The one guy said, this is stupid. I'd rather be at home rolling out of my bed in my underwear and turn the computer on.
The silicon chip has made the office tower obsolete.
My son’s employer (IT industry) sent everyone home to work over two years ago - then sold the building b/c there was no use for it in that particular industry.
He tells me he has never met his colleagues in person and many of them live in other states. I told him he is saving a lot of money not having to pay for gas to commute.
My daughter (large international bank) had to go back to work one day a week - she said her colleagues were kicking and screaming about it.
A few reasons.
A lot of corporate real estate is plugged into the financial system. If that loses value, it all loses value.
Then there is the fact that while some are more productive at home, many are not. Remote employees often turn into part time employees. We have several remote workers, and they are not as effective as in person workers.
Then there is the fact that perception is reality. You won’t get promoted at home. Your hiring manager needs to see you, know who you are, to promote you. Even if you are the one that is productive.
I have been remote since Covid. I tell headhunters and others I am only interested in 100% remote roles.
Going into the office is unnecessary and all downside to me. I eats my time. It makes me spend a LOT more. The work environment with all the office noise is far worse than my arrangement at home. What would I do with my new puppy? I can’t put him in doggy daycare. He’s not fully immunized yet and he can’t go to doggy daycare because he’s not fixed....which I don’t want to do until he’s a year old and is done developing (Studies have shown the lower hormone levels following getting fixed leads to development problems in a puppy’s joints far more frequently).
Besides.....I’ll often be on a team with members of that team scattered all over the country. Who the hell cares if we’re staring at each other through a computer screen and talking in the office or at home? It makes no difference.
Fortunately thanks to hiring all those H1bs for years, the banks are sorely lacking qualified Americans with the amount of experience I have. So its accept my terms....or one of your competitors will. I love the free market.
It’s all about the loans on commercial real estate. The banks (and moreso, the insurance companies) are leaning on the companies to keep the office leases. The companies know that their shareholders will scream if they lease millions of square feet of office space and leave it empty. And you can’t justify nearly as much space if folks come in on a staggered schedule.
So, in your case, everyone in at the same time, so they need enough space for everyone, not just a third or a fifth of the bodies.
And his boss would prefer he actually do something, any little thing, to earn the salary he is being paid.
Because quite frankly, despite the lovely tales that are spun about "how productive I am working at home" you aren't.
If you were, they would let you. It is certainly to their advantage to do so. But 98% of you are watching YouTube while nudging your mouse occasionally.
Remote working CAN be productive and to the advantage of everyone involved but you have to actually do some work.
And people don't.
I’m surprised that anyone working remotely hasn’t been replaced by a robot, yet. ;) The technology is right around the corner, though.
So happy to be retired and not dealing with staffing these days. :)
If your job can be done remotely, it can be done cheaper in Vietnam or India.
Expect mortgage applications in the future to ask if you work remotely.
My company had remote employees prior to COVID, but with most on-site. Now almost everyone is remote and our buildings are mostly empty. Don’t see it changing as my coworkers are in VA and NC, my boss is in NJ and his boss is in FL. We have several people in TX and one of our integrators has people in Peru, Spain and Argentina among other countries.
I know some people may not be as productive online, but being a knowledge worker who gets paid to think and solve problems, I thrive in this environment where I am in near complete control over distractions.
The difference I see is the people who are not productive at home would not be productive at work, but now they don’t also become millstones around the necks of everyone else around them as they would in an office.
Too many are logged in but really are AFK.
If production of work from home was good there would be no need to change.
The bottom line of all this is:
Technology is never a substitute for good management.
It is not about the work at home issue.
It just amazed me that so many work from home. Office work, paperwork. The people I know almost all do physical work: agriculture, construction, manufacturing, etc. So much paperwork to codify the actual production of real goods. I’m not knocking it; I just can’t figure it out.
80/20 rule. 80% of employees are useless.
I am in manufacturing. Always have been. I don’t see how manufacturing could be done remotely. Even robots need an oil change once in a while.
Exactly, I work more hours from home simply because I’m not spending 2 and a half hours commuting back and forth every day.
I’m coming at this discussion as a remote worker myself, and there is some merit to being in the office. For example, Wells Fargo just fired a bunch of remote employees. It seems the employees weren’t actually working from home. They were loafing off from home while utilizing a program that logged in phony keystrokes and mouse motions to make it look like they were working. Fortunately, those big, bad, meanie executives caught onto it and made short work of these idiots.
In another example, some remote workers are engaging in communications with our putative enemies, such as Red China, if I remember correctly. I’m certainly not, but such behavior puts the hiring companies and the entire country in danger. So it’s better in some cases to do office stuff, especially if the jobs are related to national security or sensitive matters.
It’s not just office-mongering bosses posing a problem here.
Remote jerk-ers are reason #301,456,289 why we can’t have nice things.
Maybe like my soon to be ex son in law, they spend too much time on steam and pornhub when they are supposed to be working.