OccamsRazor
Well-Known Member
You do realize that it is NOT just the Gov that is insisting on employees returning to the office... right?
The forced return to the office is the definition of insanity
- Thread starter GURPS
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SamSpade
Well-Known Member
Sure - and not all jobs were EVER well suited to telework. My wife teaches and thank god she's in the classroom. Other people I know are in the medical profession and they need to SEE people.
I do however hear the remark used as a BLANKET remark about EVERYONE - that everyone is being called back and if they resist, it's because they're a lazy ass who doesn't want to work. My days are longer now - because well - I can stay after work, because I am home. My boss can call me "in" on my days off - which he did last week - because my office is downstairs.
PeoplesElbow
Well-Known Member
No, the big advantage is it keeps them the hell away from me to keep from wasting my time.So, people who have "..time wasted talking to co-workers in the next cube over, in the kitchen grabbing a mid morning snack or at the water cooler." are now somehow miraculously 100% involved with work when they are home? If modern times have taught us ANYTHING, it is that people will scam whenever they can. PERIOD! EVERYONE!
Proof right here. I doubt that vast majority of anyone reading this gets PAID to be here.
PeoplesElbow
Well-Known Member
I have known managers that hire as many people as possible and as high as pay as possible (in the government) because it makes them seem more important if they have 20 GS-14 employees vs 15 GS-13 employees and 5 GS-14 employees.
I've also known managers that purposely kept pay grades down because they thought it would make them look better.
People have their own selfish motivations and their own ideas of how to kiss ass or to look important.
PeoplesElbow
Well-Known Member
Today I am spending lots of time in doctor waiting rooms, got a sick parent I have to haul around to get fixed.Proof right here. I doubt that vast majority of anyone reading this gets PAID to be here.
PeoplesElbow
Well-Known Member
Hoteling..... it is stupid and sucks.
The geniuses here got rid of cubicles because they take up too much room, they put those little "private" booths that librarys have so they could cram more desks in. Great idea, double the number of people in a building with bathroom facilities that weren't large enough to begin with.
SamSpade
Well-Known Member
Believe it or not I had to plan ahead if I wanted to take a crap. Not nearly enough commodes but strangely enough people tend to use them at the same times.
But hoteling , desk sharing, whatever you call it, it doesn’t restore the sense of “community” you might have with co-workers when you’re seated all over the building. One of the so-called benefits of working in the office serves no purpose.
PeoplesElbow
Well-Known Member
Must have big stalls and small people.
OccamsRazor
Well-Known Member
Of course the data does not apply to every single person who works from home. However, the data is in and it proves that the "productivity is up across the board from people who work from home" is, in the majority, bullchit! Otherwise, businesses wouldn't be looking to re-invest in bringing employees back to the office and therefore increasing expenditures.
SamSpade
Well-Known Member
Haven't seen the data or anything saying that. There are plenty of businesses where the entire staff works online - like THIS SITE. My sister has worked for a medical records company for fifteen years - every single employee has always been online. IMDB - the original Internet Movie Database, in its earliest stage, was not only entirely online staff but its first gaggle of employees had never met in person.
I'd say the opposite is likely true - that some businesses are doing worse by letting people work from home, probably because the work itself is not well adpated for home work. Most people I know who write for a living do very well at home, and in fact, flourish there because there are actually LESS distractions.
Oh there's LOTS of other reasons. In my agency, management really has a lot less panache when you can't look at your staff. I've had countless meetings that last LESS THAN A MINUTE - like yesterday - because managment scheduled a meeting that had no agenda.
And it's been mentioned on here, that local eating establishments and so forth have suffered without local employees to patronize them. Office rentals are diminishing, because they're doing things LIKE what mine is doing - allowing for more telework - because keeping a large building isn't a good use of money (years ago, I belonged to a church that realized that - that their biggest expense was maintaining a building that was mostly used a single hour a week - and then for small uses like a church office, the rest of the time. They wisely decided NOT to maintain a "house of God" and opted for renting space or sharing - or creating a building for multiple uses where space could be rented out during the week).
I think there will STILL be a trend toward more telework, as technology and personal sentiment yields to the economy of it. Some businesses that don't trust their staff require a constant camera. I think there's just a feeling among upper managment that distrusts the model - or they just don't have the technical know-how to sustain security, manage that many users online and so forth.
Clem72
Well-Known Member
Here's the data that I have. Pre-pandemic the food lion in Leonardtown only had about 10-15 customers at any time from 8-10am or from 2-4pm. Most with grey hair. Now there's about 100 people in there at all times of the day.
During Covid, Dyson's began closing at 5pm from the original 6pm. They still close at 5pm today. I asked the counter person if they catch any grief about still closing "early" from people that work until 5pm. She said not that she was aware of. Either people are working from home, or they have just gotten used to Dyson's closing at 5pm.
OccamsRazor
Well-Known Member
This point keeps getting regurgitated over and over AND, it hold no water.
Do you really think that a corporation would allow expenditures of all that money to furnish office space, computers, storage, utility bills, etc. that they have been saving (and profiting from) to bring people back to the office just because some mid-level managers feel the need to justify their existence? Especially if what has been touted for the last few years WERE true? That productivity is better than ever with the "work from home" model?
SamSpade
Well-Known Member
I’ve seen worse. Like team building days, which are universally reviled and ridiculed for their uselessness. Like reorganizing efforts which take months to roll out. Like holding weekly meetings all through the week where there’s no agenda - and egotistical management insist on all members be present. One of my old jobs, we had a regular meeting attended by more than forty people - and I am not kidding, the entire meeting was discussion among just three persons. Two hours minimum.
There has been resistance to programming in newer languages - because the boss doesn’t know it even when the entire staff DOES.
I could fill this website with stupid management decisions that were financially wasteful with money and resources - and it was all ego or done for appearance.
For many businesses there are just some models that are antiquated and people resist because of reasons other than - wisdom. My parents - who have passed - belonged to a church where every service was held in homes. Ironically - that’s the way it was done for centuries until people got the idea that they were meeting in a temple where their God resided.
We’re seeing shifts in the way business is done . With rare exceptions - gas stations are all self service. More and more stores and fast food are call ahead, online ordering, delivery or self checkout. I haven’t been to MVA in years - all done online. Ditto the bank.
I do think that 100% telework is the future for MANY businesses.
PeoplesElbow
Well-Known Member
Girlfriend has worked for a major insurance company since 2015 and she has never known an "office", the interview was on Skype, they mailed her a computer and a VOIP system, set her up internet an that was that. Obviously this company find that cheaper. The big thing about return to the office is many businesses have long term leases, they had to pay rent no matter what and without employees there they see that money as being thrown away.