Workplaces are in denial over how much Americans have changed(theguardian.com) |
Workplaces are in denial over how much Americans have changed(theguardian.com) |
I hated it before the pandemic. But now I never ever want to go back to it.
It is amazing to see my kids and family for longer.
It isn’t perfect. The weaker boundaries can take their toll. But overall I can’t imagine what circumstance would make me want to commute ever again.
And I’m the CEO so I can’t imagine any client demanding such. And I will never demand it of my employees.
Last September I decided to start going into the office one day a week again. Except my new schedule was go upstairs at 9 and go downstairs at 5, so I left at 9 to get to work at 945 and left work at 4 to get home at 5
I immediately went back to full time WFH. If I commute it's gonna cut into my 8 hours, not into my personal time. That's the new reality, and it's not worth it to the company to cut 25% of my time so they can have me in the office
That was 9 hours of my life, not including the lack of will to do anything after that, for something that could have been summarized in probably two average Medium articles.
Madness.
(Ironically the meetings were regarding Digitalization and Green Energy)
Some companies might try to fight it but they will fail. For information workers like programmers, data entry, accountants and call center reps, work from home is the new normal and that's just how it is now. If you've got to go somewhere for work, it's because you have to be there to do something, like dig a home or cook a steak or mop a floor. The question "why do I need to be there" is now a normal question to ask when considering a job, and a real answer better exist. And if it does, you'd better pay me for my commute.
I also think I am more productive at home, and am upfront about that.
I think the labor market will have a higher rate for in person SWE work compared to the WFH market.
We are already discussing things like having sprint kickoffs as picnics, meeting at coffee shops, etc. So we do have those face-to-face interactions where it counts, but they can also be in an environment that is unconventional. Let's see how it turns out. It may be a pain, who knows? The point is that I have an opportunity to build the ideal company I'd like to work for, so I'm trying that.
But again, I understand this might be a smaller company thing (where people in smaller companies tend to be more invested than ones in larger companies regardless). In a larger company that might not be as easily done.
The CEO of our parent has been leading the charge to "get back in the office, where face to face gatherings foster great ideas, spread our great culture, train our young associates!" etc.
Looking around today in the office, still largely empty, I know the truth is: very little is done 100% onsite in the same building. Hell, we've been working with mixed teams comprised of offshore and nearshore members, and departments in other offices for years prior to the pandemic, and, of course, for the last 2 years under the pandemic in a 100% WFH regime, and have in this distributed team model actually grown assets under management by over 100%. Business has been good if not outstanding.
So it rings very hollow to hear all this cheerleading about how good we had it. How, all of a sudden after, finally, some respite from pandemic numbers, our senior company leaders are "excited" to dive back into long commutes and rub elbows with their employees around the water cooler - not that a lot of elbow rubbing ever really occured.
I swear an HR manager said in an all hands Zoom call, "The one thing I miss most was that Ferry commute!
Yeah. The one parked for hours in a car line, both ways, then getting on a boat trip, if you were lucky a breakdown hadn't occured. All this 3 hours a day on top of at least an 8 hour work day. This claim sounded so forced and desperate it was completely, obviously, an attempt to shill the whole idea.
Can't fathom why we'd continue to cling to this false notion that everything has to happen 9-5 and in one office. It hasn't been like that for a very long time.
Since nobody is going into the office, that HR manager is welcome to take a trip or two on that ferry whenever the mood strikes! It won't be crowded so they can just make a round trip and then head home to get some work done.
I have expressed to my team that, in the spirit of doing things however we want to, our sprint kickoff can be a picnic or could be done at a park (or some different place every couple sprints)
So that's 6 months to find a better job. The latest silly things is they moved from an office with free parking into one that costs around $20 a day, and it's no longer free. Most of us will have to drive or double our commute times. This seems fairly ham handed to me.
Deurbanization will accelerate. There's just no value proposition in cities for white collar workers anymore, and therefore service jobs that cater to them and blue collar work catering to a city directly. They're ruins already and don't know it yet.
But look at my sprint numbers during work from home? Through the roof. I was to the point that I was begging for more tickets because I was chewing through the normal workload. Upper management doesn't care. They want a butt in the seat. Rumor is that their bonuses are tied to RTO numbers.
Zoom has become the new "Death by Power Point". At least at home, when Zoom Fatigue sets in, I can take my normal lunch and have a quick nap.
Translation: all your thoughts are belong to us.
all of my friends said to each other, over and over, we will never go back to the way we lived before. i'm sure millions of Americans had the same experience.
The whole situation is the most crazy shit I ever experienced in my 45 years on the planet. Non of it adds up. We have a dangerous but not very contagious initial 'flu' outbreak. Drug companies heavily tied into governments proceed to profit massively. The ordinary citizen pays in many different ways, reduction in freedom and civil liberties mainly.
We now really have a pandemic (of a much reduced nature) which is effectively by comparison ignored. Nearly all my friends and acquaintances have had the omicron variant (relatively mild flu). Omicron is fairly contagious. I got it from a friend and gave it to a friend. Nearly nothing in the media now when the situation is actually much worse.
With regards to the actual 'meat' of the article Americans have not changed, good times make soft people. There are many soft people out there now. Maybe that is what will really change now..
The pandemic plans were about trying to avoid huge numbers of people dying unnecessarily, and all the grief that was caused by it to their loved ones. The US did a particularly bad job, considering that we are an advanced society with lots of money spent on health care.
Some people didn't get a bad reaction or die if they got it. Plenty of people did. I think something that kills a million people, overwhelms hospitals for years at a time, drives people out of the medical profession, that is more than the false narrative that it's just like the flu.
There's an infrastructure of service businesses (restaurants, tailors, hair cutters) and retailers who depend on the foot traffic of office workers. They are suffering too. There's a critical density of foot traffic that makes a city survive. I feel intuitively that that density is lower than one might expect, but the data may not bear that out.
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Last week my GF went into the office for the first time (she switched employers in the autumn of 2020) for the new "three days office two days WFH" schedule. That was on Monday, the program's first day. She spent the time on Teams calls same as when she was at home. She hasn't been in since and nobody has said anything.
I thought it would be fun to to drive up with her for some moral support. I found out I could get a wework in the building next to her for $29. Turns out for $29 what was actually on offer was an entire floor. It wasn't only me -- people came to service the kitchen during the day.
That's simply how life works, its dynamic and constantly changing
New businesses and business models will evolve and change as they always have