“Why don’t people want to hang out with me?”
“My only friends are people on my payroll.”
“People don’t want to hang out with me unless I pay them”
Unfortunately, there is no shortage of sadistic people like this who bond together just fine.
“Hi, I’m a shitty person who has an opinion that is self-serving. Let me tell you what I think.”
Remember how clean the air was when most people were working from home?
But shareholder value is more important.
Good luck to this woman finding good employees. Good employees have a choice.
Every single one of my jobs in the last 5 years or so has stated that remote work has undeniably increased productivity and output, as well as general morale.
Many of them have sold all their offices so they couldn’t even RTO if they wanted to.
For some reason one of them still keeps the 7 floor office building and even a receptionist and security guard…despite about 5 people working from there on any given day. But hey, whatever.
Lots of leases are for 7-10 years, sometimes more. They’re likely contractually obligated to keep it for now. The sunk cost on that is at least part of the reason why RTO was being pushed so hard.
Tons of office leases have expired since lockdown times and weren’t renewed. Not a lot of them left, and that’s why RTO mandates have waned. Still get a few “the cruelty is the point” people like what’s in OP.
Ah I should have clarified, they own the building. But otherwise yes, you’re right.
That might be why, then. Nobody wants to buy office buildings right now.
What an idiot. Yet another example of failing upwards.
Well, if you work hard, sleepless nights and have family connections, you can also be that idiot.
Does she think sleepless nights are going to improve mental health?
I am in general a big proponent for going to go to the office, I am an IT guy, and I find I have more focus when in the office, I also don’t want to associate my home with work, I need the physical separation and I find it to be easier to coordinate with others in the office.
That being said, this CEO is stupid, loneliness is not cured by being forced to interact with people that I need to be paid to interact with.
I also realize that just because I find the office beneficial, does not mean I get to dictate how other people should feel about it.
A completely sane viewpoint that respects the different needs and preferences of others? Weird.
I completely respect your position. Some people genuinely like the office life and it’s totally fine!
Personally, I have never had any boundary issue with home being used for work. I have my own office room that is also my hobby room that I made as I like, so it’s a very nice and quiet space, and I love working there.
Besides the obvious aspects of this post which are quite dumb, what that person misses is that by working from home I finish to work at 17 and at 17.01 I am free to go meet people. Cutting commuting time frees quite some time for personal life and not to mention working from home is associated with more flexible work too, like doing some chores during a break etc., which frees up even more time.
Same here. If I could I’d only WFH, but we only get a few days a week. I don’t have an issue disconnecting mentally from work. However, I think a big contributor is I don’t exactly hate my current job. I sometimes surprise myself how easily and quickly I switch off.
My TL on the other hand prefers the office, probably because they have two young kids, who can be quite loud and require lots of attention.
I was a manager at an aerospace company for a bunch of years, just recently retired. One of my takeaways was that, like so many facets of managing people, there’s no single right way to do WFH. I had employees who could WFH 100% of the time, with increased productivity and increased morale. I had employees that fit OP’s description and were super lonely during the pandemic because their whole social life revolved around work. I had employees who preferred WFH, but were much more productive when they could collaborate in person.
I was frustrated that my company insisted on implementing one-size-fits-all solutions, which eventually became 100% RTO. I thought it would have been most effective to let managers decide what worked best for individuals and teams. For many of my employees, I would have asked for a hybrid arrangement, where they came into the office two days a week, with one of those days being common to the team and one being flexible, and the ability for anyone to come in more than that if desired. But I also had employees who either didn’t have a collaborative job, or they collaborated with people at different sites (so had to do virtual meetings anyway), and those people I would have said could 100% WFH.
I am in general a big proponent for going to go to the office, I am an IT guy, and I find I have more focus when in the office, I also don’t want to associate my home with work, I need the physical separation and I find it to be easier to coordinate with others in the office.
Some people do.
The trick about remote work is not that it lets us all work from home, but that it gives us another location and we can pick our best environment.
I found a job that promises “work from anywhere in the country”, and many people min-maxed their location for profit. They only have to match time-zone to ensure they’re punched in during ‘business hours’ (and, for some, starting later in their day to synch with the home office is f’n awesome).
But they still maintain “hotel” spots, two of them permanent. People did find some days or many days in the office each week is their jam. Some come and go as per their current needs and best environment. One of my peers went camping, and did a server update over VPN over starlink over smores, and then put the laptop away for the weekend. He was proving he can camp while on-call.
Sometimes I like my view. Sometimes I need a featureless wall to cut down on distractions. I find what is best and I rock that shit. And that’s what it’s about: find your best space.
When the only space is Office Space, then there is no freedom to find that environment where you crush it today, and that needs to be seen as an impairment. Let us pick our time and place and - sun tzu - victory is assured.
I fully agree with you, there are times when I need to work remote, I hate it, but I love having the option to do it.
During the pandemic, I worked from home in two week periods, it was absolutely terrible, just disconnecting from the RDP session and be in “home mode” never worked for me, normally take the bus to and from the office and have an hour to wind down after work and just empty my mind through Youtube, I don’t have that mandatory time when I work from home…
These days I at least have a car, so I can take a trip after work, but when driving, my brain doesn’t really rest, so it is far from the relaxing time heading home on the bus…
I started working remotely before the pandemic because it absolutely works for me. But part of that is that I have things that I do to get into and out of office mode. I get up and get dressed, make myself breakfast, and have a separate area where my office PC lives. When I’m done with work I leave my office. Even if I’m going to be back in there very shortly to record music (because my office doubles as my studio) I walk out of it physically. If I don’t feel disconnected enough from work I’ll change clothes or shower. The key is to always be intentional about it.
That’s not in an effort to convince you of anything. Just giving you tools to keep in your toolbox in case you ever want to use them.
Some folks do way better in an office. Some don’t. But I’m absolutely convinced the workers that want everyone back at the office really need someone to talk to because no one in their personal life wants to be their friend. They don’t have a life with interests and hobbies. But the people that want to go back to the office because it’s better for them, I absolutely support y’all! I think you’re great.
At the moment I live in an apartment with two rooms, a kitchen, a bathroom and a walk in closet, it is 70m2, I would love to have a separate room to go and do work in, but it is just not feasible here.
I recently installed a two meteter long office desk (can be risen and lowered naturally), I have my normal home computer on one side and a workspace for when I work from home, it is far better than remoting in from my home machine, so improvements are being made
I get it. And that’s part of (but certainly not the only) the reason it’s not for everyone. Even if you had 200m² it might not be for you because some folks just honestly do better in the office, but at 70 it’s going to be psychologically difficult for almost anyone. You’ve made good headway with the separate work workstation on your desk.
Yeah, when using RDP from my home machine, it was far too easy to alt tab into a game…
I worked in the stupid open office space these assholes designed for years. It. Sucked. Distractions everywhere. I couldn’t focus on anything. Now I get double the work done in half the time and I don’t have a pain in the ass commute. The hubris of assuming what works for you will work for everyone is astounding.
Thank you sooo much for your very presence. We are sooo grateful for your wisdom…
Go fuck yourself with a rusty railroad spike.
Linked in is a cancer.
As a naturally introverted person, working remotely has vastly improved my social life, well-being, and productivity.
I used to burn all my social energy at the office, and when nights and weekends came around, I’d go into hermit mode to recover. Work drained me. Now I’m sitting on my social charger all day while I’m working, and I actually have the energy to see my friends after work and have much better balance in my life.
I’m fortunate to work for a company that let everyone decide what works best for them when RTO mandates started going around, and they get better work from me because of it. This CEO can get fucked.
As a naturally ambiverted person I like that WFH lets me attend social events right after work
“Hard truth” she just made up to fit her own narrative without recourse to facts.
Time to go back to the office and have still all meeting online with extra background noise. Looking for a quiet corner to be able to hear others properly is great for my mental health.
Also the office life improves my soft skills, like:
- walking with my laptop open im my hand with a headset on to find an empty meeting room
- sharing desks with annoying co-workers from other departments
- enjoying other peoples conversations about their lunch plans from the other side of the open plan office
- fighting for the thermostat setting and opening/closing the windows
- embracing the daily multi-hour commute in rush hours
It really builds character.
Your office windows can be opened ? Luxury!
After writing that I feel I may need to clarify that I mean actual physical windows in an office building, not some self opening Microsoft product.
This made me chuckle :)
Your office has 11 windows?
It used to have 95 windows, but times have changed
My first job shoved me into a tiny room that’s maybe 10 C hotter than the rest of the office. Anyone who wandered in would go “Wow it’s really hot in here! You guys should talk to building management!”. I swear the damn office nearly gave me heat stroke.
People can have friends outside of work.
Yes yes… RTO is all about restoring the productivity and mental health of the worker. Ignore the declining property value of commercial buildings. Tell me again who stands to gain the most by increasing commercial property value? Ah yeah that’s right; Billionaires. Interesting, at the bottom of every social problem we seen to find a billionaire.
Where is this energy during lay off season? No issues witb potentially 90k hours of social bonding gone to provide better executive bonuses.
This person is a disgrace.
Ah yes, the mental health crisis is solved at the coffee corner with help from your coworkers.
