Posted on 07/07/2021 11:29:33 AM PDT by ShadowAce
i am already seeing CNN propaganda that companies need to get rid of the 4o hour work week altogether. Won’t it be fun when they eliminate hours to 31 1/2 hours per week to avoid Obamacare mandates?
Working from home is a dream come true for me. After 23 years in the office with constant co-worker interruptions, way too long meetings, and nearby cube-dwellers talking too loud on the phone COVID-19 meant working from home for 15 months.
My productivity went through the roof. I started finishing my assigned work each sprint with 2-3 days left. Since COVID-19 slammed our revenue by more than 40% the R&D budget was shrunk - so I spend my extra time working on new product features that were put on hold.
In April 2021 I was one of less than 20% in our company to get a bonus and then in June got the biggest raise of my career. This was due to the first perfect Performance Review I ever earned. In addition I have been told that next April I will be promoted to the highest level on our company’s engineering track.
How did I do it? I decided to give back to the company half of the 15 hours per week I used to spend commuting to the office. Combine that with much shorter meetings due to all being on Teams plus no co-worker interruptions (my family has been great at abiding by my work hours), no neighbors yelling on the phone, and 15 minute lunches since the kitchen was 10 steps away.
Added bonuses of working from home: 400 miles less automobile expenses; cheaper and healthier lunches at home; my wife was able to get a better job since I am now able to drive the kids to and from school and summer camps; and no more paying state income taxes to the RINO overlord in the next state (I work in a no-state-income-tax state).
WFH might not be for everyone, but for those that can do it well, the benefits are incredible. My company has allowed about 5% of the workers to go fully WFH, and about 35% to go partial (2-3 days per week). All others are required to return to the office. (So far in 2 1/2 months only 2 workers have left that I know of over being forced back into the office - none on the engineering side - both pencil pushing middle managers.)
You kind of missed my point. Easy jobs can be automated and should be. Ones that aren’t, won’t be. No insults intended.
“If your job is so repetitious that complete independence is do-able”
Who said anything about “complete independence”?
One of my first bosses often said, “The work expands to fit the time available for it.”
He was comparing the differing amounts of time logged into employee’s time sheets for a given type of project, when we were slow vs. when we were busy.
“I absolutely do not want to work in an office again, but probably have no choice.”
You may have one choice. A few year ago I fired an employer, one reason being their dick attitude about working from home.
WFH is nice, I’ve done it quite a bit but also never completely left the office or the area of the office so I was able to be there when necessary.
I’m a contrarian to this subject compared to the many who live it because they are receivers of benefit from it. What I see is more like Loaf From Home based on the number of couples and families out and about at all times of the day somehow justifying to themselves their absence from regular work hours. I have also managed people who are on their own and are supposed to be WFH, they start to justify a lot of things that just aren’t so like their productivity and attention to work.
In LFH relationships are killed, nuance is lost, convenience of sharing ideas and asking questions is gone, mentoring is absent and so is stimulation of the creative process by associations and none of this can be replaced by LFH.
All of this comes from someone who worked world wide and managed several virtual teams that were successful in delivering complex projects. One of the things I found essential was to plan for face-to-face opportunities even if it was a partially necessary meeting that included a meal and social gathering. I am an engineer not known for being a social butterfly but I think I can see what is necessary for people to be human and get the best effort from them.
LFH has its place but not always. I’m sorry for some to say that it is time to really go back to work.
However, I do have a co-worker who has issues working even when in the office. Being remote has, for him, turned into LFH, as you mentioned. It really is dependent on one's ethics and motivation.
Ditto
It’s been a long time since I worked in an office building, but I remember it being endless made-up meetings to justify everyone’s productivity (or lack thereof) while at the same time getting absolutely nothing done.
And that’s not to mention the between-meeting time where co-workers pop their heads into your office to drone on about the party they were at or the girl they got drunk enough to sleep with them the night before.
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