Salesforce's get-back-to-work strategy starts with 'Volunteer Vaccinated Cohorts' on designated floors Salesforce has waded into the heated debate over vaccine passports, suggesting they may be a means of getting employees back into the office. Just don't call them vaccine passports. According to the SaaSy CRM vendor, Volunteer Vaccinated Cohorts of protected employees will be able to join groups of 100 or fewer people to work …
WFH has many advantages for those who can do it. For most WFH employees they probably will need to pop into the office a few times a year; there are some things one can only do easily at the office. Upper managlement needs to understand there is more to life than sitting a cube farm listening to (and smelling) your neighbor's farts because control freak needs to see your face.
^^^^^^ This. I work for a company who has the emotional intelligence to understand that this should be a choice. And despite my part of the company being VERY in the office orientated, the lure of free (ggood) coffee and amazing lunches is not enough for many of my colleagues. We've shown that teamwork works incredibly well whilst WFH too. So, most of us will pop in once or twice a week, enjoying the extra time in bed and not being judged for wearing slippers the rest of the time
Plus: Our building management are complete sh1ts and don't allow animals in the building, unlike our other big office, so spending time with one's loved furballs is better than being on the tube.
It'll be interesting to see how that squares with Salesforce's Feb 11th announcement:
Salesforce has announced it will permanently allow most of its employees to work from home, even after the Covid-19 pandemic has ended.
https://www.thedrum.com/news/2021/02/11/salesforce-goes-all-remote-working
Don't expect these companies to be consistent. Of course they had to promote 100% WFH when that was necessary to support their fearful employees, to hire people during the pandemic, and to prevent employees from seeking employment with more flexible employers.
Now that the pandemic is receding and vaccines are broadly available, these companies will turn on a dime because of their desire for control, and their belief that the office is a means to retention (through things like ping-pong tables, cafeterias, etc.).
Corporations - or at least large ones - have traditionally advertised their success by prominent architecture: marble atriums, thrusting skyscrapers and the like. It will be interesting to see if the CEOs can give up the status that they believe derives from landing on the corporate helipad to address the assembled ranks of minions in front of the glass and concrete tribute to permanence and wealth.
And what's the point of those Italian shoes if they're below the desk during the Zoom call? Perhaps hats will make a comeback.
In a bid to same some money our office is being moved elsewhere in the building and without any real consultation all IT staff have been told there will be 50% capacity for hot desks. So if you wanted to go back into the office full time (or most of it), then tough. I'm not looking forward to having to re-adjust chairs, wipe down mice/keyboards/headsets (not for Covid, just general grime!) and you just know that someone would have left fingerprints all over the monitors...
I'm still 50/50 on the WFH thing. I find it useful at times, but against that some things are a lot easier in the office. Or were, given that I'm not going to have a desk for all my accumulated crap and most of my colleagues won't be there at the same time. On that point I think it'll get to the point where we'll have to ask other teams not to come in some that my team of 3 can all come in for a day at the same time every so often.
I was taking a wireless keyboard & mouse and a slim laptop with no power supply into the office for the rare occasions. One single USB C to plug into the hub and everything from monitor to intranet was up & running.
Did investigate the idea of a similar dock/hub for home but they are crazy expensive due to the need to supply 75W to the laptop.
I've found my office desk drawer is a good place to keep the offsite backup drive for my home system, while the local hackerspace is closed because of the pandemic and I can't keep it in my box there... apart from that, I wouldn't really miss it. My study at home is quieter so I can focus better, I don't have to commute anywhere, and I can get some work done even during meetings, which I wouldn't be able to do if I had to attend them in person. And I'm on the edge of a village, so if I want to go for a walk during a breaktime it's a lot more pleasant than doing so in a business park. And conferencing tools are pretty much good enough (unfortunately my employer picked Teams, which seems to be a bit behind the others, but still, it's mostly usable).
For those companies that have found that WFH is perfectly viable, there are many savings involved for the company - no expensive office space, no utility costs etc. etc. It is just a short step for management to realise that employees no longer need to be within commuting distance from the office. And while it makes zero difference to productivity no matter where the employee has their home, an employee in Romania or India will demand a far lower salary than an employee in Milton Keynes.
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