Bosses self reporting as dumbasses, as usual
It really makes the argument that CEOs and managers couldn’t be elected really weak. They’d probably be far more competent if they were chosen by workers once a year or so.
At this point I would consider a return-to-office mandate at my job to be a massive pay cut. It’d be the equivalent to spending an extra 2-3 hours a day working (because that’s what the total commute would be), plus money on vehicle upkeep. If they weren’t willing to couple it with a ~40% raise, or with letting me reduce my hours worked by 10-15 per week to compensate for the commute time, I’d quit before the change in policy went into effect, no question.
But people still overwhelmingly prefer at least a few days per week at home, arguing that physical office presence is more trouble than it’s worth and is rarely necessary to complete a task.
If that required data and research to realize, they’re simply out of touch or stupid. More likely this is just an excuse for not realizing they couldn’t bully people as effectively as they’d hoped.
It’d be the equivalent to spending an extra 2-3 hours a day working (because that’s what the total commute would be), plus money on vehicle upkeep
Maybe this is one of the reasons I actually prefer going to the office. For me, it’s only 15 minutes by metro.
No additional cost, very little wasted/lost time, and I actually enjoy being able to draw a line between work and life by putting them in different physical spaces.
Perhaps it also helps that my managers encourage people to work from wherever they feel they’re the most productive. It’s nice to know that I have the option to work from home without having to explain myself.
what WFH has really brought to light is how miserable car-dependency and suburban sprawl is.
The problem isn’t going to work, the problem is that for most people going to work entails needing to drive a car for an hour, and it’s actually insane that people have just blithely accepted that until now.
Nah, being at work was driving me towards a nervous breakdown. Open office + management that liked to just drop in at my desk uninvited and without a heads up had me an absolute wreck.
I did not handle the panopiticon well.
You could place me next door to the office, and it would have been the same.
Sounds like your issue is a shitty workplace and shitty managers more than it is not not working from home.
My issue is working around people.
Not enough data vs actually talking to their team…
I worked for a self-proclaimed data-driven company. They didn’t understand how to use data and just used it to justify arbitrary decisions. They hated their employees so much, it was wild. They taught their people managers to use data to gaslight employees by telling them they were happy (most of us weren’t). If you don’t feel your employer appreciates you, do what you can to leave.
Our company had record profitability and productivity when people were working from home so of course upper management wanted to change that…
Said a random employee of Leopards Eating Faces, Inc.
See also small businesses consistently blocking bike lanes and pedestrianization despite that being repeatedly shown to massively boost profits, because people in cars just fucking drive to walmart.
They had plenty of data, they wanted people to be fearful and work like they were being watched, which is proven to be less good work.
It was all about control.
Bingo.
They said – out loud, with words, as well as with actions – that they neither trust nor respect us. Many of them installed tracking software on remote hardware so that they could be alerted if employees took their hands off of their mouses long enough to even think, because if we’re not living in their own panopiticons, they think we’re all trying to fuck them over.
Which, to me, is the admission that they’re actively and consciously trying to fuck us over.
They’re not upset today that RTO hampered “productivity”, because they don’t care about that. They were, and are, willing to pay the price in order to physically lord themselves over people. What they regret is that people quit, and they’ve struggled to hire, and those that they have interviewed have made demands of them – like higher wages, or to be able to work remotely.
They regret the feeling that they lost power when attempting to reassert it.
They had the data, they just repeatedly ignored it since it didn’t tell them what they wanted to hear.
I’m not sure that they ever had any data because the data would probably suggest that management had the lowest productivity out of any employee. Middle management is filled with too many meetings, they’re all promoted to a level of incompetency, and have delusions that they contribute more towards the success of the business than the skilled people below them.
