Amy Coleman, Executive Vice President and Chief People Officer, shared the below communication with Microsoft employees this morning. How we work has forever changed. I remember starting at Microsoft in the late ‘90s, always in the office, no laptops, and primarily working with the people right down the hall. As technology evolved and our business expanded, we became...
My wife does two days in the office and that sounds ideal to me. Really strange that lemmy generally sees zero benefits to the office.
For example, I went in to met a coworker and fix her laptop. While I was there the devs in front of me were discussing a thing that my team was working on. I didn’t know they needed that thing and they didn’t know we were working on it. I took new information back to my group.
While bullshitting with the tech support manager I learned some things about their policies and procedures. Found out I had made incorrect assumptions and learning about those helped me in my role.
I 100% agree with you (even though it will get the both of us downvoted into oblivion). The important part is that it only works if everyone is in the office at basically the same time.otherwise you’re just the lone guy sitting in there for no benefit.
I will 100% choose a company or team that is in the office over one that isn’t. Half remote is THE WORST. Trying to have an in person meeting, and then the remote people whining they aren’t included in decisions, or they don’t know the details. Every meeting is a half robotic nightmare as everyone in the room fumes that you have to spend 20 minutes getting all the remote people on the screen and dealing with mic issues when this could have be a 5 minute hallway chat.
It’s not about having zero benefits in the office, it’s about giving people the choice to do what works for them. Some people like working in the office, then go ahead. Some people prefer to work at home, let them. The problem is companies forcing everyone to do one thing when everyone works differently.
I’m fully remote but I voluntarily go to the office once a week (as much as possible) primarily to socialize with coworkers and maybe do some in-person meetings if the timing is right. I would hate it if I was mandated to go once a week, because I prefer the flexibility.
What you just described was a horribly inefficient use of resources. You gained insight through idle banter. While everyone is in office that’s what middle managers would tend to handle. All this time they thought they were herding cats, turns out the cats just wanted to be home. Now people don’t know who to go to because the “yes” person isn’t in a cubicle you can just waltz over to. Middle management needs a massive paradigm shift if they want to stay relevant in a WFH situation. And that seems increasingly likely to be the direction businesses will go once they cut staff with these asinine RTO policies.
I like to think that genuine connection and collaborations aren’t… resources. I’m not some chit to be moved from one column to the next. The stuff you are talking about is part of being a human being. Could I maybe technically crap out 10% more lines of code if I’m a hermit working in a dank closet in my tiny apartment? Maybe. Is the newbie next time who doesn’t know what to do going to have any chance to grow and learn just from being part of things that happen organically? No.
My wife does two days in the office and that sounds ideal to me. Really strange that lemmy generally sees zero benefits to the office.
For example, I went in to met a coworker and fix her laptop. While I was there the devs in front of me were discussing a thing that my team was working on. I didn’t know they needed that thing and they didn’t know we were working on it. I took new information back to my group.
While bullshitting with the tech support manager I learned some things about their policies and procedures. Found out I had made incorrect assumptions and learning about those helped me in my role.
We’re social animals y’all.
I 100% agree with you (even though it will get the both of us downvoted into oblivion). The important part is that it only works if everyone is in the office at basically the same time.otherwise you’re just the lone guy sitting in there for no benefit.
I will 100% choose a company or team that is in the office over one that isn’t. Half remote is THE WORST. Trying to have an in person meeting, and then the remote people whining they aren’t included in decisions, or they don’t know the details. Every meeting is a half robotic nightmare as everyone in the room fumes that you have to spend 20 minutes getting all the remote people on the screen and dealing with mic issues when this could have be a 5 minute hallway chat.
It’s not about having zero benefits in the office, it’s about giving people the choice to do what works for them. Some people like working in the office, then go ahead. Some people prefer to work at home, let them. The problem is companies forcing everyone to do one thing when everyone works differently.
I’m fully remote but I voluntarily go to the office once a week (as much as possible) primarily to socialize with coworkers and maybe do some in-person meetings if the timing is right. I would hate it if I was mandated to go once a week, because I prefer the flexibility.
It depends on the industry, sure.
I work in software development and unless we’re working with hardware I work better at home and don’t get much out of sitting next to someone.
If I’m working on something that’s hands on then sure.
If I need people to be in an office to have them engaged then my team blows already
What you just described was a horribly inefficient use of resources. You gained insight through idle banter. While everyone is in office that’s what middle managers would tend to handle. All this time they thought they were herding cats, turns out the cats just wanted to be home. Now people don’t know who to go to because the “yes” person isn’t in a cubicle you can just waltz over to. Middle management needs a massive paradigm shift if they want to stay relevant in a WFH situation. And that seems increasingly likely to be the direction businesses will go once they cut staff with these asinine RTO policies.
I like to think that genuine connection and collaborations aren’t… resources. I’m not some chit to be moved from one column to the next. The stuff you are talking about is part of being a human being. Could I maybe technically crap out 10% more lines of code if I’m a hermit working in a dank closet in my tiny apartment? Maybe. Is the newbie next time who doesn’t know what to do going to have any chance to grow and learn just from being part of things that happen organically? No.