I guess corporate leases are singed for many years at a time in advance?
Probably, as it seems better to have some consistency in where the office will be.
Then, COVID hit.
Yes, no annual leases in the corporate office world
My employer has a habit of hiring the people it wants regardless of geography, so remote work has been tolerated since before the pandemic. We did, however, have a culture of âif youâre near an office, weâd prefer that you come inâ, and that plus peer pressure, desire to be seen by folks higher up the totem pole, etc. caused people to come in when possible.
Weâre encouraged to be in the office twice a week, and departments/teams are supposed to have documented plans for in-person interaction along those lines. However, between hiring and trimming real estate costs⌠we wouldnât have the cube space if everyone came in on the same day.
Since my boss is on a different continent than IâŚitâs probably a good thing I donât have to be in the office on a regular basis. (I wouldnât hate being sent to meet with my boss on the companyâs dimeâŚbut I donât think thatâs happening either.)
But as to the OP question, Iâd agree that remote is becoming less commonâŚalthough I think that some flavor of hybrid will still be more common than full-time.
I think they will have to continue to offer it for experienced positions because otherwise it wonât be possible to fill those important roles. For less experienced it seems to mostly be declining for sure IMO
Itâs more about the tax breaks cities are talking about clawing back.
Iâve been told the overhead is not that much, comparatively. And I have noticed, not a difference in productivity per se for everyone - most people are just as productive out of office, a few are more, but thereâs the 10% or more who will just completely slack off (not that those were that great to begin with). I think that 10% or more is the real reason. I would guess itâs at most 30% whoâll slack off, but it probably depends on employee morale. And who knows, maybe the percentages are different for non-actuarials.
I think weâll never get back to pre-COVID, but companies are moving away from full remote. Youâll probably be allowed to be full remote if youâre an experienced professional with proved performance. Your career trajectory might be different from someone who comes in 2-3 times a week. Entry levels - possible but less likely. There are lots of applicants for remote positions at that level. Few actual positions. Youâll have to have a top resume for those or great interview skills, or both.
Honestly, I still donât understand why companies that have full remote donât completely outsource actuarial work to India. I guess constant inflation is an issue, as well as employee turnover. But you can find pretty good employees there for IT. (Some not that great ones too). Why not actuaries?
I agree about morale impacting things. I also feel like when Iâm remote I get more out of the minutes during the day when I donât have myself buried in work. Like I might throw in a load of laundry, or tidy up the home office a bit. Where at the office Iâd probably GoA trying to look busy and slowly work on some busy work.
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We all do this really.
Work tends to be cyclical. One week you can be doing 60hrs/week, and the other 20hrs/week.
It evens out in the end usually, and while at home in the 20hrs/week you can actually do other things at home vs simply trying to look busy at work.
The whole argument is a bit silly because its so easy to check if someone is being âproductiveâ. Just look at their deliverables.
As long as X gets done by Y, and the deliverables are reasonable (in terms of amount), I just donât see a problem. If anything, WFH folks will usually tend to be less stressed out due to the lack of commute (the main driver of most office folks skewing unhealthier over time).
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Yes completely agree. And as well on the stress. Sundays are so much better when you donât have to commute Monday morning.
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Yea I feel that there are some advantages to working in office but then you completely lose the choice of where to live which sucks
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Itâs like asking way data scientists havenât run actuaries out of a job. Totally different skill sets, completely differently knowledge bases needed. If you just want low-level grunt stuff done where pretty much everything is in place and changes needed are minimal and easy to carry out, outsourcing to India may be OK. If you want someone whoâs got deep knowledge of actuarial principles in general and a solid understanding of a companyâs operations to help drive decisions, you donât just lob that overseas.
I moved to be closer to my job 2 employers ago, and it was 10 minutes if I hit every stoplight. Working in-office was no big deal. I now would have a ~45 minute drive daily one-way to work; thatâs almost 8 hours a week on the road on top of the time Iâd be in the office. I like where I live, I have no intention of moving again for a while unless itâs to a cabin by a lake - and thatâs not going to be anywhere near where I currently work.
Wasnât this tried already in software engineering?
It was basically a complete mess.
They just donât do quality work and you end up checking and re-doing most of it.
Would be no different with Actuarial work.
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I feel that part of it is due to communication skills/barriers. They are unlikely to have good English which can lead to a lot of frustration/difficulty on both sides.
I guess it depend son the field and where you want to live.
In life there are little to no opportunities to lives outside of the NE and rust belt. So if you want to live in PNW, SW, SE, it isnât really possible
From experience of working with an outsourced model, it was a nightmare. If the work didnât follow a precise checklist, if there was any requirement of actuarial judgment, if the work was time sensitive, it simply was not a good solution.
Iâve heard of the outsourced model working well on some teams or projects within actuarial, but all of those have required a US-based team providing oversight. It doesnât replace teams, only a few individual contributors (not even most).
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no one seems to talk about the downsides of wfh. You slowly lose touch with the outside world to the point that when you actually go out, you look like a homeless person. And the slow blurring of the line between work and home until you start despising being at home
My wife calls this the âBum Villaâ Style.
My dozen suits are mostly picking up dust in our closet.
I have to admit I care a lot less about dressing up than I ever used to.
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true for me, and i barely cared before. i am super casual at the office now.
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Weaselette has been wfh for about 6months now and she has been lamenting all of the clothes in her closet that never get used anymore.