this post was submitted on 10 Aug 2023
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Work Reform

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Earlier in the pandemic many news and magazine organizations would proudly write about how working from home always actually can lead to over working and being too "productive". I am yet to collect some evidence on it but I think we remember a good amount about this.

Now after a bunch of companies want their remote workers back at the office, every one of those companies are being almost propaganda machines which do not cite sound scientific studies but cite each other and interviews with higher ups in top companies that "remote workers are less productive". This is further cementing the general public's opinion on this matter.

And research that shows the opposite is buried deep within any search results.

Have you noticed this? Please share what you have observed. I'm going paranoid about this.

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[–] Corq 25 points 1 year ago

Corporate pushback. C-Levels love to go on nationwide travel tours "visiting our campuses" - never mind how much in real estate ownership/leases costs the company.

My current company is hybrid, as we have a sales team that loves to spin ideas off each other in-person, so I get that. My office was just about to expand to a new floor when covid hit. The sales team got hit with covid pretty bad, as all the customer conferences during that period were in California when covid started really spreading fast. Everyone made out okay, but most of the teams were young with families and this spooked a lot of folks. We're a startup, so all decisions were handled locally and quickly, and coming to campus was strictly optional. Once the worst was over, folks that liked the office culture are back there, without mandates, either way. We can actually hire remotely now, and not be "siloed" into hiring talent that's local or has to be paid to re-locate.

My team's particular role is a perfect fit for remote work, and we're 24/7 so we can "follow the sun" for our customers, so it works for the various different teams. We meet on a 24-hour "Perma-Zoom", share screens for training and presentations. In emergencies customer can call into are lines nd we pick it up in zoom and handle the needfuls. Customers that want to see our offices can still do so, we announce the visit, and local remote folks gladly flock in that day because there's food everywhere for the vsiting diginitaries.

I work three states away from the office and used to visit quarterly, now about twice a year. Other than the crazy amount of snacks in the physical office that we miss, it's a good fit. I think if many companies looked at the money they save in physical office costs, they'd give up this "butts in seats" mandate metric that they think equals "success."

Dear C-Levels: Do what works organically for your company culture, but seriously keep an open mind to what works for your staff - happier workers are more productive, have less turnover (and thus less training costs for constantly new employees) more knowledge retention about past mistakes and successes and how not to repeat bad strategies. Happier staffers offer more engagement in the company's overall success.