Want employees to return to the office? Then give each one an office
washingtonpost.com
Want employees to return to the office? Then give each one an office
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Re: Want employees to return to the office? Then give each one an office
#2I would say the most important factor for me would be to implement COVID-19 mitigations, but I also enjoy wfh now.
Re: Want employees to return to the office? Then give each one an office
#3At home, the benefits are extreme. Full office, private bath, private bed, private kitchen, garaged parking, asset security, and a 30 second commute. The next wave of office workers will want it better than this, or it simply won't work.
Re: Want employees to return to the office? Then give each one an office
#4Nah, I'm not going back to your stupid building to talk about sports in the break room while microwaving Tupperwared leftover chicken breast lol.
Gas + commute time + increased likelihood to eat out (leftover chicken breast) = more money out of my pocket.
And I could stretch even further with the endless banter, getting yelled at for not understanding things the first time (I'm not an auditory listener), disrespected for how I look, more reasons to waste money on therapy. Obviously that's personal, but you couldn't pay me more to go back to the cattle stall we call an office...
I do miss wearing dress shirts and slacks while I eat your free pizza!
Re: Want employees to return to the office? Then give each one an office
#5Gift link to article: https://wapo.st/3OwA5OG
Re: Want employees to return to the office? Then give each one an office
#6I'm not going to endure an hour's commute and all the expense involved with that to just sit in another box where communication will just marginally improve.
Re: Want employees to return to the office? Then give each one an office
#7Give me a laundry and dish service to replace how I am able to start appliances during a break.
Re: Want employees to return to the office? Then give each one an office
#8Nah, I'm not going back to your stupid building to talk about sports in the break room while microwaving Tupperwared leftover chicken breast lol. Gas + commute time + increased likelihood to eat out (leftover chicken breast) = more money out of my pocket. And I could stretch even further with the endless banter, getting yelled at for not understanding things the first time (I'm not an auditory listener), disrespected…
> Nah, I'm not going [...] to talk about sports in the break room while microwaving Tupperwared leftover chicken breast lol.
Dunno. I do the same during WFH, only with having no pants on.
Re: Want employees to return to the office? Then give each one an office
#9Joel Spolesky has made this very point many times in the past: "Private offices with doors that close were absolutely required and not open to negotiation." I work on a Data Sci team that moved to an open floor plan in 2018. What happened? Anyone who needed to work intensively on a project would work from home instead of in the office.
Re: Want employees to return to the office? Then give each one an office
#10I think its fair to say that RTO is not about data, or studies, or about anything really. Leaders across all industries have decided people are coming back. Perhaps there is a secret cabal of commercial office space lenders who are putting pressure as share holders, or some other conspiracy theory. But it's happening - no one can do anything about it (except vote with your feet), and no one is going to get better accommodations in this economy (e.g better offices).
I am in the middle of having to tell a top engineer (and team lead) who was hired remote that they can no longer be remote and need to move to one of our office locations (thousands of miles away of course). Just for the privilege of being on a video call with the PMs who of course don't live in the same city anyway.
Sadly, it's like people running these companies are drawing inspiration from Vladamir Putin and saying "Fuck it - I want people in the office". This may be off topic from the article - but I think leaders are just going to say fuck it - you are coming in or you are getting fired.