First of CEOs seeing working from Home is not always working

[Jeni]

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/vishal-garg-better-com-ceo-fires-900-employees-zoom-call/

The CEO of a company fires a large amount of workers over a zoom meeting call . Calls out that many simply were not working the amount they were paid for.

I have seen various coverage about this and while the CEO says he regrets doing this on a zoom call ... i am not surprised. I actually think as this continues more and more places will NEED to evaluate if they are getting the time they are paying for.
In my last position that i worked from home i SAW this happen.
Too many places in my area are finding that people were not available or did not respond promptly .....as they were doing other things at home and NOT putting in the effort.
While this may not be universal as anyone who has worked in life will tell you SOME staff needs almost constant supervision to put in the hours they are being paid for.

 

[dseag2]

It takes discipline to work from home. I worked from home for 14 years prior to retiring in 2020. We hated the city we were living in, hated the commute and wanted a better quality of life, so I told my boss I was moving. I was managing a sales force, so she told me I could work from anywhere.

I found that I worked HARDER when I worked from home because 1) I overcompensated for the freedom to work from home when everyone else was in the office and 2) I could never leave the office behind. There were many times I would be on email at 8pm in my home office.

That said, I agree that there are many who simply get too distracted working from home. I've worked with quite a few who simply "went missing" when working from home. It's not for everyone, and I don't blame this CEO one bit, although Zoom doesn't seem like the appropriate forum.

I worked for a company with thousands of employees. Due to Covid, the CEO got us all on a conference call in May 2020. He said there would be some positions eliminated, some who would be furloughed and some who would stay with a 20% pay cut. My boss personally called me right afterward to let me know my position had been eliminated, then together we called my staff to let each person know which category they were in. That's the way to handle it.

 

[Jeni]

That said, I agree that there are many who simply get too distracted working from home. I've worked with quite a few who simply "went missing" when working from home. It's not for everyone, and I don't blame this CEO one bit, although Zoom doesn't seem like the appropriate forum.

No many are NOT able to work consistently on their own.
I always imagined there would be other items pop up as some like yourself found themselves maybe answering emails or calls after normal working hours thus making a fine line of if not on salary ... working off the clock. Which can be a nightmare if they wanted to pursue a claim of not being compensated correctly.

I think this guy was really mad as one thing i read some people he said put in 2 hours a day...paid for eight that would be theft.

The folks i worked with simply did not see themselves as we did.
It was obvious when your setting said you had not been active for an hour and a half and not in a time we could assume a lunch break or anything.
I had a co-worker who told me on messages she was going shopping at 10 am and taking her daughter to an appointment and would deal with stuff later.
When people could not get her online asked me if i had spoke to her ..... I told them ......assuming she had requested time off to do things like she would have in leaving the office..... Needless to say she was furious at me for ratting her out.
People assuming they could piece together a day... an hour here or there ...then a few later etc....... leads to not knowing when they are ON the payroll and when they are NOT.

 

[MarciKS]

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/vishal-garg-better-com-ceo-fires-900-employees-zoom-call/

The CEO of a company fires a large amount of workers over a zoom meeting call . Calls out that many simply were not working the amount they were paid for.

I have seen various coverage about this and while the CEO says he regrets doing this on a zoom call ... i am not surprised. I actually think as this continues more and more places will NEED to evaluate if they are getting the time they are paying for.
In my last position that i worked from home i SAW this happen.
Too many places in my area are finding that people were not available or did not respond promptly .....as they were doing other things at home and NOT putting in the effort.
While this may not be universal as anyone who has worked in life will tell you SOME staff needs almost constant supervision to put in the hours they are being paid for.

i know our place of employment doesn't get the work they're paying for. they're coughing up $14 an hr for the dishwashers and they spend half their time runnin their mouths instead of doing their jobs. one of the cooks gets $20 an hr to lean. if they put in as much time working as they do yappin they'd get their work done. God forbid.

 

[Jeni]

i know our place of employment doesn't get the work they're paying for. they're coughing up $14 an hr for the dishwashers and they spend half their time runnin their mouths instead of doing their jobs. one of the cooks gets $20 an hr to lean. if they put in as much time working as they do yappin they'd get their work done. God forbid.

i know it is very frustrating if you are putting in the effort and others are clearly not..... when i was doing the from home thing i often heard form many that I was always showing available to get to all the working day and some seem perplexed by that... why that was the deal i was selling my time for compensation of course i was ON duty

 

[Aunt Bea]

When I was still working, over fifteen years ago, people were beginning to work from home.

It was a career-ender for many people who were simply unavailable or forgotten when resources were needed to quickly address a high visibility problem.

Also, the lack of facetime around the watercooler impacted people's ability to maintain alliances, stay informed, accomplish many small tasks on the fly, etc...

I would not have the discipline to work from home full time. It would be too tempting to run an errand, do chores, etc...

Basically, it would be too easy for me to forget who was writing the checks.

 

[Fyrefox]

I have never worked from home other than doing tabulations and producing a few reports. I have seen over the decades, though, a breakdown in management-labor relations where it now constitutes a Cold War rather than a relationship characterized by mutual respect and trust. Although labor will exceed expectations if treated respectfully, too many managers have decided that they’d rather be feared than loved, and so treat members of the work force as subhuman commodities readily replaceable…

 

[Jeni]

I have never worked from home other than doing tabulations and producing a few reports. I have seen over the decades, though, a breakdown in management-labor relations where it now constitutes a Cold War rather than a relationship characterized by mutual respect and trust. Although labor will exceed expectations if treated respectfully, too many managers have decided that they’d rather be feared than loved, and so treat members of the work force as subhuman commodities readily replaceable…

While i agree that when treated respectfully some employees shine.... far too many do the bare minimum to not get let go. This is like mold among staff if one does 2 hours why would those around them want to put in effort.

It is a matter of perspective ...
This is REAL even when media or whatever tells people this is the new NORMAL ......and the WFH is working ... it is NOT in many cases.

While this firing may have been a bit dramatic ....
i hope other companies really decide to see who is effective and who isn't. I see many are now using camera on computer to watch staff.

It is the best thing you can do to nip that behavior in the bud.
The same person i posted about above who took time off midday........ was also a wanderer at the office there were jokes about tying her to her desk
So it should not have surprised anyone she could not be trusted to stay on task at home either.