3 ms·

I prefer in-person work; I have great respect for those who were able to maintain their productivity when suddenly forced to WFH. It makes a great deal of sens

I prefer in-person work; I have great respect for those who were able to maintain their productivity when suddenly forced to WFH. It makes a great deal of sense for managers to check in with each employee for which remote is now the new normal. Perhaps either formalize the remote work as part of the job description or come up with a plan to return on a case-by-case basis. It's absolutely bonkers to force people who were specifically hired as remote-workers prior to the pandemic to relocate.

ehsankia 3y ago
I don't understand why both sides are getting screwed. Remote people are forced to come in, and on the other place, at many companies, people who do want to come to the office every single day are forced to hot swap desks. Just let people do what they find the most productive and let their productivity speak for itself. If you can't properly measure productivity, then that's the issue you should focus on.
- aidenn0 3y ago
  Oh, I am very in favor of "everyone should have their own desk, preferably with walls and a door," and I wonder how many of the people who like WFH are because they didn't have that in the office. I really don't get the whole open office idea; I thought it was a cost-saving thing, but where I work they converted a large conference room into small offices and the per-office cost wasn't that bad. If you're really penny-pinching, I think if you asked programmers if they wanted to skip an upgrade cycle on their workstation in exchange for an office, you might get a few takers...
  - ehsankia 3y ago
    It depends. If someone is only coming in 1-2 days a week, then I'm fine with them not having a dedicated desk. It does feel wasteful to give every single person a whole desk or even office if they're gonna just use it one day a week. But if someone comes in 4-5 days, they definitely deserve their own dedicated desk. The issue is that they try to treat everyone exactly the same. I don't understand why it's so hard to have 2-3 different modalities, and let people pick whichever works best for them.
    - aidenn0 3y ago
      > The issue is that they try to treat everyone exactly the same. I don't understand why it's so hard to have 2-3 different modalities, and let people pick whichever works best for them. Treating ICs differently is something many organizations suck at. I think that's part of why low- and middle- managers get such a bad rap; they should exist to allow treating ICs differently at scale, but in many organizations they are not empowered to do so. This leaves them with a job that is basically to try and repackage shit from above in as palatable way as possible for their DRs.

ehsankia 3y ago

I don't understand why both sides are getting screwed. Remote people are forced to come in, and on the other place, at many companies, people who do want to come to the office every single day are forced to hot swap desks. Just let people do what they find the most productive and let their productivity speak for itself. If you can't properly measure productivity, then that's the issue you should focus on.

aidenn0 3y ago
Oh, I am very in favor of "everyone should have their own desk, preferably with walls and a door," and I wonder how many of the people who like WFH are because they didn't have that in the office. I really don't get the whole open office idea; I thought it was a cost-saving thing, but where I work they converted a large conference room into small offices and the per-office cost wasn't that bad. If you're really penny-pinching, I think if you asked programmers if they wanted to skip an upgrade cycle on their workstation in exchange for an office, you might get a few takers...
- ehsankia 3y ago
  It depends. If someone is only coming in 1-2 days a week, then I'm fine with them not having a dedicated desk. It does feel wasteful to give every single person a whole desk or even office if they're gonna just use it one day a week. But if someone comes in 4-5 days, they definitely deserve their own dedicated desk. The issue is that they try to treat everyone exactly the same. I don't understand why it's so hard to have 2-3 different modalities, and let people pick whichever works best for them.
  - aidenn0 3y ago
    > The issue is that they try to treat everyone exactly the same. I don't understand why it's so hard to have 2-3 different modalities, and let people pick whichever works best for them. Treating ICs differently is something many organizations suck at. I think that's part of why low- and middle- managers get such a bad rap; they should exist to allow treating ICs differently at scale, but in many organizations they are not empowered to do so. This leaves them with a job that is basically to try and repackage shit from above in as palatable way as possible for their DRs.