft is officially sending employees back to the office

#807

Post by thunderfork »

aurareturn wrote: post #780
_heimdall wrote: post #755

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Its a possibility, but I've never come across data that supports either approach reliably outperforming the other. I've also never seen a company that actually tracked that well enough to make a decision like RTO based on their own data.

The evidence is that more companies are returning to old pre-covid policies than companies that are going remote only. They can't all love commercial real estate that much right? Not all executives invests in office buildings.

This might be evidence of a belief, but that's no evidence that be belief is rational.

Re: Microsoft is officially sending employees back to the office

#808

Post by al_borland »

throwaway2037 wrote: post #651
al_borland wrote: post #333

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Several years before the pandemic I was forced to move several states away after my local office was shutdown and the company was looking to force everyone to a few larger offices. It didn’t make any sense. Within my little 10 person team, we had people in 5 states and at least 2 counties, spanning multiple time zones. I was on the phone, tethered to my desk, all-day every-day. I saw very little point to being in the…

> I was on the phone, tethered to my desk, all-day every-day. I am curious: What was your job? Sales? Support?

Software engineer, who was often also filling the role of product owner and scrum master as well.

Re: Microsoft is officially sending employees back to the office

#809

Post by RHSeeger »

wiseowise wrote: post #588
RHSeeger wrote: post #506

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You /s, but that's actually a fair point - Some people work better at home, away from the office - Some people work better in the office, with their co-workers around them Those two facts are at direct odds with each other. It's unfortunate, but you can't give both groups what they want.

So when it’s my idiosyncrasy I’m supposed to shut the fuck up because it’s unprofessional, but when it aligns with whatever goals of some middle manager I’m supposed to take one for the team, because Bob the baby needs a grown up man sitting next to him?

No?

It's not an idiosyncrasy, it's a preference/optimal work environment. And it varies by person. Stop acting like the people that are on the other side of the opinion are being childish/stupid.

Nobody said you needed to stfu. Pointing out what works best for you is important in making sure the best decision is made. But, as I was trying to say, any decision that is made will be wrong for some of the people involved.

Re: Microsoft is officially sending employees back to the office

#810

Post by Mistletoe »

blacklion wrote: post #714

It is funny to see how in one (IT) culture there is two narratives, often supported by same people: 1) Office is bad, people more productive working remote from their homes, and corporate C-levels issue and enforce RTO, which is silly and anti-productive. 2) All jokes about Zoom/Meet/Teams, with all these «Each meeting consists of “are you hear me?” questions», etc. Maybe, I'm unique (I'm sure I'm not), but I was twi…

Thanks for being honest. I cannot imagine trying to work from home and I think it is a shared charade we are all caught up in. Be thankful you have a job to go into work to, that may not always be the case for everyone…
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