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When I was hired, my firm had its main office in the suburbs. I felt pretty good about the location and environment and purchased a house nearby. At that time, many employees and managers lived in the area. Since then, the firm has changed hands, and the original office space, as part of an ineffectual cost-saving move, has been reduced in half. Ineffectual because the new lease no longer included utilities. The "savings" were spent opening a new office in the city, and a bunch of young sales hires were made for a small bullpen type office. There are no cubicles in the city, and the few offices are reserved for a handful of lucky first movers. Now they are looking for cost savings again. The firm's plan is to shut down the office in suburbia because "having everyone in the same location inspires the best ideas."
Can someone point to some research (e.g., from HBR [Harvard Business Review] or similar) indicating that R&D teams may be best served by being in distraction-free environments separated from the gossip and hubbub of sales? Or that accommodating workers who want to be away from the city may save on labor expenses and employee turnover?
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday August 17 2017, @04:58PM
The finance department here makes me laugh. There are two departments that deal with two subsidiaries I've been employed by.
The first went with the standard finance year like you described. They would come in late, leave early and all of that was obviously led from the top. They send us reports to fill out and accounting paperwork once a quarter and absolutely inundate us once a year. A lot of that requires more work out of the other departments as they have to dig through things and reconstruct, if they're not prepared. Plus, finance outright scream at each other around tax time and constantly complain about not being paid enough (maybe if you showed up to work, you'd get paid more, as many are hourly).
The second's employees treat it like a standard 8-5. They come in about the same time, have sane vacation time, do the same amount of work with a smaller staff, and get paid more to boot. I have a standing report that is due every month and actually get responses to my emails. No quarterly or yearly reports, and they actually schedule a face-to-face meeting around tax time (with an agenda and everything) to nail down details or big ideas. They also keep roughly the same hours around tax time as the rest of the year, with no net overtime (they get two weeks off each after tax time).