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EA Pushes Full Return to Office, Effectively Ends Remote Hiring
- rzz3 1y agoAnother company I’ll never want to work for then.
- deleted 1y ago[deleted]
- DataDaemon 1y ago- We need save climate! Less pollution! - Can I work from home? - That's not what I meant!
- gedy 1y agoMy previous company had some "greenest employee" award for commute with most transit, etc - they told me I didn't qualify because I wfh... even though I didn't drive at all for work.
- Fleetfantasy 1y agoProbably the worst company I've interviewed for. Yet another reason to stay away
- BoredPositron 1y agoIndeed, it's even worse if you get acquired.
- xingped 1y agoAgreed. I had a bizarre interview experience with them whereupon finishing the interview, the hiring manager emailed me once a week for about 4 or 5 weeks in a row asking if I was still interested. It was bizarre. How many times do I have to say yes? After the 4th or 5th time I just told them no, not any more.
- blitzar 1y ago> After the 4th or 5th time I just told them no, not any more. I hope that is the point where they sent the offer.
- burnt-resistor 1y agoGhost jobs perhaps to test the market, inflate stats reported to regulators, and/or HR people justifying their jobs.
- xingped 1y agoI don't think so. This was almost 15yrs ago before this was common. Also they wouldn't waste time asking if I was still interested after completing a full interview if it was just a ghost job.
- notepad0x90 1y agoThe problem is, they don't even let most people have actual offices at the office. Even if productivity is better this way, isn't there an advantage to being able to hire people from a wider geography, access to a larger talent pool? I read @paulg and other leadership type YC people support return to office as well. I recall startups competing for talent desperately. That was why silicon valley startups always had crazy perks. If talent was how my business disrupted and dominated, I would want the most access to talent and give them the best working conditions. Perhaps a subtle pivot in priority has happened? Tech companies no longer believe in a talent-centered strategy? Or there is an over abundance of talent? I'm just trying to give people the benefit of doubt, that this isn't just cruel people unhappy at the sight of improved quality of life for others.
- FinnLobsien 1y agoI don't think these things are really done because you get more done at an office. I think it's more of a litmus test: If you care about your work enough that you're willing to come to the office every day (or even move cities/countries), then you'll be extremely engaged. So by saying "you have to come to the office 5 days a week", you will only get people who are very engaged and will get a lot done—even if it's not because of the office. I guarantee there's a Venn diagram of extremely engaged people who also prefer (or will exclusively do) remote work, which office-only companies will miss out on. But when you're in a high talent-density area like NYC/SF maybe that's not a big concern. So willingness to come to the office becomes a proxy metric for how much you care, which obviously influences your engagement.
- notepad0x90 1y ago> I think it's more of a litmus test: If you care about your work enough that you're willing to come to the office every day (or even move cities/countries), then you'll be extremely engaged. Sure, but what if there is another company closer to me (office), or offering hybrid or full remote work? I can about my work just the same elsewhere. I think you're on the right track, but in my opinion, it is more about having reliable employees than employees who care or are engaged. Your actual performance and talent could be bad, but so long as you won't ask for too much pay and you won't leave any time soon, that is what these companies want more than talent. This is sort of what I was alluding to. disruptive startups would never think this way, but EA isn't that anymore. neither are google or facebook. they're no longer disruptive, they are complacent and spiraling into the IBM and AT&T like mediocrity.
- tra3 1y agoAre there any companies making the news that are going in the opposite direction? Allowing more flexible “hybrid”, or even full remote? I recently got an Amazon recruiter ping, but realized that they couldn’t pay me enough to commute into the city center. I’m not really looking, but if push came to shove, I would have to if the industry is really moving back to the office. Makes me real sad.
- lm28469 1y agoHow do you want them to pump up real estate prices if people can work and live outside of city centers ? What are they going to do with all these gigantic towers ? Thinks about these poor mill/billionaires!
- parineum 1y agoWho is "they"? The companies bringing employees back to the office aren't typically the owners of these buildings not are they real estate investors.
- conception 1y agoCompanies don’t lease month to month. Empty space is $$$$ out the door every month.
- parineum 1y agoThe parent comment is specifically about the motivation for back to office being real estate prices. Sunk cost fallacy may be a factor but it's not the same.
- drooby 1y agoNo, but many of them may have signed agreements that provided tax breaks for their office location. Local businesses want humans near them.. that was the agreement, and the government wants that generated tax revenue. Many of this big orgs are not "maintaining their side of the agreement" - hence pressure to return.. lest tax breaks get challenged.
- burnt-resistor 1y agoMegacorps are making dumb, outdated, bureaucratic, inflexible, control-freak, paternalism fashionable again.
- apple4ever 1y agoIts because the leadership is always stuck in the past and never stops to ask "is this the right thing to do?"
- burnt-resistor 1y agoEthics are a quaint memory because leadership of private equity/publicly-traded companies are graded primarily only on profit maximization. And, leadership often pays MBB consultants to think for them, effectively outsourcing decision-making and creating a fall guy so they can blame someone else for screwing up.
- disqard 1y agoThe entire industry is plagued by oversupply right now. These sorts of power plays are impossible in a resource-constrained setting. Meanwhile, spare a thought for the poor devils graduating from CS degree programs right now.
- TremendousJudge 1y agoIf you're graduating with a CS degree from a legit university you're much better positioned than if you did a 2 month bootcamp, which I expect are the first people to have trouble finding a job
- disqard 1y agoI kinda hear you -- there's definitely gradations at work here -- but the sentiment you've expressed is also fast losing veracity. For instance: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=43612448 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=43612448
- supertrope 1y agoJust tell more displaced coal miners and high schoolers to learn to code. That'll solve the problem.
- kermatt 1y ago"globally consistent, enterprise-wide work model" sounds dystopian.