3 ms·

The last org I worked at went remote during the pandemic, and lost a big chunk of top performers because of it. They went to companies with the sort of vibrant

The last org I worked at went remote during the pandemic, and lost a big chunk of top performers because of it. They went to companies with the sort of vibrant office that my org had prior to the pandemic. It’s a lose-lose. And hybrid isn’t a solution at all; it’s a bad outcome for both sides. Over time things are just going to settle into remote orgs and in person orgs, and all that’s happening now is that companies are deciding which side of the fence to come down on. Either choice hurts in the short term.

Suppafly 3y ago
You've repeated a few times that the top performers left because of WFH, but I don't believe you. Unless you're in some weird industry where top performers love vibrant offices (which don't really exist) this seems made up.
- MrScruff 3y ago
  Not the person you’re replying to but I work in an industry not to dissimilar to games and many of the top performers love in-person collaboration. They come into the office every day even though they’re not obliged to.
- tomtheelder 3y ago
  I mentioned my situation twice, because it was relevant to both comments. I worked at a tech company. We had an internal poll when decision making was made around this, and the breakdown was about 30% prefer full time in office, 40% wanted hybrid, and another 30% wanted full time remote. The high performers who left were mostly in sales and marketing, for what it's worth. Engineering suffered almost no attrition, but IMO (and I say this as an engineer) SWEs are much more fungible than sales people even if they are more expensive. I think the discourse on forums like this one and Reddit, dominated by highly-online folks (especially engineers), has given folks a skewed perspective on the general population's preferences regarding office work. Most folks in my personal network do not work in tech. Among them the solid majority prefer a hybrid setup, with only a small portion preferring full-time remote or full-time in-office. But that leads to a very strong majority preferring that their organization have an active and vibrant office.

Suppafly 3y ago

You've repeated a few times that the top performers left because of WFH, but I don't believe you. Unless you're in some weird industry where top performers love vibrant offices (which don't really exist) this seems made up.

MrScruff 3y ago
Not the person you’re replying to but I work in an industry not to dissimilar to games and many of the top performers love in-person collaboration. They come into the office every day even though they’re not obliged to.
tomtheelder 3y ago
I mentioned my situation twice, because it was relevant to both comments. I worked at a tech company. We had an internal poll when decision making was made around this, and the breakdown was about 30% prefer full time in office, 40% wanted hybrid, and another 30% wanted full time remote. The high performers who left were mostly in sales and marketing, for what it's worth. Engineering suffered almost no attrition, but IMO (and I say this as an engineer) SWEs are much more fungible than sales people even if they are more expensive. I think the discourse on forums like this one and Reddit, dominated by highly-online folks (especially engineers), has given folks a skewed perspective on the general population's preferences regarding office work. Most folks in my personal network do not work in tech. Among them the solid majority prefer a hybrid setup, with only a small portion preferring full-time remote or full-time in-office. But that leads to a very strong majority preferring that their organization have an active and vibrant office.