Will you go back to the office?

I think this depends on the industry though right? Working from home in banking is going to be shooting yourself in the foot. Working from home in health insurance is the norm now. Look at LinkedIn. 100% of jobs for the major health insurers are remote postings. Your career will only suffer from WFH if your industry prefers WFH over in office.

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I think this sentence requires several edits.

And wholesale reversal of word order!
(I think, in order for Nick to write that I think he means.)

One typo has been fixed already.
Also needs hyphen between ā€œinā€ and ā€œoffice.ā€

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My company just confirmed this past week that they will have a full time remote work force and will only have a small number of offices available for occasional in-person meetings or occasional in-office work.

I had a beer with my former coworker who left and heā€™s very pleased that he did. Heā€™s been at his new job for just over a month and has been in the office every day. The position was 3-2 hybrid but he opted for full time in-office.

Beer has that effect.

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Looks like more countries are attempting to capitalize on increased WFH (at least among those whose employers tolerate working abroad)

That is allegedly a non-paywalled link. It looks like the ā€œdigital nomad visasā€ introduced during the pandemic will continue and expand to additional countries, with some (primarily tech?) employers embracing their employeesā€™ interest in taking advantage of such programs.

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I was chatting with my uncle who is a senior guy in TV producing and it was interesting noting the WFH differences. Long story short itā€™s pretty imperative for a significant proportion of media production to be in person, although theyā€™re definitely getting a lot of pushback.

They even had the anchor WFH at the height of COVID.

I recall someone compiling a video of newscasters with toddlers who wandered into the shot while Mom / Dad was broadcasting. It was cute. Momā€™s talking about Afghanistan or Dadā€™s talking about a winter storm warning and an 18 month old wearing nothing but a diaper and sucking his/her thumb would toddle in.

But yeah, that sounds like a hassle that media employers might reasonably no longer wish to tolerate.

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I think my co is deciding on selling our office building and going into a smaller shared space.

There are a few YouTube compilations of news reporters having their reports ā€œenhancedā€ with the assistance of their pets during lockdown.

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At my current company, Iā€™ve worked in five different buildings. None of those buildings are used by my company anymore.

NYTimes is running a puff piece looking at how back-to-school season is bringing a new push at some employers to come into the office more.

Paywalled, but is the argument, ā€œYou donā€™t have kids in house anymore so you can be more productive, so go back to office?ā€

Thatā€™d be horrible for me, honestly. Thankfully my company hasnā€™t been that way.

The article rambles, but the thesis seems to be:

  • Some managers/executives want employees to come back to office for reasons previously discussed
  • The start of the school year is the latest line in the sand. Kids go back to school; employees go back to the office; itā€™s time to get back to normal.

A quote:

Personally Iā€™ve had a few 2-second mute button fails, my team not any more than me. Hybrid hiccups, very rarely weā€™ve had a team member with a severe issue (like their ceiling collapsed), a few rare docking station fails.

Thereā€™s been almost no interruption for my company, even for the entire call center. Maybe a month of some turmoil but it was quickly over and the company sold over half its real estate because itā€™s unnecessary.

Iā€™m still with them largely to a commitment to never require me to go back.

Iā€™m curious to know what is going wrong in these companies that they feel the need to be so heavy handed. I think my company reacted early on bc of a few anecdotes that didnā€™t impact most of the company.

You have someone not producing results, deal with that person not the whole system. (IIRC that person wasnā€™t producing in the office either and thatā€™s what ultimately got them fired.) You have a team that collaborates better in person? Give them the office space they need to do the job.

And leave everyone else alone to do their work.

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Yep, Iā€™m not going back to office likely ever. My marketing person lives at home and works from their bedroom, so they want out. Iā€™m looking into shared desk space, if they want to spend their time driving, go ahead. But it doesnā€™t change work.
They also have mom.dad and brother all working from so itā€™s not ideal. I have a nice home office, my spouse has a separate home office, and my son has a discrete work space too. So it works fine.

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Right now, Iā€™m much more productive in the office, being with other people. Iā€™d be fine with a full-time return to office scenario, but not until the future state of COVID-19 is more known. I like my hybrid schedule with 3 days in person. Full-time remote during the pandemic was more effort.

Not sure why people feel the need to say they are more productive, at home or in the office.

Iā€™m definitely less productive WFH, and I prefer it that way.
In fact, when I reach zero productivity with the same pay, that will be work goals.

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Eh, i like to earn my keep, and i like to feel like Iā€™ve accomplished something. I want my employer to continue finding me valuable, too, and to want to keep paying me.

Iā€™m about equally productive at home and in the office. Some things i always did better at home. Othersā€¦i can get done at home. But Iā€™m a hell of a lot happier working from home. And productive enough.

What i donā€™t understand is this sense on the part of leaders that they need to get everyone back. Is the work getting done? Do they just like to look at their employees?

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