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posted by hubie on Tuesday May 10 2022, @12:19PM   Printer-friendly
from the nobody's-business-but-my-own dept.

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)?


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  • (Score: 3, Insightful) by Opportunist on Tuesday May 10 2022, @02:50PM (11 children)

    by Opportunist (5545) on Tuesday May 10 2022, @02:50PM (#1243787)

    Why exactly do you need to see my mug? If it means so much to you, I'll send you an autographed photo of me that you can stick to your monitor.

    Or are you afraid that we could actually be caught working while the narcissist drones on about his pet project that nobody gives half a fuck about but himself?

    I could record a video where it looks like I pay attention to the narcissist, would that suffice?

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  • (Score: 2) by JoeMerchant on Tuesday May 10 2022, @03:14PM (2 children)

    by JoeMerchant (3937) on Tuesday May 10 2022, @03:14PM (#1243797)

    Why exactly do you need to see my mug?

    I, personally, don't. And given the culture, I don't show my face in 95%+ of meetings.

    However, generally speaking, seeing the mug creates an additional communication pathway, more information bandwidth, more communication in the same time, higher efficiency, and a bit of neurochemical bonding between the mug-to-mug interfacers. Generally speaking, if an "underling" is showing their mug, I'll show mine, but for the most part if there's a superior officer on camera and most of my level people are off, I'll stand with the off-camera crowd.

    --
    🌻🌻 [google.com]
    • (Score: 2) by Opportunist on Tuesday May 10 2022, @03:30PM (1 child)

      by Opportunist (5545) on Tuesday May 10 2022, @03:30PM (#1243808)

      I don't show my face in 95%+ of meetings.

      "Sorry, can't turn on the cam, the VPN connection is too crappy and it breaks down with video".

      Works like a charm.

      • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday May 11 2022, @01:00AM

        by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday May 11 2022, @01:00AM (#1243972)

        "Sorry, something's wrong with the cam on this laptop."
        (I put a piece of tape over the lens.)

  • (Score: 2) by JoeMerchant on Tuesday May 10 2022, @03:18PM (6 children)

    by JoeMerchant (3937) on Tuesday May 10 2022, @03:18PM (#1243800)

    are you afraid that we could actually be caught working while the narcissist drones on about his pet project that nobody gives half a fuck about but himself?

    That's not a productive meeting, that's a pro-forma attendance ritual. If you participate in those, you're "doing it wrong." Fully acknowledged: much corporate culture "does it wrong" most of the time, but if you're willingly complying you're actually part of the problem. I have two meetings a week that I attend about once a quarter, otherwise I skim the e-mailed summary reports to confirm that I didn't miss anything important (to me) and get a bit of satisfaction from seeing my personal attendance box unchecked. For me to have that box checked when the entire 30 minutes had nothing to do with me is a failure on my part.

    --
    🌻🌻 [google.com]
    • (Score: 2) by Opportunist on Tuesday May 10 2022, @03:39PM (5 children)

      by Opportunist (5545) on Tuesday May 10 2022, @03:39PM (#1243814)

      Unfortunately, the narcissist that love to hear himself talk is the CEO, so you can't exactly just flip him off and tell him to go play with something poisonous.

      It's a typical "Austrian solution [wikipedia.org]" (it's a thing, look it up. Sadly only in German, but you can Google translate it). Essentially, what it means is that it's a foul compromise that should not please anyone but appeases everyone and everyone can accept it as a "solution" despite not being one. Welcome to our Realpolitik. And the way we work here.

      Also, nothing is as permanent here as temporary solusions. Like our national broadcasting system, that was from 1945 to the 1990s a "trial" or "practice" broadcasting system.

      And, like a typical Austrian Solution, what we get is that he gets to drone on and feel important and we get to get some work done and ignore him, and everyone is ... kinda ... happy with it, without upsetting the apple cart and without causing the other side to lose face.

      • (Score: 2) by JoeMerchant on Tuesday May 10 2022, @03:53PM (4 children)

        by JoeMerchant (3937) on Tuesday May 10 2022, @03:53PM (#1243824)

        My sympathies, but please do try to resist the next Anschluss.

        Also, I am presently 51 minutes into a 90 minute presentation from a vendor. They have spent the last 20 minutes presenting a capability of theirs that has nothing to do with our needs. I put an explanation of that in the chat 5 minutes in to the irrelevant part, they acknowledged that a few minutes later - we discussed for two minutes - and then they resumed presenting the useless capability. Our managers are politely encouraging them. You see what I'm doing. It is soooo much better than having to endure these presentations in person.

        --
        🌻🌻 [google.com]
        • (Score: 2) by Opportunist on Tuesday May 10 2022, @04:04PM

          by Opportunist (5545) on Tuesday May 10 2022, @04:04PM (#1243829)

          Indeed.

          We're currently about 30 minutes into a presentation of our quarter expectations, by the way. As you can tell, it is very informative, engaging and riveting. I think I might need a valium to survive the rest of the presentation.

        • (Score: 2) by Barenflimski on Tuesday May 10 2022, @04:30PM (2 children)

          by Barenflimski (6836) on Tuesday May 10 2022, @04:30PM (#1243841)

          Ahhh, vendor meetings. Have they told you what is on the roadmap yet?

          • (Score: 2) by JoeMerchant on Tuesday May 10 2022, @04:47PM

            by JoeMerchant (3937) on Tuesday May 10 2022, @04:47PM (#1243850)

            New vendor, no roadmap - yet. Did present several slides of "architecture" though.

            --
            🌻🌻 [google.com]
          • (Score: 2) by Opportunist on Tuesday May 10 2022, @06:59PM

            by Opportunist (5545) on Tuesday May 10 2022, @06:59PM (#1243889)

            Well, everything you actually need and would buy the item for. As usual.

  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday May 10 2022, @11:19PM

    by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday May 10 2022, @11:19PM (#1243958)

    It depends on the meeting. I work in academia, primarily on research. I mostly have two types of meetings:

    1) Management sometimes wants meetings to go over whatever buzzword bingo is making its way through the administration at that time. I'm a scientist, not a bureaucrat. Most of what goes on in those meetings could be explained succinctly over email. Of course I'm muted and my camera is off. I've got better things to do, but attendance is mandatory. I've learned there's usually a long mandatory meeting sometime during the week prior to each semester. I, of course, just happen to schedule vacation during those weeks on the grounds that I need it to do my best work during the semester.

    2) I lead a small team of researchers, and we're working on various projects. We have meetings to discuss technical stuff like looking at new results and talking about ideas for how to solve challenges we run into during our research. I've never told everyone they have to turn their cameras on, but everyone does it. But we're either looking at data and actively discussing it, or we're trying to think up ideas to solve problems and share our thoughts. It's definitely productive to get a few people in a meeting to brainstorm ideas to solve our problems. They're not status updates, but actually trying to solve problems that arise during the research. I'd hope that even if someone doesn't necessarily have ideas about a particular topic, they learn something, because we're actually talking about technical stuff. I'd bet that nonverbal communication is a useful way to give people positive feedback when they're sharing ideas.

    Bottom line? I think the size and subject of the meeting matter. A meeting of four or five people to discuss technical stuff is totally different from the administration wanting 100 people in a meeting to discuss bureaucratic stuff.