At the same time, when working from home I can blaze through a pile of email and other things while calling and messaging people.
I tend to find a lot of truth in the comment that during the pandemic "A players” were self-sufficient and thriving but.. B and C players weren’t benefiting from the knowledge and experience of their colleagues."
And as much as people like to believe that their deafening awesomeness will propel their career if they're fully remote, that's not congruent with a great number of firms where face time IS important.
This is going to be fun to watch.
Nobody wants to go back to crime ridded urban offices
Just give me money so I don’t have to work. And by the way can you deliver a six pack along the way?
Through the Pandemic I became a SME because half of my company dropped the ball and couldn’t cope mentally with the destabilized situation. Even “brilliant” Engineers with PE’s come to me for advice and I ended up getting two massive promotions.
I knew once this thing moved to remote that I could sneak in a massive advantage by following up quickly and effectively on requests and timelines.
Chaos brings about massive opportunities.
I am more productive working from home. Given what gas prices are, I save a bunch of money every week.
Working from home is not for everyone. Some people just cannot remain focused.
I wonder what percentage of office managers prefer to work from home...
Corporations demanded people stay out of the office, now, they are demanding they come back into the office.
Why?
Agree, there are some people and work situations that are not a good fit.
For me, my organization is international and my team is across oceans, time zones, etc. There’s no point in being in the office for me, but if there’s a need to gather at our office, would do so without complaint. I’m about 2.5 years into working remote and hope to end my career in this way. It has been a boost to quality of life.
There's a power trip in summoning an underling to your office for a conference.
I also imagine some of these execs miss walking around and flirting with the secretary or other gals in the office.
No doubt some gals miss the chance to wear low cut blouses to get the flirting and other benefits.
WFH is the future for white collar jobs. Those ceos who don't see that are missing the big picture.
I miss the collaboration of going in; I do not miss the commute. WFH has probably added a few years to my worklife. We aren’t going back in; the company is letting the lease expire and is renting some new upscale space for when management needs to impress clients face to face.
I don’t wanna work
I just want to bang on the drum all day
Some people work best from home. Others don’t work at all. Even some good workers who are forced to work at home, see the vacuuming, or the child that needs tending. And they put work second to home. If they were at work they would be good workers.
But companies are going to want to downsize a bit soon. It may be just moving out the non-productive workers. They will ask people to comeback to work, and those who don’t are the first to be chopped. Its much easier to get rid of someone you never see.
I had a staff with 25% working from home for 30 years. As long as I had a good group in the office I was fine. The people at home were often not in the same city. And I would force the locals to come in one day a week. I would force those who worked in other cities to fly in once a quarter for a week. People who weren’t productive from home were quickly fired. New employees would always start out in the office. I only let my best work from home. Normally it was a choice between losing them or letting them work from home. I definitely considered both ways. I needed to keep a majority in the office. I would say that people who work from home, tend to be loyal. They like their arrangement. But sometimes you have people working for you and someone else at the same time. You have to watch that.
For a self employed professional working in the field, office is wherever i traveled. For me, working from my office/home means only paperwork, not real work, is getting done.
Great people succeed, because they are great people. Ordinary people don’t. Water cooler meetings and hallway education are not duplicated by phone.
And further, in person communication skills are disappearing. Can’t count how many times at group meetings, dinners out, dinners home for that matter, everyone else is on their smartphones “conversing” somewhere else.
Rarely is anyone following the mantra, “Here now and nowhere else.”
Sad to watch how disconnected, and angry, many have become. An entirely new crop of Karens, of any gender.
Good points. If you are at the top of your career, working remote may pay off. I know two folks who have been working from home for several years. Everything was fine, until recently when the corporations decided to downsize. When you’re the guy nobody sees, no matter how good your work is, you are likely expendable.
Depends on what the job is. If you work on an assemblu line for a living you obviously can’t stay at home all day. If your job is a document reviewer then obviously you can. Making people coming to work just for the sake of making people coming to work is ridiculous
You sound like my daughter. She is an editorial assistant. In 2-3 years she oversaw the publishing or updating process on about 400 books, mostly from home.
She had an overbearing boss who was making her come to the office when no one else had to.
She quit that job for another one that’s fully remote.
She’s now looking for a larger apartment so she can have a better office area.
I consistently refuse any position that requires me to come into the office. I’m still able to get roles that allow me to work 100% remote.
Companies that insist on people coming into the office are hurting themselves when it comes to hiring the top shelf talent they want - those with the qualifications and experience that are in demand. Why go into the office if you don’t have to? So they won’t.
So, if the company says "Everybody must come back to the office" I'll quit. The nearest office to me now is in Raleigh, NC. Ain't gonna happen.
‘Eff those corporate whiners. They enabled, no, encouraged this mess. Let them stew in their own juices.
I personally can do either, but I have rarely ever had a job that was very challenging or could keep me busy, so I tend to go in just to feel like I am putting in my 8 hours in some fashion.
But WFH is all the rage and I don’t see the toothpaste going back in the tube. In my experience over the last couple of years when our managers try to require people to come into the office they just quit and have no problems finding 100% remote work.
Frankly, I’m a little surprised that WFH incentives are not part of the Inflation Production Act to reduce carbon emissions from commuting workers. There is a secondary reduction in energy use from reduced laundry and dry-cleaning, a reduction in daily showers, meal preparation, reductions in the consumption of make-up perfume and the like, and a reduction in the climate control of office spaces. Seems like Bernie, AOC and Greta would be lobbying hard for this type of social re-engineering.