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An interesting article over at PCMag that is worth the read as this brief summary cannot do the topics justice. It discusses the issues with getting employees back into the office after two years of working remotely.
[...] The 2022 Microsoft Work Trend Index reported that 50% of mid-level managers said their companies are making plans to return to in-person work five days a week in the year ahead, but 52% of employees are considering going hybrid or remote.
[...] While the pandemic has exposed the many challenges of working remotely, it has also made the benefits clear. People are unwilling to lose hours of their day to the things they find most frustrating about work, such as commuting and the drudgery of office life. [...]
[...] While offices are a collective place of work, they're experienced individually. And for some individuals, that experience is not as welcoming as it is for others. This is reflected in women, people of color, members of the LGBTQIA+ community, and those with disabilities being less inclined to want to return to the office than others.
[...] In-office employees have found themselves spending time commuting only to sit in an office and spend the day not interacting with anyone there and having a Zoom meeting or two. Meanwhile, those still working remote can feel ignored when they're logged on to a Zoom meeting and see their colleagues in a conference room having side conversations that they're not a part of.
[...] There have been some unpleasant new realities faced by those returning to the office. Lots of workplace perks have disappeared in the pandemic. Fully stocked kitchens are a lot barer since they have to feed a much smaller fraction of a workforce. Free gym memberships didn't make much sense when gyms were closed and the benefit at some companies didn't return when their doors reopened.
[...] But there are some perks that have evolved into ones more suited to remote work. Companies, particularly at the beginning of the pandemic, set up stipends to outfit home offices. Childcare, which has always been a concern for working parents, became more of one. And benefits have expanded to include longer paid leave for parents, more flexible schedules, backup childcare services, and even tutoring stipends. [...]
[...] Companies would do well to set up an outreach system for employees of all levels to really check in on their individual needs and concerns. Forego formal surveys for a more human touch of a one-on-one chat by phone or Slack. Because no matter how remote we might be from one another in our workplaces at present, we've all lived through a trying time and could benefit from some connection.
Have your working environments changed, and if so, has it been for the better or worse (or neither)?
(Score: 5, Insightful) by Opportunist on Tuesday May 10 2022, @12:35PM (31 children)
So far nobody has been able to offer me any reasonable explanation why I should return to an overcrouwded, loud and outright productivity killing office.
Quite seriously, when you take a look at the development of office spaces in the past 20 years, it seems that management was hellbent on making the lives of their workers as miserable as possible. At first, the individual offices with 2-3 people in them went to make room for cubicle farms. And when we finally got used to that insult, the walls went away and we went to the open-plan office, to make sure that we not only feel like hens in a coop but also couldn't even understand what we were thinking while everyone around us was yakking away in some phone call. And since that was apparently not enough to make the workplace experience insufferable, add the shared-desk system where you don't even get to know just where you can work today, and it's gonna be like on the plane ride, where you get stuck between loud Herbert and the guy whose secret for a long life is to roll in garlic bread.
Management is now facing the problem that their workers have found a way to escape that hell, and they obviously don't like that one bit. "I torture, therefore I exist" is the creed, it seems.
Quite frankly, do you really NOT understand why people do NOT want to work in such conditions? Especially when there are perfectly operating solutions that even increase their productivity?
Spill it, assholes, what's the real reason you want to torture us? We don't buy your crap, we've seen that it's bullshit, be for once in your life honest with us. We're trying to work here, for fuck's sake, if you need someone to stroke your ego, get a dog.
(Score: 5, Insightful) by looorg on Tuesday May 10 2022, @12:56PM (10 children)
It's quite literally the job of middle management to manage people. If you are not their they can't do their job and they are basically obsolete. They have not figured out to how to do it or how to fill their role so instead of them changing you have to get back into your cubicle so they can lord over you. The only thing they figured out so far is that they apparently can't do it via various meeting apps etc, or it doesn't have their desired effect.
I'm totally with you. The most awesome thing here is that it has totally saved me hours everyday in commute time. Then it's blindingly obvious that you don't need to sit in your "work office" to actually do your job. That said I still prefer to come in one day every now and then for face-2-face meeting instead of Zoom-meetings. I also have to come in every now and then, once per week or other week to check my mail (the non-e-kind) since that still does happen even tho it's rare.
But Job-offers now that entail being at the office five days per week are rejected on principle. Even the once that only require me to be there three days per week are more or less rejected.
(Score: 2) by Opportunist on Tuesday May 10 2022, @01:11PM (3 children)
Did they finally catch on? That we go into their online meetings where these narcissistic space wasters drone on for hours and put the headphones down so we can actually do some work?
That's by the way part of the productivity surge you saw during the work-from-home times, because we could appease the narcissists without having to waste time on it.
But yeah, the snail-mail is still a problem. Here's an idea, that middle-manager could go fetch my mail, that way he'd finally do something useful.
(Score: 2) by looorg on Tuesday May 10 2022, @01:32PM (2 children)
I have been wondering why the postal dude at work can't just put all the mail that come to me in a bigger envelope and snail-mail it to me. Snail-mail-forward. If they did that it would actually save some time. Since all our mail comes to a central post office and is then delivered out to the various departments and then once again there sorted into numbered boxes (such as mine). One wonders if they couldn't just skip that delivery thing since nobody, or very few are actually in the office so they don't visit the local copy-mail-room to check their box on a daily anymore. They could optimize their work to.
(Score: 2) by JoeMerchant on Tuesday May 10 2022, @02:16PM
I used to get paper mail in the 1990s - it was mostly trade magazines and junk. In the 2000s there was a trickle of inter-office paper and I shut off the trade rags because it was all available better online, on demand. By the 2010s I didn't have a work mailbox anymore, but I would get the occasional package with prototype supplies in it. Today anything I order for work just goes straight to my house, there are a few middle managers who still freak out about that, but mostly they get over themselves when they see that I have been in the job for 10 years and go years at a time without ordering anything at all (plus, the few things they did audit me on in the mid 2010s were slam-dunk in-your-face here-it-is-doing-company-work GTFO-my-cube-suckah!)
🌻🌻 [google.com]
(Score: 2) by Opportunist on Tuesday May 10 2022, @02:44PM
Or just open it, scan it and mail it. We're talking about work mail and a person who already has signed NDAs and security agreements up the ass because he has to handle highly sensitive documents.
(Score: 5, Insightful) by JoeMerchant on Tuesday May 10 2022, @02:09PM
It is the job of ALL management to enable their direct reports to do their jobs as efficiently as possible, and when their direct reports are middle managers it is upper management's job to enable those middle managers to enable their employees: removing obstacles, providing required resources, ensuring timely communication of necessary information, blocking irrelevant concerns from affecting their people.
A tiny fraction of the management job is helping to nudge employees away from distractions onto the higher priority tasks - but that's better described as "micro management" and often will backfire in terms of overall productivity. Managers frequently can't tell the difference between irrelevant distractions and productivity.
I have been saying this since the 1990s, but until 2020 most people still insisted on drudging into the office 5 days a week for "core hours" to do most communication, and without effective communication an organization falls apart. The first job I interviewed for that said anything along the lines of "you don't need us to give you a desk to sit at, do you?" was an ultra-small startup in about 2012. Before that, investors couldn't conceive of getting return on their investment if they couldn't go to an office and see the bees buzzing.
🌻🌻 [google.com]
(Score: 5, Insightful) by Thexalon on Tuesday May 10 2022, @09:22PM (2 children)
Having seen some great middle managers in action: They don't do that by looming over my desk or something like that. They pull me in for conversations where we talk about priorities, productivity, what's stopping me from getting things done, that sort of thing, and then we both get back to work. Because the most important thing that great middle managers do is hire people who are capable and motivated to get the job done and done right. And then they mostly get out of the way.
And those managers can do so over Zoom or the phone or a chat channel just as easily as they could in person. Really.
The only thing that stops a bad guy with a compiler is a good guy with a compiler.
(Score: 3, Interesting) by Kell on Tuesday May 10 2022, @10:52PM (1 child)
This - a thousand times this. I have a small team and I manage them as best I can, not by standing over them (unless it's a thorny technical task that needs my engineering expertise) but by listening and asking "how can I help?" Most of our team came back to the lab as soon as it was possible to be on campus: we need to be hands-on with most of our work. As it is, I've got one employee who is still remote and whose productivity has dipped to problematic levels: our research contract is at risk. This was utterly surprising because the employee is one of my most professional and on-task. It turns out that his home life is absolute garbage: loud neighbors, loud kids, loud wife, no peace, and a million distractions. He's also turned into the kid-taxi for school runs. Unfortunately, his wife has immune issues so covid is a Big Deal for them and as such I've been as supportive as I can in facilitating his working remotely. But what do I do as a manager whose employee isn't getting his work done? I've asked him to come to the lab at least twice a week so that I can gate his work (with micro deadlines), but I'm seriously worried that our contract won't be extended because we won't have a deliverable. Sometimes home isn't the place to get shit down; if you don't get shit done there's a real risk people will stop paying you.
Scientists ask questions. Engineers solve problems.
(Score: 2) by Thexalon on Wednesday May 11 2022, @11:13AM
Is there somewhere else nearby he can go? Maybe Starbucks, or his local public library? And I'm assuming him getting his family together and giving them the "Look, daddy has to be able to concentrate on his job if he wants to keep that paycheck coming in" hasn't had any effect?
The only thing that stops a bad guy with a compiler is a good guy with a compiler.
(Score: 4, Interesting) by weeds on Wednesday May 11 2022, @01:11PM (1 child)
As far as the article goes... A representative proponent of working from home is quoted as saying;
A coupla' years ago, those two hours were just fine. You took the job with us that far away, but now it's my problem? We can bicker about that all day, but childcare? Hold the phone, am I paying you to write code or to watch your kids? "Oh, but I can work anytime." No, you can't. In my experience, software development is best practiced as a team sport. So we need times when pairing can work or just good old "two heads are better than one" problem solving. In addition, things go wrong and sometimes I need to interrupt you and need your undivided attention. This is the real world.
Apparently,
"Drudgery of office life"? What does that even mean? You have to sit at a desk and work? I think that's what you want, isn't it? Participate in pointless meetings? See the discussion above w/r/t managers and the other functions of a good manager.
Now
Actually, these groups can face these problems everywhere in society and this is a much wider cultural problem. Hiding from it is not likely to have any real impact on changing it.
And there's childcare again...
So
This doesn't even say "some". It implies that this is true across the board. It's not. And by the way, applies equally to those working from home. Who are they interacting with? Oh, yea, I forgot, the kids.
Companies are now charged with creating a working environment that provides
which means reducing to the lowest common denominator. "Since 20, 40 or 60% of the participants are remote, everyone will join on zoom even if you are here in the office." So everyone can share that lousy experience.
As far as the lost perks mentioned in the article, I can only say that has not happened here. We still have beer taps, wine, fruit, snacks, a gym, our patio, etc. Nothing has changed there.
Sound advice (aren't you doing a weekly one on one?) albeit ironic to refer to Slack as "human touch".
If you just want to work "cards" or "pitches" and grind out lines of code without really contributing to solutions, you have really diminished your value. In fact, if your job can be done from anywhere at any time of day, what is your value proposition? When I need another developer, why wouldn't I hire three from across the world somewhere and still save money? Tell me they aren't as good as you, well, that's a claim I can already refute having done this successfully. You used to compete for a job against only "local" developers. Now you are competing against "all" developers. It's very likely that I will find someone with exactly the stack I want somewhere. This is working now, but in the long run, it will only depress developer salaries. WIPRO's new slogan, "Your own developers have told you software development can be done from anywhere and from here it costs a fraction!"
Get money out of politics! [mayday.us]
(Score: 2) by Mykl on Wednesday May 11 2022, @10:53PM
This times one thousand.
I am a strong believer that face-to-face teams deliver greater value than fully remote teams. The incidental conversations, ability to quickly check things by swiveling the chair (rather than setting up a call) etc are all really beneficial.
However, if you believe that you are just as effective being 100% isolated and working entirely from home, then I can give your job to someone much cheaper living elsewhere in the world. Who knows? Unlike you, that person may actually like interacting with people! if your job is 100% home-based, your days of a decent salary are numbered - enjoy it while it lasts.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday May 10 2022, @01:03PM (14 children)
One reason some want their employees back (besides the benefits to face-to-face interactions) is the empty buildings. There's no reason to have big empty buildings if most people are working remote, and it is not a trivial decision to decide to downsize your office arrangement.
(Score: 4, Insightful) by Opportunist on Tuesday May 10 2022, @01:06PM (13 children)
I have no benefits in face-to-face interaction. If anything, it's to my disadvantage. I have to waste energy on emulating the correct emotional expression to transport the nonverbal communiation I wish to express. This is not necessary in an online communication.
And I'm in no means responsible for their failed real estate investments. If you need to give your office building meaning, you can sit in it.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by IndigoFreak on Tuesday May 10 2022, @02:11PM (12 children)
You might not benefit from face to face interactions, but work culture, is not built around you.
(Score: 5, Insightful) by Barenflimski on Tuesday May 10 2022, @02:21PM (8 children)
I always hear this. "Work Culture." What on earth is that?
Every single place, and I've worked at a lot of them as an employee and a consultant, is the same, boring, generic, vanilla culture, striving to 'do better.' Ugh. Typically what that means is you get some ass clown who thinks they're god who calls themself the C-level something, SVP something, or even director something and then dictates to everyone else how to act so it makes them happy. To fix that, you get agile, which just eats up valuable time with ridiculous checkins.
Every office I go to strives to be the same; Don't bug me and I don't bug you. Don't stink and I'll try not to stink for you. Don't talk politics or religion and we won't fire you. Here is another list of things you shan't do, and then we'll review the way you acted and find umpteen reasons why you'll either be put on the list to leave immediately or won't get another raise.
Work culture? Total bullshit once you've aged out of thinking that work is an extension of your college days.
(Score: 2) by IndigoFreak on Tuesday May 10 2022, @02:32PM (4 children)
Work culture: "Work culture is a collection of attitudes, beliefs and behaviors that make up the regular atmosphere in a work environment." I googled it for you. Companies do differ in work culture. If you look at Wells Fargo a few years ago, their sales work culture said it was ok to sign people up for programs that customers never ask for or wanted, or were even informed that they were now getting. It was(may still be) a culture of hit your metrics by any means necessary.
(Score: 2) by Opportunist on Tuesday May 10 2022, @02:42PM (2 children)
So if the attitudes, believes and behaviours, and hence the atmosphere, suck and are actually toxic to the people having to endure it, maybe it should be aired out for something more suitable?
(Score: 2) by IndigoFreak on Tuesday May 10 2022, @02:50PM (1 child)
If that is the case, then yes. It would be appropriate to change the work culture.
(Score: 2) by Opportunist on Tuesday May 10 2022, @03:52PM
You actually know a company where that isn't the case?
And, are they hiring?
(Score: 3, Touché) by Barenflimski on Tuesday May 10 2022, @03:05PM
Makes me feel better that you had to look that up too. I was starting to feel like maybe I missed something in my 400 years on planet earth.
(Score: 3, Informative) by Mykl on Tuesday May 10 2022, @11:52PM (2 children)
I'm a people manager, and work culture is a big thing for me.
According to research and my own personal experience, people don't want to just work for the highest paycheck (though that is of course an important factor). They want to be a part of something, to feel that their work matters AND IS APPRECIATED, and that their workplace cares for them and supports them. These are not things that just happen automatically - you have to work at this to make them happen. Perhaps the companies you've worked for have all been the same, but there is definitely a big difference in work culture between employers. Micro-management vs autonomy. After-work drinks vs pay-your-own. Guided training and career paths vs hiring and firing based on the supply and demand of the day. Work a balanced day vs more hours are better! There are many other aspects like that that combine to create a culture.
Most of my team work for our clients either remotely or at the clients' site, so it's super-important for us to keep our people connected in a positive way. This is much harder to do when everyone is working remotely. At the moment I'm walking the tightrope of encouraging people back in without forcing them.
(Score: 2) by Barenflimski on Wednesday May 11 2022, @03:28AM
I appreciate your view from a managers perspective. I think you might be a manager I'd hire.
We run our shops in such a way that either you're self sufficient which means that for the most part you follow the project plan you and your PM work out. If we attain this, we are perfect. Our motto might as well be, "You do you. Just make sure you're smart at the meetings."
Cheers! Good luck.
(Score: 2) by Opportunist on Wednesday May 11 2022, @10:53AM
I guess I'm easy to please in this regard. To make me feel appreciated, give me a task that I'm good at (since that overlaps mostly with my job description, that's fairly easy to do), make sure the red tape that I hate to deal with is out of the way (you know, that whole "human interaction" thing managers like so much), make sure I have the resources I need to do my job, and fend off all the distractors that try to get in between me and my work.
If you do that, it shows me you appreciate my time and energy enough to ensure I can put it to the best effect and I can produce the best product possible.
I have such a manager at my disposal and he is the reason I work here. It certainly ain't the paycheck.
(Score: 2) by Opportunist on Tuesday May 10 2022, @02:40PM
You might want to explain "work culture" to me. Because it obviously is neither built around me, nor any of my coworkers, so who the fuck is it built around?
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday May 10 2022, @03:17PM
How many other people disagree though? My job involves a lot of redoing what the other incompetent morons leave me to deal with. Working from home, leaving work for me would be a challenge.
(Score: 5, Interesting) by Thexalon on Wednesday May 11 2022, @11:28AM
My experience of "work culture" is that first and foremost it is about enabling office politicians who create nothing to stomp on and distract the people who do the work to keep the company running. Some examples of this:
1. Pulling lots of productive employees into pointless meetings.
2. Convincing higher-ups to make stupid process changes without justification.
3. Demanding hours of reporting and other extra work for the sole purpose of providing a 10-second argument in a meeting somewhere that they should do things their way.
4. When a productive employee or team does something cool, office politicians rush to send out an email thanking them for it to a very large number of people so it looks like they had something to do with it. If they're really good at this, the productive employee / team gets no credit at all for what they just did, affecting who gets raises or promotions out of it.
But first and foremost, "work culture" is about putting on a front that is both bland and cheery: Nobody has opinions on anything more consequential than professional sports, and everyone pretends that their life is good even if they're screaming on the inside.
The only thing that stops a bad guy with a compiler is a good guy with a compiler.
(Score: 2) by Barenflimski on Tuesday May 10 2022, @02:27PM (2 children)
Preach! The only thing I ever found the office useful for was finding enough people who wanted to delay getting in traffic so that you could get a softball team out on the pitch at the same time every Thursday evening. That and organizing keg runs.
(Score: 2) by Opportunist on Tuesday May 10 2022, @02:46PM (1 child)
Then you, unlike me, have actually found something that made the severe hit to efficiency and workload throughput worthwhile.
Congratulations.
(Score: 2) by Barenflimski on Tuesday May 10 2022, @03:23PM
Frisbee was also good for that.
(Score: 2) by DeathMonkey on Tuesday May 10 2022, @03:19PM (1 child)
I just want a stove I can make a real lunch on!
Forcing us to eat out at expensive and sodium drenched restaurants or eat something cold or microwaved was the straw that broke my camel's back.
I am a return to office conscientious objector!
(Score: 2) by Opportunist on Tuesday May 10 2022, @03:32PM
To be fair, my company has a kick-ass dining room.
Yes, with a Michelin chef and all, our C-Levels like to dine in style and they can only write that off from tax if everyone gets to eat like a boss. Gotta admit, that's a job perk I kinda miss... but then again, good grub ain't everything.