Almost all remote-work news is negative now but was positive in the beginning of the pandemic. Have you noticed this or am I going crazy?

Submitted ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago⁩ by ⁨ItsMeForRealNow@lemmy.world⁩ to ⁨workreform@lemmy.world⁩

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want their remote workers back at the office, every one of those companies are being almost propaganda machines which do not cite sound scientific studies but cite each other and interviews with higher ups in top companies that “remote workers are less productive”.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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Comments

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Ninja9p5@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago
I think the companies were lying to us when covid started. They said working from home was awesome and we could still do our jobs well so investors wouldn’t get scared. But now they want us to come back to the office and they say working from home is bad for us. They are just trying to trick us into doing what they want.

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- whofearsthenight@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago
  I mean, it’s just capitalism. Beginning of the pandemic: thank god for remote work, don’t worry investors we’re not going out of business. End of pandemic: welp, I have to justify my position and why we’re paying all this real estate get back in the office so I can micro-manage you and create useless meetings no one needs so no one realizes that I don’t really do anything around here.
  
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Marcy_Stella@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago
It’s simple, during the pandemic they couldn’t have workers come in but they couldn’t have just no work force so they pushed for work from home and made it seem like a big positive to keep money flowing into their pockets. Now that they can have people come into the office they need to justify their leases and justify their middle management oversight so they need people coming back to the offices. It’s not about whats convent or comfortable for the workers, it’s what can make them the most money and justify expenses as to not spook investors. If the company could cancel even half of their leases they would and have most everyone work from home and maybe even cut back on middle management. However they got 20-30 year leases to save money(in month to month payments) and it’d be really expensive to exit the deal sooooo justifying the lease is more important.

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- chicken@lemmy.dbzer0.com ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago
  
  it’s what can make them the most money and justify expenses as to not spook investors
  
  Seems contradictory to me. I think they don’t actually give a shit about making the company money, they’re just straight scamming investors in favor of their own personal interests.
  
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Strayce@lemmy.sdf.org ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago
A lot of these companies are locked in to 5,10 or 20 year leases. If they were sensible they’d just eat the loss and take the extra productivity and happier staff, but that’s not how the corporate hivemind works. They’re paying rent so they have to justify it by having bums on seats, or they’re bleeding money for what looks like no reason.

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Ddubz@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago
In my observation it has been industry and sector dependent.

Corporate tech and finance are calling for remote work to end. Most of the articles I see where going back to the office is touted are all “silicon valley” type companies and finance/investment firms writing opinion peices.

PR, marketing, and news media, comms fields - which I am in - are doing the opposite. I work in digital media with government clients and my office just had a building contractor come in and walled off 2/3 of our empty cube space that was full pre-pandemic but is now vacant because all those employees remained remote. The positions in that area of the office were mostly copy editors, graphic design, and technical writers. The building owner turned that area into a new office but hasn’t rented it to anyone new yet.

Many of my colleagues are active duty military and government civilians. They all telework as much as 3-4 days a week currently. All of their jobs are administrative in nature and almost all of the military people are officers.

It is important to note that the military has loosely instructed liberal telework at unit level discretion because of record low retention rates. I’ve been working in/for government for a long time and even before 2020, federal contractors and DoD civilians have usually had telework of some kind provided what they did was something that could be taken home.

When I worked in DC in the mid-00s it was common to see offices engage rotating flex schedules because of the insane traffic and hours long commutes in the DMV corridor.

But, I suppose it’s all anecdotal. Where you live and what you do for work are going to impact reality more than anything. Watching the MSM speculate and reading nonsense opinion articles in the Atlantic or Times aren’t going to give you any real information.

All I can say for sure is my office has fully remote and hybrid only. We are guaranteed two days WFH a week but all salaried employees have optional flex schedules and can work non-concurrent hours as long as deadlines are being met. But again, I work for a massive international fed contractor that does largely administrative and PR consulting. So all things that have a history of WFH schedules already.

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- rubberducky182@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago
  not only industry and sector dependent, also dependent on the country. at least in my personal bubble (in Germany), remote work is still very common. I also heard from companies who openly advertise remote work and get much more job applications because of it.
  
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randon31415@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago
Productivity was never the point of work. Increases in productivity thus was never a boon to those in charge.

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- stackcheese@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago
  but the ai revolution though
  
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  - art@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago
    In a lot of ways it’s still more marketing than a revolution. AI can’t do my job yet. Not saying it never will but we’re a lot farther away from that than most people think.
    
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Aux@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago
A lot of people love WFH, a lot of people hate WFH. This forced experience has caused yet another split in society.

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- steakmeout@aussie.zone ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago
  Nobody hates WFH.
  
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  - itsJoelle@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago
    Nobody hates optional WFH with no strings for doing so.
    
    Personally, I love WFH. I love being home and by myself. Additionally, I may end up not leaving my house until the weekend and I love it since I despise driving. But I understand that would drive people insane. However, for me, I needed to recharge my introvert batteries over the weekend instead of seeing friends. Now I’m a social butterfly in my off time ☺️
    
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  - meekah@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago
    Only a sith deals in absolutes
    
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  - paddirn@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago
    I’ve got small kids, so while I generally like WFH, there have been times where I absolutely just wanted to GTFO and go into the office. Our company did full WFH for awhile, then gradually phased us back in to the office, but for me the best schedule we had was where we were one week in-office, one week WFH, that was the absolute best and gave me the best of both worlds. Without kids though, I would probably prefer WFH a good portion of the time, just so I could have some freedom during lulls in the workload to catch up on home stuff.
    
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  - ycnz@lemmy.nz ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago
    Mediocre executives loathe it with every fibre of their being.
    
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  - Aux@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago
    A lot of people hate working from home. People with kids, who want to spend some time of the day in peace. People living in house shares with bad neighbours. People living with abusive partners or parents. People with mental issues who feel more comfortable with people around them. Don’t be an ignorant dick.
    
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- HerrLewakaas@feddit.de ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago
  Why? Just let people work wherever the fuck they want to, no reason to divide society. If anything, division is just a tool for companies to manipulate us into doing what they want us to
  
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  - meldroc@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago
    I think a lot of it is just that - a lot of managers are control freaks, or used to “managing by walking around”, and feel lost when all the peons are out and working remote.
    
    The companies that let workers act on their own recognizance are most likely far more pleasant to work for, while the companies that have a million little rules and do things like forced RTO tend to be the ones with asshole bosses that are miserable workplaces.
    
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  - Aux@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago
    Because people are different.
    
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wintermute_oregon@lemm.ee ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago
[deleted]
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- ItsMeForRealNow@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago
  Yeah I think its about the control too. So fucked up.
  
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- platysalty@kbin.social ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago
  I'm split in the middle. I manage projects and also help with sales administration. I prefer in-person meetings for bigger discussions because human communications are built for face to face.
  
  Deep discussions are just much more effective when you can read the room.
  
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solstice@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago
I work remotely at the moment since March 2020 and I’m over it, can’t stand it anymore. I’m single with no kids and work a LOT. I’ll frequently wake up, work twelve hours, go to bed, never leave the house. I’m looking for jobs in my field so I can at least get out of the house, go to an office and socialize a bit with colleagues and other office tenants, get lunch at outdoor cafes etc.

I also miss learning through osmosis from overhearing colleagues discussing technical concepts I’m unfamiliar with, and teaching others similarly about things I know that they don’t.

My experience working with other people all fully remotely is that it’s very difficult to coordinate as a group, and individually many people are terrible communicators. This is magnified by remote work. (Pet peeve: answer the phone and turn on your fucking camera, I want to know who I’m working 80 hours a week with ffs.)

All that said I totally agree that a lot of work can and should be done at home. A hybrid approach is difficult though unless everyone is at the office and WFH at the same time. Otherwise what’s the point of me being at the office while you are at home and vice versa. It’s very tricky and I’m not sure how to resolve.

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- recursivesive@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago
  Sounds like a YOU problem. Why should we, WFH productive advocates, have to pay for your sins? Get therapy if you need it.
  
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- assassin_aragorn@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago
  I don’t know if I’m necessarily more productive in the office, but I do think I prefer that vibe for a workplace. Still, I’m going to go with remote for all the other benefits. I hated commuting.
  
  It’s just different strokes for different folks.
  
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half_built_pyramids@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago
Search Bloomberg and remote lol

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- wagesj45@kbin.social ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago
  I will not, but I'm guessing they're all opinion pieces by people who own massive business real estate holdings (directly or through a hedge fund they run) and think "getting back to work" is good for the American spirit, or something.
  
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  - half_built_pyramids@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago
    It’s much more ghoulish than you can ever imagine.
    
    Here’s what one said with his real human mouth:
    
    Ross said. “The employees will recognize as we go into a recession, or as things get a little tighter, that you have to do what it takes to keep your job and to earn a living.”
    
    You have to do what it takes to earn a living. Spend 40m risking your life in a car every day to come back to my 8bln portfolio so it doesn’t lose value. Or you won’t be able to feed yourself.
    
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SocialMediaRefugee@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago
It isn’t propaganda to look at the real-world ramifications of this.

The hard drop in commercial real estate is going to end in a lot of big loans going unpaid. Might end in some bank failures.

The drop in assessed value is going to hit cities hard in the pocket as they depend a lot on these property taxes from commercial properties to pay theirs bills (social programs, subsidized public transportation, police, fire, public housing, roads, etc).

It will increase sprawl as more people can now live anywhere and push into wilderness areas and we lose more open space.

A lot of small businesses depend on those dense commercial areas. You’ll see more contractors, restaurants, etc having to close and downtowns getting deserted like happened in the 70s as people fled to suburbs.

You see a lot of people saying “just turn them into residences!”. It is very difficult and expensive to turn buildings designed as open office spaces into residences.
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- MechanicalJester@lemm.ee ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago
  Re: Sprawl. The world is actually rather empty. A lot of changes are going to happen in domino fashion.
  
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  - MajorHavoc@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago
    Indeed. And work location is still only one of many reasons to prefer city life. Cinemas, grocery stores, bars, stadiums and playgrounds aren’t going to instantly spread into our most rural areas.
    
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- MajorHavoc@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago
  Good points. Regarding point 2, I think we’re going to see cities shift to trying to attract people rather than corporations.
  
  Attracting an employer is now a less reliable way to attract their staff to a community.
  
  I suspect we will soon find that policies that attract great grocery stores into a walkable neighborhoods are more effective for cities than implementing lax corporate tax policies.
  
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- ItsMeForRealNow@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago
  But corporations have achieved very difficult things in a very short span that cost very many billions like - pivoted to AI which was very difficult until ChatGPT became popular.
  
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drdabbles@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago
Landlords trying to charge rent again. All of the real studies happening show employees are happier, more productive, and consider not going through a hellish commute to sit in a building with a bunch of people they don’t know or like to be a benefit. It’s only executives and commercial real estate owners desperate to get people into offices so they can feel useful again.

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imekon@lemmy.blahaj.zone ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago
I changed jobs during the pandemic. I asked if I could work remotely permanently, they said yes. It’s in my contract I work from home, not the office. I’ve been watching the “sea change” as working remotely has been removed from various companies and wondering why? If all the research points to it being better, then - again - why? The speculation about it being related to real estate is depressing!

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Roody15@reddthat.com ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago
Mega corporations have been running dictating government policy and controlling new narratives for quite some time.

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Feathercrown@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago
I’ve actually still been seeing positive news

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Hazdaz@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago
Probably has a bit to do with how few people were working remote before versus now.

WFH was absolutely not a common thing for average workers per-COVID. Some did it, sure, but that was not even up for consideration for a huge percent of workers. So since businesses had really no choice, a lot of them just went along for the ride and tried it out. The media went along with it and played it up as the Next Big Thing.

But clearly many people abused the policy and aren’t being as productive as they once were, so now the media is reflecting that reality and running negative stories…

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snek@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago
My manager wanted me to come to the office daily because the laptop I had couldn’t handle the company VPN, which we were suddenly using in our systems.

He gave me some crap about it and reminded me of the ‘office first’ policy at my workplace.

I looked him dead in the face and said, “You can’t force anyone back to the office. You know that it’s not going to fly with the employees. You can try but it won’t work”.

He didn’t look too happy about that, but he knows it’s reality.

Ended up finally getting an new old laptop for the VPN issue, which some other employee left behind, because the budget was “too tight” even though I couldn’t do my work efficiently. And a few days ago I was told I’d be laid off. Also because of the budget.

So hooray!

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Shimitar@feddit.it ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago
I prefer work from office. Its better for me having kids & dogs and tons of duties at home. Work from home more than once a week is just a waste of time for me which translates to double workload or sorse when at the office.

Said that, i love WFH because i get things (real things, life things, not work things) done properly and timely… But just doping more than 1 day per week is twice as stressful for me than not.

My commute is 35km each way, so not even a short one.

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silvercove@lemdro.id ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago
Commercial real estate owners strike back.

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