A lot of businesses are subject to long-term commercial leases & want the bodies back in to justify the cost. Also, if a bldg they own sits mostly empty, it’s hard to justify upkeep. I agree w/the employees, btw, but occupancy rates are a big deal. Plus, middle managers need ppl to micromanage. 🙄
That’s being considered in some areas. I’ve actually worked on affordable housing issues as a lawyer. Applicable rental housing & zoning laws are impediments, but can be overcome in time.
I wish they'd use this as motivation to make the offices a nice place to be. Like get rid of the miserable open plan spaces and give people walls and doors again.
I would love a little room with a window and a small couch and whiteboard to have little meetings with colleagues and I can close the door and play some cool music and get work done on nice equipment.
I'm struggling with this currently. My desk is in a main thoroughfare - no privacy.
Every second person is in a video meeting - with people who are not in the same building 🙄.
Some days the background sound is like that of a cocktail party.
Most days at least three people are coughing productively.
I have mainly worked at home or in offices with doors that close, and maybe shared with one or two others.
Working in this giant vivarium has made me realise how much I struggle with filtering in my environment. It's stressful.
And let's not mention the lighting!
"As we always have, we'll listen to your feedback" ummm, the less than 60% occupancy rate seems like pretty solid feedback about people wanting to work in the office
collaboration would be great if my colleagues like communicated effectively in the first place instead of writing boomer ass long format emails to ask for a file
I like working in an office and work better when I’m not on multiple conference calls every day and hate the introverted effect it has but my team is in different states.
So I work in the office occasionally but it’s ridiculous to bring everyone in.
CEO of where i work announced he was halving WFH for everyone then a few weeks later announced our HQ was moving into a new building they were sinking a bunch of money into. it wasn’t even subtle.
My entire school district is doing SAT testing this week. It's online, and they've given very stern warnings that no one can be on the wifi except students testing because of bandwidth issues. I'm in a mandatory PD via Zoom all week. They're *still* requiring me to be in the building.
Technically I think the reason is that it wouldn't be fair to the other staff who are with students so couldn't work from home. But that is the kind of thinking we use when managing children. We're adults. Plus, the PD goes an hour past my contract time anyway so I feel like it evens out.
It really is! When they announced it, morale for the entire day was shot. One of the devs who wasn't even affected brought it up at an all hands meeting and the CEO spent ten minutes yelling at him. My direct manager has said he's not enforcing it unless they make him.
They sprung this on everyone with literally no warning. It was a move from the CEO and HR specifically and they told everyone, including management, in an email at 9 am on a Friday.
Gotta love when middle-school-assistant-principle-style petty authoritarians announce a policy with no enforcement, so it's crystal fucking clear it's just middle-school-assistant-principle-style petty authoritarianism
I suspect a lot of managers miss being able to smell their employees. It is the only thing different from remote working. That and they miss being surrounded by people who have to be nice to them.
My company is at the point where all leadership I've ever spoken to says in-office work is really dumb and they don't agree with it, but upper management wants it and there's nothing they can do.
At our "employee recognition meeting" last month it was said twice by 3 different people that we need to get used to thinking of each other as family because we are expected to spend more time at work than at home. Bleak.
They absolutely laid off a third of the office workers when Covid hit and then listed their jobs the next week for a 25% paycut and ghosted anyone who asked to return
Yup, it's insane. I get more done, and offer better coverage, when I'm at home. I'll check there's nothing urgent when I get up and right before bed, if I'm in the office, I'll close my laptop there, and not take it out of my bag at home. Commuting is a waste.
Soulless real estate developers could create housing at reasonable rates in those office buildings. But that can't happen because they are greedy fucks
We are two days a week, and one of the owners reviews a badge swipe report every month. Enough folks threatened to quit if we pushed to 3 days, so we are stable for now
We have tons of kpi data showing that most of our staff are more efficient when working remotely, too
I was told for years I needed to be in the office (I’m a writer) and as soon as the company had a money crunch they consolidated office space and hey presto! Suddenly me coming in just twice a week was just fine.
“Due to an inability to track your bathroom visits remotely, we are requiring you to be in the office at least five times a month. This will allow us to calculate a statistically significant estimate of your pee-pee times, which will then be held against you at your next review.”
“Right. YOU need us in the office so that we don’t view your need to micromanage everyone’s day with “stop and chats” as what they really are “time wasting meetings”.”
Comments
Every second person is in a video meeting - with people who are not in the same building 🙄.
Some days the background sound is like that of a cocktail party.
Most days at least three people are coughing productively.
Working in this giant vivarium has made me realise how much I struggle with filtering in my environment. It's stressful.
And let's not mention the lighting!
So I work in the office occasionally but it’s ridiculous to bring everyone in.
They’re requiring me to go in-person meetings. I live in my service area, but have to drive 30 minutes out of it to go to the office for meetings
I told my team "They want everyone in the office twice a week. I'm not going to do that, so I'll just have to trust you are."
Maybe you got lucky. I did.
There's also real estate shell game bullshit involved
That become a ghost town if the office workers don’t return
We have tons of kpi data showing that most of our staff are more efficient when working remotely, too
Capitalism stay winning
my manager would be totally fine with me WFH
the VPs who work from their private yachts? fuck you, go to the office