We had a skip-level with a director today who told us our 3 day in office is going to become a 5 day. When asked why, he couldn't articulate a single good reason. It was a "management decision" made by a bunch of tone-deaf fucks who never go to the office or get paid so much money that the cost is trivial. It's time to start unionizing everywhere. Fuck these class traitors.
this post was submitted on 02 Feb 2024
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Time to brush up that resume, WFH or hybrid is the new norm.
Fully remote is the only way. In my experience hybrid workplaces are just as toxic. It could turn into full time office out of the blue like mentioned here or generally the ones showing up to the office get a bit of a preferential treatment if the boss also regularly shows up at the office.
I enjoy hybrid....
I hate online meetings, so i go to the office 2x a week on days i schedule a lot of meetings
It also helps that i'm a very quick subway ride to the office, and i understand not everyone has that luxury. But that's a choice i made to live in the city instead of a 1hr drive to work
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I wish there was a union for office workers who were forced back into the office
We need to start founding them on our own, it isn't just going to happen. These fucking CEOs and investors need to be put in their place. They're deliberately flexing on us, deliberately increasing our stress levels and impacting our lives and health. These fucking leeches would be nothing without us doing the real work for them.
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The cost of it doesn't bother me as much as the time involved. If I'm showing up and leaving at the assigned hour I'm burning 30 or 40 minutes in the car each way. Adding another 15 to 30 minutes to get ready to go in versus my just getting dressed and walking into my home office.
Driving's always subliminally stressful. The whole time you're driving your subconsciously watching the cars around you and looking for problems. Your heart rate goes up and whenever you get to your location It takes a little while to get back in your groove. There's a nonzero transition period there. The last thing I want to do after driving home for 40 minutes and heavy traffic is to barrel right into chores but there I am.
what's even worse is the facr that if they ruled transport was clock in time everywhere would magically be embracing work from home.
My last 3 jobs have had a 45-1.25 hour commute. The city is too expensive to live in, plus traffic, plus trying to find a midpoint between my job and my wife's all kind of lead to this. I get some of my coworkers prefer to go in because they can't work from home because the environment there isn't conducive to working, but that doesn't mean I should have to pay for that. I never realized how much of my time was being sucked up commuting until I the pandemic lol.
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The cost of commuting is just the tip, honestly.
The biggest expense is having to live near your employer, typically centrally-located in big cities with a high cost of living.
Also lost time commuting (especially if you can't afford to live nearby).
And also increased emissions, not only from driving yourself but a collective increase by way of traffic congestion.
Also allowing employees to work remotely massively increases the pool of employees to pull from.
It may not be a 1:1 but the costs (financial and time) are largely offset.
I live in a city, I don't own a car, I walk and ride a bike, and use public transportation and ride sharing. Granted, the convenience and cost savings can greatly depend on the city, how well it values pedestrians and public transportation, and if the housing market isn't stupid. I mean, I'm not talking about SF or NYC here.
The more people move back to cities, the more human-friendly they become. The more that people stay and spread further into the suburbs, the more they rely on private transportation and commuting for something like a quarter of their lives. Relative to a suburban life that relies on driving everywhere, my life is very low on stress and high on comfort. "Comfort", certainly, is relative. I can walk or take public transportation no more than twenty minutes to get to work or anywhere else.
City life can take a little more effort than stepping out of your front door into your car and dealing with traffic and spending money on gas and car insurance. But, aside from a decent pair of shoes and "comfort", it doesn't cost me anything to walk 10 minutes to my local market to spend $80 on a week's worth of food.
I do fully agree that remote work increases the employee pool and benefits employers. I'm just arguing on behalf of city life being more affordable and convenient than it's given credit for.
I'd also argue that the loss of office workers is having a very real impact on small businesses. Some of my favorite and dearly beloved businesses have closed in the past couple years because of the loss of office workers.
I think remote workers should be given a bonus, either by the state or their employer, for living in the city their company is based in. Ironically and with immense frustration, here in Philadelphia, our city actually taxes us for living AND/OR working here. Still, I would never move back to frustration of suburban life.
I live in a city, I don't own a car, I walk and ride a bike, and use public transportation and ride sharing.
That's great that you have that but those options don't exist in most of the US.
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NYC and the costs are NOWHERE NEAR offset.
Then again, that is primarily because landlords are disgustingly greedy.
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I used to live in the city and then moved out because rent is 4500 a month for a one bedroom and I don't feel like spending around 50k a year on housing for a small little rathole, especially when my salary cannot bear that
Also, now I'm not in the city, I have parks and trails and farms all right near me and I feel way healthier
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Also allowing employees to work remotely massively increases the pool of employees to pull from.
This is why it's inevitable that remote work will win out. The companies which embrace it are going to beat their competition.
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Office jobs are BS in the internet era. You go to work to look at a screen. You come home to look at a screen. You go to bed, you look at a screen.
Your bosses are taking calls from their hot tubs while smoking big spliffs and making fun of you for not being as smart as them. They figured it out and they'll be retiring any day now. I'm not even being facetious, I know these people. They're the Pakleds of the human race.
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Yes, please ask me to effectively take a pay cut to pay to drive across town so I can sit at a non-customizable hot desk to join virtual meetings with resources all over the globe. But it’s ok because in return I get to be interrupted constantly by people physically bothering me with a question in the name of “collaboration” instead of opening a ticket or sending an email like a normal person. Genius. I can’t understand why everyone’s complaining. (/s in case it wasn’t obvious).
I work for a FANG company and 2 years ago I willingly took a 13% pay cut on the condition I could work from home permanently. The pay cut hurt but my productivity and output jumped so high that received a promotion along with bump in pay a year later. Being a tech company, they track a lot of metrics around productivity and I know I am 28% more productive when working from home. I refuse to return to an office just because of office politics and drama that distracts me from doing my job. I’m not there to socialize.
I genuinely have no sympathy for anyone who works for these parasites.
I am not asking for your sympathy either. You are however VERY misguided. I totally understand the perspective of “big bad company” but without people like me fighting behind the scenes, I guarantee you things would be a million times worse for everyone on planet earth. I have been targeted in the past due to my stance on privacy but I refused to cave to the pressure. Even after high level managers demanded my “obedience” I resisted and won. You can call them parasites but if all they good people leave (and we do exist) then you might as well just give up now and welcome 1984 with open arms.
They weren'tasking for sympathy
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Does anyone have knowledge and or experience with forming a union in the US? After doing some mild research I failed to find a union that represents telework / work from home employees, specifically those who are facing return to office mandates from their corporate overlords
Can confirm. I have to be in the office way more now and everyone hates it. I work way less than I used to to recoup the misery of commuting.
Most people only have around 4 hours of highly productive work in them a day. The rest is just filler on an 8+ hour day when nothing much is accomplished. Or even worse, it's when errors are made that take away from productivity as they fix them.
Commuting sucks out of the highly productive time. So if someone commutes for 2 hours a day, that's 50% less productivity to the company.
For the managerial types out there. The old adage is completely wrong. Time is not money, productivity is money.
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The most challenging aspect of returning to the office is the commute. This isn’t surprising because commutes of only 30 minutes are linked to higher stress and anger, while 45 minutes or more is linked to poorer overall well-being, daily mood, and health.
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Love WFH for taking care of animals, stress free guilt free breaks, all my home comforts, but I do feel extra sedative when working for hours and do get a bit lonely wishing I could make more coworker friends, but they're on the other side of the continent
Yeah, that's what's crazy about some of the back-to-the-office pushes: come sit in this cubicle and speak to people online who are sitting in similar cubicles in an other city or country..
Me too. I miss my chill office culture where everyone showed up, but the norm was roll in anytime before 1030 or 11am and leave early if you need to. And expected to work from home a day or maybe 2 a week if needed. As long as you showed up for the important meetings in person and attended had a known presence in the office while you were there, it was all good. And being in the office felt good because it was a good collaborative environment. Now I can opt in to go to the office, and have all the sedative isolation of home without the comforts.
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Of course Fortune can't close an article about how stupid RTO is without turning around and advising the (probably employee rather than employer) reader of all the good things they can do back in the office.
So what can you do if your employer mandates your return-to-office? First, focus on maximizing the benefits of this life change...
I mean, I account for $10k salary increase for in office work compared to what I'd take 100% remote.
Cities are expensive if your time is free. All the bullshit really adds up.
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