Rise of remote work

[Ingomike]

Why would you care what happens to someone else's job? You only hear these type of "warnings" from people who think that reporting to an office is necessary. Direct quotes are not required to see where someone is coming from. You can see smoke and surmise that there is probably a fire.

I actually do not want to see these jobs sent out of the country, hence posts to raise the topic…

 

[actaeon277]

I also work from home.











Retired... but from home.

 

[wtburnette]

Imagine how much better the organization will be if the focus is on retaining competent, self-motivated employees rather than worrying about supporting substandard employees with policies that affect quality of life for everyone. It's not hard to know who is who, if work quality is monitored. If not, that's a management problem.

I'm always shocked when I hear (or witness) how incompetent managers are. There is a member of this forum that I used to work with who often complains about his manager. This guy works his butt off, yet the manager keeps promoting the one guy on the team who doesn't do jack. Unfortunately, that's not a rare occurrence. Too many companies load their managers up with too much work and then wonder why the underlings don't seem to get as much done as they should.

It's really not hard to have a good idea of what your employees should do in a given day, week, month and then to hold them accountable to that. If you give a project, or task to an employee, give them all the info they need, what your expectations are and a deadline and then touch base periodically. Easy peasy. I managed / supervised people for about 10 years and this part of the job was pretty straightforward. The hard part (for me) was things like performance reviews and things where most stuff was HR driven and therefore was a PITA.

 

[gregkl]

I hate to be the one to say this, but there are workers that do not need to be closely supervised...and then there are workers who do fine with closer accountability, but do very little without it.

Prior to the last 8 years, I have always worked in the "field" maintaining an office out of my home. I didn't really work in my office since I was a "traveling salesman". My vehicle was my filing cabinet and my motel room was my office in the evening. The effect of WFH during those 20 years or so was doing my expense reports on Saturday morning.

You could tell the people who had the discipline to work unsupervised vs those that took the freedom too far and didn't produce. Even my manager didn't have an office at corporate.

Based on the nature of our work, if you didn't work, it would become evident by the end of the first week of not doing so.

 

[Route 45]

I'm always shocked when I hear (or witness) how incompetent managers are. There is a member of this forum that I used to work with who often complains about his manager. This guy works his butt off, yet the manager keeps promoting the one guy on the team who doesn't do jack. Unfortunately, that's not a rare occurrence. Too many companies load their managers up with too much work and then wonder why the underlings don't seem to get as much done as they should.

It's really not hard to have a good idea of what your employees should do in a given day, week, month and then to hold them accountable to that. If you give a project, or task to an employee, give them all the info they need, what your expectations are and a deadline and then touch base periodically. Easy peasy. I managed / supervised people for about 10 years and this part of the job was pretty straightforward. The hard part (for me) was things like performance reviews and things where most stuff was HR driven and therefore was a PITA.

"Being responsible sometimes means pissing people off."

Good leadership involves responsibility to the welfare of the group, which means that some people will get angry at your actions and decisions. It's inevitable if you're honourable. Trying to get everyone to like you is a sign of mediocrity: You'll avoid the tough decisions, you'll avoid confronting the people who need to be confronted, and you'll avoid offering differential rewards based on differential performance because some people might get upset. Ironically, by procrastinating on the difficult choices, by trying not to get anyone mad, and by treating everyone equally "nicely" regardless of their contributions, you'll simply ensure that the only people you'll wind up angering are the most creative and productive people in the organization. - Colin Powell

 

[Cameramonkey]

You must have me confused with someone else who often rolls his eyes at your posts. I don't drink, save for the odd mixed drink on special occasions.


Why would you care what happens to someone else's job? You only hear these type of "warnings" from people who think that reporting to an office is necessary. Direct quotes are not required to see where someone is coming from. You can see smoke and surmise that there is probably a fire.


That's why there are absolutely no stories of HOA boards that would make the Third Reich blush.

Make sure your garage door is down between the hours of 10:00 pm and 8:00 am. It'll make your cookie cutter vinyl box worth more, I swear.

Or leave your garage door up 24x7 because you MIGHT have someone living in your garage and we can’t have that.

 

[wtburnette]

"Being responsible sometimes means pissing people off."

Good leadership involves responsibility to the welfare of the group, which means that some people will get angry at your actions and decisions. It's inevitable if you're honourable. Trying to get everyone to like you is a sign of mediocrity: You'll avoid the tough decisions, you'll avoid confronting the people who need to be confronted, and you'll avoid offering differential rewards based on differential performance because some people might get upset. Ironically, by procrastinating on the difficult choices, by trying not to get anyone mad, and by treating everyone equally "nicely" regardless of their contributions, you'll simply ensure that the only people you'll wind up angering are the most creative and productive people in the organization. - Colin Powell

I have no idea what that quote has to do with what I posted...

 

[actaeon277]

I have no idea what that quote has to do with what I posted...

An incompetent manager will ride the hard working workers, and leave the slackers alone.
Because it's "easier", or because he wants to be "liked".

 

[actaeon277]

I didn't work from home.

But don't even get me started on incompetent managers.
I've got 30 years of stories.

 

[Route 45]

I have no idea what that quote has to do with what I posted...

Incompetent management.

 

[wtburnette]

Okay, adding to my rant on incompetent managers. I can get behind that...

 

[510picker]

I responded to this originally on post #9. I am still working from home. As of 9/2021, we are required to be in the office one day a month. With this being 7/2022, I am supposed to have been in the office 11 times. I have made it 4 times and the work is still getting done. Working from home has worked great for me. Upper management says this is permanent. No protests from me!

 

[Flingarrows]

I’ve been work from home for the last 8 years. The closest offices are either Denver or Charlotte. The only difference since 2020 is that I used to travel a 6 state region 4 days a week, now 95% wfh

 

[wtburnette]

When I moved from IT Support in 2012 to Information Security, I was amazed at being able to work from home 2 days a week. After the first couple of years, I had back issues that kept me working from home for 6 months straight. Realized at that time that there was basically no reason I couldn't work from home permanently. Talked to my manager and oh no, we just can't do that. This was at a time when my company at that time decided that there should be no permanent work from home employees and everyone had to be in the office 3 days a week minimum.

Left that company at the beginning of 2018 and the new company (my current employer) had a 1 day a week WFH schedule. After 6 months I talked my boss into 2 days a week. We had a really, really bad CIO for a while and he made us go back to 1 day a week (which lead to a serious issue that eventually lead to one of my coworkers quitting). Once that CIO was canned, we went back to 2 days a week WFH and then COVID hit and we've been permanent WFH since. I'd been working on my manager for forever trying to explain that we didn't need to be in the office, but it took COVID to actually show that I had be correct the entire time. As our CISO said on a call after the first year working from home, we never expected that permanent WFH would be as beneficial as it's been and not only have we been able to get the same amount of work done as previously, we actually were able to get more work done.

Last year, the new building my employer moved us to was ready for us to use. At that time, since they had spent a huge amount of money on the floors we were renting, they decided everyone should come back to the office and only WFH two days a week. This was after our CISO had already promised that if we wanted to WFH permanently we could. He kept his word and all of the non-operations InfoSec personnel have been able to WFH permanently ever since. Actually, we're supposed to come into the office once a month to do an in person team meeting, but instead we have a team lunch once a month offsite. My manager rarely goes into the office and fully supports those of us who don't want to go in. Heck, most of us don't even have cubes. My manager and two coworkers have cubes. The rest of us were supposed to use hoteling cubes, but they ended up making too few of those. We couldn't get more than half our team back in the office at the same time now, even if we wanted to. I'm just happy my manager and CISO both see eye to eye on letting us work permanently from home. Unless there is a major shift in the next 10 years, I see finishing out my career working remote.

 

[GodFearinGunTotin]

My wife has been WFH ever since covid hit. She loves it. Just as others have said, the commute, the wear and tear, the loss of time commuting, etc. are a memory now. Her job is the kind they can monitor her output and the others in her department. All of them in that department have done a good job showing how much more productive all of them are WFH. Their manager is happy, their manager’s manager is happy, etc.

Now that covid is slowly loosening its grip, even in Bloomington, for now, it looks like they’re going to let the ones that want to keep WFH keep doing it. Some other departments are starting to require their people to come in 2-3 days a week. But my wife’s manager keeps saying, ”just keep doing what you’re doing”. There is one fly in their ointment though. There’s this one lady that loves being in the office. I think it’s her social life. She’s about the only one though. And she’s on her little crusade to get the others back in the office too. I guess she thinks things will go back to the good old days where she can flit around the office visiting and gossiping.

 

[wtburnette]

My wife has been WFH ever since covid hit. She loves it. Just as others have said, the commute, the wear and tear, the loss of time commuting, etc. are a memory now. Her job is the kind they can monitor her output and the others in her department. All of them in that department have done a good job showing how much more productive all of them are WFH. Their manager is happy, their manager’s manager is happy, etc.

Now that covid is slowly loosening its grip, even in Bloomington, for now, it looks like they’re going to let the ones that want to keep WFH keep doing it. Some other departments are starting to require their people to come in 2-3 days a week. But my wife’s manager keeps saying, ”just keep doing what you’re doing”. There is one fly in their ointment though. There’s this one lady that loves being in the office. I think it’s her social life. She’s about the only one though. And she’s on her little crusade to get the others back in the office too. I guess she thinks things will go back to the good old days where she can flit around the office visiting and gossiping.

We had one member of our team who was like this. Thankfully they gave us the option of going back in, without requiring it. I think she goes in 2 days a week now, but since the rest of us WFH all the time, she only occasionally has anyone to chat with in the office, so I don't think her going into the office is going to last long. She knows the rest of us on the team have no desire to go back in, so she's a lot less vocal about it nowadays.

 

[GodFearinGunTotin]

We had one member of our team who was like this. Thankfully they gave us the option of going back in, without requiring it. I think she goes in 2 days a week now, but since the rest of us WFH all the time, she only occasionally has anyone to chat with in the office, so I don't think her going into the office is going to last long. She knows the rest of us on the team have no desire to go back in, so she's a lot less vocal about it nowadays.

Oh this woman has ruined other things for the others before. She’s being loud about it. Her condition has generated sympathy in the past…we’ll see if it does this time.

 

[wtburnette]

Oh this woman has ruined other things for the others before. She’s being loud about it. Her condition has generated sympathy in the past…we’ll see if it does this time.

Hope she crashes and burns on this one. I detest the people who try to ruin things for others like this.

 

[gregkl]

And she’s on her little crusade to get the others back in the office too. I guess she thinks things will go back to the good old days where she can flit around the office visiting and gossiping.

Heck, I encourage people to WFH and stay out of the office!

I may be in the office every day, but the two days I like the least are the two days that everyone is in the office. I like the other days. The are quiet, I have the interoffice phone so I can dial 3 digit extensions, two large monitors, a stand up desk and since our cost estimating team is in office every day, I can walk over to their desk if I need something without having to wait for the to respond to an email.

Oh, and my commute is 10 minutes without traffic, 12 minutes with traffic so there is that.

 

[The Bubba Effect]

Remote work means everyone moved to the mountains.

Nowhere to live in mountains before covid, double no place to live in the mountains now.