So this whole work from home thing is getting interesting

[BigWillieCock]

Morgan Stanley CEO fighting their own staff.

Google cutting pay by 25% for those that want to stay home.

Going to be interesting to see where the balance on all this ends up.

 

[Jeremiah Bullfrog]

Don't understand why it is even an issue for these companies. Most everything they do they can do remotely. In fact most office jobs can be done that way. I have at least 4 meetings a week that could have been an email.

 

[cockymom2boys]

I think it is ridiculous and irresponsible to require employees who can work from home to commute.
Look at the damage car emissions do to the environment. Consider the financial cost of gas. Consider the time a commute requires in most metro areas. Crazy.
If an employee can work from home and be productive, I think he or she should be allowed to do so.

 

[mauze1]

Morgan Stanley CEO fighting their own staff.

Google cutting pay by 25% for those that want to stay home.

Going to be interesting to see where the balance on all this ends up.

My company is liquidating a Fortune 500 co. who sent all of their office staff, all 1400 of them home to work. It’s going to be real interesting to see how it works.

 

[mauze1]

I think it is ridiculous and irresponsible to require employees who can work from home to commute.
Look at the damage car emissions do to the environment. Consider the financial cost of gas. Consider the time a commute requires in most metro areas. Crazy.
If an employee can work from home and be productive, I think he or she should be allowed to do so.

I agree with your last statement, but I do think productivity will decrease when working from home. Over the last year I have had plenty of Zoom meetings and they are not as productive as in person. At least they are not in my business.

 

[leftneck]

I'm not opposed to working from home in theory, but about half of my office has been put on performance improvement plan since we were sent home last year.

 

[Cackdiesel]

I agree with your last statement, but I do think productivity will decrease when working from home. Over the last year I have had plenty of Zoom meetings and they are not as productive as in person. At least they are not in my business.

I'm significantly more productive at home. I'm an accountant though. Its going to obviously vary by profession.

 

[BigWillieCock]

Don't understand why it is even an issue for these companies. Most everything they do they can do remotely. In fact most office jobs can be done that way. I have at least 4 meetings a week that could have been an email.

Yeah I’m not sure I get it either. I guess some companies are seeing increased or no change in productivity and others aren’t? In person collaboration? I don’t know.

 

[BigWillieCock]

I think it is ridiculous and irresponsible to require employees who can work from home to commute.
Look at the damage car emissions do to the environment. Consider the financial cost of gas. Consider the time a commute requires in most metro areas. Crazy.
If an employee can work from home and be productive, I think he or she should be allowed to do so.

I could say what employees should be allowed to do on another topic, but I won’t.

Just sayin I hear you, but that’s a slippery slope.

 

[jerryusc]

That would be a dream job. No going out in rain or snow or cold or hot. Don't have to deal with office politics or backstabbers or some who are downright A-Holes. If you are putting in the same amount of hours and work, what's with cutting pay? Google needs to be put in its place.

 

[heavycock]

I've worked from home for 17 years now. I couldn't imagine having to go to an office regularly to sit in front of a computer and talk on the phone a little, much less waste time in traffic when I could spend that time working.

Of course it's not for everyone and it depends on the nature of the job, but if it makes sense to all parties I'm all for it.

 

[lilburncock]

I'm not opposed to working from home in theory, but about half of my office has been put on performance improvement plan since we were sent home last year.

And some good comes from the pandemic.

 

[CtownNat1ve]

That would be a dream job. No going out in rain or snow or cold or hot. Don't have to deal with office politics or backstabbers or some who are downright A-Holes. If you are putting in the same amount of hours and work, what's with cutting pay? Google needs to be put in its place.

Seems like if anything you would get a raise for working from home. Less cost and drain on office resources so I'm not sure how the punishment of WFH is a pay reduction if productivity is not an issue. Interesting take.

 

[Gamecockben1979]

Morgan Stanley CEO fighting their own staff.

Google cutting pay by 25% for those that want to stay home.

Going to be interesting to see where the balance on all this ends up.

I just don’t want to hear the “nobody wants to work” line when those workers find jobs with competitors that allow workers to work from home at the same pay or higher.

In the end it should be more about production as opposed to where you are working from. If a worker could be more profitable from home, why wouldn’t you want that as a company? Now if they’re not that’s a whole different story, but it doesn’t appear these companies are looking at it on a case by case basis….which is what should be happening.

 

[caughtlookin]

With Covid and distancing, they want us to work from home. But now with the infrastructure bill, big gov wants to tax our mileage.

Big dilemma. What does gov and corporate want us to do now? Stay home, no come, wait, yeah stay, go, hold on, head explode. It will indeed be interesting to see how they f us next.

 

[uscg1984]

I dont want to work from home, at least not in a teleworking sense. I don't want those worlds to collide. I like having a work life and a home life, with as little mingling between the two as possible. Additionally, with teleworking, I think there's a tendency to experience what I call "work creep," where management begins to reach out to you more and more during those off "home" hours. I got a taste of teleworking during a quarantine period last year and I found that I ended up working about 14 hours a day, mostly phone calls, emails, and Skype meetings. I'll gladly commute to work to keep my home life unencumbered. Of course, I dont have to commute in a major metro area, but that didn't happen by accident either.

 

[drosesc]

Sounds like many responding here have an office job and in a service industry sector. I manage a global IT group for DHL and while we tech folks can and are working from home someone still has to sort packages, load and drive trucks and fly the planes. It breeds resentment which is not good for an organizations culture and these types of things play right into union organizers hands. Folks feel “ blue collar” jobs are potentially exposed to COVID while “white collar” jobs are not. As management we are wrestling with the proper balance and it’s a tough one.

 

[BigWillieCock]

Sounds like many responding here have an office job and in a service industry sector. I manage a global IT group for DHL and while we tech folks can and are working from home someone still has to sort packages, load and drive trucks and fly the planes. It breeds resentment which is not good for an organizations culture and these types of things play right into union organizers hands. Folks feel “ blue collar” jobs are potentially exposed to COVID while “white collar” jobs are not. As management we are wrestling with the proper balance and it’s a tough one.

I own a laundry company so without people we have nothing to offer and more people will walk around dirty and wrinkled.

Starting to see some of our customers in corporate sales coming back. More than one has told me that they are pressured to hit big targets because of low sales in 2020 but also pressured to do it virtually. They’re feeling squeezed because as we all know, sales at that level is relationship based and the virtual thing is not conducive to that. Hadn’t thought about that until those folks mentioned it.

 

[BattleshipTexas]

That would be a dream job. No going out in rain or snow or cold or hot. Don't have to deal with office politics or backstabbers or some who are downright A-Holes. If you are putting in the same amount of hours and work, what's with cutting pay? Google needs to be put in its place.

Don't underestimate backstabbers. In the office you usually get wind of someone trying something. When work is only done by email and imaged documents, you have no idea what is being said on other email chains blaming you for things you aren't even involved in.

 

[BigWillieCock]

Don't underestimate backstabbers. In the office you usually get wind of someone trying something. When work is only done by email and imaged documents, you have no idea what is being said on other email chains blaming you for things you aren't even involved in.

Good point. Would be an interesting way to reboot The Office.

 

[chief2791]

I dont want to work from home, at least not in a teleworking sense. I don't want those worlds to collide. I like having a work life and a home life, with as little mingling between the two as possible. Additionally, with teleworking, I think there's a tendency to experience what I call "work creep," where management begins to reach out to you more and more during those off "home" hours. I got a taste of teleworking during a quarantine period last year and I found that I ended up working about 14 hours a day, mostly phone calls, emails, and Skype meetings. I'll gladly commute to work to keep my home life unencumbered. Of course, I dont have to commute in a major metro area, but that didn't happen by accident either.

This is what a former employee/co-worker experienced, after he left for a better job (no hard feelings on my end, improve yourself when you can). He went back to the office fairly quickly. The company he went to work for installed a computer in his home office, along with things that they knew exactly what he was doing anytime he was on his computer, so they knew how many hours he actually spent working and what he was working on. He had a wife that wanted him to run a 30 minute errands, kids that if they needed a babysitter, "dad's at home", he was the one that was expected to fill in all of the gaps. He said he found himself working very early and very late just to get things done, basically working more hours.

My opinion, if you're going to work from home, treat it just like an office environment. You have to have an office where you can lock the door and not be disturbed. You have to get up, shower, breakfast, go to work, everything minus the commute. I just don't think a lot of people (especially younger) with spouses, kids, grands can do this and be uninterrupted/productive. Things slip, and it's usually work. If you're working from home, it needs to be the same thing as working in an office minus the commute.

 

[PaleoCock]

This is what a former employee/co-worker experienced, after he left for a better job (no hard feelings on my end, improve yourself when you can). He went back to the office fairly quickly. The company he went to work for installed a computer in his home office, along with things that they knew exactly what he was doing anytime he was on his computer, so they knew how many hours he actually spent working and what he was working on. He had a wife that wanted him to run a 30 minute errands, kids that if they needed a babysitter, "dad's at home", he was the one that was expected to fill in all of the gaps. He said he found himself working very early and very late just to get things done, basically working more hours.

My opinion, if you're going to work from home, treat it just like an office environment. You have to have an office where you can lock the door and not be disturbed. You have to get up, shower, breakfast, go to work, everything minus the commute. I just don't think a lot of people (especially younger) with spouses, kids, grands can do this and be uninterrupted/productive. Things slip, and it's usually work. If you're working from home, it needs to be the same thing as working in an office minus the commute.

100% agree. Working from home starts out like a dream, but you have to put checks and balances in place to maintain for the longer term.

I've personally found it important to fill that social void which offices provide as well as spent ample time in nature moving. We're not meant to spend most of our life indoors and isolated in our homes. It's a complete mismatch with our genome.

 

[Lurker123]

I have a group of friends that stretches over several local companies. They range fro 100% at home to 100% in the office. The office company just doesn't think people will work if they are at home. And the others are proposing going back to work, but a few days a week.


I could get behind the hybrid model easily. As an engineer, a lot of my work can be done from home, but there is production support that stil needs doing.

 

[Garnet chicken]

We have enough remote service people now and that usually gets you a lot of nothing. What about store workers, mechanics, plumbers, electricians, construction workers and many others that don't have a choice? Australia wants there people when they're out to not talk to each other.

 

[Cackdiesel]

Commuting and everything that goes with it (not just the actual drive time) costs me roughly 600-700 hours per year. I'd say that's fairly common for most people in my area. Its really worn on me over time. Working from home is far better for me and for the company. It really all just depends on the person though. I've found that the ones who are the most productive in the office are still the most productive at home, and vice versa.

 

[Cackdiesel]

We have enough remote service people now and that usually gets you a lot of nothing. What about store workers, mechanics, plumbers, electricians, construction workers and many others that don't have a choice? Australia wants there people when they're out to not talk to each other.

Its obviously not possible for all professions.

 

[Lurker123]

I've found that the ones who are the most productive in the office are still the most productive at home, and vice versa.

This is what I've found.

I also wonder at managers/offices who just come down 100% against remote work. Zero trust? They know what they do when they're at home?

 

[will110]

This is what a former employee/co-worker experienced, after he left for a better job (no hard feelings on my end, improve yourself when you can). He went back to the office fairly quickly. The company he went to work for installed a computer in his home office, along with things that they knew exactly what he was doing anytime he was on his computer, so they knew how many hours he actually spent working and what he was working on. He had a wife that wanted him to run a 30 minute errands, kids that if they needed a babysitter, "dad's at home", he was the one that was expected to fill in all of the gaps. He said he found himself working very early and very late just to get things done, basically working more hours.

My opinion, if you're going to work from home, treat it just like an office environment. You have to have an office where you can lock the door and not be disturbed. You have to get up, shower, breakfast, go to work, everything minus the commute. I just don't think a lot of people (especially younger) with spouses, kids, grands can do this and be uninterrupted/productive. Things slip, and it's usually work. If you're working from home, it needs to be the same thing as working in an office minus the commute.

I'm an attorney and have worked from home some. I agree completely with what you're saying...I can do 85% of my work virtually, but I much prefer going to the office. I worked from home a couple days in a row, and it drove me crazy. I have to get out of the house!

 

[coldbud1994]

It seems these companies would save a ton on office leases, etc when employees are at home (assuming they are productive). Think about what the big companies pay for rent for offices in places like New York

 

[cockymom2boys]

My husband has been allowed to work from home since covid. At 1st, he wasn't excited at all about the idea. He loves it now.
He doesn't miss the time spending sitting in traffic or the aggravation of putting up with rude, aggressive drivers. He doesn't miss the interruption of coworkers dropping by his cubicle.
We both agree he probably works more hours from home because of the lack of commute time.
But we are lucky. We have a downstairs office with French doors so he has a legit office space.

 

[apacock]

my wife loves it and is more productive. I am a high school principal and need to go in which is good for me. I would go crazy if I had to work from home and would certainly be less productive.

 

[Harvard Gamecock]

This is going back almost 15 years, but I was assigned to conduct a study based on costs alone comparing Work At Home (WAH) vs working from the office.
Average cost for 1 employee at the office 5 days a week for a full year was 21,500. This figure had many inclusions, energy costs, building maintenance, venders etc.
Average cost of 1 employee WAH 5 days a week was 1900. Cost inclusions were 1 business line, modem, basic office supplies, 1 time cost of a printer, etc
Based on those numbers I was stupefied that my company continued to insist on the majority of employees continue to come into the office.
Must be a control thing

 

[vehemon]

It's going to come around to cultural for that specific workplace and family situation. I've got a lot of colleagues telling me they are more productive at home. One of the same colleagues that say they are more productive also can be extremely hard to get in touch with when a production issues arises during the day.
I've had to fill in for him multiple times when an issue goes past his assigned time window and I end up having to solve it.
When bonus time comes around; he's going to be whining about the bonus coming his way.

On new job hirings; this is going to be a hot topic among candidates. HR is already starting to work pay scale adjustments on whether you are working in the office or working from home.

Personally for me; I've had to work extra hard and work more abnormal hours because of the distractions I have in my house. (Specifically a 3 year old and 6 year old stuck in the house most of the day). I've went from working from home... to quarantining at home... to essentially living at work. I'm massively burned out and my quality of work has dropped significantly. I can't stand being at my home office anymore and a have stopped a lot of my hobbles like playing video games and building other systems because it requires me to be in my office.
At least when I was working in an actual office there was an easy line to place between work and home.

For the colleagues I'm working with; it's taking them a massively lot longer time to get them up to speed because we aren't physically there with them. One of our new senior programmers; it took FOUR months to finally get them to the point in contributing and checking something in.

It's also been harder to get people engaged in solving some of the bigger problems. Having everyone physically in the same room working on a dry erase board goes a long way with productivity.

Overall and something I haven't seen many people talk about. I've seen a decrease of empathy from everyone on the team and peer groups we work with. If your problem is not their problem... then they don't care until it becomes their problem.

 

[Harvard Gamecock]

The WAH really comes down to the individual. Some can thrive in that situation ( I was one of them), and many can not for varying reasons.

 

[bayrooster]

Don't understand why it is even an issue for these companies. Most everything they do they can do remotely. In fact most office jobs can be done that way. I have at least 4 meetings a week that could have been an email.

They've invested probably billions in ginormous state-of-the-art campuses. I'd think they don't want to see all that go to waste.

 

[bayrooster]

100% agree. Working from home starts out like a dream, but you have to put checks and balances in place to maintain for the longer term.

I've personally found it important to fill that social void which offices provide as well as spent ample time in nature moving. We're not meant to spend most of our life indoors and isolated in our homes. It's a complete mismatch with our genome.

If my employer insists on continuing to support work from home for the foreseeable future I may consider returning to SC, after the housing market implodes. One half of my bosses currently supports this idea of mine.

 

[PaleoCock]

If my employer insists on continuing to support work from home for the foreseeable future I may consider returning to SC, after the housing market implodes. One half of my bosses currently supports this idea of mine.

We have several people from California in our area who have done the same. They still love it, but until things change, they've opted out.

 

[BigWillieCock]

The WAH really comes down to the individual. Some can thrive in that situation ( I was one of them), and many can not for varying reasons.

That’s a good point. Always tried to tell my professors that. I never went to class unless the professor was teaching me something not in the book or was interesting and engaging. Was far easier for me to read on my own than be bored to death in dumb downed lectures.

 

[BigWillieCock]

They've invested probably billions in ginormous state-of-the-art campuses. I'd think they don't want to see all that go to waste.

Yeah. It’s hard to hacky sack in the game space alone.

 

[atl-cock]

Lots of good comments on this thread, proving that WAH is quite viable for some people depending on the job responsibilities, their family structure, and their personal demeanor.



I had a three-month sojurn in Baltimore in early 1991. While in Baltimore, I met an architect who was self-employed and worked out of his home. His office was in the basement, which, if I recall correctly, was accessible only from an exterior door.

He had separate phone lines/numbers for the business and for the home. There was not an extension of the business number upstairs, nor the residential number downstairs (this was several years before mobile phones even became somewhat common). He was strict about keeping the work and home environments separate.

From quitting time on Friday until Monday morning, he did not even venture downstairs.