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My experience in engineering is that this is an unspoken martyr culture that supervisors don't like - the employee is proud and trumpets that they're so busy that they can't miss any time, while the supervisor would rather they just stay home.
I've actually been doing some work on this topic so here's my 2 cents:
For law firms, we're also at the tipping point of changing the old guard. The people being made partner today have never had to shepardize anything and have never opened a reporter to do research. They're comfortable with technology. I spent years trying to convince old rich guys that leasing the 30th floor of a high rise in Seattle was a waste of money and that making everyone commute was an aggravating waste of time. The up and coming partners in firms across the country know that, and now everyone has seen it in practice. Nobody cares about your mailing address when all you do is send emails and talk on the phone. If I need to market in person, I can take people to dinner or golfing or whatever. I don't need an office with a view.
I was raw doggin' during the height of the AIDS epidemic. So there's that.
We need to understand how Covid has impacted the swingers world and what changes can look forward to in the future.
Did they explain why they were doing this? Is leadership old-school and wants people to be there in person or have they said they don't think they are as productive with people working remote? We've had numerous comments made at all levels about how we are getting things done and productivity, if anything, seems to be up.
That's because not everyone uses good collaboration tools. No excuse for that in 2020 and I'm sure they'll all catch up. I've actually seen the opposite within our company and our corporate office. No excuse not to get things done now and everyone has open access (with controls of course).
You’re not crazy. A lot of the people I’ve spoken with said they can’t imagine going back to how things were and going in every day. I’m in that boat. I could imagine 1-2 days a week, but not 4-5. Who knows whether that’ll be acceptable in a year or two...
We have already gone 100% remote, but there’s definitely a subset that wants an office. They’re looking to downsize by roughly 75%, so it won’t be a big office, but in the city the young kids living in boxes want a bigger working environment.
Totally with you. I may start going in once every week or two, and likely when I do that I’ll just drive in early in the morning and drive home at like 3:30pm to beat the rush hour.I mean....i certainly want to go back eventually. I just think September 14th is too soon for me to comfortable taking mass transit into NYC. We just dont whether this thing is going to bounce back in the fall.
If they would let me go into one of our NJ offices (There are 2 of them within 15 minutes of me) I'd do it tomorrow. But apparently that's not an option
PS, as to my idea that I might just drive into Manhattan, Cuomo was on TV pleading with people not to do that. He said traffic is awful and only getting worse, and mass transit is empty and cleaner than ever. So I might just take the train in one of these days.
There will always be companies on both extremes - some that will go mostly or entirely virtual, and others that want people back in the office 5 days a week as soon as it's safe. But I think many companies will wind up in the middle - people who used to go in 5 days a week now going in 2-3 days a week, staying home the others, long term. It's probably the best balance between in-person collaboration and employee happiness for most companies.
The issue there is the main benefit to the company is to not have to house people. Having housing for people, but you simply don't use it doesn't really make a lot of sense and isn't sustainable.
Company is running with 50% capacity in the office building on a voluntary basis. I think we have like 25%.
Based solely on this one decision and the details you provided above...that doesn't sound like the type of leadership team I would want to work for. Good luck with them, something tells me you and your co-workers will have lots of uneven decision making to come. This seems like a total whiff from an input and messaging perspective.
Totally agree, I think that will be part of it. Coordinating among various groups (finance comes in Mon and Wed, marketing comes in Tue and Thu, etc), shared desks, less real estate.
yea I'm getting screwed here. I was work from home for 2 years till everyone decided it was cool and came home—place all to myself, rock out the music, poop with the door open, raid the fridge.
Great thread. I agree with most of it. I’ve come to terms with being remote for the rest of my career - at least if I stay with the current company.
I suppose what I'm struggling to wrap my head around is the impact this could have on the available talent pool to companies. If Person A is applying to a company, they're now competing against a much larger pool of people than before. Potentially by multiple orders of magnitude.
As the elites get headhunted and hired, new positions will open up. With office overhead cut drastically, manpower totals can increase. Might be the best time to be the 90%
I used to LOVE to WFH prior to COVID - less distractions, no commute, all the perks we know about. Doing it 100% I quickly realized how much I was missing some interaction with people - lonely is a good way of putting it. I’ve worked on a few things to help with that - one, we do some virtual Happy Hours which I thought would be lame but folks are used to them and now I think they are fun. I’ve tried to spend time outdoors, talk to neighbors. I’m back to loving this new WFH but even with that I won’t mind maybe 1 day a week in the office. Hell, driving a one-hour doesn’t sound horrible at the moment.
I think this just highlights it depends on the industry - I know nothing about Financial industry but I do wonder how much they’ve embraced WFH and the tools to make collaboration simple and efficient. I can just as easily (or maybe even more easily) have that quick 15 minute hallway conversation with Bob on Teams as I could before. I think most old school people just don’t like it.
We are having the same problem (training of new employees). We've been doing zoom type meetings/training almost daily and the new recruits are still falling behind.
I'm hippling a bit here but this also opens up the job market to folks who just couldn't or wouldn't commute or come into an office. Specifically older folks or folks with medical issues. It probably even pushes out retirement for some.
