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We’re now finding out the damaging results of the mandated return to the office–and it’s worse than we thought
Fortune ^ | Gleb Tsipursky

Posted on 08/03/2023 10:38:50 AM PDT by ShadowAce

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To: albie
I assume that as a Realtor, you only get paid a commission. It makes sense to let commission-only employees set whatever hours they like.

Or are Realtors even employees? Or are they independent contractors?

121 posted on 08/03/2023 12:54:16 PM PDT by Angelino97
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To: Yo-Yo
I'm dressed and at my desk at 8 AM. I have interruptions from FedEx, UPS, Amazon and USPS. Otherwise, locked onto work. My wife works night shift, so she is ready to get food by 3 PM. I defer my lunch to eat with her. On return from lunch, I often work until midnight. I find my co-workers responsive to e-mail queries and ad hoc Teams meetings from 8 AM to midnight. Most of us work remote. Even my boss works remote except when he needs to come to the office to make use of the SCIF for classified meetings. I don't have a SCIF nearby, so I get to punt on those meetings. The current contract doesn't have travel money allocated, so everyone gets to punt the travel requests.
122 posted on 08/03/2023 1:13:05 PM PDT by Myrddin
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To: ShadowAce

If they’re too lazy to come to work they don’t even need enough money to buy a car.

May as well hire H1B


123 posted on 08/03/2023 1:24:07 PM PDT by NWFree (Sigma male 🤪)
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To: mikey_hates_everything
Some of the people who have to return to the office are not returning to the same situations. Private offices were lost and employers gave up real estate and went to hoteling. I wouldn’t be happy about that and it would be as if the employer reneged on an agreement.

One of the attractive aspects of working for my current employer was a dedicated office with a lockable door. I had that onsite. It comes at an "overhead" cost to the customer contract based on square feet. As a 100% remote employee, the customer pays nothing for "overhead". It is reflected in the hourly rates charged for my labor. It adds up to serious money with a team of 25 computer scientists.

When I first hired on, the company was employee owned. We owned our buildings and infrastructure. The company went public in 2007. A decision was made to outsource accounting and stock management. Next, all the real estate was sold to a holding company. The holding company leases back space on a contract by contract basis. The advantage of no longer owning the real estate is the ability to exit an unfavorable business environment quickly. California is feeling the consequences of that choice. Because we are spread out over every state in the union and multiple foreign countries, the payroll vendor has to track labor hours by zip code and pay state income taxes where applicable on the payroll. As employees, that complicates tax time. I've had to file in as many as 4 different states in some years.

The model of leasing back floor space has come in handy with the new working from home model. Less money going to floor space rentals. Some of that savings was reinvested in beefed up company networking. A big win for those working remotely. The VPN can download at 40 Mbps. My fiber optic can move 980 Mbps up/down, so the company VPN is still the limiting factor. Some government customer VPNs are barely capable of move 1 Mbps.

124 posted on 08/03/2023 1:26:52 PM PDT by Myrddin
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To: cgbg

Your #101 - excellent. Brings back some memories!


125 posted on 08/03/2023 1:27:15 PM PDT by workerbee (==)
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To: Ingtar

I worked the corporate world for years. Mentoring and team creativity? Non existent. We all just sat in our offices and worked quietly all day. Office meeting once a month.


126 posted on 08/03/2023 1:39:42 PM PDT by Georgia Girl 2 (The only purpose of a pistol is to fight your way back to the rifle you should never have dropped)
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To: Magic Fingers

Yup.

I’ve been working from home since 2008 and will never go back. I’ve doubled my income during that time as well.

Companies need to take a long hard look at the realities prior to demanding everyone come back to the office. The labor pool locally is a small fraction of what is available nationally. You want someone who meets your qualifications and lives in town or someone who blows them away and lives three states over? The entire reason I was able to make the transition is that I had the skills that weren’t available locally (and the job was in Chicago!).

Of course some people abuse it, but some people also abuse it while in the office.


127 posted on 08/03/2023 1:40:14 PM PDT by BlueMondaySkipper (Involuntarily subsidizing the parasite class since 1981)
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To: Georgia Girl 2

“I worked the corporate world for years. Mentoring and team creativity? Non existent.”

Yep - but LOTS of talk about it.


128 posted on 08/03/2023 1:53:19 PM PDT by Magic Fingers (Political correctness mutates in order to remain virulent.)
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To: ShadowAce

Seems like it is sorting itself out on its own.


129 posted on 08/03/2023 1:54:10 PM PDT by RetiredTexasVet (Biden not only suffers fools and criminals, he appoints them to positions of responsibility. )
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To: Magic Fingers

I always said there are two kinds of managers:

1. Those who talk about stuff.

2. Those who actually do stuff.

Manager type 1 loves meetings—the bigger and longer the better.

Remote work allowed everyone to multitask while manager 1 bloviated.


130 posted on 08/03/2023 1:57:32 PM PDT by cgbg (Claiming that laws and regs that limit “hate speech” stop freedom of speech is “hate speech”.)
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To: pierrem15

Interesting. We have manufacturers in my area that offer good pay and benefits which must be working quite well as several hundred employees seem to be doing well. They own a home, boat, and their kids enjoy participation in sports and other activities. If one isn’t happy with their job or paycheck my recommendation is to shop around for something better. Those jobs are out there.


131 posted on 08/03/2023 2:06:32 PM PDT by From The Deer Stand (P)
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To: Angelino97

Independent contractors. Most have an office. At least I do with lots of great people. People that have much in common.


132 posted on 08/03/2023 2:11:43 PM PDT by albie
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To: mewzilla
Some jobs still require the presence of a warm body.

Most of such jobs were not locked out or sent home to work.

There is no such thing as RTO for jobs that require in-person attention. Those jobs never were WFH jobs.

133 posted on 08/03/2023 2:24:41 PM PDT by 13foxtrot
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To: 1Old Pro
" It should have been built on available acreage in SAFE Latham and thus attract visitors from Albany/Schenectady/Troy."

My son actually lives in Troy, has for at least 25 years. His biggest problems over the years have been city plows taking out the side-view mirrors on your car every-so-often in the winter. Russell Sage College is down the street, and although there is a large parking lot for students across the street from the brownstone he lives in, the students take up the parking spots on the street that the residents are supposed to use. You can't park in the student parking lot without a sticker, or your car will get towed or ticketed

Also, within the last 6 months, there have been two hit and runs that damaged his car. The first hit and run was a drunk driver who hit multiple cars along the route they took. They hit the back-end of my son's car (VW Tiguan), pushed it up onto the sidewalk. The girl who lives upstairs from him was parked in front of him, and his car was pushed into the back-end of hers. The cops finally caught with up the person that morning.

Then two months ago, he was parked on the side street across from the student parking lot. He thinks it might have been someone pulling out of there that hit him. Less damage on the car this time around, but it cost much more to fix it, despite the first hit and run causing damage to the computer system in the car on top of the body damage. There's parking on both sides of the street he lives on, except for Fridays. On that day, all cars have to be off the street before noon, so they can bring the street sweeper in. If your car is still there, they will tow it. He learned that valuable lesson when he first moved in all those years ago. So basically, he's had more damage done to his cars over the years while they've been sitting outside his building. Never had an accident in all the years he had to drive into Albany.

134 posted on 08/03/2023 2:25:11 PM PDT by mass55th (“Courage is being scared to death, but saddling up anyway.” ― John Wayne)
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To: ShadowAce
My organization is also 100% remote. We have been since March 2020.

I've been working remote for about 5 years. You have to be self-motivated to do it. Some folks can't do that, which is OK, because I don't want to work with people you have to beat to get work out of them anyway.

135 posted on 08/03/2023 2:55:55 PM PDT by zeugma (Stop deluding yourself that America is still a free country.)
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To: ShadowAce

All types of employment currently find a high turnover rate. The job market is hot (for those who know how to embelllish their resume). They work for a few months and move on before anyone discovers they are normal and not superheros.

On the other side HR departments (which have their own turn over problems) are bound by government rules, regulations and fear of them...and fear of ambulance chasing lawyers who can see discrimination everywhere. College graduates fall into 2 categories..
1. They have the ability in IT, engineering, sales, marketing to do a productive job.
2. They took courses in gender studies and similar and are only qualified to work in HR or PR and not in any productive department.

So the employee pool for HR is not the same as the productive parts of the enterprise. They see the other departments thru the prism of their own educations and now new departent.


136 posted on 08/03/2023 3:01:28 PM PDT by spintreebob (ki .h g)
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To: T.B. Yoits

Notice the article says return to office which means they worked at the office previously


137 posted on 08/03/2023 3:17:25 PM PDT by Nifster ( I see puppy dogs in the clouds )
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To: Cletus.D.Yokel

Mr. Yokel, you just described me. Well done.


138 posted on 08/03/2023 5:12:28 PM PDT by old-ager
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To: capydick
Correct, on all points. Who would want to return to a office that forced you to mask up and get the jab.

The internet should have forced this decades ago. This is a 1950's mentality to force people into a central command office. WFH allows for not being accused of offending some other coworker, sexual harassment, stealing office stuff, etc.

WFH is a savior for companies, its a shift from the burden of the employer to the employee. No longer does a company have to spend vast resources in real estate, electricity, taxes, supplies, etc.

The employee is the one who has to cover that end on their side, along with lots of more risk. The employer has all the leverage, they now have the resources at a minimum of the entire US, no longer in a region. It's a no brainier to have WFH, in a sector that allows it.

139 posted on 08/03/2023 8:50:29 PM PDT by Theoria
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To: Yo-Yo

The 8 hours would include coffee breaks, lunch break and slacking off.

Wfh folks tend to work 8 or more, but not necessarily in a stretch.


140 posted on 08/04/2023 12:20:14 AM PDT by Cronos
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