Rise of remote work

[wtburnette]

Yep. We were in the process of reducing our footprint in our building when Covid hit. In fact we had just moved to a new area and were going to be desk sharing and "hoteling". I never even got to sit at my new desk before they sent us all home. They have effectively reduced our footprint to zero now, other than some folks that have to be on site for whatever reason, but it's not many.

Same here. I'm SO thankful that WFH became a full time thing before going into the hoteling / shared space nightmare.

I'm saving a crapload on fuel and wear-n-tear on my car. Plus all the absolute wasted time driving.

Agreed. One of the best things about WFH.

 

[DoggyDaddy]

Same here. I'm SO thankful that WFH became a full time thing before going into the hoteling / shared space nightmare.

Agreed. One of the best things about WFH.

I'm thankful too, and glad that they've extended it indefinitely now. Since the number of cases of covid has gone up in Marion county, they've gone back to requiring masks in the office now. And testing of unvaccinated people once per week.

As for the savings in gas, I've gone from filling up at least once a week, sometimes twice a week, to filling up once every 2 to 2 1/2 weeks.

 

[wtburnette]

Yeah, I'm about the same for gas. Once every 3 weeks is about what I'm doing right now, as I don't go anywhere that often. Meet some friends for breakfast every Saturday, go to Kroger 2 miles away 3 or 4 times a week and to the range not far away every couple weeks or so. Occasionally I'll drive longer to meet people at ranges further away, but not too often. Works out pretty well since I'm a homebody.

 

[WebSnyper]

In the globalist future it will be all kittens and rainbows so no need for INFOSEC…

Too funny... And actually quite the opposite.

 

[Ingomike]

Too funny... And actually quite the opposite.

Glad you found it funny, it was a joke…

 

[BiscuitsandGravy]

Yeah, I'm about the same for gas. Once every 3 weeks is about what I'm doing right now, as I don't go anywhere that often. Meet some friends for breakfast every Saturday, go to Kroger 2 miles away 3 or 4 times a week and to the range not far away every couple weeks or so. Occasionally I'll drive longer to meet people at ranges further away, but not too often. Works out pretty well since I'm a homebody.

Same here pretty much... My schedule is 1- Church on Sunday ~5miles, 2- Grocery ~10 miles. I'm what the kids call a 'home boy'... I like to stay home. I used to fill up once a week at least. Now, probably 3 weeks ago. I don't remember.

Being WFH, you also have to adapt... We have a power outage at a site today... Some CS ladies that WFH, you can tell their schedule, check emails, orders, etc. ~7am. Now they cannot access local file shares. You need to be able to support them at 'their' work hours which means I'm on a call at 7:15. I'm sitting here in my sweats w/ my coffee on the back porch on my laptop. Its all good.

 

[wtburnette]

Great thing is, if I want to go somewhere, anywhere, I can just grab my laptop and do it, without worrying about anything. The rare days that I have no meetings, I could be in a coffee shop all day, or sit on the beach. Doesn't matter, as long as the work gets done. The flexibility, along with having no commute, is absolutely fantastic.

 

[KLB]

That is great, but as soon as they decide the WFH works pretty good they can also decide a worker in a cheaper country can do it.

Those that cannot think about this will deny the significance of the probability…

FYI, I do not care if everyone or no one works from home, I have no horse in the race but my spidey senses tell me this will not be good for American workers in the long run, even those that love it…

I'm late to this party I see.

Outsourcing to other countries has been a thing for a long time. Modern networks are much more to blame than WFH will ever be, because they allow people in far away places to connect to resources at a workable speed.

You are just totally convinced that now companies see jobs can be done remotely, so they will move things overseas. I'm saying I don't think WFH changes anything. A company that was going to move work overseas was going to do it anyway. They aren't going to hire some random person living in India to do a job, they are going to hire a company.

What it does allow, is for a company to hire someone that is not local. We now have a half dozen IT people that live and work far from Chicago. Three transferred from plants to working for Corp IT, two were able to be retained when they moved away from Chicago, and the last was hired for a position the company was having trouble filling.

This whole subject is just more hand wringing.

 

[wtburnette]

I'm late to this party I see.

Outsourcing to other countries has been a thing for a long time. Modern networks are much more to blame than WFH will ever be, because they allow people in far away places to connect to resources at a workable speed.

You are just totally convinced that now companies see jobs can be done remotely, so they will move things overseas. I'm saying I don't think WFH changes anything. A company that was going to move work overseas was going to do it anyway. They aren't going to hire some random person living in India to do a job, they are going to hire a company.

What it does allow, is for a company to hire someone that is not local. We now have a half dozen IT people that live and work far from Chicago. Three transferred from plants to working for Corp IT, two were able to be retained when they moved away from Chicago, and the last was hired for a position the company was having trouble filling.

This whole subject is just more hand wringing.

One of the arguments I always made to my manager about WFH is that instead of hiring "the best and brightest" for a position from a candidate pool of just one state, with WFH you can hire the best and brightest for a position with a candidate pool of the entire nation and possibly beyond. This is a huge positive for companies, if they would just realize it. Unfortunately, too many are stuck forcing DEI quotas to get much in the way of any benefit from this.

 

[gregkl]

Same here. I'm SO thankful that WFH became a full time thing before going into the hoteling / shared space nightmare.

Agreed. One of the best things about WFH.

LOL, our company is in the process of setting up hoteling space here. The sales team is supposed to WFH all the time, but others will work in the office a couple days per week. 2 of the 4 sales people have cleared out their cube and have gone home to work. One is vacillating; she wants to WFH full time, but she has been here over 25 years and doesn't want to pack up her **** and move out of her cube and one (me) opted to stay at the office full time.

Others that were told to WFH every day and have been told to pack up their cube but are under the impression they are still required to come in two days.

If everyone still comes in on Tuesday's and Friday's, what's the point of moving out of your cube?

This is going to be a circus.

Good news is while everyone is juggling hotel space, I will sit in my cube unaffected by it all.

I have a first interview next week. Pray it goes well for me and it's a good fit.

 

[Ingomike]

I'm late to this party I see.

Outsourcing to other countries has been a thing for a long time. Modern networks are much more to blame than WFH will ever be, because they allow people in far away places to connect to resources at a workable speed.

You are just totally convinced that now companies see jobs can be done remotely, so they will move things overseas. I'm saying I don't think WFH changes anything. A company that was going to move work overseas was going to do it anyway. They aren't going to hire some random person living in India to do a job, they are going to hire a company.

What it does allow, is for a company to hire someone that is not local. We now have a half dozen IT people that live and work far from Chicago. Three transferred from plants to working for Corp IT, two were able to be retained when they moved away from Chicago, and the last was hired for a position the company was having trouble filling.

This whole subject is just more hand wringing.

Thou doth protesteth so much. LOL

 

[xwing]

I moved to Indiana last year because of WFH. I had already been WFH 4 days a week for probably about a decade, with one day in-office for in-person meetings / discussions. My firm moved to full WFH in March 2020 due to Covid, and I started building a house in Indiana that same year.

In reality, there are both pros and cons. I certainly can get more work done working remotely, and many of the people I work with are overseas anyway. It makes things much easier for early morning or evening calls. And not commuting is fantastic; saving several hours a day. But you do lose some personal touch; I imagine it's much harder for people near the beginning of their career who don't already have long-standing work relationships. Spending a few min on a Teams call talking about personal things isn't the same as hanging out in person.

 

[Route 45]

Thou doth protesteth so much. LOL

I'm starting to see a correlation between people who need to control others through their HOA and people who think that reporting to an office to be micromanaged is necessary.

"Freedom" indeed.

 

[HoughMade]

I'm starting to see a correlation between people who need to control others through their HOA and people who think that reporting to an office to be micromanaged is necessary.

"Freedom" indeed.

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. For them, being managed is the best thing that could happen...if they want to keep their job.

The hard thing is knowing who is who.

 

[Ingomike]

I'm starting to see a correlation between people who need to control others through their HOA and people who think that reporting to an office to be micromanaged is necessary.

"Freedom" indeed.

Still drunk? Where did I say it is necessary to report to an office? Please quote. I am simply warning that once WFH becomes more normal the person with the job may not be the former in office person, it could be in another country that is cheaper…

What do you have against contracts? An HOA is just a contract between property owners…

 

[wtburnette]

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. For them, being managed is the best thing that could happen...if they want to keep their job.

The hard thing is knowing who is who.

Agreed, but that's what managers are for. They're supposed to know when someone is performing correctly or not. Shouldn't matter if they're in the office or not. Too many managers nowadays don't have a clue, IMO.

 

[Route 45]

Still drunk?

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.

Where did I say it is necessary to report to an office? Please quote. I am simply warning that once WFH becomes more normal the person with the job may not be the former in office person, it could be in another country that is cheaper…

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.

What do you have against contracts? An HOA is just a contract between property owners…

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.

 

[Route 45]

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. For them, being managed is the best thing that could happen...if they want to keep their job.

The hard thing is knowing who is who.

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.

 

[HoughMade]

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.

That sounds like the ideal world....one we have not, nor ever will, live in.

Supervision that keeps a person productive and employed doesn't sound like such a sacrifice for most organizations.

 

[Route 45]

That sounds like the ideal world....one we have not, nor ever will, live in.

But those organizations that strive for that goal, whether ultimately obtainable or not, will be orders of magnitude more effective than those that shrug their shoulders and pander to the lowest common denominator.

Supervision that keeps a person productive and employed doesn't sound like such a sacrifice for most organizations.

Supervision is always necessary, we probably just disagree on what level of supervision is necessary before organizations kick the scatterbrains to the curb. Also probably depends a lot on what type of organization is being discussed.