Not enough office space: safe from RTO?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I've always been in places with cubicles or offices, no hotdesking, so I honestly don't understand how stuff like these examples function:

DH's company had that for years in-house, and it was incredibly inefficient compared to people having offices. Constantly rescheduling daily confidential calls because the conference rooms were in use, used too long, suddenly unavailable due to some other priority, and so on. Half the day was spent in endless and pointless logistics instead of work.

Private sector. If you can't get one of the desks in the long line with 1 or 2 monitors you have to float around and just hopefully find an outlet in a common space with chairs and couches that are great for lounging but awkward as hell with a laptop.

We are private sector, but they got rid of offices and our desks are lined up in long rows facing each other to fit in the maximum number of desks. We hot desk, so if you get up for a meeting or to get lunch you lose your seat and have to find a new desk. This way far more people can use the office than the number of actual desks.

So, how does work get done? Because if you want me to wander around all day looking for a seat or a conference room, fine, but I'm still going home at 5 whether I got the work done or not. So do private sector folks waste these hours looking for a space, and then stay late to do actual work because they're afraid of getting fired? Because I can guarantee you government workers I know won't do this. If they waste 3 hours of an 8 hour day on this, they are still clocking out and simply lose 3 hours of productivity. And they have protections from getting fired that DOGE can't just wave away as easily as they could theoretically require RTO.

I responded earlier, but I think the private sector folks are chiming in to bring home a bit of reality for people. I hope it's not like this for you, but they don't.care. that there are not enough desks or nice desks or desks with monitors or whatever. We need to badge in, so we do. If we stroll through the coveted areas and can't find a place to sit, we park ourselves in a common space and get to work or get on a call. I have colleagues in Paris that are on video calls strolling through the hallways of their La Defense building as they get kicked out of rooms and find a new place to work.

You can go home at 5 and not get your work done, but we have goals and measurements and I wouldn't keep someone on my team who wasn't producing. We know who gets the work done. If your public sector job is not that concrete, and it's just about being online or butts in seats, then it was not very amenable to WFH anyway, I would speculate.

It's noisy and some people have headsets (AIRPODS, man!) that pick up the noise of the person next to them. Everyone is on calls and they don't care what the people next to them are talking about. If you have something sensitive, you go book a conference room. And yes, it's all the way up the chain. Not the CEO since he's in another country, but certainly VIPS are sitting amongst hoi polloi.

Hope that helps!

Sounds like you just have a crappy private sector job and aren’t very employable elsewhere.

+1. What PP is describing is way off market and not consistent with what I have experienced nor do I know anyone in a situation like that where there aren't enough desks.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I've always been in places with cubicles or offices, no hotdesking, so I honestly don't understand how stuff like these examples function:

DH's company had that for years in-house, and it was incredibly inefficient compared to people having offices. Constantly rescheduling daily confidential calls because the conference rooms were in use, used too long, suddenly unavailable due to some other priority, and so on. Half the day was spent in endless and pointless logistics instead of work.

Private sector. If you can't get one of the desks in the long line with 1 or 2 monitors you have to float around and just hopefully find an outlet in a common space with chairs and couches that are great for lounging but awkward as hell with a laptop.

We are private sector, but they got rid of offices and our desks are lined up in long rows facing each other to fit in the maximum number of desks. We hot desk, so if you get up for a meeting or to get lunch you lose your seat and have to find a new desk. This way far more people can use the office than the number of actual desks.

So, how does work get done? Because if you want me to wander around all day looking for a seat or a conference room, fine, but I'm still going home at 5 whether I got the work done or not. So do private sector folks waste these hours looking for a space, and then stay late to do actual work because they're afraid of getting fired? Because I can guarantee you government workers I know won't do this. If they waste 3 hours of an 8 hour day on this, they are still clocking out and simply lose 3 hours of productivity. And they have protections from getting fired that DOGE can't just wave away as easily as they could theoretically require RTO.

I responded earlier, but I think the private sector folks are chiming in to bring home a bit of reality for people. I hope it's not like this for you, but they don't.care. that there are not enough desks or nice desks or desks with monitors or whatever. We need to badge in, so we do. If we stroll through the coveted areas and can't find a place to sit, we park ourselves in a common space and get to work or get on a call. I have colleagues in Paris that are on video calls strolling through the hallways of their La Defense building as they get kicked out of rooms and find a new place to work.

You can go home at 5 and not get your work done, but we have goals and measurements and I wouldn't keep someone on my team who wasn't producing. We know who gets the work done. If your public sector job is not that concrete, and it's just about being online or butts in seats, then it was not very amenable to WFH anyway, I would speculate.

It's noisy and some people have headsets (AIRPODS, man!) that pick up the noise of the person next to them. Everyone is on calls and they don't care what the people next to them are talking about. If you have something sensitive, you go book a conference room. And yes, it's all the way up the chain. Not the CEO since he's in another country, but certainly VIPS are sitting amongst hoi polloi.

Hope that helps!

In the federal government, I guess most workers over 40 would just qualify for a reasonable accommodation for an ergonomic chair, and the under 40s would request a private office for their ADHD.

There's a parking area for ergonomic chairs and people park them there at night and roll them to a desk to work. People put their name on their chair.

You get a noise cancelling headset for ADHD, not an office. No one gets an office.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I've always been in places with cubicles or offices, no hotdesking, so I honestly don't understand how stuff like these examples function:

DH's company had that for years in-house, and it was incredibly inefficient compared to people having offices. Constantly rescheduling daily confidential calls because the conference rooms were in use, used too long, suddenly unavailable due to some other priority, and so on. Half the day was spent in endless and pointless logistics instead of work.

Private sector. If you can't get one of the desks in the long line with 1 or 2 monitors you have to float around and just hopefully find an outlet in a common space with chairs and couches that are great for lounging but awkward as hell with a laptop.

We are private sector, but they got rid of offices and our desks are lined up in long rows facing each other to fit in the maximum number of desks. We hot desk, so if you get up for a meeting or to get lunch you lose your seat and have to find a new desk. This way far more people can use the office than the number of actual desks.

So, how does work get done? Because if you want me to wander around all day looking for a seat or a conference room, fine, but I'm still going home at 5 whether I got the work done or not. So do private sector folks waste these hours looking for a space, and then stay late to do actual work because they're afraid of getting fired? Because I can guarantee you government workers I know won't do this. If they waste 3 hours of an 8 hour day on this, they are still clocking out and simply lose 3 hours of productivity. And they have protections from getting fired that DOGE can't just wave away as easily as they could theoretically require RTO.

I responded earlier, but I think the private sector folks are chiming in to bring home a bit of reality for people. I hope it's not like this for you, but they don't.care. that there are not enough desks or nice desks or desks with monitors or whatever. We need to badge in, so we do. If we stroll through the coveted areas and can't find a place to sit, we park ourselves in a common space and get to work or get on a call. I have colleagues in Paris that are on video calls strolling through the hallways of their La Defense building as they get kicked out of rooms and find a new place to work.

You can go home at 5 and not get your work done, but we have goals and measurements and I wouldn't keep someone on my team who wasn't producing. We know who gets the work done. If your public sector job is not that concrete, and it's just about being online or butts in seats, then it was not very amenable to WFH anyway, I would speculate.

It's noisy and some people have headsets (AIRPODS, man!) that pick up the noise of the person next to them. Everyone is on calls and they don't care what the people next to them are talking about. If you have something sensitive, you go book a conference room. And yes, it's all the way up the chain. Not the CEO since he's in another country, but certainly VIPS are sitting amongst hoi polloi.

Hope that helps!

In the federal government, I guess most workers over 40 would just qualify for a reasonable accommodation for an ergonomic chair, and the under 40s would request a private office for their ADHD.

There's a parking area for ergonomic chairs and people park them there at night and roll them to a desk to work. People put their name on their chair.

You get a noise cancelling headset for ADHD, not an office. No one gets an office.

This is beginning to sound like one of J1 guy's tales, but with better grammar. At least I hope you don't really live like that!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I've always been in places with cubicles or offices, no hotdesking, so I honestly don't understand how stuff like these examples function:

DH's company had that for years in-house, and it was incredibly inefficient compared to people having offices. Constantly rescheduling daily confidential calls because the conference rooms were in use, used too long, suddenly unavailable due to some other priority, and so on. Half the day was spent in endless and pointless logistics instead of work.

Private sector. If you can't get one of the desks in the long line with 1 or 2 monitors you have to float around and just hopefully find an outlet in a common space with chairs and couches that are great for lounging but awkward as hell with a laptop.

We are private sector, but they got rid of offices and our desks are lined up in long rows facing each other to fit in the maximum number of desks. We hot desk, so if you get up for a meeting or to get lunch you lose your seat and have to find a new desk. This way far more people can use the office than the number of actual desks.

So, how does work get done? Because if you want me to wander around all day looking for a seat or a conference room, fine, but I'm still going home at 5 whether I got the work done or not. So do private sector folks waste these hours looking for a space, and then stay late to do actual work because they're afraid of getting fired? Because I can guarantee you government workers I know won't do this. If they waste 3 hours of an 8 hour day on this, they are still clocking out and simply lose 3 hours of productivity. And they have protections from getting fired that DOGE can't just wave away as easily as they could theoretically require RTO.

I responded earlier, but I think the private sector folks are chiming in to bring home a bit of reality for people. I hope it's not like this for you, but they don't.care. that there are not enough desks or nice desks or desks with monitors or whatever. We need to badge in, so we do. If we stroll through the coveted areas and can't find a place to sit, we park ourselves in a common space and get to work or get on a call. I have colleagues in Paris that are on video calls strolling through the hallways of their La Defense building as they get kicked out of rooms and find a new place to work.

You can go home at 5 and not get your work done, but we have goals and measurements and I wouldn't keep someone on my team who wasn't producing. We know who gets the work done. If your public sector job is not that concrete, and it's just about being online or butts in seats, then it was not very amenable to WFH anyway, I would speculate.

It's noisy and some people have headsets (AIRPODS, man!) that pick up the noise of the person next to them. Everyone is on calls and they don't care what the people next to them are talking about. If you have something sensitive, you go book a conference room. And yes, it's all the way up the chain. Not the CEO since he's in another country, but certainly VIPS are sitting amongst hoi polloi.

Hope that helps!

You understand every job is different and not everyone has a 9-5 job. Many of the IT jobs are global and you have customers and co-workers all over the country and world and you are expected to work on their time. My spouse takes calls at 6 AM till about midnight and sometimes in the middle of the night. Many WFH are working. And, its easily trackable.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We got rid of some office space during pandemic, remote employees have changed office location, although most remote employees are remote locally. Basically, some employees change teleworking status (before Covid) to remote status, with SF 50 duty station changed too.

There is no funding to get more office space (flat funding, majority of funding goes to employees' salary; while salary/other costs increase annually, there is not even enough money to fill every vacancy).

Why do you consider RTO to be unsafe.

It is very for our family as I have serious health isssues and my getting sick usually lands me in the hospital.

You should seek a reasonable accommodation or pursue disability.

The company is saying no to my spouse. I tried for disability years ago and was declined. I could probably try again but I don't have the energy to fight it again and it may be too late. I cannot work anymore.

This is what disability lawyers are for.

No, I don't work, my spouse does but when I get sick it gets pretty scary and beyond an online doctor who tells me to go to the ER imediately, its not like I can drive myself.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We got rid of some office space during pandemic, remote employees have changed office location, although most remote employees are remote locally. Basically, some employees change teleworking status (before Covid) to remote status, with SF 50 duty station changed too.

There is no funding to get more office space (flat funding, majority of funding goes to employees' salary; while salary/other costs increase annually, there is not even enough money to fill every vacancy).

Why people are so concerned about RTO?

Because they are POS employees who love getting away with doing nothing.

My spouse gets far more done at home than in the office. They go out to lunch, chit chat, etc.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I've always been in places with cubicles or offices, no hotdesking, so I honestly don't understand how stuff like these examples function:

DH's company had that for years in-house, and it was incredibly inefficient compared to people having offices. Constantly rescheduling daily confidential calls because the conference rooms were in use, used too long, suddenly unavailable due to some other priority, and so on. Half the day was spent in endless and pointless logistics instead of work.

Private sector. If you can't get one of the desks in the long line with 1 or 2 monitors you have to float around and just hopefully find an outlet in a common space with chairs and couches that are great for lounging but awkward as hell with a laptop.

We are private sector, but they got rid of offices and our desks are lined up in long rows facing each other to fit in the maximum number of desks. We hot desk, so if you get up for a meeting or to get lunch you lose your seat and have to find a new desk. This way far more people can use the office than the number of actual desks.

So, how does work get done? Because if you want me to wander around all day looking for a seat or a conference room, fine, but I'm still going home at 5 whether I got the work done or not. So do private sector folks waste these hours looking for a space, and then stay late to do actual work because they're afraid of getting fired? Because I can guarantee you government workers I know won't do this. If they waste 3 hours of an 8 hour day on this, they are still clocking out and simply lose 3 hours of productivity. And they have protections from getting fired that DOGE can't just wave away as easily as they could theoretically require RTO.

I responded earlier, but I think the private sector folks are chiming in to bring home a bit of reality for people. I hope it's not like this for you, but they don't.care. that there are not enough desks or nice desks or desks with monitors or whatever. We need to badge in, so we do. If we stroll through the coveted areas and can't find a place to sit, we park ourselves in a common space and get to work or get on a call. I have colleagues in Paris that are on video calls strolling through the hallways of their La Defense building as they get kicked out of rooms and find a new place to work.

You can go home at 5 and not get your work done, but we have goals and measurements and I wouldn't keep someone on my team who wasn't producing. We know who gets the work done. If your public sector job is not that concrete, and it's just about being online or butts in seats, then it was not very amenable to WFH anyway, I would speculate.

It's noisy and some people have headsets (AIRPODS, man!) that pick up the noise of the person next to them. Everyone is on calls and they don't care what the people next to them are talking about. If you have something sensitive, you go book a conference room. And yes, it's all the way up the chain. Not the CEO since he's in another country, but certainly VIPS are sitting amongst hoi polloi.

Hope that helps!

Sounds like you just have a crappy private sector job and aren’t very employable elsewhere.

I sit on the same floor as our CEO and CFO. The CEO earned over $20m last year. I'll be sure to let him know he should find a different crappy job.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I've always been in places with cubicles or offices, no hotdesking, so I honestly don't understand how stuff like these examples function:

DH's company had that for years in-house, and it was incredibly inefficient compared to people having offices. Constantly rescheduling daily confidential calls because the conference rooms were in use, used too long, suddenly unavailable due to some other priority, and so on. Half the day was spent in endless and pointless logistics instead of work.

Private sector. If you can't get one of the desks in the long line with 1 or 2 monitors you have to float around and just hopefully find an outlet in a common space with chairs and couches that are great for lounging but awkward as hell with a laptop.

We are private sector, but they got rid of offices and our desks are lined up in long rows facing each other to fit in the maximum number of desks. We hot desk, so if you get up for a meeting or to get lunch you lose your seat and have to find a new desk. This way far more people can use the office than the number of actual desks.

So, how does work get done? Because if you want me to wander around all day looking for a seat or a conference room, fine, but I'm still going home at 5 whether I got the work done or not. So do private sector folks waste these hours looking for a space, and then stay late to do actual work because they're afraid of getting fired? Because I can guarantee you government workers I know won't do this. If they waste 3 hours of an 8 hour day on this, they are still clocking out and simply lose 3 hours of productivity. And they have protections from getting fired that DOGE can't just wave away as easily as they could theoretically require RTO.

I responded earlier, but I think the private sector folks are chiming in to bring home a bit of reality for people. I hope it's not like this for you, but they don't.care. that there are not enough desks or nice desks or desks with monitors or whatever. We need to badge in, so we do. If we stroll through the coveted areas and can't find a place to sit, we park ourselves in a common space and get to work or get on a call. I have colleagues in Paris that are on video calls strolling through the hallways of their La Defense building as they get kicked out of rooms and find a new place to work.

You can go home at 5 and not get your work done, but we have goals and measurements and I wouldn't keep someone on my team who wasn't producing. We know who gets the work done. If your public sector job is not that concrete, and it's just about being online or butts in seats, then it was not very amenable to WFH anyway, I would speculate.

It's noisy and some people have headsets (AIRPODS, man!) that pick up the noise of the person next to them. Everyone is on calls and they don't care what the people next to them are talking about. If you have something sensitive, you go book a conference room. And yes, it's all the way up the chain. Not the CEO since he's in another country, but certainly VIPS are sitting amongst hoi polloi.

Hope that helps!

Sounds like you just have a crappy private sector job and aren’t very employable elsewhere.

I sit on the same floor as our CEO and CFO. The CEO earned over $20m last year. I'll be sure to let him know he should find a different crappy job.

Well la dee da. Ain't that special?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We got rid of some office space during pandemic, remote employees have changed office location, although most remote employees are remote locally. Basically, some employees change teleworking status (before Covid) to remote status, with SF 50 duty station changed too.

There is no funding to get more office space (flat funding, majority of funding goes to employees' salary; while salary/other costs increase annually, there is not even enough money to fill every vacancy).

Why people are so concerned about RTO?

Because they are POS employees who love getting away with doing nothing.

I have to rearrange childcare for 3 kids attending 2 schools midyear. Both my husband and I will have to add a 2 hour commute in...and we don't live too far out. Luckily camp planning us just starting so we can be prepared for the summer. No idea about the rest of this school year. No way there is space in aftercare. A babysitter that drives I guess. I am sure demand will be high.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We got rid of some office space during pandemic, remote employees have changed office location, although most remote employees are remote locally. Basically, some employees change teleworking status (before Covid) to remote status, with SF 50 duty station changed too.

There is no funding to get more office space (flat funding, majority of funding goes to employees' salary; while salary/other costs increase annually, there is not even enough money to fill every vacancy).

Why people are so concerned about RTO?

Because they are POS employees who love getting away with doing nothing.

I have to rearrange childcare for 3 kids attending 2 schools midyear. Both my husband and I will have to add a 2 hour commute in...and we don't live too far out. Luckily camp planning us just starting so we can be prepared for the summer. No idea about the rest of this school year. No way there is space in aftercare. A babysitter that drives I guess. I am sure demand will be high.

And we have both been remote or 1day a week in the office since long before Covid.

[Anonymous]

Stop freaking out people. You will adjust. Going into work is fine. Y’all are so whiny which means you probably don’t get much work done at home. Checking your email while at yoga class doesn’t count

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I've always been in places with cubicles or offices, no hotdesking, so I honestly don't understand how stuff like these examples function:

DH's company had that for years in-house, and it was incredibly inefficient compared to people having offices. Constantly rescheduling daily confidential calls because the conference rooms were in use, used too long, suddenly unavailable due to some other priority, and so on. Half the day was spent in endless and pointless logistics instead of work.

Private sector. If you can't get one of the desks in the long line with 1 or 2 monitors you have to float around and just hopefully find an outlet in a common space with chairs and couches that are great for lounging but awkward as hell with a laptop.

We are private sector, but they got rid of offices and our desks are lined up in long rows facing each other to fit in the maximum number of desks. We hot desk, so if you get up for a meeting or to get lunch you lose your seat and have to find a new desk. This way far more people can use the office than the number of actual desks.

So, how does work get done? Because if you want me to wander around all day looking for a seat or a conference room, fine, but I'm still going home at 5 whether I got the work done or not. So do private sector folks waste these hours looking for a space, and then stay late to do actual work because they're afraid of getting fired? Because I can guarantee you government workers I know won't do this. If they waste 3 hours of an 8 hour day on this, they are still clocking out and simply lose 3 hours of productivity. And they have protections from getting fired that DOGE can't just wave away as easily as they could theoretically require RTO.

I responded earlier, but I think the private sector folks are chiming in to bring home a bit of reality for people. I hope it's not like this for you, but they don't.care. that there are not enough desks or nice desks or desks with monitors or whatever. We need to badge in, so we do. If we stroll through the coveted areas and can't find a place to sit, we park ourselves in a common space and get to work or get on a call. I have colleagues in Paris that are on video calls strolling through the hallways of their La Defense building as they get kicked out of rooms and find a new place to work.

You can go home at 5 and not get your work done, but we have goals and measurements and I wouldn't keep someone on my team who wasn't producing. We know who gets the work done. If your public sector job is not that concrete, and it's just about being online or butts in seats, then it was not very amenable to WFH anyway, I would speculate.

It's noisy and some people have headsets (AIRPODS, man!) that pick up the noise of the person next to them. Everyone is on calls and they don't care what the people next to them are talking about. If you have something sensitive, you go book a conference room. And yes, it's all the way up the chain. Not the CEO since he's in another country, but certainly VIPS are sitting amongst hoi polloi.

Hope that helps!

In the federal government, I guess most workers over 40 would just qualify for a reasonable accommodation for an ergonomic chair, and the under 40s would request a private office for their ADHD.

So true. In the private sector they'd ship you out but the $$$ is so good.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I've always been in places with cubicles or offices, no hotdesking, so I honestly don't understand how stuff like these examples function:

DH's company had that for years in-house, and it was incredibly inefficient compared to people having offices. Constantly rescheduling daily confidential calls because the conference rooms were in use, used too long, suddenly unavailable due to some other priority, and so on. Half the day was spent in endless and pointless logistics instead of work.

Private sector. If you can't get one of the desks in the long line with 1 or 2 monitors you have to float around and just hopefully find an outlet in a common space with chairs and couches that are great for lounging but awkward as hell with a laptop.

We are private sector, but they got rid of offices and our desks are lined up in long rows facing each other to fit in the maximum number of desks. We hot desk, so if you get up for a meeting or to get lunch you lose your seat and have to find a new desk. This way far more people can use the office than the number of actual desks.

So, how does work get done? Because if you want me to wander around all day looking for a seat or a conference room, fine, but I'm still going home at 5 whether I got the work done or not. So do private sector folks waste these hours looking for a space, and then stay late to do actual work because they're afraid of getting fired? Because I can guarantee you government workers I know won't do this. If they waste 3 hours of an 8 hour day on this, they are still clocking out and simply lose 3 hours of productivity. And they have protections from getting fired that DOGE can't just wave away as easily as they could theoretically require RTO.

I responded earlier, but I think the private sector folks are chiming in to bring home a bit of reality for people. I hope it's not like this for you, but they don't.care. that there are not enough desks or nice desks or desks with monitors or whatever. We need to badge in, so we do. If we stroll through the coveted areas and can't find a place to sit, we park ourselves in a common space and get to work or get on a call. I have colleagues in Paris that are on video calls strolling through the hallways of their La Defense building as they get kicked out of rooms and find a new place to work.

You can go home at 5 and not get your work done, but we have goals and measurements and I wouldn't keep someone on my team who wasn't producing. We know who gets the work done. If your public sector job is not that concrete, and it's just about being online or butts in seats, then it was not very amenable to WFH anyway, I would speculate.

It's noisy and some people have headsets (AIRPODS, man!) that pick up the noise of the person next to them. Everyone is on calls and they don't care what the people next to them are talking about. If you have something sensitive, you go book a conference room. And yes, it's all the way up the chain. Not the CEO since he's in another country, but certainly VIPS are sitting amongst hoi polloi.

Hope that helps!

Sounds like you just have a crappy private sector job and aren’t very employable elsewhere.

You are a miserable person, but that just tracks, doesn't it?
I'd tell you more, but you'd never get into this industry.
Millionaire bonuses. Think biotech. Just trying to help but good luck to you in your RTO.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I've always been in places with cubicles or offices, no hotdesking, so I honestly don't understand how stuff like these examples function:

DH's company had that for years in-house, and it was incredibly inefficient compared to people having offices. Constantly rescheduling daily confidential calls because the conference rooms were in use, used too long, suddenly unavailable due to some other priority, and so on. Half the day was spent in endless and pointless logistics instead of work.

Private sector. If you can't get one of the desks in the long line with 1 or 2 monitors you have to float around and just hopefully find an outlet in a common space with chairs and couches that are great for lounging but awkward as hell with a laptop.

We are private sector, but they got rid of offices and our desks are lined up in long rows facing each other to fit in the maximum number of desks. We hot desk, so if you get up for a meeting or to get lunch you lose your seat and have to find a new desk. This way far more people can use the office than the number of actual desks.

So, how does work get done? Because if you want me to wander around all day looking for a seat or a conference room, fine, but I'm still going home at 5 whether I got the work done or not. So do private sector folks waste these hours looking for a space, and then stay late to do actual work because they're afraid of getting fired? Because I can guarantee you government workers I know won't do this. If they waste 3 hours of an 8 hour day on this, they are still clocking out and simply lose 3 hours of productivity. And they have protections from getting fired that DOGE can't just wave away as easily as they could theoretically require RTO.

I responded earlier, but I think the private sector folks are chiming in to bring home a bit of reality for people. I hope it's not like this for you, but they don't.care. that there are not enough desks or nice desks or desks with monitors or whatever. We need to badge in, so we do. If we stroll through the coveted areas and can't find a place to sit, we park ourselves in a common space and get to work or get on a call. I have colleagues in Paris that are on video calls strolling through the hallways of their La Defense building as they get kicked out of rooms and find a new place to work.

You can go home at 5 and not get your work done, but we have goals and measurements and I wouldn't keep someone on my team who wasn't producing. We know who gets the work done. If your public sector job is not that concrete, and it's just about being online or butts in seats, then it was not very amenable to WFH anyway, I would speculate.

It's noisy and some people have headsets (AIRPODS, man!) that pick up the noise of the person next to them. Everyone is on calls and they don't care what the people next to them are talking about. If you have something sensitive, you go book a conference room. And yes, it's all the way up the chain. Not the CEO since he's in another country, but certainly VIPS are sitting amongst hoi polloi.

Hope that helps!

Sounds like you just have a crappy private sector job and aren’t very employable elsewhere.

You are a miserable person, but that just tracks, doesn't it?
I'd tell you more, but you'd never get into this industry.
Millionaire bonuses. Think biotech. Just trying to help but good luck to you in your RTO.

Yeah, you’re “just trying to help.” Guess those comments about you being unemployable struck a nerve, but that just tracks, doesn’t it?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I've always been in places with cubicles or offices, no hotdesking, so I honestly don't understand how stuff like these examples function:

DH's company had that for years in-house, and it was incredibly inefficient compared to people having offices. Constantly rescheduling daily confidential calls because the conference rooms were in use, used too long, suddenly unavailable due to some other priority, and so on. Half the day was spent in endless and pointless logistics instead of work.

Private sector. If you can't get one of the desks in the long line with 1 or 2 monitors you have to float around and just hopefully find an outlet in a common space with chairs and couches that are great for lounging but awkward as hell with a laptop.

We are private sector, but they got rid of offices and our desks are lined up in long rows facing each other to fit in the maximum number of desks. We hot desk, so if you get up for a meeting or to get lunch you lose your seat and have to find a new desk. This way far more people can use the office than the number of actual desks.

So, how does work get done? Because if you want me to wander around all day looking for a seat or a conference room, fine, but I'm still going home at 5 whether I got the work done or not. So do private sector folks waste these hours looking for a space, and then stay late to do actual work because they're afraid of getting fired? Because I can guarantee you government workers I know won't do this. If they waste 3 hours of an 8 hour day on this, they are still clocking out and simply lose 3 hours of productivity. And they have protections from getting fired that DOGE can't just wave away as easily as they could theoretically require RTO.

I responded earlier, but I think the private sector folks are chiming in to bring home a bit of reality for people. I hope it's not like this for you, but they don't.care. that there are not enough desks or nice desks or desks with monitors or whatever. We need to badge in, so we do. If we stroll through the coveted areas and can't find a place to sit, we park ourselves in a common space and get to work or get on a call. I have colleagues in Paris that are on video calls strolling through the hallways of their La Defense building as they get kicked out of rooms and find a new place to work.

You can go home at 5 and not get your work done, but we have goals and measurements and I wouldn't keep someone on my team who wasn't producing. We know who gets the work done. If your public sector job is not that concrete, and it's just about being online or butts in seats, then it was not very amenable to WFH anyway, I would speculate.

It's noisy and some people have headsets (AIRPODS, man!) that pick up the noise of the person next to them. Everyone is on calls and they don't care what the people next to them are talking about. If you have something sensitive, you go book a conference room. And yes, it's all the way up the chain. Not the CEO since he's in another country, but certainly VIPS are sitting amongst hoi polloi.

Hope that helps!

Sounds like you just have a crappy private sector job and aren’t very employable elsewhere.

I sit on the same floor as our CEO and CFO. The CEO earned over $20m last year. I'll be sure to let him know he should find a different crappy job.

Oh, are you in the secretarial pool, sweety?