It’s hypocrisy all the way down. Microsoft is telling people to run their 144hz screens at 60hz to save the planet while sending thousands of good computers to the landfill with their stupid TPM requirements. Never believed this “carbon footprint” garbage, never will. You are the carbon that they want to reduce.
Ok, I need to tell someone else. The other day I ran into an acquaintance, John. He was telling me about his new manager job. Currently, everyone is working remote. An email was sent out to John’s team inviting them to lunch so that the team could meet John in person.
Apparently, only 1 person showed up. John got butthurt. John told his boss that he thinks his team doesn’t “engage enough” at work and that he thinks remote work is to blame. John told me he likes to test people randomly by sending them a Slack message and seeing how long it takes to respond. Apparently, he thinks 5 minutes for a response means people aren’t at the computer working. John has convinced his boss to force people back in the office…
Because they didn’t feel like going to lunch? Was it mandatory? If so, were they going to get paid for it? And for the gas to come in just to have lunch?
Maybe? It was an “optional” lunch meeting. I tend to skip meetings that aren’t required because I want to keep working.
But, sure. I understand managers/leaders want to feel important, so fine, I show up to the meetings. I sit at the desk, open the laptop, and tune them out while I actually get work done. Like, the thing we’re supposed to be doing. I have the 15 pieces of flair, ok.
Yup. Middle management’s #1 priority is justifying their own jobs. If nobody is in the office and their “management” boils down to watching a bunch of green “available” pips in Teams to see if any of them dare to turn into yellow “away” pips, then that can be outsourced or automated. So they’re clambering to get people back into the office, so they can make a point of strolling through the cubicle jungle and harassing their employees.
LOL! I ran into him yesterday and he was telling me he had to work over the weekend because people have left and they are now understaffed! 😂 git rektt!
If offices REALLY want their workers in their buildings they’ve known for years that they have the options of using the real estate of the surface area* on the building itself to place solar and offset their demand massively. They can also incentivise massively to help their workers use electric vehicles - no not cars but ebikes, scooters and electric motorcycles and provide secure parking and charging. For those that use these, give them a bonus, buy the bike for them. Bikes free up staff parking to be used for other things.
*the sides of the building can also be used to hang panels, so if the roof is occupied with air con systems etc you still get power. There is usually just a 10% drop off in daily power generation, too, but an advantage is both that the panel cools more effectively in this position, and it also cools the building passively by shading the sun.
Only if the environmental narrative was cohesive and consistent lol.
If govts really cared about the environment they would push companies into remote working as much as possible instead of pushing for electric cars that are a hazard to the planet.
My job forced us back to the office. The eating area has a big dumb sign that says the company is helping solve climate change… because they use paper cups…
Majority of the wealthy higher ups in corporate management don’t care about reducing emissions. They care about making their companies look good.
Talking about working towards climate change goals or talking about supporting marginalized groups is easy. Actually doing something is a lot different, but even today very few people look for actions.
Changing policy is actually pretty easy. Sure there are probably laws and regulations that need to be taken into account, but employing the right people to look into it can save huge amounts off their budget after only a few months. To me it shows poor leadership at the top that they dont.
It’s not entirely true though. It is a lot of work. It doesn’t mean it shouldn’t be done, but often times unless you can incentivize it then they won’t.
Even then, many companies find ways around it, such as dealing with carbon credits, which basically allow them to continue harming the environment for a cost, because apparently it’s still cheaper that way.
Big business has shown its power in that very way with the carbon credits. This proves they have the power and the manpower to implement actual positive environmental change.
I hate how the left hand panes look Ron DeSantis, and cutting carbon emissions isn’t something that asswhipe would discuss since he and his predecessor, Senator Rick Scott, like to pretend climate change isn’t real and it’s “wokie/DEI/SJW/Socialist/Communist/Chinese/etc. bullshit”. However he would definitely get mad at work from home, regardless of how much it betters the state of Florida, gotta keep those slaves in the fields where can see them, right?
It was mostly quicker on my pushbike too. I wasnt having to keep swerving and braking for idiots. Though I did get chased 3 times, by special kinds of idiots (one in a dinosaur suit ffs).
Working from home is also considerably safer. The most dangerous part of most people’s work day is their drive to and from work. If that time had to be covered by workplace injury insurance, management would be begging for as many people as possible to stay home just to keep insurance costs down.
Yeah it really doesn’t help when everyone is driving worn out, pissed off, and/or fearing of retribution from being late due to things out of their control, like traffic, accidents, and sudden construction.
I have terrible time-blindness, so I’d frequently be one of those stressed out trying to make my commute. More often than not, I’d make it to the clock within 5 minutes or less!
There was a few times I felt pushed to make a risky turn where you’re allowed to go but yield to oncoming traffic (who were also speeding to not get yelled at or fired, surely!)…, so I could clock in on time…then I thought…
“I refuse to die on my way to work. That would be so pathetically stupid.”
Thankfully I quit when they wanted to get on people for being literally sixty seconds late.
Their answer is always “Just leave earlier?” If they had it their way you’d just be wasting hours of your life unpaid in the parking lot just for them. As if they’re remotely worth it.
How many deaths are caused by a ridiculous obsession with punitive punctuality, which is hampered by forced office commute traffic, which encourages panicked angry driving?
I too, miss “covid traffic.” Roads actually made sense then…
I always turned up 30 mins early to avoid all of this shit. I know people dont want to be at work this early but fuck it, give yourself some leeway. Bosses had the option years back to have flexible hours and spread out that traffic. The 9-5 is bullshit and ancient.
Why does anyone care what time you turn up at the office? People have different sleep preferences and family commtiments. Just schedule any all-hands meetings for a mutually agreeable time and let people live their lives.
I trust my people to spend their time wisely and to self direct if we’re not online at the same time. Shit gets done. Why would I fuck up someone’s sleep in, or put them under unnecessary pressure when they’re trying to prep their kids for school, just to have our clock-ins line up on a spreadsheet I’m never going to look at?
Its easier to communicate with other pepole if you work at the same time. And if your work is mostly based on comunicating with other buisnes clients you need to have at least somewhat fixed shedule
I can understand where there are customers or clients wanting a time table they can communicate with. But to my experience thats often flexible too. Andwith internet ordering sometimes not needed.
The last time I was in an office they had “core hours” from 10-2, which is when everybody had to be there in case of an all hands and to make scheduling meetings easier. That way you’d have some folks come in as early as 7 and as late as 10, and leave as early as 3 or as late as 6.
Of course, this was back when Skype was the only option for videoconferencing so it made sense.
People going on about how much electric cars suck are usually shocked when I agree with them… And moreso when I point out that they suck because they’re still cars, and that’s not a conversation the anti-EV crowd is ready to have.
Also, goes into the old “Reduce, Reuse, Recycle” mantra which it seems nobody understands is ordered that way intentionally as that’s the order they should be implemented. Reducing usage is by far the most effective tactic for positive environmental impact or environmental harm reduction.
They just get to “recycle” and see that they can change pretty much nothing more than putting trash in a different bin and figure that’s all they need to do. Even though it’s a really poor overall impact.
the only expenses businesses ever complain about are wages. they don’t seem to care how much is wasted elsewhere if they could save a few dollars cutting some shift workers allowance
Here’s my theory: bad bosses want you to be there in person because they think you’re lazy.
My old job: there was a constant cloud of mistrust I got when I worked there, just a feeling of unease. I can’t really describe it. Like everyone was just a little bit unhappy with their job. It wasn’t related to the work we were doing, it was the working conditions. Everyone seemed unhappy with some policy. I consistently heard bickering about management and idiotic decisions, plus the usual customer complaints about clients making bad decisions or doing ridiculous things, but that’s normal and nobody seemed miffed about it, just discussing it.
They had a “hybrid” work setup, each person was “allowed” to work remotely one day of the week, each week. The selection of which day was up to each worker and their team/manager to schedule. The expectation was that someone would be in office at all times on every team. Most teams were 3-4 people, so it generally meant that only one person was working remotely at a time.
So let me compound this, and I’ll note, there’s no exaggeration here, this is what happened. While working, we were obligated to be in a teams meeting all day long, 9 times out of 10 it was expected that we were on cam the entire day. Frequently these teams meetings were only the team in question, but the justification was that we were in there in case a manager/team leader/whatever, could pop in and talk to the team if they needed to, and/or if the manager was working remotely. It was pretty rare that happened. The other excuse was so that the team could chat about challenges and discuss any client issues they needed to collaborate on, which most teams just used text chat to do, so the meeting was unnecessary. During my time there, I made several suggestions for improvements and they all fell on deaf ears. Nothing changed. The excuses were poor, and I don’t recall them very clearly because they were largely nonsense. Needless to say, the situation sucked.
I had to drive into the office for about 1h+ each day, and at least the same coming home, so around 2.5h of my day was my commute. I pleaded for more work from home/remote, but it was denied at every turn. Add this to the fact that there was no company provided parking, and parking in that area started at about $70/mo, and went up from there. The nearest parking areas were the most costly at $130+ and they were in high demand, some had wait lists for monthly passes because they simply did not have enough parking spots for everyone that wanted them.
There were probably dozens of other frustrations I could list, I’ll limit myself to one more: my job is IT support, and we largely use remote access software for everything, so it literally does not matter where I work from. As long as I have an internet connection, I can do my job.
I didn’t last 2 years under those conditions. I barely made it to 1 year… There’s a whole story as to why I don’t work there anymore, but it’s not relevant to the point. My point is, I was untrusted, and treated as though I should just shut up and create value for the shareholders, and be happy about it. By the way, the shareholders were the managers.
Contrast with the place I’m working now: I’m provided with $1000 of home office set up funds up front. I have a home office already set up, but I found some nice-to-have things that I was able to get with that money. I was shipped a brand new laptop and dock, which the old place gave me a used, old, crappy, end of life/end of support system. They also provided me with a UPS, keyboard, mouse, and three monitors, webcam, headset, etc. Before I even worked my first shift, all shipped to me directly. This job is 100% work from home, and this workplace doesn’t even have an official office space. The only exception is when hands-on is required, or there’s a team event, and we take over a client’s board room for a day, so we can work from there, which has been less than once a month. I’ve met my team in person exactly twice in the three+ months I’ve worked at this place.
Any suggestions I have are discussed and considered. I feel heard. Some suggestions have already been implemented, others are still under consideration or have been denied with good reasons (usually a technical limitation regarding the systems we use). I don’t need to sit in on useless meetings all day that accomplish nothing, I can listen to music while I get things done without being distracted by my co-workers eating their lunch and forgetting to hit mute. I “see” my team once a day for a stand up to check in on progress and workload. I feel supported, trusted, and I’m free to work in whatever conditions I find are most condusive to getting things done.
As a matter of fact: both jobs require time tracking, the old job I struggled to account for (approx) 5 hrs of my 8 hour shift, at the new job, I frequently can account for (approx) 7 hours of my day without issue.
My boss is good, trusting, and friendly. Compared to the cloud of discontent my old boss would inspire, and the work shows through on that. I’m happier, and I enjoy work again.
I recently heard that the old job nixed hybrid and went full RTO.
QED: Good bosses trust that you’ll do your job and let you do that from wherever you can. Bad bosses want to control you into doing it “their way or the highway”.
It’s micromanaging. They don’t know how to lead properly. When I went through McDonald’s shift manager training they taught the concept of letting your workers do their job, so you could do yours. They literally said to work with your hands in your pockets so that you wouldn’t be tempted to take over and get distracted by going back to what you used to do. A Managers job is to provide their team with whatever they need to do their job effectively. A baseball coach wouldn’t go out on the field and bat or play the outfield.
That manager probably started off doing the job you were doing and got promoted by kissing ass or being a toxic worker and therefore causing everyone else to leave/ perform lower because they were avoiding that person.
In that case, the management was basically the founders. They grew the business without any employees, and when it came time to bring on employees, instead of stepping back and letting the employees figure out the best way to get their job done, they’ve rigidly enforced their work methodology on their employees. When you deviate, they get unhappy.
That specific company was a bit of an outlier, the majority shareholder “brags” that he has fired more people than… I don’t remember, I couldn’t have given less of a shit when he said that. I was busy trying to keep my eyes from rolling out of my head. But that’s literally something he said to me in person, with nobody else in the room. Needless to say, that company is shit for more reasons than controlling management.
Needless to say I was already starting to look for the exit after being there for less than a year.
I can’t really talk about why I am no longer employed there, but I can confirm that I did not, at any point, provide two weeks notice as required by law when quitting. Beyond that, my lawyer advises me not to discuss it.
Needless to say, I’m thankful that I’m not working there anymore.
They literally said to work with your hands in your pockets so that you wouldn’t be tempted to take over and get distracted
Yeah this is my experience with managers, alright. When they weren’t around, the actual work to be done always seemed to go just fine! Happy worker anarchy!
My supervisor’s role in various jobs I’ve had was usually to hang out in their back office or chat up other management -level staff all day. Occasionally opening Excel and punching in some numbers once a week. Not to mention the hard labor of scheming up something they could neg you about so you’d feel pushed to make them look better.
That manager probably started off doing the job you were doing and got promoted by kissing ass or being a toxic worker
This. The company will promote its “true believers” who think shift-managing a MickeyD’s is their life’s plateau, who will take the company line as sacred gospel and punish any whiff of potential heresy.
Provide what their workers need? Maybe it was this way at one point. I feel the role of manager now is the job of an idiot task-master, to convince their employees to work harder without what they need.
I will add that the best manager I ever reported to, always took on things that impeded my ability to do work. If a client was being rude or unreasonable, I would shoot him a note about it and he would usually tell me to drop it and move on, that he would deal with the problem… And he did.
The reason good bosses can trust you is that they can quantify your output. Bad bosses just assume an ass in a seat is getting something done.
This is part of the reason sales positions are often the only WFH positions at a company. Their metrics are clear and easily quantifiable, so if someone’s not doing their job you can tell.
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