Meanwhile, back in reality, my company isn't upside down on commercial real estate & likes making more money so we are getting a smaller office to house our servers & equipment.
Mine was a bit hesitant but they are now talking seriously about getting rid of more offices and they had done one pass on that before. I would sorta like them to have an office subscription
My company did the same. We had a six week assessment period where everyone was required to come in two days per week. Once that data showed no major difference in output, we got a smaller office (for receiving and such) and everyone was told the office is optional. Smart business that kept people happy.
Find me a company deeply invested in office real estate (in particular, expecting a return on that real estate), and I’ll show you a company against remote work.
The real detriments don’t exist. True, I have met workers that don’t like remote work: companies have latched on to those people as an excuse to continue what is otherwise an entirely transparent narrative.
If anything I gain productivity by working from home. I see companies that don’t support that kind of work as entirely being behind the curve.
And this is where we diverge culturally. The rest of us in the workforce that haven't been brain-washed to believe that the old school corporate lifestyle/mentality is the way things should be will go find jobs elsewhere for companies that are much more progressive (or start companies of our own). The Jamie Dimons of the world will be left with only their vacant ass commercial real estate still saying "nobody wants to work" or some shit.
I always raise an eyebrow when people generally claim remote “just does not work.” This seems to imply they’ve only tried one or two ways to set up a remote workforce because there simply hasn’t been enough time to honestly try several permutations.
I agree that some jobs cannot do it (those where physically it can’t be done, like manufacturing or lab work). But with such a service-based economy, the number of jobs that can be remote is only increasing.
I think it’s ultimately more a reflection of an unwillingness or inability to fundamentally restructure the way teams complete work and collaborate. It assumes the way offices work is objectively correct and must be maintained.
The managing challenges of remote work are just different than in-office; they are not more numerous. In-office environments are littered with ineffective, overbearing, and/or intrusive management styles. Management is always squawking that their workers need to be agile and adapt, but they are rarely willing to do the same.
That's OK, I didn't have any desire to work for that asshole anyway...
Most folks are exponentially more productive when they don't have to waste hours of their day (stressfully) driving/public transit from A to B just to do their job.
I am way more productive when I'm not also being constantly interrupted by the people around me all day long. When I sit down to work at home I will go hours without even looking up from my screen. When my attention is interrupted in the office, which happens regularly, it takes me a good 5-7min to focus again. Repeat that same process a couple times an hour and not a lot gets done.
I can’t believe how much time I waste in the office. It’s unbelievable. I will say that certain meetings in the office are better. However, maybe a day or so for those but for the most part. It’s such a waste.
I’m sick of these fucking old white CEO’s being out of touch. People want and need flexibility and go out of their way to find it. I personally prefer going into the office, I’m more productive that way even though my entire team is remote. People just want the option and they want to be treated like the adults that they are. Companies just need to offer it, and if it doesn’t work out for whatever reason or they can’t act like an adult, then get rid of the employee. Not a hard system.
The reality is that Jaime Dimon is out of touch. On last year’s employee conference call, he was asked about return to office and how WFH has opened up significant flexibility for employees personal lives, specifically, children’s doctors appointments. He responded that your nanny should be taking the kids to your kids doctor’s appointments so you can work at the office.
LOL, because that company did sooooo badly when everyone was remote for COVID. Boo hoo, my real estate is worthless now that remote work has been proven to have no significant impact on productivity–objectively and empirically
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