24 Comments

Such another great piece. You're so good at being eloquently angry. The one thing that enraged me the most, is the fact that companies that have built tools like Asana are so vehemently opposed to remote working.

Their entire products are all about remote working. That they are so opposed to this, just shows it's all about power and enforcing the will of executives.

Expand full comment

What the nitwits writing these trash articles forget is that remote relationships have been foisted on us for years. Back in 2012 I literally had to start working with a brand new team in India overnight because the onshore team that did the same work were all laid off in a day. I have team members across this country and the globe and we all have to figure out the best ways to train and work together and have huddles and all that. And you know what? We like it BETTER when everyone is virtual because the people in the satellite offices outside The main office NEVER felt like part of the team when they had to dial into staff meetings and watch people eat and talk. Now we are all on equal footing. My point is that these remote relationships are always there and acting like the office is magic will doom us all.

Expand full comment

The LinkedIn story is just so hilariously bullshit. It's so obviously the product of a writer who has a) never worked a job outside of big media and b) learned everything they know about "corporate" jobs from watching Mad Men. Like, do they honestly think that vendors were schlepping out to prospects offices on the reg. before COVID?

I have been pitched to by, evaluated, and purchased from vendors from all across the friggin' globe. The only one of which I've ever met in person was the case where it just happened that our account manager was in the same state. The parent company itself was in France.

If anything, work-from-home has *improved* the experience. Now people are acculturated to actually using video conference tools, instead of the oh-so-superior "in-person" experience of 5 people in one conference room huddled around an Avaya conference phone yelling that they can't hear the other 5 people huddled around a phone in another office.

Expand full comment

Ms. Binder basically says that given people choice is bad for them because they may make the "wrong" choice. Great gaslighting right there.

Expand full comment

Just wanted to say I subscribed a few months ago, and your writing has really been a light for me. I went remote in March 2020 and live in fear that any day my boss is going to bring us back to the office for vague, bogus "culture" reasons. Your newsletter has really been helpful for my anxiety, because I know now that I'm not the only one seeing how ridiculous this situation is! Thanks for your work.

Expand full comment

Remote prop-tech worker here, absolutely appalled to see that quote from an Orchard exec. Orchard is a prop-tech startup based on the concept of digitizing the real estate closing experience--meaning 1) automating a lot of what goes on behind the scenes in a real estate transaction, and 2) eliminating the need for humans to travel from work or home, in person, to an office, to sit at a table across from other humans and ink-sign 1,000 pieces of paper. Much like Asana is represented in this article-- it’s wildly insensible for execs of such a tech-forward and "modern" company to be anti-remote work (and claim a Zoom meeting went awry!!!).

Expand full comment

Did these people just landed on earth? For the past almost 2 years many companies around the world had their employees working remotely while reporting up to 50% increase in productivity. Just that fact by itself proves them wrong. What else is there to be said.

Expand full comment

Extremely well said, as usual... and I think it makes a difference, despite the asymmetry between this newsletter and the mighty NYT, to speak the simple truth in such an energetic and compelling way. These essays have helped clarify my own thinking--and not because they affirm my preconceptions.

So, thanks.

Expand full comment

happy anniversary buddy, thanks for continuing to tell it like it is

Expand full comment

Remote work aside, I thought nobody could be more aggravating than Jordan Peterson fans but your last article sure did make me angry at the ridiculous and apparently inescapable NFT chuds

Expand full comment

Superb piece and I share your anger. I've been posting similar rants (less eloquent and not so well argued) on LinkedIN for the past couple of years and I share your conclusion that the real fight here is about power over and control. You can't force-feed the corporate bullshit to people so easily when they are working remotely. "Ah, shut the fuck up." is totally on point and made me laugh out loud. Keep raging against the lies and injustice.

Expand full comment

Ed, thanks so much for speaking the truth, and so eloquently and rightly angrily. You are right on. Keep it up please. It provides heat and light to many in the cold and dark. And congrats on one year of posts. (I have not reached that milestone, but will on Jan. 1).

Expand full comment

“I see a world of opportunity, with workers being able to live where they want and work where they want, and I see people who have nothing to lose from them doing so attempting to stomp out a better future.”

Framing this. Thank you

Expand full comment

I feel similar rage, glad to see, that I’m not alone. Now reading amazing book “The bleeding edge” by Bob Hughes. Similar thoughts and worldview. Thank you!

Expand full comment

This is so good! I have found your newsletters really helpful in seeing and understanding that this is power operating—in ways probably many of its enablers are unaware of. Does the Oxbridge writer know she’s doing it? I’d guess not—to maintain and enforce a cruel status quo that is, ever so slightly, in danger of shifting to a slightly less exploitative, oppressive dynamic, and the powers that be are absolutely terrified about, of, and by it.

Expand full comment

What project management tool, if any, do you use? Or is it more of an amalgam of different tools?

Expand full comment