Back to the Office

[Starlight]

This is why Goldman’s CEO David Solomon called working from home an "aberration that we’re going to correct as quickly as possible." And JPMorgan CEO Jamie Dimon said of exclusively remote work: "It doesn’t work for those who want to hustle. It doesn’t work for spontaneous idea generation. It doesn’t work for culture."

If those criminals are against it, it must be good.

[Sparko]

I am still working from home, but I am an office worker and do most of my work on a computer, and also our company has offices in many states so I estimate 80% of my work was dealing with people remotely even when I was "in the office." So at least for people like me, making us work in the office really doesn't make sense. My company used to think like Musk, "we can't trust people who we can't keep an eye on in the office" and made it extremely difficult to work remotely. But since COVID forced them to have us work remotely, they have come to realize the benefits of remote working. They can still track our performance just by our time cards and reports by other people we work with. If the work gets done, we are doing our job. If the work suffers we are not doing our job. Pretty simple. They also are saving tons of money by not having to keep the office running at full capacity. Utilities, etc. And they are even considering ways to cut down on office space since they don't need as much with people working remotely.

There is of course a bit of personal interaction that is missed by not being there in person to talk to people and such. Part of the way we deal with that is everyone has Cisco Jabber which allows them to use video calling to talk to others at the firm. We also use Teams to have group meetings using video. So I am hoping they continue letting people like me to work remotely. I love it.

I can understand a factory not wanting people to work remotely. How can you build or assemble a car remotely? Even if most of it is done by robots, you still need to be there to catch errors and fix the robots. So as far as that goes, I think Musk has a point.

[rogue06]

There's one encouraging possibility on the horizon. Traditionally, OPEC doesn't like to see the world economy get bogged down, so it tries to play a balancing act of high prices-but not too high. If too high, demand dries up, frackers make profits again, and the drive to alternate energy heats up.

So, I'm thinking that OPEC will agree to increase production to replace much of Russia oil.

They agreed yesterday to increase production.

[rogue06]

If those criminals are against it, it must be good.

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[Ronson]

They agreed yesterday to increase production.

My bet is they will increase it again.

[Sparko]

Because of gas prices, my wife's employer just decided to allow workers to work from home (if they want). We're in the process of setting up a home office for her, to start the week after next.

I use a spare bedroom as my home office so I can "go to work" instead of using my normal living space.

This is my current home office setup.

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[Ronson]

I use a spare bedroom as my home office so I can "go to work" instead of using my normal living space.

This is my current home office setup.

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What's with the monitor shortage?

I must be the only person left on the planet who uses only one monitor.

[rogue06]

What's with the monitor shortage?

I must be the only person left on the planet who uses only one monitor.

Nope. I think the average person only uses one at a time.

[Thoughtful Monk]

I only have one monitor at home. At work, I do have two.

[Sparko]

What's with the monitor shortage?

I must be the only person left on the planet who uses only one monitor.

I have 8 other monitors sitting in the corner. When my company updated their monitors they let us take the old ones (the square ones like in the right side of the picture). I bought the 3 wide screen ones in the center as they went on sale, and the big one on top is a 32-inch TV that doubles as a 4th monitor! I use two of the monitors as my remote monitors (I remote into my work PC using Citrix Workspace) and the third monitor I use a a local monitor (so I can check in on Tweb while I am not busy doing something for work, or waiting for some process to finish)

I am a complete geek when it comes to computers. I have 4 laptops, 2 desktop PCs, and a couple of tablets. I built the desktop in the picture using the "stimulus money" that Trump and Biden sent out.

[Cow Poke]

With gasoline prices as high as they are, it doesn't make sense to me (of course, at Tesla, Elon wants them all to drive Teslas). But it seems like his decision was a bit grumpy, like an ultimatum.

I work from home nearly 100% of the time now, unless I am visiting a customer. Yeah, I can get a bit lazy at times. I don't mind working from an office so long as it is relatively nearby.

It's the modern Golden Rule --- whoever has the gold makes the rules.

[Thoughtful Monk]

One of the big problems that is arising is with new hires. People that worked at a job awhile before the lockdowns pretty much new how things worked and what was expected. New hires, especially those entering the job market don't have that background and FWIU it really shows.

In 2019, I had three weeks in the office with a new hire until we were sent to our respective homes. Training was then a lot of conference calls. I'm glad she was sharp and picked up the job relatively quickly.

Getting printouts was for me the tough part. I can look on the screen but for some activities, you just need to have the hardcopy and be able to mark it up. My company won't allow print at home. My boss had to mail me stuff sometimes. Also for various requests, the department just had to accept I could actually sign the form.

[Thoughtful Monk]

I was thinking of starting a similar thread myself. There's various news papers here pushing for a full return of office workers to the workplace, whilst most businesses are completely fine with a more flexible schedule.

But that's the point really- flexibility. It's not about employers dictating that staff come in 1-5 days a week, it's more about staff and employers/line managers vary the amount of time staff come in depending on what's happening in the office.

I vary from remote working several weeks in a row to coming in almost every day during the week, depending on what is happening in the office. I have no intention of spending two hours a day commuting just to answer some emails or join a few video calls. But if something is happening where I need to be there, then no problem.

It also gives newer or younger staff the option of coming in more often. I was fortunate in that I recently got on the property ladder, but if I was still in my old circumstances at home I'd likely decide to be in the office more, which is the case for some of my colleagues.


Companies are finding it harder to find staff currently, and those who don't offer flexible working simply have less to offer potential employees. It's been going this way for a while now - too slowly due to resistance to change at the top across many sectors- but fortunately the pandemic managed to give the whole process a much needed kick in the tush, and prove that the fears of reduced productivity etc was baseless.

We're having customer service issues with our local Social Security office. The customer service reps only have to report some days and then do phone calls. Unfortunately, the news media is reporting calls aren't answered and messages aren't returned.

On the other hand, it's the government and good customer service isn't a priority with them.

[Thoughtful Monk]

When the lockdowns started there were reports of how there was a slight uptick in productivity. But apparently it did not last. A recent study found that the more someone works from home the less productive they become -- particularly when it comes to team or group performance on projects.

This is why Goldman’s CEO David Solomon called working from home an "aberration that we’re going to correct as quickly as possible." And JPMorgan CEO Jamie Dimon said of exclusively remote work: "It doesn’t work for those who want to hustle. It doesn’t work for spontaneous idea generation. It doesn’t work for culture."

I think it really depends on the business and what sort of job is involved. Fields where teamwork is important would probably do better reestablishing the office environment

I'll agree this far - conference calls in my experience generally tend to be less effective than in-person meetings. This seems to be true as the number of participants grows. Three or four people work. Our monthly team meeting (circa 12 people) doesn't.

[Maranatha]

Elon Musk has said all Tesla office workers must return to the office for 40 hours a week. His argument is it's what we expected of factory workers so why should you be different? Also, he seems to view remote working as people pretending to work. He says people at Tesla who don't return will be considered as having resigned. Link to one of many articles on the topic: https://www.cnn.com/2022/06/01/tech/...ome/index.html

I can see his point. I personally am on a 2-days in the office and 3-days home schedule right now. Not seeing any signs that's going to change anytime soon. My experience is many people at my work who are home seem to be putting in full days. I do have one candidate who seems to be only working part time on a full time position while 5-days at home. I will admit this could be just my impression.

What do you think? Is Musk on to something or out of touch with our new reality? I'm sort of mixed on this. I think there are a lot of people working hard at home but there are also slackers taking advantage of the lower visibility.

Likely he is on to something.

However, he can kiss my behind. I like working from home, can hack out far more code, and I need social interaction with my work "family" like I need another hole in my head.

I didn't believe where I work is my "family" any more than working from home is bad.

That's what companies do, try to make believe we are like one big family here, yay us!