Workers still refuse to return to the office

R

rgp

Well-known Member
Location
Milford,OH
Even at the New York Times, and other large employers . These companies have these huge office buildings sitting empty/partially empty and theses employees sent home due to the china virus refuse to return to work. As per the news , the 'employees' say that they have become so accustomed to working from home that they refuse to return to the office.

So ...... OK, why not just fire them all ? Stay home if ya like .... without income.

Set a new/old standard. We are hiring, we work at this address , if you are qualified please apply .
 

This isn't meant to be snarky at your post but I'll just say yawn to those workers. I've never had a sit down office job. Wonder what that's like.

I'm all for less office work if it cuts down on driving and commuting. But if your job is saying it's now time to come it, if you want to keep your job, I'd go.
 
Remy said:
This isn't meant to be snarky at your post but I'll just say yawn to those workers. I've never had a sit down office job. Wonder what that's like.

I'm all for less office work if it cuts down on driving and commuting. But if your job is saying it's now time to come it, if you want to keep your job, I'd go.
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No offence taken :) And I agree completely.
 

Bosses and employees have different understandings of what the office is for, and after more than two years of working remotely, everyone has developed their own varied expectations about how best to spend their time. Those who want to be remote are upset because they enjoyed working from home and don’t understand why, after two years of doing good work there, they have to return to the office. People who couldn’t wait to go back are not finding the same situation they enjoyed before the pandemic, with empty offices and fewer amenities.
 
rgp said:
Even at the New York Times, and other large employers . These companies have these huge office buildings sitting empty/partially empty and theses employees sent home due to the china virus refuse to return to work. As per the news , the 'employees' say that they have become so accustomed to working from home that they refuse to return to the office.

So ...... OK, why not just fire them all ? Stay home if ya like .... without income.

Set a new/old standard. We are hiring, we work at this address , if you are qualified please apply .
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There's a worker shortage in almost every industry, and I assume that's true for the news media industry. So office workers who prefer working from home have leverage and they're using it to be provided working conditions they prefer, such as working from home, better pay...

Or some are "quiet quitting" where they just do the bare minimum to get by and not get fired. I've known people who "quiet quit" for years! :ROFLMAO:
 
JaniceM said:
I don't think workers who prefer to continue working from home should be a big deal, but what I've been curious about are individuals who actually quit their jobs- what do they do for income?
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IMO ..... the 'big-deal' is the fact that these companies have a lot of unused realestate just sitting empty .. requiring utility be paid, property tax be paid, security be maintained on the property etc... And that close management [if needed] is all but impossible.

I dunno ... maybe I'm wrong , but I think they should get their butts back in the office.
 
rgp said:
IMO ..... the 'big-deal' is the fact that these companies have a lot of unused realestate just sitting empty .. requiring utility be paid, property tax be paid, security be maintained on the property etc... And that close management [if needed] is all but impossible.

I dunno ... maybe I'm wrong , but I think they should get their butts back in the office.
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In many situations, yes, I agree they should. I hadn't thought about the overhead costs.
 
rgp said:
IMO ..... the 'big-deal' is the fact that these companies have a lot of unused realestate just sitting empty .. requiring utility be paid, property tax be paid, security be maintained on the property etc... And that close management [if needed] is all but impossible.
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There's a golden opportunity to use some business savvy, lease out the unused office space.
 
If all a person does at work is sit in a chair and monitor their computer, It makes far more sense for them to do so at home, IMO. That way, they don't have to get up real early, dress up nicely, and spend an hour or two in rush hour traffic every day. Their savings would grow.

But then, the managers and executives who Do show up at the office would not have a bunch of employees to "bug" every day.
 
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rgp said:
Even at the New York Times, and other large employers . These companies have these huge office buildings sitting empty/partially empty and theses employees sent home due to the china virus refuse to return to work. As per the news , the 'employees' say that they have become so accustomed to working from home that they refuse to return to the office.

So ...... OK, why not just fire them all ? Stay home if ya like .... without income.

Set a new/old standard. We are hiring, we work at this address , if you are qualified please apply .
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Because they won't return to work and even the hard manual labor workers it is creating a hardship in these businesses because they are now perpetually short. And the ones that are in house working are paying for it. They need to come back into the work force. It's BS that we are having to work so short handed that we can't even take a decent vacation. Some nights it's so bad I am the only one doing checkouts. They can't keep doing this to us. These companies need to do something about it. We are also losing employees right and left because of all the work overload.
 
I could see this coming a mile away. My SIL‘s employer compromised with allowing one or two days a week working from home, and the rest at the office. There is definite value to in person meetings.
 
Not my problem anymore so I guess I don't care what they do. I am totally retired now for over 2 decades. I am completely in agreement with Alfred E. Newman:
 

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JaniceM said:
I don't think workers who prefer to continue working from home should be a big deal, but what I've been curious about are individuals who actually quit their jobs- what do they do for income?
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I've wondered this myself. During the beginning of the pandemic there was extra unemployment, at least in California. I can't remember if that was nationwide.

I'm single, self supporting so I keep working though I'm part time now. Perhaps some have a spouse. I'm not sure. I know I've worked with some flakes in my field who were orientated at the work place and then flaked out soon and never saw them again. I wondered what they did also.
 
Nathan said:
There's a golden opportunity to use some business savvy, lease out the unused office space.
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Too who ?? If the 'vibe' of 'working class' is to stay home ..... who would lease the property ? It's just going to sit empty then as well.
 
Don M. said:
If all a person does at work is sit in a chair and monitor their computer, I makes far more sense for them to do so at home, IMO. That way, they don't have to get up real early, dress up nicely, and spend an hour or two in rush hour traffic every day. Their savings would grow.

But then, the managers and executives who Do show up at the office would not have a bunch of employees to "bug" every day.
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As per a friend of mine who worked in an office environment for 40 years ....... [just retired] . She claims that for the last 4-5 years , [even before china virus] no one [very few] bothered to dress up @ all for the office . She herself was 'called-on-the-carpet' for being too casual.
 
Packerjohn said:
Not my problem anymore so I guess I don't care what they do. I am totally retired now for over 2 decades. I am completely in agreement with Alfred E. Newman:
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I am retired 2+ decades as well but .... Since I do not quote A/Newman .... I have no comment ....... :rolleyes:
 
Gary O' said:
If they do their job well, at home
I think it's a win win
Lease or sell the office and parking space
Save fuel/elect, less traffic, less wear and tear on autos
Less managers (that's always needed)

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Again, who would lease/buy it ?? If the employees from this or that company won't return to work ? ........ Isn't it reasonable to assume that the employees from that or this wouldn't as well ? So again, the property would sit empty ..... No?
 
Well of course much depends on the specific type of work but there is more.

As a retired someone that has worked in a list of large professional offices and labs, if I were still working, I would not want others to mostly be remote for one significant reason these articles on remote working never mention. Note the last company's products I worked for over 8 years were VOIP (Voice Over IP) business phone systems. Once telephone systems developed sophisticated functions, communication issues arose. Although there have always been employees that considerately attend to others attempting to communicate with them, there is a tendency even when they are available just sitting in their office for many of those higher up in employee stature, especially within managerial ranks to ignore phone calls and messaging of those lower than themselves, especially the more busy they are or if they have reasons to avoid some others.

In large organizations with a long list of people filling an array of comparable niches, there are also many that ignore other peers for like reasons or because they are behind schedules or under pressure. Same situation eventually developed with emails, voice messages and other post smartphone telecom apps. Many managers are inundated with large numbers of emails and voice messages, a prime reason such avoidance develops. In the early computer era when emails arose, it was acceptable for employees to send long informational emails but after a few years that became inappropriate because managers had too many. So then we would send short emails with attachments (like parts of some software listing) but then Ivy League HR types began condemning that practice also.

When one works in the same building, it is always possible to just walk a bit to visit others offices or cubes. Even a major manager will speak to any lowers if so confronted. When someone like that is miles away there are no options. If the person one is trying to communicate with is of higher rank, complaining about such behavior is certain to backfire.

So unless a company has addressed such issues the notion of remote working will be flawed. Yes from the perspective of higher ranking employees it may appear well. However for lower level peons doing much work it can be mean the difference between moving schedules forward and being stuck for days because Martin has all the power and does not care about your situation.
 
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rgp said:
the 'employees' say that they have become so accustomed to working from home that they refuse to return to the office.

So ...... OK, why not just fire them all ? Stay home if ya like .... without income.
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I was retiring anyway, but when the company I was working for told us we had to return to the office or "there would be [unnamed] consequences" one of my teammates found a different job (that would allow remote) and quit. I dragged my feet for a couple months then made one token appearance at the office, really just to get my stuff and see one of my coworkers in person for a last time. And another teammate found someone to rent her house's upstairs rooms (so she would have enough income to retire) and announced she would be retiring in a few weeks (they talked her into working for several more months - allowing her to work from home entirely).

The manager of the programmers knew he'd lose his team if they were forced back to the office and he very cleverly modified their home locations to indicate they were beyond the range of people expected to commute to an office so that their names would not show up on "the list" -- some bigwig manager had discovered a way to get a list of everyone who had not badged into an office since the date of the order to return - and then was all unhappy because a huge percentage of people had never come back, so then "the list" was used to harass our managers to harass us.

It is a pity about the unused office space, but considering that they decades ago took away our real offices and have ever since continued to shrink the size of the cubicles, it isn't nearly as much space as it should have been.

Also, they continually expect employees to work extra hours (all unpaid due to us being exempt), weekends, holidays, and both scheduled and random long overnights to support problems on the system (as well as calling us at all hours to login for an emergency). So considering how much extra they bleed out of us, to make us waste hours of our day shaving/putting on makeup and commuting to sit in tiny cubicles where we are immediately in headsets communicating with teammates in other cities - it just is a pointless power play of the managers to expect that.

My team was left with one set of functionality and one entire system that have NO ONE who knows them, and several which now have only one person who can support them (and she's tired of all the extra work that has fallen on her and is actively looking for another job). It takes about 5 years for a new employee to know the systems and how they work together.

Also, it took them until last month to find a couple people to hire. There are lots of jobs now that advertise remote as a benefit, so it is harder to find people who will take a job in an office.
 
Nathan said:
That's perfectly OK. Use all the 'ifs' you want, not every single person will fit into the box that you have constructed. There will always be somebody that needs office space.
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I created no "box" This has been on the news darn near everyday for a while now. Making it [IMO] a matter of fact ...... and there will not ALWAYS be somebody [that is a huge creation itself] {always be} ? that needs the office space .... if there is no one to fill the office space, then office space anywhere is useless..
 

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