Comment on We’re now finding out the damaging results of the mandated return to the office–and it’s worse than we thought

Gradually_Adjusting@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

• Kichae@kbin.social ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

  I'm sure that's part of it, but most office-based companies do not own commercial real-estate. They're renters of it. Having workers return to the office does nothing for the value of their property.

  While it does give management a sense that they're paying rent on those long-term commercial leases for a reason, it's pretty clear that the real value for them is in being able to directly see employees when they're not in-camera. Managers and ownership have demonstrated that they do not trust their employees, and pulling them back into the office is much more about feeling like they can control their lessers than it is about anything else.

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  • SCB@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

    If after 3 years of a pandemic, a manager is unable to achieve success with remote employees, that manager is failing and should be let go.

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    • Kichae@kbin.social ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

      Preaching to the choir. I left my last job because they mandated return to office so that I could work remotely with teams in Montreal and Paris.

      The only difference between doing that in my home office and doing it from their office was they could watch over my shoulder from there.

      It's not about managing remote teams. It's about controlling workers, and those are very different things. These people are worried that you might be getting your laundry done between work tasks, or that you're actually working 5 jobs, or other ridiculous bullshit, not about whether you're achieving your assigned tasks.

      Remote work is cheaper, more efficient, and leads to happier workers, and they'd rather wreck the first two to ensure the don't have the third.

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      • SCB@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

        I’d argue that if you’re worried about what your salaried employee is doing between tasks, when their tasks are being completed, you’re a bad manager full stop.

        That’s what I meant by saying people were incapable of managing remote teams.

        You and I both know it’s always entrenched senior leadership, too, and they’re never the ones losing their jobs to incompetence.

        This whole shift in working has been eye-opening and frustrating in equal measure.

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  • Gradually_Adjusting@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

    It’s something of a prism of top-down class warfare, there are so many layers to it. I’m sure middle managers have exactly the same motivations as you, because I’ve had those managers doing exactly what you’re describing to me right in the middle of lockdown.

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  • Sodis@feddit.de ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

    The media campaign against working from home is definitely based on the falling value of commercial real estate.

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• faethon@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

  Indeed, which now backfires heavily so it seems. Interesting to see what will come out of this.

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• 1984@lemmy.today ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

  But they said it was about collaboration…

  Lols.

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