Posted on 09/20/2024 8:21:49 PM PDT by Tolerance Sucks Rocks
I'm a northerner who ended up in the South, and I cultivate my Southern accent. Y'all ain't got no taste if you don't like the Southron way. 😁
So the consulting wing of an accounting firm issued an analysis based on feelings and not actual productivity. Might as well be a graduate thesis.
Listening to some 25-to-35 year-olds at a relative's birthday party last weekend, I could catch a distinct connection between how essential a job is and whether WFH is a good idea. The less essential the job, the less need for the employee to be at a central location with physical contact with other employees.
Probably the only thing keeping these people on a payroll at all is the government push for employee vs. contractor. Otherwise, he employer could just rent a contractor to code something and go away, instead of having an employee take up space in between useful periods of time.
I’ve worked from home for over 20 years. It ISN’T ALL GOOD. I was an embedded software engineer.
Doing embedded software development is often very feature specific, also on custom hardware that is scarce - maybe you have the only board. There is no ‘team’ many times, you’re being paid to do what the customer can’t find elsewhere. In this context I’m ok with it but as the years dragged on I realized I wasn’t developing ANY relationships with people. I’m not looking for a large social circle but I began to realize I had no idea what was going on within the larger company, I had zero ‘friends from work’, there was no ‘team’. I do believe part of that was on management, especially at that time - so long as work was completed nobody cared. Which is part of my point.
As I became more senior, a team lead, then a manager, I realized I hadn’t experienced good managers. Working remotely is a real challenge to mentor, provide leadership, and develop a real team that is cohesive - where the whole is greater than the sum-of-the-parts. When we hired fresh college graduates I realized they weren’t receiving the necessary environment to become professionals and behave how they should.
Now, as a senior director, I require 3 days a week in the office. As the work requires A TEAM there’s nothing that, currently, replaces a plain-old white board. Give everyone a pen and doodle on the board. See ideas come to light. See the personal interactions. The jokes at lunch. It’s all fuel-for-the-fire. Developing a TEAM means they’re more willing to offer help to others as they build a relationship with them.
It doesn’t happen with pure remote work. Period. End of story.
Even if you gave everyone a C.A.D. stylus/drawing-tablet with ‘virtual white board’ software at home, you’d still miss the intangibles that develop a team.
These people seem to have been asked “what do YOU like better?”. Not “what develops a TEAM better?”. Of course the convenience of working from home is preferred. No driving, home lunches, be around for the kids more, etc. etc.. Most of the people being asked don’t understand the other dynamics that suffer.
I can see your point. I moved to Florida during the COVID telework period for my old job, because where I lived and work was basically under Communist rule (Maryland) with the potential for explosive unrest. Then Commerce called everyone back. Since I couldn’t commute 900 miles, I eventually had to leave.
I have a good remote job, although not as well-paying as the old one. But there is sacrifice. I started the new job at the office up in Maryland, because I figured the reason I did so well remotely at the old job was because prior to COVID, I had about 20 years in the office. So, while I don’t miss the commutes, I kinda miss the office for my new job, and when I visit folks in Maryland, I do use the office for work. It’s just better under that circumstance.
I know people who were traditional in-office workers who had to work from home during Covid. Sometimes they would run errands like pick up kids from school or run to the grocery store or mow the lawn. They always justified it by saying that they work into the night and on weekends, so the company is actually getting more hours out of them.
On the other hand, "company culture" would include a set of "core" work hours where others can be sure that a worker is available for a call or emergency need. When the worker decides for himself what hours he wishes to work as long as it adds up to the weekly expectation regardless of when the hours are worked, this may be a case of optimizing the worker at the cost of sub-optimizing the organization.
When your horizontal value chain crosses through one of these sub-optimized vertical organizations, it can impact the speed of delivery. On the other hand, if "hybrid" workers are limited to support functions like IT or HR or Accounting, the impact to the value chain may be minimized.
-PJ
In all seriousness, there’s no need to keep shoveling money at blue cities for office buildings. Let the cities die.”
Since Bezos stupidly put so much of Amazon in downtown Seattle the return to work five days a week increases the morning traffic congestion immensely for those of us who sometimes have to go into Seattle to work.
bump
In the office there are people I did not want to be around as they were backstabbers and or jerks. Best to work from home if doing office work.
What I wonder (from an academic standpoint, a manager's standpoint, and a worker's standpoint) is if the "company culture" aspect of this is really a societal generational thing?
What I mean is that older people like us grew up in a society that encouraged (practically required) people to associate with each other -- heck, peaceable assembly is in the Constitution for a reason!
Kidding aside, the younger generations are becoming less and less comfortable being face to face with other people, learning manners, learning how to behave in public, how to dress for an occasion, how to speak to one another with respect, how to be part of a group that is not "identity" centric.
I spent my entire 40-year professional career working in an office five days a week. I had "work" friends, I had social friends, I had bosses I admired and bosses I despised, I had projects that consumed all of my time and assignments that crept by so slowly that I couldn't wait to leave. We had "team building" events, office parties, recognitions and awards celebrations, annual meetings with senior leaders who reviewed past metrics and new goals, etc. If we didn't know people by name, we still recognized them by face and would smile as we passed each other in the hallways. We'd make small-talk on the line at the cafeteria checkout.
But I never felt "alone" or like that poor woman who died at her cubicle desk and nobody noticed for four days.
I had a reason to be places; I'd meet friends for lunch or just go off on my own in town for an hour. I'd run errands after work on my way home or grab some take-out for dinner.
I fear that today's youth who are now entering the workforce know none of these things. They are socially awkward or inept, don't know what they don't know and don't care to find out, and would rather remain isolated and not have to be around other people. They don't handle conflict well, they don't take instructions well, and they don't seem to accept the authority of others well. Their first response is to lash out, and their second response is to get physical. We see it in the news from restaurants to shopping centers to airports and airplanes.
I can't imagine what they would be like in an office five days a week, but I think that's how society taught us those skills when we were young. I know we had mentors along the way, society's "guardrails" that have broken down by the time today's youth needed them. We had teachers who not only cared, but were skilled and knowledgeable in their subjects; a school system that didn't coddle to the kids but encouraged respect for adults at a young age while they were still learning; structured homes (mostly) with parents and grandparents nearby, role models who themselves were raised after the Great Depression and WWII who brought a work ethic to their daily lives that they passed onto us and we took to the office every day.
In this way, I see the loss of five days a week in the office as another societal decay, a loss for us as people who do better as people when we establish bonds with other people for no other reason than that we have to be around them every day of every week of every year. And then, when we go home for the evening or the weekend we take that social skill with us to the movies, to the mall, on dates, or home to the spouse and kids.
I think it's a shame that we're losing the office attendance requirement because I see it as a keystone to developing and maintaining a civil society. The older people accepted it, the mid-career people probably appreciate the flexibility to tend to other important needs at a time of their own choosing (especially with the demands being put on children these days), but the younger people won't appreciate what they're losing out on if they are afraid to leave the cave and learn to live with others in the living world.
-PJ
I pointed out similar...and agree - although there are also stark differences in the workplace respective to how work gets done.
I’m 53, I can still remember, when I came into the workplace, typing up meeting memo’s, printing out several copies, and leaving them on the seats of those required to attend. I also recall, the landline phone was the gateway to the rest of the organization and the world. When 5pm came, everything stopped. Don’t bother calling anyone, you’d get no answer...so it’s just made sense for you to go home as well.
None of that happens today and the boundaries of ‘work time’ have completely shifted with the technology and global nature of almost all businesses. You’re expected to be ‘flexible’ - by that I mean when the team in Korea is available, early in their day, you must attend the 9pm (for you) call - depending on where you are. Then there’s the 5am call to talk with folks in Europe - and if you’re really unlucky, you have to deal with both. You’re always connected. I’ve had 3am calls!
Many employees, managers or engineers (in my field), find themselves with schedules that include half a dozen ‘Zoom’ (screen/video) style calls everyday, often at hours that aren’t ideal. Even if part of the team is in the office, often everyone just meets online (I’m changing this). So why bother with the office?
As mentioned in my previous post, I’ve spent over 20 years working remotely. There’s many con’s along with some conveniences (especially not being on the road during Michigan winters). That said, my current employer is in California, I’m traveling 50% to be on-site and make sure my team is interacting in person (we require 3 days at the office). It is becoming forgotten practice. I don’t think the distance between us is good - interactions become purely business, as soon as a Zoom call is over you go back to being isolated.
I still find whiteboarding, in-person and with your team, to be one of the most powerful tools...but if you don’t make them do it they won’t. The trends aren’t good, especially with the new graduates. Parents joining interviews. Socialism brainwashing. The lack of interaction feeds this garbage. They need guidance and lessons in reality.
I suppose, thinking about it, the ‘change in the workplace’ has been going on since the industrial revolution. Cars and jets certainly changed a lot. The internet removed all barriers...except the globe isn’t a level playing field. The young have different challenges.
Read later.
The “culture” they want is a culture of obedience. When people are not in the office they begin to think for themselves.
FR thread from the New York Post: Here’s Why Companies Are Rapidly Firing Gen Z Employees
Excerpt:
Many companies have fired Gen Z workers just months after hiring them and several business owners said they are hesitant to bring on recent college graduates due to concerns about their work ethic, communication skills and readiness to do the job, according to a new survey.Six in 10 employers said they have already let go recent college graduates this year, while one in seven said they are inclined to refrain from hiring new graduates next year, according to a survey conducted by Intelligent.com.
Some employers said they are deterred from hiring Gen Z to work at their companies due to lack of communication skills and poor professionalism, according to a survey.
-PJ
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