I can't count how many times I heard "working from home is here to stay. It's the neeeew normal"
Ok....
Amazon employees in dismay over return to the office policy
- Thread starter GON
- Start date
I can't count how many times I heard "working from home is here to stay. It's the neeeew normal"
Ok....
AZjeff
$50 Site Donor 2023
I have. Sometimes there are internal "politics" that cause a department to downsize to share the hurt even though their workload didn't lessen.
Hands on workers,( I was one), resent those who can work from home it seems and assume they're screwing off half the day. If they're not giving a full effort at home they likely aren't in the office either. If a person does the job they're given correctly on time so what? Our office and IT people stayed home while us working guys had to come in and turn the cranks to keep products going out the door. At the time I was mad at myself for not being smart enough to have one of those jobs. Not really I'd rather work with my hands that sit at a desk.
AZjeff
$50 Site Donor 2023
Or that C-19 referred to the weight gained being close to the fridge all day.
I'm late to the party here, but I worked remotely from the mid '90s to the mid '00s, long before it was fashionable. Of my 28 year career with a well known Silicon Valley company that had a huge international presence, the final 8 years of my career was working remotely.
Although it worked out for me because I was well established and had an outstanding reputation, it's not for everyone and not everyone can do it. Although my contributions were just as plentiful as they were while working onsite, I didn't enjoy working remotely. I liked my colleagues and missed being around them.
Had I not worked remotely I wouldn't have retired at age 52 (and with no pension!). Working remotely turned my job into a job. I no longer had any face to face interaction with my colleagues, whom I liked and missed. One day out of the blue while sitting at my home office desk I decided to quit. My manager didn't have a clue and couldn't freaking believe it. But then they hired me back as a contractor on an hourly basis for almost double my original salary. I earned the ability to pick and chose what work I accepted and how much I was going to work.
What an outstanding deal, right? No. It just wasn't the same. I missed the face time with people and there was no way we were going to move back to the area. After three years of very lucrative contractor work I finally left for good. Although working remotely worked out well for my employer, it didn't work out for me. And it may sound strange, but I didn't even feel right about the insane wages they were paying me. I felt like I was stealing from them.
Scott
Edit: And the last project I worked on (for two years) was for the "homeland security department" for a nation well established and friendly to the western world. The loss of personal privacy with this REAL TIME tracking system made all of us question whether we should even work on such a project. It was incredibly intrusive stuff.
Although it worked out for me because I was well established and had an outstanding reputation, it's not for everyone and not everyone can do it. Although my contributions were just as plentiful as they were while working onsite, I didn't enjoy working remotely. I liked my colleagues and missed being around them.
Had I not worked remotely I wouldn't have retired at age 52 (and with no pension!). Working remotely turned my job into a job. I no longer had any face to face interaction with my colleagues, whom I liked and missed. One day out of the blue while sitting at my home office desk I decided to quit. My manager didn't have a clue and couldn't freaking believe it. But then they hired me back as a contractor on an hourly basis for almost double my original salary. I earned the ability to pick and chose what work I accepted and how much I was going to work.
What an outstanding deal, right? No. It just wasn't the same. I missed the face time with people and there was no way we were going to move back to the area. After three years of very lucrative contractor work I finally left for good. Although working remotely worked out well for my employer, it didn't work out for me. And it may sound strange, but I didn't even feel right about the insane wages they were paying me. I felt like I was stealing from them.
Scott
Edit: And the last project I worked on (for two years) was for the "homeland security department" for a nation well established and friendly to the western world. The loss of personal privacy with this REAL TIME tracking system made all of us question whether we should even work on such a project. It was incredibly intrusive stuff.
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My wife worked from home for about 8 years, 2011-2019. She hated it mostly, but there were very little choices. She was pigeon-holed in a career, her "office" was in Manhattan, and she had not pursued options.
She didn't get to socially interact with many people and the NYC work life/attitude/schedule leaves a lot to be desired for those of us who live real lives. Most of these office workers in NYC drag in from 9:00 to 10:30 and working until 7:30-8:00 nightly doesn't even register to them. Meanwhile, I get home about 4:30-5:30, want to eat dinner about 6:00-6:30 and my wife has to keep working to finish up the day's tasks that weren't solidified until about 3:00 pm....
And I swear .... every freaking day before she was to go on vacation, there'd be some deadline, she'd work until 10:00 pm.
Her options were to look for work in downtown Atlanta, which I was not going to agree to her driving to that craphole full of crime, traffic, gangs, etc., pay $80-100/mo to park and basically have the same work schedule because the NYC Architecture community trains the Atlanta community.
She took a job paying 33% less, drives 10 miles each way and loves her 8-5 job, going to an office and interacting with people face-to-face. She actually works for a municipality and they only worked from home about 2 weeks in April of 2020. Never had a mask mandate and were open to the public the entire time. Amazin', huh?
She didn't get to socially interact with many people and the NYC work life/attitude/schedule leaves a lot to be desired for those of us who live real lives. Most of these office workers in NYC drag in from 9:00 to 10:30 and working until 7:30-8:00 nightly doesn't even register to them. Meanwhile, I get home about 4:30-5:30, want to eat dinner about 6:00-6:30 and my wife has to keep working to finish up the day's tasks that weren't solidified until about 3:00 pm....
And I swear .... every freaking day before she was to go on vacation, there'd be some deadline, she'd work until 10:00 pm.
Her options were to look for work in downtown Atlanta, which I was not going to agree to her driving to that craphole full of crime, traffic, gangs, etc., pay $80-100/mo to park and basically have the same work schedule because the NYC Architecture community trains the Atlanta community.
She took a job paying 33% less, drives 10 miles each way and loves her 8-5 job, going to an office and interacting with people face-to-face. She actually works for a municipality and they only worked from home about 2 weeks in April of 2020. Never had a mask mandate and were open to the public the entire time. Amazin', huh?
That’s not really true in the case of the USAF.
“Lazy kids” do not meet the physical standards for military service and they certainly wouldn’t get through pilot training.
Drone operators in the USAF are rated pilots. They must meet the standards for pilots, including education, physical condition, aeronautic adaptability, and they have to get through pilot training.
IDK, but if you’re over 40 and have been around the block a few times, why would you do something as foolish as this? Anybody with experience thinking WFH was here to stay and planned their whole life around it is a very poor planner and a naive person.
Something I would expect from young people, not experienced veterans, being naive that is.
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They still are saying that…
Even while that was being said initially…
Circa 2021 there were already recalls and layoffs occurring ,
As layoffs accelerated we were hearing the layoffs don’t matter because they are in demand employees .
But the layoffs then extended from not just tech but also to financial companies (as happens in interrelated industries)
So in demand employees…
Not so much now that the entire tech and financial sector is deflating back to normal .
I’ve met people in their 50’s that still behave like children
Most Tech employees have never owned a home or even a car due to where they lived.
and not to defend them but some folks think they can always easily move and buy sell homes, cars etc. they also figure all investments go up and they can easily make money back.
They aren’t used to the possibility that they might loose money.
The remote workers have left, but the housing havoc they created remains
Small and midsize rural communities had some of the biggest increases in home prices in the first two years of the pandemic, driven by out-of-town buyers.
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Including the cost to the heath care system of which we pay health insurance. Americans are already overweight and a burden to the system and the costs involved keeping them alive, now work from home means sitting around on a chair all day long without even walking or getting any kind of exercise at all, though in a nearby refrigerator full of food and pantry full of unhealthy stuff and ... we can see where this is going.
I would be interested to know the additional weight gain since covid... which now that I think about it I will start too research!
Agree, it will not be the "new normal" that is a media buzzword. Just wait as the job market loosens up... people will be more than glad to go to an office. Give it 5 years as A.I. takes over their jobs.
That's not what I meant. I'm referring to the (false) belief of many - you know, the "get off my lawn" types - and their often incorrect thoughts about our younger generation. Are some lazy ? Sure. Are all of them ? Nope.
It would be amusing to see how the modern American tech worker would react to 996. Or from the other side, whether startup culture could happen today to the extent it did when the mass internet economy rose.
Back then, I questioned in the back of my mind how long the idealism, optimism, and overall trajectory of "tech" would last before it reached a state of, to borrow a more recently coined term, ensh--ifcation, and devolve into pure capitalistic greed, and oligopoly. The final answer turned out to be roughly around 35-40 years.
Amazon has never had a reputation as a great place to work, even for the white collar types, never mind the workers in the salt mines. But, like the other big names, it's a gold star on the CV that helps open other doors.
Back then, I questioned in the back of my mind how long the idealism, optimism, and overall trajectory of "tech" would last before it reached a state of, to borrow a more recently coined term, ensh--ifcation, and devolve into pure capitalistic greed, and oligopoly. The final answer turned out to be roughly around 35-40 years.
Amazon has never had a reputation as a great place to work, even for the white collar types, never mind the workers in the salt mines. But, like the other big names, it's a gold star on the CV that helps open other doors.
These days when I go into the office I get less done than I do at home. Too many interruptions, too many discussions with coworkers about their projects. At the same time, it's good to touch base with 'em, find out what their needs are. Hybrid does good for me--but I recognize, I put in a number of years to get to here.
I guess if the year was 1955 it wouldn't be so funny.
