WaPo opinion piece from a CEO who wants people back in the office

[Anonymous]

We just got the dreaded email from our ceo today. Basically they said they think people are taking advantage of working from home and expects us all back in the office by x date, vaccinated or not.

[Anonymous]

Good job staff! I think a lot of folks in senior management want people in the office because they don’t really produce, just hold meetings and get to feel important due to their position.

That being said, I do miss being in the office but that’s because I’m a social person and I actually really like some of the people I work with and truly do miss seeing them. I agree that some collaboration for certain jobs is necessary and it’s nice to do it in person. However, as a new mom I truly appreciate the expanded work from home because it makes my hectic day so much smoother. I’m not battling traffic rushing to pick up little ones. I am so much more comfortable being near my infant and hearing our lovely nanny sing him songs and care for him so well while I’m just a few feet away in the office.

[Anonymous]

Much more productive now. No morning beauty routine. No commute. I wake up, log on and get busy. We've had to make many changes to cloud based services to keep the business running efficiently.

If your office is not using the latest tech to mskw things move along quickly, YOU /your office culture is the problem.

Just think of all the money you will save on office space!

[Anonymous]

PS, if you can't measure productivity in remote work situations the problem is your managers who don't want to or are incapable of supervising. If the work is done, it's done.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The second part of it is a bit disjointed.
However, she is on point saying you can be a contractor if you don't want to come in.
She is essentially right and what companies want is responsible employees.
Why are rental cars all double the price from a year ago? Why are all Airbnbs rented, also for double or triple price now?
The reason people need to be in the office is accountability. That you are working.
Let's be honest, productivity at home is not even close to productivy in office.
She knows it, you know it, we all know it.
Enough BS people. Show up for work or expect to be fired, in not too far of a future.

Awww. You're so cute with your outdated dinosaur Big Boomer Energy.

She's right. I own a company and so much is slipping through the cracks. Communications that took 20 seconds of face to face conversations are now long email chains. Client calls/emails are taking way to long. Productivity is no where near what it was 2 months into closing to in-person work.

A memo is going out in June requiring in person attendance no later than September 1 or they will be fired.

can happen almost instantly on Teams/zoom. in person? definitely takes longer unless you're sitting in adjacent cubicles.

[Anonymous]

I just can’t get over the fact that a CEO threatens to switch people to contractor status without realizing there’s a legal definition for that, and it’s not something the boss gets to decide on a whim.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:We just got the dreaded email from our ceo today. Basically they said they think people are taking advantage of working from home and expects us all back in the office by x date, vaccinated or not.

When is your return date?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I just can’t get over the fact that a CEO threatens to switch people to contractor status without realizing there’s a legal definition for that, and it’s not something the boss gets to decide on a whim.

+1 what a disaster

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I just can’t get over the fact that a CEO threatens to switch people to contractor status without realizing there’s a legal definition for that, and it’s not something the boss gets to decide on a whim.

+1 what a disaster

You realize she didn't get this position for her smarts? Its nepotism. The CEO inherited the company from her father. Which means they can't fire her and won't even try. What she says - goes. Regardless of what her underpaid roster of employees want.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The second part of it is a bit disjointed.
However, she is on point saying you can be a contractor if you don't want to come in.
She is essentially right and what companies want is responsible employees.
Why are rental cars all double the price from a year ago? Why are all Airbnbs rented, also for double or triple price now?
The reason people need to be in the office is accountability. That you are working.
Let's be honest, productivity at home is not even close to productivy in office.
She knows it, you know it, we all know it.
Enough BS people. Show up for work or expect to be fired, in not too far of a future.

Awww. You're so cute with your outdated dinosaur Big Boomer Energy.

She's right. I own a company and so much is slipping through the cracks. Communications that took 20 seconds of face to face conversations are now long email chains. Client calls/emails are taking way to long. Productivity is no where near what it was 2 months into closing to in-person work.

A memo is going out in June requiring in person attendance no later than September 1 or they will be fired.

can happen almost instantly on Teams/zoom. in person? definitely takes longer unless you're sitting in adjacent cubicles.

The lengths to which these lazy pps are going to justify staying at home are pretty insane!
It can't happen as instantly on teams/zoom bcs many people are not actually on it. Many do not respond to requests for hours. Many do not answer all e-mails for days.

[Anonymous]

This woman seems out of touch, completely.

The question of permanent WFH, however, is not so simple. I hear all these people saying they are more productive at home as if work product is the only metric to use to measure productivity. Creation of new ideas, brainstorming, tangential conversations, camaraderie build by walks with coworkers, lunches, mentoring, etc, are also important and necessary for long term success.

We are having conversations of what the right mix should look like. We should offer more flexibility. But we can’t really let employees decide what their WFH days (or hours?) are. People need to be together - otherwise why waste time bringing them in? But then how do we handle space? Let the office sit empty two or three days a week?

And some of my employees have been downright superstars during work from home. Some have muddled along. And some have been terrible. It’s not uniform. It isn’t a question of dealing with the underperformers. It is understanding that some type of contact is important for some to be firing on all cylinders and we can’t penalize them for having a very human need.

I have found that those that are most productive have no home responsibilities. Those with kids, especially younger kids, whether male or female, seem to be most out of synch with how they thought they were doing and how I thought they were doing. I feel for them. Working and supervising distance learning, especially among the elementary school set must be awful. And I understand the need to run them to the park or whatever after they have spent a day staring at screens. But having spotty attention every afternoon does begin to show even if there are no planned meetings etc.

There is no one answer, I don’t think. Every group will have to figure it out for themselves. But the silver lining behind the pandemic is making us examine the work environment for white collar workers, which is a good thing.

[Anonymous]

I bet she is a lot of fun at parties.

[Anonymous]

WFH is here to stay. It’s sad for all those businesses that relied on commuters though. It probably hurts the district’s tax base too I suppose.

[Anonymous]

I don't want to quote 8:33 because it's so long, but to the point of parents being distracted by kids at home -- that will not be part of regular WFH in the future. That is a pandemic circumstance. So if you have people with no caregiving responsibilities doing great, and people who are caregivers doing pretty okay, I'd say you are well set up for success at WFH when schools and daycares are widely available.

I have my kid in f2f private school this year, for a lot of reasons but one of them is that I have a "big job" at my organization and I can't be distracted. WFH without kids present is, for me, way more productive than the office. But in spring of last year when FCPS was basically closed? Oof. Lots of late nights making up lost time, and lots of tension with my spouse over whose work would get precedence during the day. If any worker is still productive after a year of that, you have a keeper.

[Anonymous]

It’s going to be funny watching all these companies that were cheerleaders and financiers for radical activism this past year try to get their worker bees back into the hive. This is what democracy looks like...