Anonymous wrote:You just went back to the office last week…and you are complaining???

As a manager, I am struck by those who whine about our hybrid, flexible schedule. Our leadership has essentially labeled the whiners as difficult, unproductive people who could easily be replaced. Trust me: everyone is replaceable.

While some people are productive at home, many are not. Whiners are rarely as productive as they imagine. Your post tells me you aren’t equipped to see past your own needs…and that means you aren’t as strategic as you think.

Anonymous wrote:I guess it’s time to get a new job OP. Find something closer to home for when you do need to go in since you have a lot of complaints about commuting.

I agree a hybrid culture where everyone is not in the same days is pointless. You should make this suggestion to your management. Pretty typical for organizations to say we are all in the office Tuesday to Thursday for example.

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Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Hey, People, OP is just venting and this is his or her first day back in the office!

Have some sympathy. We've all been there after a vacation or similar.

For real. People are being super harsh when 90% of my friends IRL feel this way about the office

They are just jealous OP worked WFH until now. OP, I feel your pain. It's as stupid as it gets...

Anonymous wrote:You just went back to the office last week…and you are complaining???

As a manager, I am struck by those who whine about our hybrid, flexible schedule. Our leadership has essentially labeled the whiners as difficult, unproductive people who could easily be replaced. Trust me: everyone is replaceable.

While some people are productive at home, many are not. Whiners are rarely as productive as they imagine.[b] Your post tells me you aren’t equipped to see past your own needs…and that means you aren’t as strategic as you think.

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Anonymous wrote:Many of us have been going back to work since 2021 and enduring wearing masks for a period of time and getting Covid checks at work. This is 2023. It’s time to get back to normalcy. Good luck, off, finding your next job. I hope they don’t give you a writing test.

Normalcy is now WFH. My employer cut our office lease short and I now don’t even have an office to go into. Sorry you have to schlep into an office, but based on my peer group, that certainly isn’t the norm.

OP has valid complaints. Being forced to go into an office is like getting a pay cut. You’re putting in more hours per week (commuting) and losing money on gas. COVID sort of let the cat out of the bag so to speak as far as employees realizing it doesn’t have to be this way. Employers can try to squeeze that toothpaste back into the tube, but it’s too late. Unless you have a need to be in person for a particular task, it just feels punitive and micro-managing to force people to do their work in an arbitrary office location.

well, our employer put the toothpaste back in the tube. And traffic in the last 18 months in DC metro has risen substantially as others got their toothpaste back in, too.

Cool. But you know that toothpaste didn’t go neatly back into the tube … congrats to the employers who now have a building full of disgruntled, disengaged employees (b/c you know a lot of them feel the same as OP even if not venting it online). And in a few years all they’ll be left with are the duds who couldn’t find a better remote job. The quality employees will take their skills to one of the many other companies offering mostly telework duties.

If you think that technology and workforce expectations haven’t changed the employment market, then you have your head in the sand. Maybe you’re too busy with your commute to keep up with current labor market trends.

I actually think people who believe that FT WFH is the future have their heads in the sand.

It’s obviously moving to hybrid.

Hybrid when there’s no need to be in person is not the trend. There’s zero reason for people to go into an office to login to Zoom calls just because it’s their scheduled “in office day.” People may not 100% WAH every day, but there should be specific reasons for going in such as in-person meetings, client meetups, large trainings, work travel, etc. And there are enough jobs out there that are fully remote (and employees looking for remote work) that’s absolutely going to affect the labor market. Just think, if 2 nearly identical jobs pay the same amount, but one requires 2 days per week in office and 1 allows mostly full time telework, most people will choose WAH over a strict hybrid schedule. If you want an employee to come in 2-3x/week then you’ll need to provide the salary that compensates that. At this point, I doubt I’d consider a hybrid job unless I doubled my salary (right now with setting my own hours and WAH I can meet the school bus every day, exercise or prep dinner during my lunch break, etc.) To give that up I’m now going to need to pay for aftercare, commuting costs, and will probably end up ordering take out more. Plus just the inconvenience of it all. And with WAH I can live anywhere so more housing options.

Offering remote work is a great hiring incentive and employers requiring a strict hybrid requirement will be at a hiring disadvantage.

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Anonymous wrote:OP makes good points. I'm seeing that the costs of being back in the office outweigh the benefits too. Just hoping I can retire in 3 years and be done with this crap.

There is going to be a lot of changes in the next few years as this transition continues. Lots of early retirements. Lots of offices moving to more easily accessible locations.

But is the productivity really there? Frankly I doubt it. Many of the top CEOs at Davos said productivity took a dive in WFH. Hats off to those of you who feel you are more productive. When I did it in my own small biz- work just took over everything.

You heard it here first - the WFH crowd will soon call for limits on employer contact. This just happened in France.

I think the WFH crowd forgot what my first boss told me - it’s called work for a reason.

As a professional who worked - in an office - through the pandemic…why don’t you simply look back with fondness on those 2 years of being paid to stay at home and realize real work gets done - sorry - largely in an office.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OP makes good points. I'm seeing that the costs of being back in the office outweigh the benefits too. Just hoping I can retire in 3 years and be done with this crap.

There is going to be a lot of changes in the next few years as this transition continues. Lots of early retirements. Lots of offices moving to more easily accessible locations.

Anonymous wrote:OP makes good points. I'm seeing that the costs of being back in the office outweigh the benefits too. Just hoping I can retire in 3 years and be done with this crap.

Anonymous wrote:This is why Gen Z and z boomers get along. It is tge two lazy self entitled generations in middle that are losers.

Here is an example. My company next Thursday is throwing a big Thirsty Thursday. As the new people, single people and bosses want to meet each other.

The hard core hermits between 34–55 are boycotting. Last time we had 100 percent under 30 and over 55.

I am 60 my kids are fully grown I hate WFH full time and remote with no office. The “kids” under 30 single Want to go in.


Should be fun. We are doing two same night. One in LA and one in NYC.

I am taking Amtrak, checking in hotel, we have a club rented out. Then let’s me last year do some bar hopping, was a blast. And I am old. It is kinda like the over 55 is the moms and Dads of the under 30 and it is fun. The middle people are just angry hermits.

I have been giving out best pizza. Bagels, best sites to see best bar info as a lot of young people new hires never even been clubbing or partying in NYC. Usually around 1am us
old folks turn in. Last year the young crowd stayed out till 4am.

Guess what no one needs you 36-49 years olds at work you are Debbie downers.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Many of us have been going back to work since 2021 and enduring wearing masks for a period of time and getting Covid checks at work. This is 2023. It’s time to get back to normalcy. Good luck, off, finding your next job. I hope they don’t give you a writing test.

Normalcy is now WFH. My employer cut our office lease short and I now don’t even have an office to go into. Sorry you have to schlep into an office, but based on my peer group, that certainly isn’t the norm.

OP has valid complaints. Being forced to go into an office is like getting a pay cut. You’re putting in more hours per week (commuting) and losing money on gas. COVID sort of let the cat out of the bag so to speak as far as employees realizing it doesn’t have to be this way. Employers can try to squeeze that toothpaste back into the tube, but it’s too late. Unless you have a need to be in person for a particular task, it just feels punitive and micro-managing to force people to do their work in an arbitrary office location.

well, our employer put the toothpaste back in the tube. And traffic in the last 18 months in DC metro has risen substantially as others got their toothpaste back in, too.

Cool. But you know that toothpaste didn’t go neatly back into the tube … congrats to the employers who now have a building full of disgruntled, disengaged employees (b/c you know a lot of them feel the same as OP even if not venting it online). And in a few years all they’ll be left with are the duds who couldn’t find a better remote job. The quality employees will take their skills to one of the many other companies offering mostly telework duties.

If you think that technology and workforce expectations haven’t changed the employment market, then you have your head in the sand. Maybe you’re too busy with your commute to keep up with current labor market trends.

I actually think people who believe that FT WFH is the future have their heads in the sand.

It’s obviously moving to hybrid.

Anonymous wrote:How is this supposed to increase my productivity? I am so PO'ed right now. First, I had to wake up 1.5 hours earlier than I do when I WFH so that I could eat breakfast, get ready and commute. That's 1.5 hours less sleep than I normally would get, and my brain power and focus is probably now 50% of what it is when I WFH because I'm more tired. I can't imagine how much this will compound over an entire week, month, and a year of simply getting less sleep because you are required to show up for office culture. Secondly, there is nothing more awful than getting up in the morning, having to lug all sorts of crap to the office like your computer, lunch, and gym clothes for after work, and get slammed with freezing cold temperatures. And for what? So I can waste time and fuel in traffic? The stupidest part about this all is that we have a hybrid model where people can pick and choose which days to come into the office. That means many meetings are still held virtually anyway, so all I'm doing is wasting huge amounts of time getting ready to go into the office and for commuting just to do the same exact crap I'd do with WFH anyway, which is to sign into virtual meetings. They are doing in person meetings in the office where they book rooms and sign into a virtual meeting, but it is soooooo annoying for people who attend virtually who are always on time, because people in the office are always late to meetings since it is impossible to make it to a meeting on time at a different office location if you have back to back meetings. So much wasted time and productivity down the drain when you're constantly waiting for people to show up and they're 5 minutes late because they have to walk from location to location. How much time is wasted during the week with all of the meetings and people are always 5 minutes late when all of that could be avoided if people just WFH and attended everything on time by using virtual meetings?

I can't wait to look forward to the end of the day too when I have to unnecessarily pollute the environment wasting gas on a commute and also have to waste tons of time sitting in traffic. It is uncompensated use of my personal time consumed by commuting and I'm being forced to use my own money to burn on gas to get to work I could be doing more productively at home. I'm so angry right now. Our coffee machine and coffee options are terrible and the bathrooms are filthy when I could be doing my duty at home in my nice clean bathroom and making my own gourmet coffee. I'm already going to be looking for a new 100% WFH job after this. I am highly skilled and have years of experience in my field. I am very difficult to replace because it often takes 2+ years to train a new hire until they are up to snuff in terms of being trusted to work on their own in our field. Employers should be put on notice: their best employees are angry at being forced to do stupid office culture that tanks productivity, makes people losesleep, and wastes so much of their time on commutes. Get into the 21st century and drop the stupid office culture from the 1900s.

OP, hate to break it to you- but you are replaceable. Also, a lot of people pay their own money to commute to work; and they commute carrying thermoses with hot gourmet coffee that they brewed from home. Can you believe that? Get your head out of your ass and stop acting like a child. You're not special. Employers are definitely on notice- they know that they can replace people with your attitude with someone else who would be happy to commute or pay someone else a lot less than you to work from home.