Get Your Butt Back To The Office (1 Viewer)

[STEADYMOBBIN 22]

Such a waste.

My wife went back yesterday. She has at most two hours of actual work everyday. Everything she does can be done exactly as if she were home. Instead she will drive 60-90 minutes to and from everyday. That means lots of stop and go, two fill ups per week ($80x8= $640 mo.) .

We are very blessed and happy so we shouldn't be complaining - just sucks that the mom of this family is now away from home for 11 hours a day just for the sake of being away. 

 

[The Z Machine]

My wife went back yesterday. She has at most two hours of actual work everyday. Everything she does can be done exactly as if she were home. Instead she will drive 60-90 minutes to and from everyday. That means lots of stop and go, two fill ups per week ($80x8= $640 mo.) .

We are very blessed and happy so we shouldn't be complaining - just sucks that the mom of this family is now away from home for 11 hours a day just for the sake of being away. 

That stinks.  She should get a new job.  If you're paying $500 / month in gas + wear & tear on vehicle for commuting that's $6k out of pocket and $10k before taxes. 

 

[glvsav37]

(preface by saying every job is different) 

for those looking to go fully remote, how much are you comfortable with the company "watching" you at home? 

We all knew IT was basically watching us in the office, could watch our screens, track our movement (ID Cards), etc. 

Would you accept a company PC with IT spying capabilities in your house? Mouse tracking? Time on computer monitoring? Do you use your own PC/computer for your WFH? Would you be comfortable with IT putting software on there to access it? 

I see lots of people do things like "take the dog for a walk" or "watch a little netflix" etc. Which is somewhat good to break the day up, but where is the line when management starts to invade your residence?  

 

[FairWarning]

(preface by saying every job is different) 

for those looking to go fully remote, how much are you comfortable with the company "watching" you at home? 

We all knew IT was basically watching us in the office, could watch our screens, track our movement (ID Cards), etc. 

Would you accept a company PC with IT spying capabilities in your house? Mouse tracking? Time on computer monitoring? Do you use your own PC/computer for your WFH? Would you be comfortable with IT putting software on there to access it? 

I see lots of people do things like "take the dog for a walk" or "watch a little netflix" etc. Which is somewhat good to break the day up, but where is the line when management starts to invade your residence?  

I don’t work from home, but I would not allow a company to access my personal computer.

 

[Juxtatarot]

(preface by saying every job is different) 

for those looking to go fully remote, how much are you comfortable with the company "watching" you at home? 

We all knew IT was basically watching us in the office, could watch our screens, track our movement (ID Cards), etc. 

Would you accept a company PC with IT spying capabilities in your house? Mouse tracking? Time on computer monitoring? Do you use your own PC/computer for your WFH? Would you be comfortable with IT putting software on there to access it? 

I see lots of people do things like "take the dog for a walk" or "watch a little netflix" etc. Which is somewhat good to break the day up, but where is the line when management starts to invade your residence?  

All these things should be on the table for a company that wants them.

 

[ignatiusjreilly]

(preface by saying every job is different) 

for those looking to go fully remote, how much are you comfortable with the company "watching" you at home? 

We all knew IT was basically watching us in the office, could watch our screens, track our movement (ID Cards), etc. 

Would you accept a company PC with IT spying capabilities in your house? Mouse tracking? Time on computer monitoring? Do you use your own PC/computer for your WFH? Would you be comfortable with IT putting software on there to access it? 

I see lots of people do things like "take the dog for a walk" or "watch a little netflix" etc. Which is somewhat good to break the day up, but where is the line when management starts to invade your residence?  

They have every right to do it, especially if it's a work-issued computer. Requiring employees to install stuff on their personal computer is a little more of a gray area, but my understanding is that if you're using it for work they have the right.

I personally would be very opposed to my employer doing something like that, mostly because of what it would say about their management philosophy. IMO bosses who need to monitor everything their employees are doing are either betraying an insecurity or have hired the wrong employees.

 

[belljr]

(preface by saying every job is different) 

for those looking to go fully remote, how much are you comfortable with the company "watching" you at home? 

We all knew IT was basically watching us in the office, could watch our screens, track our movement (ID Cards), etc. 

Would you accept a company PC with IT spying capabilities in your house? Mouse tracking? Time on computer monitoring? Do you use your own PC/computer for your WFH? Would you be comfortable with IT putting software on there to access it? 

I see lots of people do things like "take the dog for a walk" or "watch a little netflix" etc. Which is somewhat good to break the day up, but where is the line when management starts to invade your residence?  

Since I'm using a company PC and I have to log into the company network, I assume its exactly like I was in the office

 

[Poke_4_Life]

(preface by saying every job is different) 

for those looking to go fully remote, how much are you comfortable with the company "watching" you at home? 

We all knew IT was basically watching us in the office, could watch our screens, track our movement (ID Cards), etc. 

Would you accept a company PC with IT spying capabilities in your house? Mouse tracking? Time on computer monitoring? Do you use your own PC/computer for your WFH? Would you be comfortable with IT putting software on there to access it? 

I see lots of people do things like "take the dog for a walk" or "watch a little netflix" etc. Which is somewhat good to break the day up, but where is the line when management starts to invade your residence?  

Even with a work computer, I wouldn't be comfortable with them using my camera to visibly spy on me.  They can already see when I'm 'away' over 15mins.    

 

[Juxtatarot]

I personally would be very opposed to my employer doing something like that, mostly because of what it would say about their management philosophy. IMO bosses who need to monitor everything their employees are doing are either betraying an insecurity or have hired the wrong employees.

Let’s say you have an employee working from home that you suspect is actually working only a few hours a day. You want to assign additional tasks or maybe even consolidate jobs but they claim to be busy. 

In such a situation I can see how these tools would be extremely valuable.
 

 

[ignatiusjreilly]

Let’s say you have an employee working from home that you suspect is actually working only a few hours a day. You want to assign additional tasks or maybe even consolidate jobs but they claim to be busy. 

In such a situation I can see how these tools would be extremely valuable.

Yes, but I would argue your bigger problem in that situation is that you have an employee you don't trust. Maybe that's because they aren't trustworthy, maybe it's because you're paranoid, but either way those are problems no monitoring software will fix.

 

[Jobber]

I’ll never work in an office again if I can help it. I started a new job in February (IT) that gave me a 20% bump in pay and fully remote. My old job was starting to talk about forcing people to come in again in a hybrid model. So I just went ahead and left.
 

Covid has shown WFH is as good or better for productivity in most cases. Another benefit is most companies nowadays no longer limit themselves to local talent. Instead targeting nationwide, which benefits both the employees and employers in WFH opportunities, and a much larger pool of available talent. So anyone who is not happy about going into the office should polish up the resume and go national.

 

[Desert_Power]

I’ll never work in an office again if I can help it. I started a new job in February (IT) that gave me a 20% bump in pay and fully remote. My old job was starting to talk about forcing people to come in again in a hybrid model. So I just went ahead and left.
 

Covid has shown WFH is as good or better for productivity in most cases. Another benefit is most companies nowadays no longer limit themselves to local talent. Instead targeting nationwide, which benefits both the employees and employers in WFH opportunities, and a much larger pool of available talent. So anyone who is not happy about going into the office should polish up the resume and go national.

Agree with all this. Part of the problem I have is my industry (banking) is really gung-ho on returning to the office. I guess when you own the real estate you really want it more occupied.

My department is finally going back this week. Supposed to be 3 days minimum. I still have 2.5 months of paternity leave next, but will be hitting the job search as that date gets closer to see if I can find something fully remote.

 

[Don Quixote]

My work has gone basically fully virtual, with an expectation of going in 0-3 days per month.  The powers that be seem to want people at least in more than zero, but having trouble getting people to go in at all.

They re-did the office during the pandemic to move to an open office floor plan with “phone booths” for privacy for calls. Everyone seems to have collectively decided they’d rather just keep working from home than come all the way into the office and deal with that, if they don’t have to.

 

[ignatiusjreilly]

I may have mentioned this earlier in the thread, but I left my previous job last June in part because of their inflexibility and lack of concern for our safety (they brought us back on a 50% basis in May 2020 and then full time by May 2021, for no reason other than a bureaucratic imperative to put butts in seats.) My new job was still fully remote when I started, and after a few false starts, finally shifted to a kinda-sorta hybrid system. The original plan (which got tossed once Delta hit) was to have us on a staggered three-day schedule (ie, I come in M-W-F, my coworker comes in M-Tu-Th). The problem with that was that the main reason for bringing us back was to have in-person interactions, but with the staggered schedule we were coming into the office and still doing all our meetings on Zoom, since a chunk of the team was at home on any given day.

The new system is fairly loose, and the only real imperative is that we're expected to come in for team meetings (the virtual option is being phased out). So in practice, what that means is that I generally come in for meetings on Mondays and Wednesdays, but don't necessarily stay the entire day. Also, if I have external meetings near the office, I use it as my home base. But I think everyone is coming around to the notion that driving 45m each way just to sit at your desk and do the same work you could do at home doesn't make much sense. Maybe I'll change my mind down the road, but as of now I can't ever see that making sense.

 

[Andrew74]

I am still WFH and go to the office when I want to. I go in once a week.  Sometimes it’s useful, sometimes it’s a ghost town. It seems the various offices around the country are different regarding number of people in office.  The Indy office is one where no one wants to go in.  Firm-wide policy is still “do whatever.”  We are merging at the end of May, so I’m guessing we will get an update then.  Supposed to get 30 days notice.  I really don’t want to go to the office more than 1-2x a week.  Every time I go in I think how much this sucks vs. working at home.  After 2 years it’s going to be rough. 

 

[The General]

Our company just put us on alert. Office opening up May 9. They want people in that building but will be up to your team. Seems to be where lots of places are settling in my area.

 

[ignatiusjreilly]

Just one data point, but I was at an event recently where a recruiter who mostly fills tech jobs said his experience has been if he reaches out to candidates, their first question is about how much of the job is WFH, and if the answer is anything less than 100%, they hang up.

My wife (who works in marketing) has been fully remote since the pandemic started and has been told she won't have to go back, though to be fair, her office is more than an hour away and even pre-pandemic the plan was for her to eventually get down to one day a week. She's passively job searching now; she might consider a job that required a short commute 1-2 days a week, but most likely would only do something fully remote.

 

[MAC_32]

(preface by saying every job is different) 

for those looking to go fully remote, how much are you comfortable with the company "watching" you at home? 

We all knew IT was basically watching us in the office, could watch our screens, track our movement (ID Cards), etc. 

Would you accept a company PC with IT spying capabilities in your house? Mouse tracking? Time on computer monitoring? Do you use your own PC/computer for your WFH? Would you be comfortable with IT putting software on there to access it? 

I see lots of people do things like "take the dog for a walk" or "watch a little netflix" etc. Which is somewhat good to break the day up, but where is the line when management starts to invade your residence?  

I'd never endorse we utilize such a practice.

 

[Binky The Doormat]

About half of Satan's worshippers saying - we like stealing from home. 

it's so much easier to tend my lord and goat gawd ...  - says anonymous employee

 

[JaxBill]

Actual email exchange I had with an IT recruiter for a DoD cleared job today.

Him: "We have pressing need for Remote Software Engineer in description.  One set of interviews and we have following interview times the next 2 days."

Me: "I'm not in the market. "

Him:  "Hello - the job is Remote and we can interview you virtually ."

Me: "Hello- I am happy with my Remote salary+benefits role that I have now. I'm not in the market."

 

[Poke_4_Life]

Decided to come into the office today, despite the fact that most of the higher ups are out for Spring Break.  It's a ghost town.  

Think I'll just head home soon.  

 

[nirad3]

I don't know if I posted this here yet but starting April 4th we must be in the office 3x a week.  I kinda liked the 2x a week thing... going from 2 to 3 seems excessive.  And, with this change I learned that I needed to have my butt in my seat right at 8am, which is impossible for me since I am charged with taking my kids to school during school months.  I had to go through the rigmarole of getting my "hours" changed to 8:30-5:30 during school months and 8-5 in the summer.  For a pretty cool company overall, that kind of left a sour taste in my mouth.  I'm not hourly, oftentimes working well past "company hours", especially when traveling.

So anyways, starting in April I'll be M-W-Th in the office.

 

[Andrew74]

Decided to come into the office today, despite the fact that most of the higher ups are out for Spring Break.  It's a ghost town.  

Think I'll just head home soon.  

Over the past 4-5 months, 80% of the time I go to the office I leave early. No one is there.  I can sit in my office by myself at home (in sweats).

 

[AAABatteries]

About half of Satan's worshippers saying - we like stealing from home. 

it's so much easier to tend my lord and goat gawd ...  - says anonymous employee

Solomon and other CEOs can want to go back all they want but it’s out of their hands now.  People don’t want to go back - our office has been open for weeks and essentially no one goes in all the time and the office just has sporadic attendance.  Eventually the companies trying to hang on to the in person office will realize they are throwing money away and will shift.  And it just gets worse as young people enter the work force.  And I’m happy for it - companies claim they want work-life balance, this goes farther than just about any development I’ve seen in my 30 years of working.

 

[JaxBill]

I don't know if I posted this here yet but starting April 4th we must be in the office 3x a week.  I kinda liked the 2x a week thing... going from 2 to 3 seems excessive.  And, with this change I learned that I needed to have my butt in my seat right at 8am, which is impossible for me since I am charged with taking my kids to school during school months.  I had to go through the rigmarole of getting my "hours" changed to 8:30-5:30 during school months and 8-5 in the summer.  For a pretty cool company overall, that kind of left a sour taste in my mouth.  I'm not hourly, oftentimes working well past "company hours", especially when traveling.

So anyways, starting in April I'll be M-W-Th in the office.

Sounds like it's time to freshen up the resume and see if any fish are biting. Them being rigid about 8am start for a salary employee goes beyond just the WFH discussion. 

 

[TLEF316]

Midtown NYC (and the corresponding commute in via New Jersey transit) has gotten noticeably more crowded in the past 2 weeks.  So whether people like it or not, its clear that they're going back in at higher volume.

Still doing 2x a week in NY (90 min commute on the train) and 1 day a week in our NJ office (10 min commute). The NY days are rough (especially waking up in the dark again this week after the daylight savings change) but it is what it is.

I've had a really good 2 years in this role and my company has made it clear that I'm very valued....so I do wonder if I could leverage my way to just 1 day in the city if I wanted. But I'm playing the long game here. 

That being said, if I had a family and kids, there's no way I'd spend 6 hours a week on a train when I can do the same job from my office basement. (and did so for the first year+ due to the pandemic)

 

[Jobber]

Maybe @timschochetor someone who is knowledgeable about commercial real estate cane chime in here. Can empty office buildings be re-zoned and updated for use as apartments and condominiums? I can see a [near] future where commutes to the office are just a basic non starter for most white collar jobs. So what do they do with all these buildings and skyscrapers?

It Seems like a win-win-win for building owners, nearby retail establishments and perspective tenants/owners of living space. Manhattan for example explodes in available living space benefitting the city in basically every way right?

 

[timschochet]

Maybe @timschochetor someone who is knowledgeable about commercial real estate cane chime in here. Can empty office buildings be re-zoned and updated for use as apartments and condominiums? I can see a [near] future where commutes to the office are just a basic non starter for most white collar jobs. So what do they do with all these buildings and skyscrapers?

It Seems like a win-win-win for building owners, nearby retail establishments and perspective tenants/owners of living space. Manhattan for example explodes in available living space benefitting the city in basically every way right?

Yes they can but it normally requires a lot of work and approval from city planning. In a place like New York, that can take years or longer. And lots of money. 

 

[Poke_4_Life]

Maybe @timschochetor someone who is knowledgeable about commercial real estate cane chime in here. Can empty office buildings be re-zoned and updated for use as apartments and condominiums? I can see a [near] future where commutes to the office are just a basic non starter for most white collar jobs. So what do they do with all these buildings and skyscrapers?

It Seems like a win-win-win for building owners, nearby retail establishments and perspective tenants/owners of living space. Manhattan for example explodes in available living space benefitting the city in basically every way right?

I see where you're going with office space to multi-tenant living space, but in the bigger picture...  if more people are WFH, what is the desire to live in the middle of the city? Part of the desire to live in the heart of the city before was shorter commute, that need has suddenly been removed for a large part of the workforce.  

I'm sure there will be some demand, but a 'reverse commute' for a night at the theater may appeal more than living in the middle of Manhattan in converted office space.  I dunno.  

 

[FBG26]

Maybe @timschochetor someone who is knowledgeable about commercial real estate cane chime in here. Can empty office buildings be re-zoned and updated for use as apartments and condominiums? I can see a [near] future where commutes to the office are just a basic non starter for most white collar jobs. So what do they do with all these buildings and skyscrapers?

It Seems like a win-win-win for building owners, nearby retail establishments and perspective tenants/owners of living space. Manhattan for example explodes in available living space benefitting the city in basically every way right?

Here  is an interesting article I read on this a while back, and why it doesn't happen often. 

Tim already hit some of the main points, so I'll add a quote from one of the other reasons that I wouldn't have thought about. 

The office tower, which was built in 1957 and is connected to the New York Stock Exchange, reopened in 2018 after the conversion was completed. The age of the building means the distance from the elevators to the edge of the building, known as a "lease span," is a maximum of 45 feet, at about the edge of what is practical. In other words, newer office buildings are often too large to be used as residences — substantial parts of their interiors would have little natural light.

 

[ignatiusjreilly]

I don't know if I posted this here yet but starting April 4th we must be in the office 3x a week.  I kinda liked the 2x a week thing... going from 2 to 3 seems excessive.  And, with this change I learned that I needed to have my butt in my seat right at 8am, which is impossible for me since I am charged with taking my kids to school during school months.  I had to go through the rigmarole of getting my "hours" changed to 8:30-5:30 during school months and 8-5 in the summer.  For a pretty cool company overall, that kind of left a sour taste in my mouth.  I'm not hourly, oftentimes working well past "company hours", especially when traveling.

So anyways, starting in April I'll be M-W-Th in the office.

I realized after I started my new job last year how much harder it would have been to manage my kids' school schedule with the lack of flexibility Old Job offered (especially when our after-school babysitter quit and it took us a good month to find a replacement). Like, I honestly don't know what we would have done, other than that it would have shifted almost all of the burden onto my wife, who has a full-time WFH job.

That's one of the many reasons I can't imagine myself going back to a 9-5 in-office role anytime soon.

 

[culdeus]

Yes they can but it normally requires a lot of work and approval from city planning. In a place like New York, that can take years or longer. And lots of money. 

Generally the issue is the plumbing is for multiple ####ters in a row.   Converting that to several ####ters over a floor is not easy.  Commerical buildings tend to be built to a higher standard than the 5 over 1s that are ubiquitous now and you might see that start to see that in high rises where you can sell whole floors.  

 

[Leeroy Jenkins]

Midtown NYC (and the corresponding commute in via New Jersey transit) has gotten noticeably more crowded in the past 2 weeks.  So whether people like it or not, its clear that they're going back in at higher volume.

Still doing 2x a week in NY (90 min commute on the train) and 1 day a week in our NJ office (10 min commute). The NY days are rough (especially waking up in the dark again this week after the daylight savings change) but it is what it is.

I've had a really good 2 years in this role and my company has made it clear that I'm very valued....so I do wonder if I could leverage my way to just 1 day in the city if I wanted. But I'm playing the long game here. 

That being said, if I had a family and kids, there's no way I'd spend 6 hours a week on a train when I can do the same job from my office basement. (and did so for the first year+ due to the pandemic)

How do you feel on the train?  Looks like I will be commuting back into Philly 2x/week starting in April.  45min train ride each way -- when it's running correctly.

 

[supermike80]

Said it before and I'll say it again.  If your job can be done 100% remotely, don't be at all surprised if your job is/can/or will be farmed out to India, China, wherever.   No need to be paying high priced Americans that a foreign country can do for 1/4 of the pay.   

 

[culdeus]

Said it before and I'll say it again.  If your job can be done 100% remotely, don't be at all surprised if your job is/can/or will be farmed out to India, China, wherever.   No need to be paying high priced Americans that a foreign country can do for 1/4 of the pay.   

There are still a lot of executive roles that need support structures.  Getting those to work effectively from overseas is not super realistic.  Identifying if your role can be completely farmed out is critical though.  And I don't think staring at a screen in an office vs. a home environment changes that much.

 

[TLEF316]

How do you feel on the train?  Looks like I will be commuting back into Philly 2x/week starting in April.  45min train ride each way -- when it's running correctly.

My train ride is normally about 90 mins. This week was bad because we had a storm last week and they had to adjust the schedule. (So my train home was PACKED both days)

Up until these last 2 weeks you could pretty much always have a 2 seater to yourself. Wearing the mask sucks, but I'm used to it. 

I'm not super worried about covid (I'm young and healthy and fully vaxed) but if I was concerned about it, I wouldn't want to be in that train. 

Gonna kinda suck as it gets more crowded this summer.

 

[STEADYMOBBIN 22]

The wife is not handling her first week back well. Traffic, sitting idle for hours and hours. She feels like it’s work, home, cook, relax for about an hour and then get ready to do it all again tomorrow.

I help the best I can but we may need to figure out another option. 

She said there’s a lot of people at her office struggling to adjust. 

 

 

[supermike80]

There are still a lot of executive roles that need support structures.  Getting those to work effectively from overseas is not super realistic.  Identifying if your role can be completely farmed out is critical though.  And I don't think staring at a screen in an office vs. a home environment changes that much.

Point is...and I guarantee this is happening in board rooms everywhere.  They are saying, "hey, Mark's job can be done 100% remotely, what would it cost and how can we structure that to be done somewhere else, for less cost"

 

[culdeus]

Point is...and I guarantee this is happening in board rooms everywhere.  They are saying, "hey, Mark's job can be done 100% remotely, what would it cost and how can we structure that to be done somewhere else, for less cost"

Ok. But what high paying inside job really truly is unavoidably office based?   Might be down to some defense roles for clearance at this point.  

 

[supermike80]

Ok. But what high paying inside job really truly is unavoidably office based?   Might be down to some defense roles for clearance at this point.  

Im sorry I dont understand this question

 

[Fat Nick]

My train ride is normally about 90 mins. This week was bad because we had a storm last week and they had to adjust the schedule. (So my train home was PACKED both days)

Up until these last 2 weeks you could pretty much always have a 2 seater to yourself. Wearing the mask sucks, but I'm used to it. 

I'm not super worried about covid (I'm young and healthy and fully vaxed) but if I was concerned about it, I wouldn't want to be in that train. 

Gonna kinda suck as it gets more crowded this summer.

I don't miss the train.  I went from Princeton into NYC 5 days a week for a while.  Nothing like finding what you thought was a great seat only to realize it was because the air was out on that car and it was 110 degrees inside.  

I drive about 35 miles each way now.  Pre-COVID it took a solid 50 minutes to an hour each way.  Last year it was 40 minutes and almost zero traffic unless you left around 5:00.  The last few weeks, the traffic is picking back up a lot.  It's still a lot better, but getting worse.  

My company hasn't mandated anyone come in, but my wife's has said 2-3x per week mandatory, but isn't enforcing it.  I want to get to the point where I go in 2x...but my biggest challenge is since the start of the pandemic, I've taken a new role and have a few more reports now - I spend 80% of my day on conference calls.  If EVERYONE on the call was in the office, it'd make sense to go in, but with 80% of the people still remote, I just go in to the office to sit on Zoom meetings anyway, so I only go in when I have lulls.

 

[culdeus]

Im sorry I dont understand this question

I mean your point of view is jobs are disposable because they are remote, I'd say jobs are disposable because they are office based.   The fact that the pandemic demonstrated that hasn't really changed much.   There are vanishingly few office jobs that truly can't be outsourced in some capacity whether you sit in your underoos to do it or not. 

 

[Keerock]

There are still a lot of executive roles that need support structures.  Getting those to work effectively from overseas is not super realistic.  Identifying if your role can be completely farmed out is critical though.  And I don't think staring at a screen in an office vs. a home environment changes that much.

Point is...and I guarantee this is happening in board rooms everywhere.  They are saying, "hey, Mark's job can be done 100% remotely, what would it cost and how can we structure that to be done somewhere else, for less cost"

In IT, they have been trying this for years, and it rarely works out as they think.  Far remote/offshore workforces are most times difficult to communicate/collaborate with, do not possess the hard or soft skills advertised/necessary and are notoriously unloyal (will jump to another job for $500).  This takes it's toll in lack of continuity, team moral, and turnover related onboarding/offboarding/training costs. 

I have managed IT teams for 20 years, including the "edict" to hire from India/Mexico/Taiwan.  Even in my current role I have 3 open positions slated for "far remote" hires.  Granted, these 3 roles are backfills for a single head in the US because they are more affordable, they're difficult to fill with quality/qualified candidates and keep them filled.

As for the original topic... WFH is here to stay for the roles that can be done that way.  Management needs to adjust the way we manage, motivate, collaborate and evaluate our workforce to support WFH.  I've done it and believe that I'm very effective at it now.

FWIW... I do recognize that everyone is different, and some personalities crave the social interaction that comes with going into the office.  Luckily for me, that doesn't describe the bulk of the IT workforce ... myself included.

 

[AAABatteries]

Point is...and I guarantee this is happening in board rooms everywhere.  They are saying, "hey, Mark's job can be done 100% remotely, what would it cost and how can we structure that to be done somewhere else, for less cost"

If you think these conversations weren’t happening prior to COVID then you were not paying attention.

 

[Desert_Power]

Point is...and I guarantee this is happening in board rooms everywhere.  They are saying, "hey, Mark's job can be done 100% remotely, what would it cost and how can we structure that to be done somewhere else, for less cost"

If you think these conversations weren’t happening prior to COVID then you were not paying attention.

Yep. This has been a big push in my areas basically my entire career. It seldom works well, but it looks nice in a budget forecast.

 

[JaxBill]

From the Well, Duh department-

better sleep

 

[supermike80]

If you think these conversations weren’t happening prior to COVID then you were not paying attention.

OH MY GOD.  Really?  That's your reply?  Goodness

 

[nirad3]

Sounds like it's time to freshen up the resume and see if any fish are biting. Them being rigid about 8am start for a salary employee goes beyond just the WFH discussion. 

Nah.  Too many other great things about the job, and it's only MWTh that I'll need to be at the office anyways.  Just felt I needed to b*tch about it a bit.  It's not like I'd be doing anything else in the mornings except sleeping in, which isn't accomplishing anything.  I'll sleep in on Tuesdays and Fridays if anything.  And the weekends of course.  It's good to be up and at 'em.

 

[Keerock]

Nah.  Too many other great things about the job, and it's only MWTh that I'll need to be at the office anyways.  Just felt I needed to b*tch about it a bit.  It's not like I'd be doing anything else in the mornings except sleeping in, which isn't accomplishing anything.  I'll sleep in on Tuesdays and Fridays if anything.  And the weekends of course.  It's good to be up and at 'em.

Well if they mandate your butt in your seat at 8:30am, then it should leave the seat at 5:30pm (or whenever your official day ends).  If they can't be flexible with your hours then neither should you.

 

[Green and Gold]

I don't get the idea of a company micro-monitoring an employee. There should be some kind of deliverable/metric/KPI that can be used to determine whether an employee is working or not. Why try to monitor someone's mouse clicks or camera when you can just look at work accomplished?

Have some trust in the people you hired. If you treat them like adults they will usually work hard for you. If they don't, it should show in their output and you can send them on their way.