3 ms·

In the words of one manager: "I don't believe people are working if I can't see them working" In the words of another: "Remote means you aren't interested in a

• mgkimsal 8y ago
  > Remote means you aren't interested in advancing inside the organization Do they really want the work done, or do they want to actively encourage inter-office politicking? Not everyone wants to advance, and even in places I've worked where I've wanted to advance, it was made pretty clear that nothing was going to be happening on my time schedule (too many other people who'd "paid their dues" ahead of me already). So... wow - I was interested in 'advancing' but they weren't interested in me advancing. Would have been easier if we'd just... focused on the work, no?
  • castlecrasher2 8y ago
    One of the biggest lies we tell ourselves is our code will speak for itself. Whether you like it or not, politics is part of work. It's absolutely required for intra-department projects and sometimes even single-department projects, especially in big companies.
    • mgkimsal 8y ago
      there's the politics of 'getting ahead' and work for the promotion that "everyone" is after. then there's the politics of ... getting along with coworkers and getting projects done (time mgt, priorities, etc). To me, they're different, and I was speaking mostly of the former.
  • ThrustVectoring 8y ago
    You don't have to want to advance, you just have to give the illusion that advancement is a carrot that actually motivates you so that managers feel like they're doing their job successfully by dangling said carrot.
• Joeri 8y ago
  "Remote means you aren't interested in advancing inside the organization" Wouldn’t it be an upside to a mediocre manager to have underlings not trying to escape their team nor gunning for the manager’s position?
  • ThrustVectoring 8y ago
    Nope. If someone is interested in advancing inside the organization, you can use your position as a gatekeeper to extract rents out of them. Preferably they're also high in big-5 trait Conscientiousness and Agreeableness, so that they can do a lot for you, and will roll over instead of trying fighting back against being exploited.
• rkho 8y ago
  A former employer of mine took this to the extreme: They regularly audited in-person attendance by checking for badge swipes and subsequently pushed out anyone they deemed to be working remotely too much by way of attrition through stack ranking, regardless of actual output. It turns out that being able to spend every moment in the office promoting yourself as a "10x rockstar" was more important than ever delivering a single impactful project.
• MrMorden 8y ago
  If your employees can get a 10%+ raise by switching employers, but nothing by staying, what exactly is the purpose of advancing inside the organization?
• galaxyLogic 8y ago
  > "I don't believe people are working if I can't see them working" It's more like nobody believes he is needed if he is the only person in the office.