6 ms·
People who refused to go back to the office and lost their jobs
- game_the0ry 2y agoArchive: https://archive.is/TP7RP#selection-5697.0-5697.72 https://archive.is/TP7RP#selection-5697.0-5697.72
- chmaynard 2y agoNext: People who went back to the office and still lost their jobs. Film at 11.
- poobear22 2y agoI was way productive at home, but often times I felt work from home was actually too intense and it was easier to go into work. But here was always my problem, it is really hard to differentiate between the smart slackers at home and the hard working ones. And more than once, I was burned by really smart people who wanted to use their super powers to slack off.
- tomohawk 2y agoManagers who don't know what their people are up to are the real problem. It's not hard, whether people are working remote or on site to track what they're doing. In my day job, we have lots of slackers who work full time on site. They rarely get anything done, but the remote workers get the scrutiny even though it's obvious they're producing.
- bigfatkitten 2y agoAt my last job we had many slackers who were masters at schmoozing. They were great at being seen around the office, but terrible at actually delivering anything. The promotion process in that place was primarily a popularity contest. It tended to reward that behaviour.
- bravetraveler 2y ago> more than once, I was burned by really smart people who wanted to use their super powers to slack off. I don't see a problem here, just envy. They did their work. This feels like one of those "pieces of flare" situations.
- guywithahat 2y agoI’m so happy the wfh trend has ended. People don’t do good work from home, and all my friends who were into it liked it because it let them work less and/or work two jobs.
- db48x 2y agoAs someone who has productively worked from home for over 25 years, this is nonsense.
- erik_seaberg 2y agoDeep work needs peace and quiet. This is getting hard to find in an open plan office, except late in the evening.
- musicale 2y agoSome people like working in an office to escape home distractions. Open plan offices tend to be productivity-destroying for technical work that requires concentration. I assume they were largely adopted to save money, as a status indicator vs. managers with private offices, for surveillance, and for appearance. The only open plan approach that I have seen work is a library where noise is forbidden and private work carrels are provided.
- joshz404 2y agoHad a CEO who extolled how much better open plans were, how vibrant it made the workplace, and so on and so on... Years later she admitted it was just to save money. I refuse to call an open office an "office" - that vibrant office she described back then? Full of people wearing headphones to block out all the noise they otherwise couldn't escape.
- Ekaros 2y agoDo they sit on just regular desk in middle of noisiest part? Outside the few times they happen to be visiting the some side office...
- neofrommatrix 2y agoI polled my network of about 30 people in tech to get a rough idea of who preferred hybrid vs. in-office. Almost all managers of people wanted it to be in-office. Not even hybrid. Bad survey, but still.
- dyauspitr 2y agoSo strange. I’m a manager and me and my peers would never want that.
- geoduck14 2y agoThis is so true. I love wfh.
- add-sub-mul-div 2y agoThat matches what I'd expect. Individual contributors think about their own situation, managers are supposed to think about the bigger picture, about making something more than the sum of the parts.
- stephenr 2y agoIt also matches the sad stereotype that middle management types with no real clue what their staff do, need to see bums on seats to have any concept of worker productivity because they're incapable of measuring the actual productivity of their reports.
- bigfatkitten 2y agoWhich raises a question that those middle managers don't want asked: What value do they actually add to the business?
- geoduck14 2y ago>What value do they actually add to the business? We bring the right people together at the right time to solve the right problem
- kristopolous 2y agoI hope this is generational thing. The traffic and travel is really unnecessary for most knowledge work. I don't care about the productivity conversation, it's just logistically dumb and if there's a cost in making fewer widgets for getting rid of traffic than so be it. Dangerous, expensive, time and space consuming... It's a huge collective toll on society that robs us of quality of life and many thousands of hours. We just shouldn't be doing it in the same way we don't toss the contents of chamber pots into the street anymore. Let's embrace the modern era. Mandating daily travel unless it's genuinely needed to do the job is really unjustifiable.
- coldtea 2y ago>I don't care about the productivity conversation, it's just logistically dumb and if there's a cost in making fewer widgets for getting rid of traffic than so be it. Exactly. The companies should stop ignoring the cost of commuting to society, the environment, and personal (from work-life balance, to family) just because they don't get to pay for it.
- neofrommatrix 2y agoYou see, optimizing the three factors you mentioned does not increase shareholder value. They don’t care about society, the environment or work-life balance.
- coldtea 2y agoI'd say the whole modern system of "shareholder value" should be the first to go...
- munksbeer 2y agoI hope not. I owned a lot of shares in companies and it will fund my retirement (same as it will fund almost everyone's retirement).
- kristopolous 2y ago
- bravetraveler 2y agoI'm entirely willing to reskill over this, tbh. Already played my hand once, WFH or I'm out. Will do it again
- anovikov 2y agoIt's the overemployment fraud. People have become too good at it. I bet most who work from home now, practice it and some make huge amounts of money by basically defrauding their multiple employers. Companies naturally want to put a definite end to this.
- bigfatkitten 2y ago"Overemployment" is one of those things that people like to talk about, but where little evidence exists to suggest it happens on any significant scale.
- bravetraveler 2y agoNeat bogeyman, sounds like a problem for management. Hint: plenty manage, no pun intended
- neofrommatrix 2y agoIs there any data to support this claim? Or, is this one of those "fraud" claims that are may be 1 or 2 cases being used to get rid of the entire process?