Hey, have you ever heard about this remote work thing? Wall Street has, as several firms force people back to the office in what CNBC is calling “the New Normal.” In this case, “New Normal” is a fairly blatant attempt to realign reality to what the executive sect wants it to be - that “normal” is being in the office and the “new” part is that you are aware of how utterly stupid it is you have to do be there. Famed labor abuser
Your piece's made me realize that I don't want these organizations to own my time. A lot of these piece's don't interrogate who the office is really for "white men."
I'm always struck by how weak these articles are in arguing for returning to the office (and often they call it returning to work).
Quoting a guy who is mainly in the office to:
- Play ping-pong
- Talk about "Stranger Things"
- gossip
Is pretty much the antithesis of productivity. He might as well sit at home and play X-Box instead of siphoning of productive time from his co-workers.
I'm wondering if those writers have the marching order to write about how people have to return to the office but purposely do a bad job of it because they don't like being forced back to the office for no good reason either.
It's incredible how - after much justified criticism of both sides-ism - the media responded not by reporting out stories and making factual determinations, but by only reporting one of the sides. Rarely is there a comment from a worker in a return to office story, much as the Russian or Venezuelan or Iranian embassy is rarely asked to comment on a story about state department allegations, or a union leader asked to comment about a labour dispute.
Maybe this is a small nitpick considering the state of the news today, but this really bothers me and I don't see anyone else talking about it.
Great piece, although I think you're missing one of the fundamental motivations - follow the money. There are trillions of dollars invested in previously safe and lucrative corporate real estate, and they have every reason to want people back in the office.
A lot of the collaboration and idea spawning that supposedly takes place in offices is really just “...inform them of my own personal life gossip.” Here we have someone actually saying this truth.
It’s long been recognized that people coming into your office to talk about nothing is really one of the great productivity killers.
As you point out the really incredible thing is how rarely any of these companies (or at least the articles about them) present any compelling business case for return to the office. They always avoid the more obvious reasons for remote work -- employee satisfaction and productivity AND reduced real estate cost.
Instead of being data driven -- the usual mark of a successful company -- the reasons to end remote work seem rooted in emotion, a shortsighted need for control and seemingly ignorance of how work gets done.
In all fairness to Slack's partners at Future Forum, MillerKnoll, Herman Miller and Knoll do make really comfortable furniture, and your boss is almost certainly not paying you enough to have an Aeron chair at home (even if they really should just expense one for you). /s
Required 3 days every 4 weeks. Your week is assigned and gawd forbid you want autonomy to adjust. Unintended consequence is that people stick to their 3 days during their assigned week and are “quiet quitting” the office
Your piece's made me realize that I don't want these organizations to own my time. A lot of these piece's don't interrogate who the office is really for "white men."
Remote work doesn't fit with the oligarchs' plan to obliterate the middle class.
I'm always struck by how weak these articles are in arguing for returning to the office (and often they call it returning to work).
Quoting a guy who is mainly in the office to:
- Play ping-pong
- Talk about "Stranger Things"
- gossip
Is pretty much the antithesis of productivity. He might as well sit at home and play X-Box instead of siphoning of productive time from his co-workers.
I'm wondering if those writers have the marching order to write about how people have to return to the office but purposely do a bad job of it because they don't like being forced back to the office for no good reason either.
It's incredible how - after much justified criticism of both sides-ism - the media responded not by reporting out stories and making factual determinations, but by only reporting one of the sides. Rarely is there a comment from a worker in a return to office story, much as the Russian or Venezuelan or Iranian embassy is rarely asked to comment on a story about state department allegations, or a union leader asked to comment about a labour dispute.
Maybe this is a small nitpick considering the state of the news today, but this really bothers me and I don't see anyone else talking about it.
Great piece, although I think you're missing one of the fundamental motivations - follow the money. There are trillions of dollars invested in previously safe and lucrative corporate real estate, and they have every reason to want people back in the office.
Nail, meet head. Excellent piece today!
A lot of the collaboration and idea spawning that supposedly takes place in offices is really just “...inform them of my own personal life gossip.” Here we have someone actually saying this truth.
It’s long been recognized that people coming into your office to talk about nothing is really one of the great productivity killers.
As you point out the really incredible thing is how rarely any of these companies (or at least the articles about them) present any compelling business case for return to the office. They always avoid the more obvious reasons for remote work -- employee satisfaction and productivity AND reduced real estate cost.
Instead of being data driven -- the usual mark of a successful company -- the reasons to end remote work seem rooted in emotion, a shortsighted need for control and seemingly ignorance of how work gets done.
In all fairness to Slack's partners at Future Forum, MillerKnoll, Herman Miller and Knoll do make really comfortable furniture, and your boss is almost certainly not paying you enough to have an Aeron chair at home (even if they really should just expense one for you). /s
> you should see this as the powerful trying to get something rather than “a debate.”
Ask a journalist in one of America's great managerial class paper to write about power? My good sir.
Required 3 days every 4 weeks. Your week is assigned and gawd forbid you want autonomy to adjust. Unintended consequence is that people stick to their 3 days during their assigned week and are “quiet quitting” the office