You must log in or register to comment.
If you have management that tries to push for a return, give them this article from Microsoft and request a discussion of its many points.
https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/worklab/work-trend-index/hybrid-work-is-just-workWFH, particularly in 2020-2021, was the opportunity for managers to learn how to effectively manage remotely, using metrics and good planning practices. Those who failed to do so should be the ones questioned as to why they should remain as managers.
There’s two reasons for a push to return to office work.
1: as the title of the thread, real estate prices. A lot of companies have long ass leases they can’t get out for sometimes decades. Or they outright own the properties and said property is virtually worthless if no needs to come to work on location.
2: antisocial and narcissistic personality disorders and tendencies in that direction fill a very high percentage of management, especially higher management. These people need people to physically lord over to feel powerful and stroke their fragile egos.
They don’t give a flying shit what the numbers say. They don’t care work from home is better for workers or productivity, as they don’t give a shit about workers or productivity to begin with.
Issue 1 is, for the vast majority of companies that lease their offices, an entirely invalid reason. It’s the sunk cost fallacy in its most pure form. You’ve already paid for that lease. If paying but not using it ends up being better, that’s what you should do—and even better, plan your downsizing next time your lease is up for renewal. Paying for something but not using it isn’t an issue for a rational business decision-maker.
But issue 2 is very much a problem that’s difficult to overcome.
Had a manager go on about all the collab and help he got when starting out at the company and how important the connections are etc.
Someone else pointed out that if you can’t get help using MS teams then you have a problem. Plus it’s 2023 - no need to stuck to old ways of work.
When I’m in the office, I’m wearing headphones to try and block the noise from the random hot desking people from random parts of the business all talking loudly on teams calls. The business has multiple physical locations in various states hence the teams calls. There’s no chatting or “water cooler” talk.
I cannot work in these conditions nor do I want to spend 2 hours each way commuting to waste my day like this. It’s my personal hell.
I feel this. I’m a software developer and my desk is placed right next to our validation team, and their benches are producing whirs, bings, and chimes pretty much all day. Its like I have my very own programming torture space to go to.
Fuck that. I’m happy people’s lives are finally getting a bit more chill. And I bet no efficiency has to be sacrificed, just tradition.
And let’s face it, suit and tie and glass facades aren’t exactly valuable culture. I wonder if you could even keep one of those buildings standing for longer than 20 years for posterior, because they’re not designed to last.
Perhaps they could refit the properties to HOUSE people.
It can and should be done, but it’s quite a lot of work to do. This article concentrates on the natural light issue, which is a big one. But there are also ways that plumbing and fire protection are different in commercial buildings and residential. And there are probably other concerns besides that.
In some cases it may work out easier to demolish the building and put up an entirely fresh apartment building.
And real housing, not Musks “bunkbeds at the office” interpretation.
Not mine. My company likes money more than control so we’re getting a smaller space for our servers & meetings.
They don’t give a shit about our landlord’s money problems.
This is the best summary I could come up with:
Everything is colliding for employees, bosses and the owners of commercial properties as the “work from home” trend cements itself as a standard part of most office workers’ lives.
“Things like this don’t usually change so quickly in the labour market,” notes Matt Cowgill, senior economist for jobs website Seek.
ANZ staff face a cut to their annual bonuses if they don’t spend at least 50 per cent of their scheduled working hours in the office, according to a report in the Australian Financial Review.
Origin Energy reportedly demands all employees based in an office spend at least 40 per cent of their time there and has started linking attendance to performance reviews and bonuses.
The bank warned that bonuses — which are a substantial proportion of some salary packages in the financial services field — could be docked if workers failed to turn up at the office for least three days a week.
More luxurious meeting rooms, better “end-of-trip” facilities for bike riders and walkers and nicer kitchens are just some of the elements rental agents say clients want.
The original article contains 1,102 words, the summary contains 178 words. Saved 84%. I’m a bot and I’m open source!