Principal Financial-Remote work

[CycloneSpinning]

As much as I hate working in the office, I did have a situation last week that worked a lot better by being in the office. We had a corporate wide outage that we had to triage. The event lasted about 30 minutes, and went more smoothly than when we were all at home.

Out loud

Jason-"Mark from accounting just reported that he is unable to get into ****"
Fred-"Yep, same for me"
Tony-"Me too. Looks like we need to call a severity event. What are we thinking?"
Jason, Fred, Eric-"One","One","One"
Tony-"Ok, Eric can I have you handle communication on this one? Jason you work with the vendor. I'll work with the command center"

That right there took less than a minute. We then had to get on Teams and tell the rest of the team who works remote. Not sure who actually read that message, but one of them offered to help.

We then all gathered in a drop in conference room and worked to identify the issue and get all parties involved that needed to be there. There were about 10 people in the room and their chit chat amongst themselves helped identify that the problem had to be on the vendor side, which was confirmed a few minutes later. Since this was a vendor issue, are hands were somewhat tied, but we did discuss best practices if this happens again.

With all of that said, this was the first time in the last year that I've seen a huge benefit. It's clear that our most experienced team members, who are primarily office-based, played a pivotal role in resolving the issue efficiently.

I definitely like being in the office and agree that there are benefits. I just can’t ignore the varied benefits (for some more than others) to having a flexible arrangement…or to just work remotely.

 

[cowgirl836]

This is a really good point (really several good points). I had a job right out of college where I was cold-calling current clients, checking on their service and trying to dig into whether there was an opportunity for additional sales. I had a phone and a paper list, but I also had a computer. I would get through so much of my list and take a brain break on the computer. For whatever reason, they decided to take my computer away…said I didn’t need to browse the internet to do my job. True…but my job satisfaction plummeted.

I absolutely hated my job. I hated Sundays because it meant I had to go back the next day. I probably only lasted another six weeks. When I left, they thanked me, said I had done great work, and seemed to indicate I was one of the best they’d had in that position…and left the door open to my return (not that I would have considered it).

Shouldn’t they have given me that space to take my head out of my work? Or was I stealing time? And what of the fact that many of them took frequent cigarette breaks?

I mean, there is just a ton of research showing that the 100% work is a great road to burnout. As you demonstrated. Your brain works on problems in the background. If you have a problem you're struggling to puzzle out - go take a walk. Cook something. Do laundry. Knit. Do something mindless (especially involving your hands or nature) and your brain process the problem in the background. How many of them took a long **** on the clock? They aren't paying you for widgets, they are paying you for results. I despise that mindset because it's such a short term, destructive perspective. Their authoritarian little control freak move cost them more in the end and they as much as said so to you. Cutting off their noses to spite their faces.

 

[ISU_Guy]

Does the average in office employee increase their workday to account for all of the chit chat around the office?

I am a remote worker and decided to go into the office today for the heck of it.
got absolutely nothing done, but talk to people, went to lunch, then had more people stop by my desk.
i had a couple meetings that I lead that involved no people that were in my building or even from the state.

tack on 1 hour total in the car...

So basically i am saying i get way more done at home.

 

[snowcraig2.0]

Wonder who else is posting on CF while at work?

 

[Big Daddy Kang]

I am a remote worker and decided to go into the office today for the heck of it.
got absolutely nothing done, but talk to people, went to lunch, then had more people stop by my desk.
i had a couple meetings that I lead that involved no people that were in my building or even from the state.

tack on 1 hour total in the car...

So basically i am saying i get way more done at home.

congrats on being an ineffective employee today.

part of RTO is culture. face-to-face interactions are clearly different from Teams meetings. I know some people just can't bear to put on pants, hire a babysitter, and drive to the office but, in some cases, it's better for the team, business, organization.

 

[State2015]

congrats on being an ineffective employee.

part of RTO is culture. face-to-face interactions are clearly different from Teams meetings. I know some people just can't bear to put on pants, hire a babysitter, and drive to the office but, in some cases, it's better for the team.

Dude your boss isn’t gonna read this you can relax and wipe the brown off your nose

 

[Rabbuk]

congrats on being an ineffective employee today.

part of RTO is culture. face-to-face interactions are clearly different from Teams meetings. I know some people just can't bear to put on pants, hire a babysitter, and drive to the office but, in some cases, it's better for the team, business, organization.

Is this satire? I'm 60/40 that it is

 

[State2015]

Is this satire? I'm 60/40 that it is

If it is he got me for sure

 

[Rabbuk]

If it is he got me for sure

Maybe it is because I work with some absolute degenerates who act like that.

 

[State2015]

Maybe it is because I work with some absolute degenerates who act like that.

There’s plenty of people out there that think creating shareholder value is the meaning and purpose of their life

 

[State2015]

It's not satire. I know this thread is dominated by the WFH religion but I'm a manager and know it's not all rainbows and unicorns. Cancel me, *******, if a different opinion isn't your thing.

I’m also a manager and I’m in the office 5x/week but there’s a lot more important things in life than spending 9 hours a day in an office working

 

[qwerty]

I’m also a manager and I’m in the office 5x/week but there’s a lot more important things in life than spending 9 hours a day in an office working

Spending 10hours a day in the office working?

 

[jsb]

It's not satire. I know this thread is dominated by the WFH zealots but I'm a manager and know it's not all rainbows and unicorns. Cancel me, *******, if a different opinion isn't your thing.

It sounds like you aren't a very good or effective manager. You've hired the wrong people and your leadership has enabled the people that work for you to take advantage of work from home.

I work 8 hours a day when I'm at home and if I had kids I would have to have childcare (except in extreme circumstances) and if I didn't meet my goals or perform my job well, my work from home privileges would be taken away and I could be fired. Same thing for the people that work for me.

 

[Cyched]

Our team does a hybrid arrangement and I like it - WFH days are just as productive, but I do enjoy the face-to-face each week - helps with team building.

Our key isn't that we mandate a certain # of days in office, or RTO or full remote - simply give people the flexibility.

Want to work at home because there's a blizzard/you have an appointment? No problem. Want to be in office all 5 days because you feel more productive? Knock yourself out.

Hire good people, make sure they're meeting their deadlines, and things move along smoothly.

 

[Gunnerclone]

It's not satire. I know this thread is dominated by the WFH zealots but I'm a manager and know it's not all rainbows and unicorns. Cancel me, *******, if a different opinion isn't your thing.

lol.

 

[cowgirl836]

It's not satire. I know this thread is dominated by the WFH zealots but I'm a manager and know it's not all rainbows and unicorns. Cancel me, *******, if a different opinion isn't your thing.

Some of us have managed more than a fast food joint.

 

[Cyched]

Some of us have managed more than a fast food joint.

 

[isufbcurt]

How about just set expectations for the work the employee needs to get done and when it needs to be done by and don't worry so much about how many hours they are "working"? Just because you are sitting at a desk in the office for 8 hours doesn't mean you are being productive. People can look busy and get nothing done in the office just as easily as they can at home. I've seen it plenty of times.

Exactly give someone work and a deadline. Whether they work on it during the day, in the middle of the night or some combination doesn't matter as long as it is done well and on time.

 

[cyputz]

Devils advocate: What about the factory workers who typically are at their stations longer than desk jobs, and allowed specific time breaks.

 

[Mr Janny]

I’m also a manager and I’m in the office 5x/week but there’s a lot more important things in life than spending 9 hours a day in an office working

Manager here as well. My team has some folks who are WFH part of the time, and others who are full time remote. No issues with productivity or lack of personal connection. Shoot, 90% of meetings take place on Teams, regardless of if people are in the office or not. I don't care where people work from, so long as we're hitting our commitments on time. The way I see it, if someone thinks they need to have people in the office in order to properly manage them, it says far more about their managerial skills than anything else.