back to article Dell reneges on remote work promise, tells staff to wear pants at least 3 days a week

Less than three years after an exec promised the majority of Dell staff would forever work mostly from home, the company has called workers back into the office for at least three out of five days per week. The Register has confirmed that an internal memo from chief operating officer Jeff Clarke to workers this week stated …

  1. IglooDame

    It seems clear that the end of the pandemic and the current spasm of industry layoffs has finally enabled the C-suite folks to get back to not giving a damn about their employees or (if I'm trying to be overly charitable) to assuming they know what's best for their employees despite mounds of evidence to the contrary.

    1. LybsterRoy Silver badge

      -- assuming they know what's best for their employees --

      Whilst I hate to interrupt a good rant I'd like to point out that the C-suite folks are meant to know whats best for the company not the employees - maybe they do.

      1. Potemkine! Silver badge

        "meant" is the keyword here.

        They often know what is best for the shareholders and their own bonuses in the short run, but it doesn't mean it's best for the company in the end.

      2. CowHorseFrog Silver badge

        No the c-suite do whats best for the c-suite and thats PRETEND they are doing something valuable for the company. We all know management havent a clue most of the time and are actually the least valuable for the company, so they PRETEND.

      3. JoeCool Silver badge

        Whilst I hate to interrupt a good fantasy

        proof on the ground is scant. The C-suite is good at taking care of the C-suite.

      4. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        "Meant to know" is doing a lot of heavy lifting, there. Reality is different.

        Part of the problem is there are most often no incentives at all for executives to do anything but maximize short-term quarterly share price growth. "For the shareholders", you know.

        Which means, usually flip side of the same coin, they are actively disincentivized to give any thought to long-term health and welfare of the company, let alone the employees.

        You need look no further than the recent layoffs by financially profitable companies to see the short-term thinking in action. Dump the employees, pump the share price, hand out big bonuses to the executives.

  2. Marty McFly Silver badge
    Thumb Up

    It's not for everyone...

    Some people don't have a home where it is easy to facilitate remote work - no dedicated office space, frequent interruptions, etc. Or they don't have the life experience (yet) to be self-discipled for the job.

    For others, it is a natural progression in to a work-life balance later in their careers. They deliver a strong value for their employer and are functionally 'at work' 24x7.

    The absolute key is an employer who is capable of managing based on results, rather than upon 'butt in chair' management styles. For companies that can handle the paradigm shift, they can find a lucrative work force available for cheap. They can literally hire two (or more) remote employees across the country for every on-site employee 'in the valley', especially when costs of building space, taxes, etc are all added in.

    Companies that fail to adopt some measure of remote work are limiting their expense control. They have to maintain office space and compete in whatever geographic area they reside. Other companies will reduce their facility overhead, as well as their payroll by hiring remote workers in lower cost-of-living markets across the country.

    Full disclosure... I have been remote for a decade. I have been told 'if you move to X, you could make twice the money'. And that is true if I wanted to move to X. That doesn't mean I deliver less value because I am remote. My employer gets me at a discount, and I am happy with the work-life balance. I am glad my employer is smart enough to have figured this out.

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: It's not for everyone...

      Same for me man. I've been working remotely as a freelance "techie" for over a decade. I find that even though I earn a little less, I actually end up with more in my pocket because I don't have to pay for a commute etc. I've had many offers to "buy me out" of my work life balance...some of them very generous...but money is no substitute for a quality work/life balance.

      Back in the dark ages, when I was gainfully employed at a London based MSP, I was spending at least 25% of my income on just getting to work.

      If businesses and the government really wanted people to go back to work, I suspect they would at least meet employees halfway and offer travel expense cost cover as a tax free incentive, allow the businesses to deduct it as an expense. Alas, I've not even hear a whiff of this.

      As a freelancer, I can already claim travel expenses (including grub) against tax, but permies can't (and those that can, don't know that they can)...seems a bit unfair.

      Protip for permies, you can still do a self assessment as a PAYE employee and claim various expenses. For example, if you're a field engineer and you have to travel to a client site and pay out of pocket, that is a deductable expense because you're paying for travel to work at somewhere other than your "primary" place of work. #justsayin

      You just have to get off your ass and do it. There are other expenses you can claim as well (like the cost of your tools, equipment etc, if you bought it yourself)...obviously, go and visit an accountant for proper advice (the cost of this, is also deductable). Take all your receipts and ask them to submit a return for you, you might be surprised how much you get back when rebate time comes around.

      1. Helcat Silver badge

        Re: It's not for everyone...

        A quick correction: 'go back to work' should be 'go back into the office'.

        For me, I prefer the office. It's a personal preference, but I find it easier to maintain that work/life balance (found I lost track of time when working at home - noticed my co-workers still do, starting when they'd normally leave home to come into the office, and stop when they'd normally get home. Or later...)

        1. Stuart Castle Silver badge

          Re: It's not for everyone...

          I'm the same. I quite like working from home, but find myself doing work outside hours, which isn't good.

          1. Anonymous Coward
            Anonymous Coward

            Re: It's not for everyone...

            That's not a problem with the working environment, that's a problem with either self discipline or competence. You either fail to call it a day when the day ends (lack of discipline) or you require more time to get a job done (incompetence).

            I have absolutely no problem getting work done and stopping at a fixed time working from home. If anything, working from home affords me the ability to finish early most of the time because by 3-4pm I've usually run out of stuff to do that are worth doing at that time. In finishing early, I don't actually reduce my output, because the next morning (because I don't have a commute), I am fresh as a daisy and I can work a lot more efficiently. So in being more disciplined, I can work fewer hours and get the same amount of work done...nobody in our industry should feel obliged to work a fixed set of hours because we aren't hired for our time, we're hired for our expertise.

            Also, look at it this way, if you commuted for a long time (at the beginning of my career, I commuted for 7 years, 1.5 hours each way)...that is 210 days of my life burned up for nothing, because you don't get paid to commute...by working from home, I can claw back a lot of that time over a relatively short period...and with that time I can do what I couldn't do on a commute...eat a better breakfast with the family, go for a morning jog around the local woods, take my kids to school, have lunch in the garden with my wife in the afternoon, pick my kids up, have dinner with the family, go for a pint after work, finish work early on a Friday to go for long weekends away with the family.

            Why would anyone trade that in to work in an office? Moreover, who the fuck would want to pay for a commute to not have that?

            Anyone saying they prefer to commute to work to an office is fucking insane and probably lives a very boring, lonely life and they need to work on that.

            Personally, I work to live, I don't live to work. My job is not my life and it never will be. The people I work with are not my friends, they never have been and never will be and god help anyone whose social circle overlaps with work...because you are trapped and doomed to a long career of shit pay and being trampled on while you look out for your "friends" and get them promoted and worry about losing your job because it is "everything" to you.

        2. Michael Wojcik Silver badge

          Re: It's not for everyone...

          I've been working from home for nearly a quarter-century. I don't have any worries about which or how many hours I work; I've never found that to be a problem.

          I used to enjoy periodic trips to various offices. That was gradually being reduced to cut costs before the pandemic, and of course halted entirely during it. I wouldn't mind the occasional one, though now my "local" airport is a 2 1/2 hour drive rather than a 30 minute one, so travel is more of a hassle. (There is one big office about a five-hour drive away, which would be fine for an overnight trip, and another that's about ten hours.)

          If we had an office near me I wouldn't mind going in occasionally. I remain utterly unpersuaded by back-to-the-office mandates, however, which are just as much of a broad generalization as "people work just as well from home", and equally unsupported by anything I've seen. If there are methodologically-sound studies on the question they've escaped my attention.

        3. Anonymous Coward
          Anonymous Coward

          Re: It's not for everyone...

          Your employer has a knack for employing a certain type of drone then. Nowhere I work (as a freelancer) has this problem. If anything, people are "working" less, but productivity is up.

          If you need a separate place to work, spend a little money turning a room into a home office (or put a home office in your garden), it will cost less than a years commute costs and put a lock on the door. When you finish for the day, lock the door and walk away.

          If you don't have the space for this, find some local office space / a desk to rent, it will again be cheaper than a years commute and you can lock up and walk away at the end of the day...but be much closer to home.

          There are lots of solutions that enable you to work remotely, that save you tons of money. Most of which are tax deductable to an extent, so won't come out of your own pocket. You can also claim the allocated space in your house as an ongoing expense. Minimum £150 a month I think, but you can also claim a fair rate for the dedicated square footage too. It all comes out of your tax bill. So with an appropriate setup, you will not only save thousands on your commute, you will also be able to use a chunk of your tax to fund it.

          Get an accountant.

    2. Caver_Dave Silver badge

      Re: It's not for everyone...

      I, and my colleagues work from home offices around the world. My normal working team is 7 people in 7 different countries + Asian subbies.

      I dress everyday as I did when I worked in an office, except that I wear slippers in the house rather than antistatic safety shoes!

      Working from home is about a state of mind, and dressing correctly helps you to achieve that.

      1. Michael Wojcik Silver badge

        Re: It's not for everyone...

        It helps you achieve that. For others it may or may not matter. Not everyone is you.

    3. LybsterRoy Silver badge

      Re: It's not for everyone...

      -- an employer who is capable of managing based on results --

      Please explain how, if the result is an actual physical product the result can be achieved by remote working.

      The vast majority of the posts on this subject on elReg seem to forget that not everyone is able to carry out their work whilst lounging on a sun kissed beach sipping a Margarita.

      1. Simon Harris

        Re: It's not for everyone...

        Sure not everyone can, not everyone wants to (I prefer to go in to work).

        But talking about Dell, yes they produce physical products, but many of their production lines are outsourced to Asia, with some in Europe and South America too. Not everyone involved in the process of creating a physical product will actually need to be there to actually make the thing.

      2. nintendoeats Silver badge

        Re: It's not for everyone...

        Because we assume that if your job cannot be done from home, then this conversation is not relevant to you. Would you like every single post about WFH to end with "unless of course your job can't be done from home, in which case you will have to go to work"? That seems redundant, given that it is intensly obvious.

      3. Ace2 Silver badge

        Re: It's not for everyone...

        When I worked at Dell, I had to get special permission to be able to access the lab where my servers were physically located.

        1. Yet Another Anonymous coward Silver badge

          Re: It's not for everyone...

          As the ghost of a medieval court jester currently working for a small rental outfit I object to all these stories about computers

      4. Michael Wojcik Silver badge

        Re: It's not for everyone...

        not everyone is able to carry out their work whilst lounging on a sun kissed beach sipping a Margarita

        Sure. I find the sun washes out the laptop screen and makes it too hard to see what I'm doing.

        (Also I don't drink alcohol, so that margarita just ends up sitting beside me.)

      5. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        Re: It's not for everyone...

        The Spitfire was a product made by remote workers. People made components in their sheds at home and sent them off for assembly.

        If we could build fighter planes during WW2 out of sheds, why can't we produce other groundbreaking things the same way? We've got 3D printers now ffs, for some parts of a Spitfire you'd need a forge and be able to smelt metal at home...didn't stop them back then.

        There are whole chunks of manufacturing that could be done remotely...like making spare parts for lawnmowers etc. Think of the time, money and energy that would be saved if shit like replacement gears for a printer were produced locally by a man in a shed on demand.

        Yes, there are logistical problems...like setting up local material repositories, and the associated supply chains...but those aren't insurmountable and would create a lot of worthwhile local jobs. Uber, Deliveroo etc have already built was is potentially the worlds biggest end to end carrier system using nothing but local drivers.

        It can be done.

        1. Timop

          Re: It's not for everyone...

          Modern mass production stuff is not going to happen in a garage. Plus add logistics costs to each step and you have $150 product costing $150000 being produced with completely inferior production methods and you are lucky if the thing does not spontaneously collapse.

          Bit like someone has skipped manufacturing history since first steps of Henry Ford.

    4. Stuart Castle Silver badge

      Re: It's not for everyone...

      My company is requiring user facing staff back full time, but if you aren't, you are expected to work from home, and come in if and when you do need to physically be at work (say to physically interact with equipment). They are converting the desks of those who are working from home at least a couple of days a week into bookable hot desks.

      I like working from home, but am in the office most days because I'm doing some stuff that can't be done off site. The only real problems I have with working from home are as follows. There isn't always a defined border between your work and home life. When you have to go somewhere to work, the journey to and from work does form a barrier between your work and home lives (I've actually heard a psychologist say that). Another two problems can be bunched under the name "Availability". If you are WFH, it's much easier to think at the time you should be finishing that "Oh, I've nearly finished, I'll just do this for a bit longer", and if you aren't careful, you end up doing a lot of extra work out of hours. The second problem is other people. They can sign in to teams, go do something else and essentially vanish. I've just been to a user's office to try and image his new PC. Although he said was going to be there all day, he wasn't, and has been away from Teams since 8:55 this morning. Another example of that was during Lockdown, I needed to get hold of the manager of another team fairly urgently. Even though we were in lockdown, forced to work from home, he hadn't signed in to teams for 3 months. Now, he may have been working (although not sure what he was doing - his job requires him to be physically at work due to dealing with equipment that isn't practical to access remotely), but if we'd have both been on campus, I'd have been able to go to his office, ask what I needed, and go away..

      1. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        Re: It's not for everyone...

        "There isn't always a defined border between your work and home life"

        Yes, but that is entirely up to you...renting a desk at a local shared office achieves this and costs less than a commute would. It's also tax deductable and wouldn't really cost you anything.

        "If you are WFH, it's much easier to think at the time you should be finishing that "Oh, I've nearly finished, I'll just do this for a bit longer", and if you aren't careful, you end up doing a lot of extra work out of hours"

        Yes, but that is entirely up to you...if you aren't disciplined enough to stop and/or you suffer from presenteeism etc...then going to an office won't fix this. You need to be self disciplined.

        "Although he said was going to be there all day, he wasn't, and has been away from Teams since 8:55 this morning"

        You had an agreement to get a job done at a specific time. Just do the job. If the new machine isn't quite to his liking, and he wasn't there to check it, it's not your fault. Grow a set of balls. You did your job the best you could at a time that was pre-arranged. If your colleague is a fuckwit and can't manage his time effectively or is shirking off, that's not your fault. You aren't subservient to this guy. If he has booked your time to fix an issue, he is automatically burning time that you could use for something else...he needs to understand this.

        "They can sign in to teams, go do something else and essentially vanish".

        They can, it's not your fault or your problem. Keep logs of agreements and timestamps. Remind them of their previous transgressions, tell them you will no longer prioritise their time wasting and show them why. If you never step up and point these things out, people will continue to walk over you.

        "he hadn't signed in to teams for 3 months"

        Or he set it to 'appear offline' as I do. Everyone I work with knows they can send a message to someone, even if they appear offline...I set my status to "appear offline" to prevent unsolicited random messages from people, and the reduce the sheer amount of company spam. For the most part, the people I work with typically call me or I call them if I need them urgently. Hardly anyone relies on Teams as an urgent method of contact. For one, they know that the chats can be recovered, two nobody wants their phone beeping every 2 minutes causing anxiety...is it urgent? Is it just a company meme? Better get my phone out to check...every two fucking minutes...with phone calls, you can screen your calls, block people after a certain time etc etc...much more control.

        It sounds to me like you have two issues.

        1) You're a bit of a shrinking violet. You don't want to chase people and you don't want to phone them.

        2) You don't understand your place in the pecking order and you operate under the assumption that the main company chain of command applies to you.

        I had both of these problems early in my career. Especially the second one...I wasn't that much of a shrinking violet, but as a younger guy, I operated under the assumption that certain people ranked above me because they ranked above others...I didn't understand that because someone is management and they have their own team etc, that their status didn't apply to me. They were senior to other staff, but not me. I had my own chain of management that applied and that was the only one that mattered. If you work in a large enough company, you end up with quite a few people that have seemingly higher rank than you...like the head of finance, head of HR etc etc...but the only "head" that matters to you is the head of your own department. Everyone outside your department is the same. Unless you get a few people from the same department contacting you at the same time, in which case, you triage according to their rank...but only to establish a chain of communication because that is probably how their structure works...you're not applying priority based on rank, you're streamlining communication so you only have to deal with one person instead of 3...more efficient.

        The whole shrinking violet thing springs out of not understanding your place. As a technical member of staff, you are there to facilitate the smooth running of the business...you are key to things working and people being able to do their job. If someone is wasting your time, they are not only affecting you, they are affecting the business, because you could be elsewhere, doing more important stuff...therefore, you become more important than them, regardless of their rank or position. When you start a career and you're fresh out of school, uni or whatever...you're moving from an environment where older people are clearly the more senior people...a teacher / pupil relationship for example...older people know more and are more important and you are there to learn...to an environment where you have been hired to fulfil a function, duty or responsibility...you aren't there to be taught anymore, you are there because they need you to be there for a particular reason...it's a completely different dynamic. The relationship between you as a techie and the head of finance, is not the same as the relationship you had as a pupil/student and the head of say the Maths department. The head of the maths department can throw you off the course....the head of finance has no power over you whatsoever. His title to you should be meaningless.

        if someone is faffing you around, move on to the next person that needs your help...ultimately the faffer will end up in a situation where he can no longer perform his job to the level required, and you will have logs proving that you did everything reasonable to assist him. He will lose his job, get a shitty review etc etc...and you will be completely unharmed.

        Just remember, without techies like you, nobody can get their job done efficiently...things would go to shit fast, and the business would go under...you are a critical member of staff, and if anyone fucks you around they need to be reminded where they stand. You can't be replaced as easily as a marketing manager, finance manager etc etc...because you have (or will have) knowledge and experience that is company wide, these people only have knowledge and experience in their respective bubbles. Techies ultimately end up with more working knowledge of a business than anyone else in that business...except maybe the CEO...even the CTO probably knows less about what is going on than you do because he isn't on the front line.

        I've been in tech for 20 years now, I suffer no fools. If I arrive to consult with someone, or do something for someone and that someone decides not to be present...I reschedule for a time that suits me...fuck them, whomever they think they are. After a while, people get the message and you find you very rarely get fucked about then...you stop hearing the classics as well..."I'll leave you to it, if you need me call me, I'll go for a walk or something", "Do you need me for this? Or can I go and have a coffee?"...you nail their balls to the fucking ground, don't let them go anywhere...you never want to associate a visit from IT with getting a "free break"...because you will get taken advantage of because you're incentivising a lack of care...if you show them that dumb mistakes not only waste an hour of your time, but also their time, you show them that being careless has a cost.

        Bottom line, if you get fucked about, don't tolerate it. Do not suffer fools. Remember where you fit in. You're a lot more senior than you probably think and you are definitely more important and valuable than you might think.

  3. Tom66

    It's an employee's market right now, so good luck to Dell recruiting back people who leave for more flexible roles.

    1. SundogUK Silver badge

      Employee's market? Are you insane?

      Tech layoffs so far this year:

      January: 84,714

      February: 36,491

      March: 37,109

      April: 17,926

      1. Dinanziame Silver badge

        Yees... On the other hand, you regularly see stats published that the industry is lacking ten times more people than that. I don't think people who are laid off have difficulties finding new jobs.

        1. Caver_Dave Silver badge
          Flame

          "Yees... On the other hand, you regularly see stats published that the industry ..."

          ... is struggling to get people to work for them at much less than the going rate. [Fixed that for you.]

          Yes, I did it once. Made redundant as part of the telecoms crash and then 911 happened, and so I took at a job at a lower wage. When an employee who started before 911, but who I had to mentor for the last 3 years, left the company, he told me what wage he was on - 20% more than me!

          You might find a job easily, but do you want to work at those rates?

          1. Anonymous Coward
            Anonymous Coward

            Nah

            I'm hiring at the moment and rates are up about 20% over the last couple of years for a variety of roles. My best programmer just left for a 25% uplift and his replacement will be paid that.

            1. Michael Wojcik Silver badge

              Re: Nah

              Oh yes, your single anonymous anecdote is certainly compelling evidence.

            2. Anonymous Coward
              Anonymous Coward

              Re: Nah

              Have you considered being less of a miser and paying more, that way you don't always have to play catch up and your staff might stick around longer.

          2. Michael Wojcik Silver badge

            Or the job may not be what you want to do. Or the company culture may be a poor fit, or you may not get along with your new co-workers. There might not be a good new job that doesn't require you to relocate. There are many reasons why jobs are not fungible, and those claims of "employers want a zillion more people in specialized field X" are largely meaningless.

            I dare say I could find a new job quickly if I needed to, but the idea of switching, with all its attendant costs and stresses, sounds awful.

        2. Helcat Silver badge

          I'd say many of those being let go are the underperforming staff who might find themselves quickly employed again... then let go equally as quickly. Those that are proving to be productive get rehired and retained, but demand is high and supply is low.

          Currently, companies can't afford to keep on staff who aren't very productive, or who aren't really essential. Rather, they're tightening their belts and keeping the core productive staff employed so they can meet targets, fulfill their objectives and keep the business going.

          Obviously, upper management / board members are usually excluded from this, normally, but there's been some churn there, too.

        3. Anonymous Coward
          Anonymous Coward

          They do if they have FAANG on their CV. Apparently a lot of former FAANG folks are actually shit at their job and have spent years doing essentially nothing.

          I'm aware of several places that put these CVs straight in the bin.

          Unfortunately, for a lot of former FAANG folks, it's the end of the line the gravy train has reached it's final stop.

          It would appear that if you have spent the last 5-10 years playing FAANG musical chairs, you've reached the point in the game where the number of players far outstrips the number of available chairs. You're fucked.

      2. Tom66

        Have you seen the unemployment figures? Companies can't fill roles. They're chopping those who are unproductive, but getting skilled engineers and other professionals is very difficult.

        1. Anonymous Coward
          Anonymous Coward

          It's not difficult, but it does require money and compromise. Two things managers don't like to use.

          I have two very clear criteria...

          1. I want to work from home.

          2. I want more money.

          That isn't complicated or difficult to accommodate. It's very simple. The knock on effect though is that managers become largely redundant in that setup and it becomes very clear that they aren't worth as much as they may seem.

          Therefore, my proposed solution is to axe as many managers as you can, and use those savings to pay for more higher skilled, professional, staff. All we need to do is overcome the death grip that high ranking jobsworths seem to have.

          1. Anonymous Coward
            Anonymous Coward

            A downvote...clearly someone has never been the expert in a meeting with 5 department heads with no expertise, just a list of demands.

  4. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Sure, it's the newbie's fault

    > No initiative to do the work they are given and no one to help them. ...

    > ...we have to hand hold them or do their work for them to keep others supported.

    So there *was* someone to help them, the commenter just didn't want to be the one to do it.

    > and their manager is missing and equally as unskilled

    Yeah, so let's blame it on the new worker drones

    > we work twice as much to carry the wrong hires straight from college.

    That's called "onboarding" and "training". But let's blame the new hires for not being born familiar with all the technologies and business needs of the company. I'm sure it has nothing to do with the absentee management's inability to plan for or adjust timescales to account for training.

    > Juniors send memes around about using text is better than phoning people.

    As a crotchety old greybeard, damn f*cking right it is! Never have I felt more down with the kids than at this moment

    Every "back to the office" argument seems to just boil down to: "Remote working needs good management, and our management is incompetent"

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: Sure, it's the newbie's fault

      That's called "onboarding" and "training"

      In my large multinational American corporation making a billions a year, if there was ever training and documentation it's never been seen.

      Employees before the pandemic were expected to find a colleague with free time who might have the answer or might be able to find it out for them, have a go at huge slabs of legacy code and if it doesn't work out then too bad. But actual structured training and documentation... never been seen. Just unstructured wikis and whatever notes people wrote in Jira.

      And the same after the pandemic, absolutely no changes. Then they wonder why new hires aren't learning skills required for the job.

      1. Youngone

        Re: Sure, it's the newbie's fault

        Hi A/C, do you work for the same vast American corporation I do?

        I've been here long enough to get to the point where I'm comfortable telling people that I can't help when they request things I know nothing about.

        Yesterday some manager asked me to investigate what bits of SAP a new user needs and make sure he has them, so I replied that I have no access to any bits of SAP and have never been shown how any of it works so I wasn't going to do any of that.

        It helps that I have an interview at another job tomorrow.

      2. blackcat Silver badge

        Re: Sure, it's the newbie's fault

        That is not something new caused by the pandemic. An awful lot of companies work on tribal knowledge and unwritten processes. I've recently had the head of quality ask why I did something a certain way and my answer was 'we have no documented process, I replaced someone who left 2 years before I started and when I did ask I got many different answers so I made best efforts based on experience and the legacy material at hand'.

        At a previous company I overheard one of the senior engineers who was busy trying to become the engineering manager tell one of the grads to ask someone else for help on getting something to work when the thing the grad was working on was the sole work of previously mentioned senior engineer.

        1. Anonymous Coward
          Anonymous Coward

          Re: Sure, it's the newbie's fault

          Ah yes, job security engineering at it's finest. Let people bumble through for ages, then step in like a hero when the ship is on fire...make yourself seem indispensable and a lot more valuable than you actually are...if someone sees through your bullshit and you get fired anyway, leave all the documentation etc on an encrypted drive.

          Classic greasy pole tactics.

          Been there...slid into a role a while back now that required a handover from the previous person...who was evasive and a bit of a cunt. Claimed everything I needed was on an encrypted drive that he "forgot" the password for in one of the earlier meetings. So I plugged that shit in (WD Passport drive encrypted with the WD software) and I decrypted it in front of him and his managers...the older WD encryption software had some shortcomings...namely, storing the decryption key in a sector on the drive which you could use to spin off an unencrypted image of the drive.

          Turned out there was basically fuck all on the drive...managers couldn't wait to get rid of him after that. The look on the two managers faces was priceless. Shock and awe, and a little bit of relief that they'd finally found a decent techie.

          At the end of meeting, the old guy left and I remained to talk about budget...in previous meetings it had been alluded to that the budgets might be thin...this time around I was told "whatever you need".

          That move went into company legend and set the tone for my tenure there...not a soul ever fucked with me...the drawback was that I ended up with a stack of Excel spreadsheets that people had genuinely forgotten the password for that had been collected for years that I had to crack...I was up to my balls in locked spreadsheets for weeks. I got into around 80% of them...which I was pleased with.

    2. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: Sure, it's the newbie's fault

      That self contradiction was so obvious, it really should have been picked up in the article.

      And it's so much the typical "youth today, they don't want to work hard anymore" rant that was already old when silex was the pinnacle of fire-lighting technology.

      1. Helcat Silver badge

        Re: Sure, it's the newbie's fault

        There's a story from a machine shop of a new machinist, fresh from Uni, who came in and did things how he'd been trained, ignoring the advice of the more experienced machinists.

        So they called over the cleaner and told the new guy that the cleaner could do a better job. The new Machinist scoffed but accepted the challenge... and the cleaner promptly set to work doing the job twice as fast, and far more efficiently than the new guy. Worse, the cleaner had zero failures compared to the new guy's couple.

        Humiliated, the new guy accepted he'd got a lot to learn and did so. He did, however, ask why the cleaner wasn't working on the machines rather than sweeping the floor. So the cleaner took the new guy to the entrance and pointed to the pictures on the wall. Pictures of board members. "I started on the shop floor," the cleaner explained. "They I got promoted. I just like to remind myself what it's like down here so I don't loose touch with the workers." Said cleaner was, indeed, the MD.

        The moral, obviously, is that many first time employees are ignorant, thinking all they know is all they need to know and have expectations of working life that doesn't meet with the reality of the workplace. How they respond to that reality shows if they'll turn out to be a good worker or not.

    3. LybsterRoy Silver badge

      Re: Sure, it's the newbie's fault

      -- As a crotchety old greybeard, damn f*cking right it is! --

      No beard (I shave) but still crotchety old and here's my text response..... bollocks

  5. sarusa Silver badge
    Devil

    Managers Need to Pretend They're Doing Something Useful

    Without people at the office, managers can't pretend they're doing work by micromanaging them. And execs are the worst, since their entire job is schmoozing and throwing their weight around.

    Of course the micromanagement results in worse productivity, but the manager doesn't care since showing they're busy 'doing something' is all they care about.

    1. Roland6 Silver badge

      Re: Managers Need to Pretend They're Doing Something Useful

      >” Without people at the office, managers can't pretend they're doing work by micromanaging them. And execs are the worst, since their entire job is schmoozing and throwing their weight around.”

      A natural consequence of the Peter Principle…

  6. aerogems Silver badge
    Coat

    I really would love to see some of these C-Suiters try to work in the same conditions as the rank and file. No private bathroom, no secretary/assistant to schedule everything/field calls, no private office that's probably larger than some worker's homes... You get to work out of a cubicle or whatever a fresh out of college hire would get. You get to occasionally walk into a bathroom where the smell is like a physical force that slaps you in the face, and seeing the delightful things your colleagues sometimes leave behind. You get to schlep it from one conference room to another, potentially long distances apart, for meetings that are back to back. You get to smell it when some coworker decides to microwave fish in the break room. All the "joys" of working in an office.

    I bet they wouldn't last a week.

    1. Fred Daggy Silver badge

      The article states that they have remodelled the offices. Shared Desks - yay. Sorry, I meant shared diseases. And shared workspaces are hell for those of us that have a "not first thing in the morning" body clock.

    2. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      I'm that guy with the fish in the microwave

      And... I do it on purpose ahahahaha! I have worked from home whenever I have wanted to since the 90's... so microwave some fish in the microwave... bring in some kipper snacks... crack open a durian...

      You too, can have approval to work from home whenever you want!

  7. StrangerHereMyself Silver badge

    Knew it

    I knew they were going to pull the right to work remotely at the first sign of a recession and higher unemployment. I saw the same thing happen during the Great Recession of 2009, before which there was also a tendency to work remotely.

    It's purely a manager thing. They want control and to scream into your ear: "WHY ISN'T IT FINISHED YET?!!"

    Screw them all. I'm starting my own software business. I'm sick and tired of being beholden to someone else's whim.

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: Knew it

      Starting your own software business? Excellent. Then you'll have the experience of needing to finding out why someone you employ hasn't met the deadline that you personally have set. And then possibly discover that this control issue you identify is a far more complex and nuanced area than your rather simplistic world view suggests.

      1. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        Re: Knew it

        >Then you'll have the experience of needing to finding out why someone you employ hasn't met the deadline that you personally have set

        Future me, you're not allowed to slack off tomorrow like I did today.

    2. wsm

      Re: Knew it

      If you become your own company, you will discover that every one of your clients is your boss. It's not always the trade-off that you want.

      1. StrangerHereMyself Silver badge

        Re: Knew it

        Not so. A client doesn't tell you what to do or hold you to unrealistic deadlines. You need to keep them happy, of course, but that's a normal part of business. And the spoils always belong to YOU and not some fat cat boss.

  8. bigtreeman

    wear pants

    Here in Brisbane commuting can take 2 + hours, same getting home.

    Wear pants might mean a nappy if you get the shits on the way,

    which is very likely.

    1. Franco Bronze badge

      Re: wear pants

      I'm in Scotland, which is a backwater country in as much as our 2 major cities that are only 40 miles apart have terrible infrastructure between them, so 90 minutes is a "good" morning commute for me.

      Thankfully, on my curent contract, they had us all in 2 days a week until I'd been there a month or so, met everyone and learnt the common issues we see, so we're now back to 1 day a week and sometimes not even that if people are on holiday etc and only 1-2 people are going to be in.

    2. Simon Harris

      Re: wear pants

      Crosses Brisbane off the places to visit list - obviously the food is a bit dodgy there!

    3. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: wear pants

      I have a 2h commute each way. I go into the office one day per month currently.

      If that becomes an everyday thing, or even three days a week, then I'll be quitting - I am not spending over an additional 50% of time of the working day travelling every day.

  9. mpi Silver badge

    > Juniors send memes around about using text is better than phoning people.

    I'll let you in on a little secret: That's because it is. And I'm not a junior.

    Typing forces people to think about what they are going to tell me, and gives them a chance to revisit their own thoughts before hitting ENTER. It also forces them to come up with something that at least roughly looks like a diagram if they find their words to be insufficient to express their thoughts. It also gets both sides of the conversation a record of what thoughts were exchanged. Oh, we could take notes of conversations or we could record them? Brilliant! So we do the work that could have been done instead of talking, but on top of it, or waste more time by listening to people asking each other if they can hear each other a second time later! Or we don't and we have another conversation about the topic 2 weeks later, because noone remembers, so we waste time in yet another meeting or phone call.

    Lastly, I can grok their message while doing something else, like eating or sitting on the toilet, whereas when I have to listen to them, that's time I could spend debugging or coding.

    1. LybsterRoy Silver badge

      -- Typing forces people to think about what they are going to tell me --

      You have got to be kidding, or alternatively can I have some of what you're smoking

      1. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        Typing should force, or at least encourage, people to think and consider a bit before hitting <send>.

        Unfortunately it doesn't always work that way. Those are usually the same people who will pick up the phone or "just pop by" your cube and proceed to babble their mindless word salad at you in hopes of getting *their* work done, with no thought whatsoever to how much of their co-workers' time they're wasting.

        Those kind of people are genuinely terrible, keeping them at keyboard's length is better than in-person or phone, but they're still terrible.

    2. Dinanziame Silver badge
      Happy

      So you would interview new hires via text? You would teach courses at university via text? You would explain your new design via text? You would present your product to customers via text?

      1. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        > So you would interview new hires via text?

        To open with? That's called a CV, resume, or cover letter.

        Though I did have an initial interview over IRC once, and open-source projects do that kind of thing all the time for new contributors.

        > You would teach courses at university via text?

        It's called "a book", and AIUI many uni courses use them as the primary material.

        > You would explain your new design via text?

        With images or video included, sure. "Text"s are more than just 130 characters of ISO-8859-1 these days, you know.

        > You would present your product to customers via text?

        It's called a "marketing brochure". You think a phonecall would be better?

      2. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        I believe those text things you are putting in your text message are a C.V. for new hires, a text book for university courses, blueprint or schematic for a design, and an advert for customers

      3. mpi Silver badge

        It was pretty clear from context that I am talking about communication between workers in the same company, not about hiring, learning or presenting.

        But, if you insist:

        > So you would interview new hires via text?

        The entire hiring process beings with a CV and cover letter.

        > You would teach courses at university via text?

        Most of a students knowledge comes from studying. What do students usually study? Text.

        > You would explain your new design via text?

        Yes I would. In fact I do. I send diagrams and explanatory text to my colleagues or boss, and they can analyse and comment them at their leisure. Text doesn't mean I have to do ASCII Art.

        > You would present your product to customers via text?

        Same as with the hiring process, the customer journey usually starts with text and images consumed by the customer, at their leisure from the companys website or other media.

    3. SalemTheRat

      Text is best

      I send about 150 text messages a day and if each of those was a phone call, or even every tenth one then I would get no work done. There would also be no record of what I had said or the replies. Meetings and phone calls have their place, but it's a rapidly diminishing place.

    4. Michael Wojcik Silver badge

      Asynchronous media beat synchronous media.

  10. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Most junior hires I’ve mentored / worked with are perfectly adapted to remote working.

    1. Dinanziame Silver badge

      Depends on the job. I've found it much harder to ramp up engineers remotely. I normally tell new team members they should ask me questions about ten times a day, and this really goes much better if we are sitting two meters apart. Text conversations are much slower, and video meetings are not so good either.

      1. mmccul

        I've trained new peers in my field regularly in person, remotely, hybrid, etc. I did it before zoom existed as a conferencing tool, and continue to do it today.

        Each new team member is unique. The methods used for one person don't necessarily work for the next. Some of the people I've mentored, I had to kick them out of the office before they could be trained effectively. Others, I engaged in multiple one on one voice calls. Typically, I push to include some IM tool, because I have my job to do, I'm not going to just wait for them to ask a question. They need to feel free to message me at any time.

        When I was in the office, sitting next to someone I was supposed to train, they were afraid to bother me, because I was head down working on my own job. Getting them to send me an IM made them realize that I'd see it soon enough and not to worry if I was in a meeting or not, talking to someone on an unrelated problem. What was important was for them to get their question out. Email isn't disruptive enough. I typically don't look at each email as it comes in, but I do triage my emails a few times a day and get to each of them every day. That isn't fast enough for training someone. They especially need a way to poke me with a question that they don't know how urgent it is, even if I'm in a meeting.

        One method I used a lot recently on a multi-person project was the war room call. I'd book a multi-hour meeting where we'd all join the bridge and work together on a problem or project, one or two times a week. It created dedicated focus time for the time on that project, which in and of itself was valuable.

        The one method I never use? Conference call with camera on.

        1. Roland6 Silver badge

          > What was important was for them to get their question out.

          Sometimes simply setting the question down is sufficient to jolt the brain…

  11. Hopping Bunny

    It is all about demand and supply

    Let's not ignore the elephant in the room. As long as there are more jobs going a begging than people to fill those positions, employees can dictate terms. Once the tables turn, if a person threatens to quit if not allowed a WFH routine, the employer might just shrug. I am not advocating or opposing either, but just pointing to markets and how they work.

  12. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    coincidence?

    I'm working for a UK bank atm, they've just made a similar change, 2 days a week in the office, despite being very successful since they allowed full remote during lockdown. The arguments for this change are weak, there is no data to back up the assertion that we'll be more productive in the office just some anecdotes about having lovely chats with people. (As an aside I'm based in southern England, the project is in based in Edinburgh but with team members in Eastern Europe and India. So who exactly am I going to meet if I go into the office?)

    The plebs had started to realise they had a little power.

    Stamp on that now before they start asking for a cost of living pay rise.

    1. Plest Silver badge

      Re: coincidence?

      I was the first and basically only person in my team to start going back a couple of days a week. I just found the change of pace conducive to work. I wouldn't force anyone back but it's working for me and my state of mind, I feel better for the change of location and someone else to talk to a couple of times a week.

      1. Roland6 Silver badge

        Re: coincidence?

        A regular office fix can be very helpful in maintaining the “work” mindset and sense of team membership through the WFH sessions. Fundamentally, it is about finding what works for you.

        I have found, I now plan my office activities, so as to get the most out of the office trip, previously commuting into “The Office” was more of a chore as it was just something you did everyday…

  13. Richard 36

    Pants? How will they check people's underwear?

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      +1

      I don't think I'll ever be able to parse pants as trousers no matter how much American english I read.

      1. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        Re: +1

        There's no comparison between being caught with your pants down in the UK vs the US....

      2. LybsterRoy Silver badge

        Re: +1

        I've read this before somewhere, where in the english speaking world did you grow up not to regard pants and trousers are being the same thing? I presume you also call underpants (see the clue there) knickers.

        1. farvoyages
          Trollface

          Re: +1

          a land down under I suspect

        2. Anonymous Coward
          Anonymous Coward

          Re: +1

          > where in the english speaking world did you grow up not to regard pants and trousers are being the same thing?

          England.

          "Pants" was just a shortened form of "underpants". No consideration given to the "under-", because English never makes sense anyway so there's no point in thinking about it.

          Knickers are specifically girls' pants.

      3. Plest Silver badge
        Windows

        Re: +1

        "Women's knickers! A fecking pair of women's knickers!"

        ( closest they had to Father Jack ) ==>

        1. Anonymous Coward
          Anonymous Coward

          Re: +1

          But if it was US "women's pants" that would be "women's trousers" in the UK which could even be called "women's slacks" and that clearly makes it an IT (crowd) story.

  14. Electronics'R'Us
    Holmes

    No added value

    The arbitrary 'n' days per week diktat is one of the most specious argument out there.

    I will be starting with a new company soon.

    There will be times I need to go to an office (one reasonably close, the other one a couple of hundred miles away - expenses paid for that one); we have agreed that there has to be value in actually going to the office (hardware commissioning, for instance).

    Where there is no added value (teams call, perhaps) then there is no point in doing a 40 mile round trip. Bonus: they get to boast of their environmentally friendly policies.

    II have no problem at all going to the office when it makes sense. That might be every day for a week and then not for a month.

    The 'people work better in person' argument is also silly; people work better when they collaborate might be true but it does not always require physical presence. It also ignores the fact that introverts don't actually like being in a roomful of loud people such as marketing 'rah rah' types.

    This seems to be a pure micromanager issue.

    1. an it guy

      Re: I was happy today...

      That last part about introverts is so important. All people need space to concentrate

      As is loud people in an open plan office going and actively finding a meeting room before shouting their call across everyone else's reasonably volumed calls, and the loud person forcing everyone else to move because clients' can't hear you talk.

      1. Rudy

        Re: I was happy today...

        God yes!

        The best part about having my own office is not having to listen to Foghorn Leghorn bellowing away!

        1. An_Old_Dog Silver badge

          Re: I was happy today...

          I worked as a PC tech in open-plan offices for a few years. It worked because we all were techies, not marketing or management types, and understood the importance of keeping things down to a dull roar. I could concentrate on what I was typing, yet my subconscious was listening and processing what I was hearing, and would IRQ my upper-level brain when needed ("Wait, Vern. Sweng updated those terminal profiles. Get the new ones on \\NET1\USR\SWENG\HUMMINGBIRD\NEWPROFS\.")

          When I moved to SWENG, I got an office with one officemate. A private office would have been better, but with just two people it was okay. Neither of us played music on our PC speakers.

    2. Plest Silver badge

      Re: No added value

      Each to their own, I found I was going a little mental at home and 1-2 days a week in contact with real people made me feel human again. I wouldn't force anyone to do anything, a little taste of the office works out for me personally and I feel better after a day in the office around people. I noticed I was having trouble with my social skills beginning of 2022 when the wife and i went away for a few days, I'd lost the ability to cope in a public space with real people. I guess I just need to be with people, recharge and I'm good for another week working alone at home.

  15. naive

    With so much attention towards CO2 emissions and climate change why do

    Governments not give tax breaks to companies or employees if they commute less.

    Except from all the time wasted on congested roads, the environment would benefit.

    There is also a cost factor, every mile not driven for commutes to work is money saved by the employee.

    There will be more costs for child care for each day at the office, it would be nice if companies offered some flexibility, maybe reduce the salary a bit when people want to work from home most of the time.

    1. MisterHappy

      Re: With so much attention towards CO2 emissions and climate change why do

      "maybe reduce the salary a bit when people want to work from home most of the time."... I have a serious issue with this. Why would they reduce my salary?

      If you are going to say that I have reduced commuting costs then I would ask if my colleague who lives less than a mile from work and walks to work every day will also have his salary reduced.

      When I took the job there was no mention of an increased salary because I had to drive an hour each way.

    2. Roland6 Silver badge

      Re: With so much attention towards CO2 emissions and climate change why do

      Remember governments are in a slightly different business… So to a government, people having to commute and thus spend on fuel, car parks, trains etc. is economic activity which contributes to the GDP figures, also there are tax revenues to be had.

      Now if governments were businesses, commuting etc. would be seen as dead time and cost to be removed…

      Interestingly, following this thinking through to its logical conclusion, it is possible to have both a shrinking GDP and a vibrant economy; something economists and their supporters will tell you isn’t possible.

  16. Plest Silver badge
    Windows

    The shine has worn off WFH for me

    I really enjoyed it to begin with, it was hard to find the discipline but I did manage and got very productive. I've recently I've found myself doing 1-2 days a week simply to get some human contact. The company is not forcing anyone back but I've voluntarily gone in on quiet days to get a change. I make an effort to scrub up, dress in office attire instead of t-shirt and shorts, I have to make an effort from getting up to getting home, it's a nice change of routine.

    I love my missus like crazy, we've talked so much and our marriage has improved immeasurably in the last couple of years of me working permanently at home. For me personally the shine is coming off now and I'm happy to spend £200 month travelling each month if it means I get to speak with real people in person just a couple of times a week, even if it's just a quick chat in the office kitchen

    Some people love it and it works for them, good luck to you but for me 3/2 split every week would be fine and seems a fair compromise, else I think I might just go a little loopy if I stay home much longer.

    1. Caver_Dave Silver badge
      Joke

      Re: The shine has worn off WFH for me

      Ahhh!! now that's the difference! Most of us are loopy already :-)

  17. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    I get tired of listening to folk claim they are more efficient when WFH when everybody else's experience of the home workers shows otherwise.

    Another thing I heard recently from a home worker was that makng them return to the office three days a week was effectively a pay cut. They based this on two things. If, they argued, they came back to the office they would have to pay travelling expenses and that the time spent travelling added to their working day would mean an effective cut in their hourly rate.

    This person used to work in the office five days a week and their contract still shows them to be office based. Then from march 2020 they have worked from homem, occasionally visiting the office. When they do work in the office the expect to rock up half an hour after their normal start time and leave half an hour early. They tried to justify this by saying they don't get paid for travel time. They even tried to claim mileage for the first day they came back to the office. HR explained to them that firstly they could not claim mileage as that only applied if they were working from somewhere other than the base as shown on their contract, and secondly that their working hours were 8:30 to 5 and in future HR would be greatfull if they could actually work those hours.

    So you could argue that returning to the office is a pay cut, but then you could also argue that by their own argument they have been overpaid for some considerable time. When the offices re-opened in april 2021 most of us headed back to work. On this basis it could be argued that that those people who have continued to work from home have been overpaid in so far as they have effectively been paid for travelling expenses and time that they didn't actually incur - this is their own argument remember. So if I were in HR I wouldn't piss about I would say sure, we'll give you a pay rise for returning to work, you work out how much it should be and let us know. Because that's the size of the pay cut you'll be getting back dated to april 2021.

    I agree with the CEO who said when confronted with staff who said they'd quit if they were forced to return to the office: Quit.

    Those people who've already returned to the office won't lose any sleep over you.

    1. Roland6 Silver badge

      > So you could argue that returning to the office is a pay cut

      You could, however, that would be incorrect. There is a price for a job, when appointing someone, a prospective employer will, in the majority of cases, offer that price without considering the costs (housing and commuting) the specific employee may incur.

      Fundamentally, by working from home and not living in central London, I massively increase my net income. If I were a company, I would be telling my shareholders that I had improved my margin, something they would reward me for doing.

    2. Intractable Potsherd

      That entire rant was based on the entirely unevidenced assertion in the first paragraph. Where are the data to back up "everybody else's experience"?

    3. Citizen of Nowhere

      >I get tired of listening to folk claim they are more efficient when WFH when everybody else's experience of the home workers shows otherwise.

      Wild generalisation. Actually, studies on the productivity of working from home versus working in an office are actually very mixed and point to a number of other variables as well (the type of office environment to mention but one).

      >this is their own argument remember

      So, you know one person making a poor argument and from it build an entire edifice of self-justification. Perhaps not surprising, given your opening remark.

      >Those people who've already returned to the office won't lose any sleep over you.

      I suspect that the feeling would likely be mutual.

  18. meski-oz

    <<moves to more than an hour away, or gets a slow car>>

  19. Splatterplatter
    Coat

    Vote with yer feet.

    Had the same thing happen to me. From 2020 working from home was no problem, encouraged even. The Great Return occurred, was told it's up to you, we are fully flexible. Then, 2 months ago, HR announced mandatory 3 day return to the office.

    Working from home had shown me how unbalanced my work/life was, not going back to that. Nope. Just a few weeks more to go on my notice and they can take their 3 days and shove 'em where it seems most C Suite announcements come from. Icon as that'll be me on my last day, looking for my keys to hand back forever....

  20. An_Old_Dog Silver badge

    Promises, Promises

    The executives are not held accountable for what they say, write, or do.

  21. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Carbon Footprint & Micro Managers....

    How many companies claim zero or a small carbon foot print but do they count staff going to and from work? So many companies wave a flag of carbon neutrality but the reality is that its not true.

    Many people can work from home successfully, they have proved it. Why are they wanted back in the office? Truth is money. The cost of rent, the cost of running vast buildings, its that simple.

    Oh, and the micro managers who deperately need to be seen managing... ... Lets not forget those little fe ckers.

    1. 43300 Silver badge

      Re: Carbon Footprint & Micro Managers....

      That may well be part of it, but the reality is that working from home full time doesn't work well in many roles. It may have been OK to start with because they'd all worked in the office together up until then, but it's much harder for new starters, especially the younger ones starting at the bottom.

      Endless Teams and Zoom calls really are not an adequate substitute.

  22. ChaosFreak

    How's that Koolaid Tasting?

    Dell to its customers: "Buy lots of Dell laptops so your staff can work from anywhere!"

    Dell to its employees: "You'll come the office to work and like it!"

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: How's that Koolaid Tasting?

      Fun fact: they’ve been pushing WFH for years before the pandemic. Which makes this 180 especially weird.

  23. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    No personal workspace is the worst of it

    The worst part of this is the "reimagined" workspace, which really took no imagination at all:

    After we cleared out for covid, some spaces were wiped clean, office partition walls removed, and it was filled with aisles of sit-stand desks with no partitions. That's a pure hellscape for concentration driven productivity.

    Other areas were just homogenized to the standard existing cubicles, all with a dock, 2 cheap monitors, the standard $10 keyboard that comes bundled with consumer PCs, and whatever chairs they had. No accommodation for ergonomic requirements. A shared keyboard that will nasty with people's greasy fingers, food, shed skin and other detritus. And with the "go online and reserve it each and every f%^*ing day, you never know who you're going to sit near. In my recent experience, the worst is the "running dialog with his own computer guy."

    So I have my own keyboard and mouse in my backpack, along with a headset, and every other thing I could possibly ever need. Want a pen or a notepad? Nope. Those are gone. Because you don't even get a spot to leave a goddamn fucking coffee cup and a box of tissues. And god forbid if you forget something. laptop charger? cubes have docks, but you're fucked if you're in conference rooms all day. But who are we kidding. That's not going to happen. The conference rooms will go back to being always booked again, but why get a room when you're on zoom all day with remote teams. Because hiring for the past three years has been remote by default. But we're told to come in _even if everyone on your team is remote_.

    I like my job and my team so I'm not going anywhere, but if I was looking today, there's no way I'd accept a job with working conditions like this. I don't mind going in, as my commute isn't terrible, and it's what I signed up for years ago when I took the job. But when I took the job, I was able to find a suitable chair, and I set my workspace to match my preferences. And sanitized it, because that's who I am. :)

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