Rise of remote work

[Ingomike]

The "layoffs" are a feature, not a bug. If you can convince people to voluntarily leave, it eliminates severance.

Was about to post something similar. Stealth layoffs without the negative press.

I also think the A-holes simultaneously working 2 jobs from home, but not able to keep their yaps shut about it, added urgency to companies forcing butts back in seats.

Wow!

 

[Ingomike]

I don't disagree. Seems weird for a layoff done that way though, as it doesn't necessarily lay off the lowest performers. You would think that if a company needed to downsize, they would get rid of the non-productive workers and keep the top performers. Laying off via bringing people back to the office doesn't necessarily do that.

It may just get rid of the most expensive employees. They don’t care what you produce if it is not in their arbitrary budgets…

 

[wtburnette]

It may just get rid of the most expensive employees. They don’t care what you produce if it is not in their arbitrary budgets…

Ain't that the truth.

 

[wtburnette]

I also think the A-holes simultaneously working 2 jobs from home, but not able to keep their yaps shut about it, added urgency to companies forcing butts back in seats.

What's the expression about people ruining things for others?

Before I was promoted to team lead, I could easily do my 40 hour job in 15 - 20 hours of work and be performing higher than everyone but one other person on the team. I came close to getting a second WFH job doing a similar job where I knew I could do the work in 20 hours. Figured the hassle of dealing with two employers wouldn't be worthwhile, but even if I could have been paid half as much as my current position it was darn tempting.

 

[DoggyDaddy]

You say that like its a bad thing? LOL

It is for me. That's why I end up doing a lot of work "off the clock" from home.

 

[Twangbanger]

It may just get rid of the most expensive employees. They don’t care what you produce if it is not in their arbitrary budgets…

Yep. The bean counters don't give a sh.t if your department "produces" or not. Because that's the manager's problem. Financial goals will be met. Productivity and Morale are Someone Else's problem. They shove a Voluntary Layoff up your azz? You have to produce with less. You spread the work around, and people leave because they're burned out? That's because the "people leaders" didn't create a "family culture" amid the chaos. We just need to send them to a Jocko Seminar where they learn to take "extreme ownership" of the "Employee Experience." Take a break for refreshments...

 

[bwframe]

Best wishes for all of our INGO WFH folks!

Hopefully, the new WFH plan is not just bitching about management?

 

[DoggyDaddy]

Best wishes for all of our INGO WFH folks!

Hopefully, the new WFH plan is not just bitching about management?

In my case, our local management is good. These decisions are being made in Washington, DC. Far removed from the real world.

 

[GodFearinGunTotin]

Best wishes for all of our INGO WFH folks!

Hopefully, the new WFH plan is not just bitching about management?

Nah, that’ll take up time when they’re back in the office.

 

[jamil]

The "layoffs" are a feature, not a bug. If you can convince people to voluntarily leave, it eliminates severance.

I also think the A-holes simultaneously working 2 jobs from home, but not able to keep their yaps shut about it, added urgency to companies forcing butts back in seats.

The assholes working two jobs shouldn’t be much trouble in the future with all the data mining going on. Lots of services out there that will tell you when an employee is working for someone else.

 

[DoggyDaddy]

The assholes working two jobs shouldn’t be much trouble in the future with all the data mining going on. Lots of services out there that will tell you when an employee is working for someone else.

Still trying to wrap my head around the idea that I would ever want another job in addition to mine.

 

[jamil]

Still trying to wrap my head around the idea that I would ever want another job in addition to mine.

Why. You get twice the money for half the work?

 

[WebSnyper]

Best wishes for all of our INGO WFH folks!

Hopefully, the new WFH plan is not just bitching about management?

Been doing it in some shape or other for going on 14 years now. My brother has been longer at it.

Not saying it couldn't change, but there are jobs out there that have been wfh for a long time.

 

[GodFearinGunTotin]

Still trying to wrap my head around the idea that I would ever want another job in addition to mine.

Truth be known as productive as those people probably are they have room in their days to take on even more jobs.

 

[wtburnette]

Best wishes for all of our INGO WFH folks!

Hopefully, the new WFH plan is not just bitching about management?

I'm not feeling at all concerned. My VP, who is also the CISO, made us a promise that anyone in InfoSec who wanted to continue to work from home, can work from home, as long as he's there. He's not going anywhere any time soon and neither is my direct manager who also supports us working from home. Our team is the most mature team in our IS department, flat out stated by our CIO, CISO and our top Legal exec. On top of that, we're doing work that is mandatory. I also know that if layoffs came and out team had to reduce headcount, I'd be one of 2 or 3 that would be kept. That said, if the worst does come, that's fine. I am experienced enough in my field to get another WFH job fairly easily. There are plenty of companies that still have WFH positions for Information Security positions...

 

[bigretic]

What's the expression about people ruining things for others?

Before I was promoted to team lead, I could easily do my 40 hour job in 15 - 20 hours of work and be performing higher than everyone but one other person on the team. I came close to getting a second WFH job doing a similar job where I knew I could do the work in 20 hours. Figured the hassle of dealing with two employers wouldn't be worthwhile, but even if I could have been paid half as much as my current position it was darn tempting.

This is where things get interesting IMO because on the WFH side you don't see it, but many people are now bragging about it. In the office I pay a lot of attention to it because everyone is always "too busy" to take on a new task...
On the employee side, i do see your point. On the employer side, one might argue you are under utilized and poorly managed or you would not have that much idle time. This kind of phenomenon is more so experienced in "office" work than manufacturing or production, where time study rules in efficient environments. There seems to be a divisive line on the thought of getting paid to do "the job" vs. getting paid to work "full time". I see this regularly where people hide from any additional work or pretend to be busy after meeting the minimum task load. This simply cannot be done in more visible positions like a manufacturing line, production, etc. I would also argue that this behavior is detrimental to the overall health of the company and it's staff. In general, the better a company operates, the better the staff will be in areas of compensation, etc. Now, ymmv as i do also understand that some companies will put itself above all else and just use it to increase shareholder profit and c-level compensation unfortunately. I guess i'd rather be busy passing the time and not watching twitchcrotch videos or paying palword or whatever TF the game of the month is.

 

[wtburnette]

This is where things get interesting IMO because on the WFH side you don't see it, but many people are now bragging about it. In the office I pay a lot of attention to it because everyone is always "too busy" to take on a new task...
On the employee side, i do see your point. On the employer side, one might argue you are under utilized and poorly managed or you would not have that much idle time. This kind of phenomenon is more so experienced in "office" work than manufacturing or production, where time study rules in efficient environments. There seems to be a divisive line on the thought of getting paid to do "the job" vs. getting paid to work "full time". I see this regularly where people hide from any additional work or pretend to be busy after meeting the minimum task load. This simply cannot be done in more visible positions like a manufacturing line, production, etc. I would also argue that this behavior is detrimental to the overall health of the company and it's staff. In general, the better a company operates, the better the staff will be in areas of compensation, etc. Now, ymmv as i do also understand that some companies will put itself above all else and just use it to increase shareholder profit and c-level compensation unfortunately. I guess i'd rather be busy passing the time and not watching twitchcrotch videos or paying palword or whatever TF the game of the month is.

Yep, I understand what you're saying and there is a big issue with this in certain companies and certain positions. I saw a lot of that when I worked at Anthem. There were a ton of extremely highly paid individuals who basically didn't do jack . Any time they were asked to take on additional work or duties, they were "too busy" and would launch into projects they attached themselves to where they didn't actually do anything except "consult as a SME" or meetings that they attended that were the same.

Thankfully, at least for myself, my position is not that way. Our team does a job. We aren't salary, we aren't tied to 40 hour work weeks and as long as we hit certain productivity numbers, my boss and her boss are perfectly happy with us. I've had very frank conversations with my boss and she doesn't care if I get the work done in 20 hours, or 60 hours, as long as it gets done. This, IMO, is how certain jobs should function. We're not sitting on an assembly line needing to make xx number of widgets per hour. I don't look down on those jobs at all, but what I do and what a lot of IS/IT/InfoSec jobs do is not the same as a factory job and don't need to be tied to the same clock. That's an issue that I think should be addressed, that every position (except executives) seem to be tied to the same 40 hour clock, which doesn't really make sense in certain cases.

 

[gregkl]

It may just get rid of the most expensive employees. They don’t care what you produce if it is not in their arbitrary budgets…

I believe this is what happened me. I was one of the higher compensated sales guys and they hired this kid fresh out of college(only sales experience was a few months at a Lazy Boy showroom). They paid him about a third of what I was being paid. He wasn't selling anything, but management felt like they could direct him to do mundane, non-productive tasks given what they are paying him. All the time while I kept $40 million worth of customers happy.

When they terminated me, they gave me zero explanation why.