This is a most excellent place for technology news and articles.
I get this, but as an aside I am a bit amazed that it takes some people converting everything into monetary value to see this.
IMO having healthy life balance should be the goal, my mental health doesn't have a price tag someone can just pay for and take from me.
my mental health doesn’t have a price tag someone can just pay for and take from me.
2-3 extra zeros added to your annual income?
That's a silly hypothesis. That kind of numbers only exists for jobs I am absolutely not equipped for (like, I have some level of empathy).
But I did choose a comparatively less stressful job with pretty good benefits, and I knew looking for an equivalent job in big corporate would get me at least 50% more in pay. Not regretting any of it (especially now that this job market is all over the place).
It has to be monetary value for capitalists to even acknowledge it existing.
Or Luigi actions. Fear is a great motivator. They want us to live in fear of job loss for healthcare, see how they like a flip of the script.
My entire department, and honestly probably 95% of my company do all of our work on a computer on the network, that's the only requirement, it can be a PC at a desk on site or a laptop on WiFi at a coffee shop or home or the beach for that matter.
My company did the big RTO mandate last year after 6 years of WFH since Covid first started. Those 6 years marked some of the highest productivity and highest job satisfaction ever.
Then the C suite decided they either didn't like not being able to watch their worker bees go, or maybe they also had financial investments in the commercial district (conflict of interest if they do IMO) or maybe they got lonely? Or maybe they just read a stupid article that told them they should assert control by making their employees lives harder, who knows? But ours, like so many, all did it seemingly blindly like a fad, with no real reason or goal and just a vague empty promise of "collaboration and culture" whatever THAT even means.
Also really funny that in the same paragraph they will praise "cloud data", "cloud AI", "remote servers", but the humans can't be remote because reasons.
The real sore point that I resent VERY much is that half the company is out of state, so exempt, including my supervisor. So now me and my team commute in to an office to sit in a sad cube by ourselves and then we still have to join a video call for every meeting, but doing that from a conference room is hell compared to a headset and your own laptop, not to even mention all the technical issues we keep having while everyone at home stares blankly waiting for us, it's so dumb.
All I know is for me and my team and every single person I've talked to, the collaboration is so much worse in-person. The communication is worse. They wave their hands and say "collaboration", but then if one person is talking on the floor it is disrupting 50 people that can easily hear every word. The morale is worse. Everything takes so much long to do. So much time and money is wasted sitting in cars in traffic for no reason. I don't get it. It was a huge win-win when we all went WFH. We worked more, did more, were happier and more productive, saved money, saved time, communication was better since everyone was on the same level field.
Mandating RTO is wild to me, it feels like going back to typewriters in a world of laptops, because "well we used typewriters in the past, it's the way it's been done"
Then on the flip side, some people want and do better in a central office, fine, have that available, but don't mandate everyone does it. It should be up to each worker or their managers to figure out the actual need and what is best. "One size fits all" doesn't work, it fits 1 person and excludes 10.
The shitters in charge literally dont care about you or what you think. They will make these RTO demands until they are forced to pay for the commutes of their employees.
I had to RTO to an empty building, after a year and a half or two, two more people moved into the building. All I can think is 'why must I sit in traffic for an hour everyday to be 80 miles away from my coworkers?'... Then the mortgage comes due and I remember why I deal with the traffic and remember how nice it is not really being contactable after hours (computer stays in the office). I gave way too many free hours away just because I was already in the home office while I ate breakfast or hung out during lunch just because.
it sounds like "the freedom to work in one's best environment" is the ideal policy.
I'm probably in the minority here, but I actually enjoy a hybrid work schedule. It helps that I actually like my coworkers, but it's so much nicer to talk to them in person. And it might just be me, but it's easier to separate work and home life when they are in separate places.
Remote days are great for getting small chores done around the house, and I can cook my lunch. Hybrid gives the best of both worlds, at least for me.
I'm fortunate that my office is flexible so if something comes up I can work from home until whatever issue gets resolved. Just goes to show that everyone has preferences and the best policy is to let people choose.
I don‘t see why one has to be weighted against the other. I remember when my employer tried to frame it as a perk when in reality me coming to the office daily just wasn‘t feasible. I understand other employers with too much money or employees mandate office time because they value control and authority over profits or simply want to get rid of you but if you work for a smaller company they often have no benefit from you sitting in the office every single day.
