Better get out that suit and tie again

[rrrr]

Back to the office with you!

https://www.wsj.com/lifestyle/workplace/amazon-return-to-office-five-day-policy-1cf0c496?st=w8VQr8&reflink=desktopwebshare_permalink

 

[crzy2bealive]

Hopefully that doesn’t happen at my company.

 

[Sleek-Jet]

Back to the office with you!

https://www.wsj.com/lifestyle/workplace/amazon-return-to-office-five-day-policy-1cf0c496?st=w8VQr8&reflink=desktopwebshare_permalink

I know a lot of commenters on these stories are taking great pleasure in the RTO policies, but my wife was told she was 100% remote after the pandemic (after being hired as hybrid to begin with), and is now required to be in the office. The company drew a circle around each office and if you live inside that boundary you have to come in. Oh, and the company takes attendence. It wouldn't be awful but during the pandemic the company broke their lease on their suburban office building and moved into the city. So now it's a 2 hour commute one way.

And she goes in to sit in Teams calls all day because the people she interfaces with are all over the country. Literally she is in her "hotel cube" on calls most of the time. It is kind of insane.

The kicker is if we lived 2 miles farther west she would be classified as remote and wouldn't have to come in.

 

[paradise]

I know a lot of commenters on these stories are taking great pleasure in the RTO policies, but my wife was told she was 100% remote after the pandemic (after being hired as hybrid to begin with), and is now required to be in the office. The company drew a circle around each office and if you live inside that boundary you have to come in. Oh, and the company takes attendence. It wouldn't be awful but during the pandemic the company broke their lease on their suburban office building and moved into the city. So now it's a 2 hour commute one way.

And she goes in to sit in Teams calls all day because the people she interfaces with are all over the country. Literally she is in her "hotel cube" on calls most of the time. It is kind of insane.

The kicker is if we lived 2 miles farther west she would be classified as remote and wouldn't have to come in.

That really sucks. I know there are good remote workers, but Unfortunately I think that’s the exception and not the rule and as usual the bad people screw it up for everyone else.

 

[SixD9R]

Still doing 2 days per week at home and 3 in the office here. Hope it stays that way but it's not looking good.

We all worked remotely for 20 months when the pandemic started, it was amazing and the work got done just as well as if we were in person.

 

[Sleek-Jet]

That really sucks. I know there are good remote workers, but Unfortunately I think that’s the exception and not the rule and as usual the bad people screw it up for everyone else.

In her case it is because the C-suite and the board are caught up in office leases that no one was using. Rumors are that one or two board members that are involved in commercial real estate are putting a lot of pressure on the CEO to fill the office space.

 

[crzy2bealive]

I know a lot of commenters on these stories are taking great pleasure in the RTO policies, but my wife was told she was 100% remote after the pandemic (after being hired as hybrid to begin with), and is now required to be in the office. The company drew a circle around each office and if you live inside that boundary you have to come in. Oh, and the company takes attendence. It wouldn't be awful but during the pandemic the company broke their lease on their suburban office building and moved into the city. So now it's a 2 hour commute one way.

And she goes in to sit in Teams calls all day because the people she interfaces with are all over the country. Literally she is in her "hotel cube" on calls most of the time. It is kind of insane.

The kicker is if we lived 2 miles farther west she would be classified as remote and wouldn't have to come in.

Time to move lol

 

[77charger]

Time to move lol

Or use an address 2 miles away lol

 

[Sleek-Jet]

Oh, it gets even more petty. If we were to move she would have to get "clearance" to go remote. LOL

She's looking for another job right now, but reference the other thread those aren't easy to come by at the moment.

 

[beerrun]

My wife has worked from home since a year before covid this year they told her she has to now go to the office 1 day a week for 4hrs it takes her an hour to drive each way and then when they are in 5he office they go out for coffee or put to lunch or just wonder around talking to there friends but in LA they just closed both offices and now they all work from home

 

[Xtrmwakeboarder]

Thankfully my new job is hybrid, but I miss being 100% remote. That extra 3-4 hours of driving to/from work each day is a waste. I agree some people ruin it for everyone else, but that’s a reflection on weak managers. I’m switching my team to hybrid to align with my schedule and the other execs. It’ll help retain the good people and attract better talent.

 

[Singleton]

Within the tech industry, most are doing this to. However when I talked to a few friends in leadership, all stated this is phase 1. Phase 1 is to leverage return to work to reduce headcount. Those that don’t return to the office, will be separated. Then a RIF will occur 3-4 months after.

 

[C-2]

Still on 2 days in the office/3 at home for the State. As far as we know, there's no plans to change the schedule and they just went 100% reimbursement for train travel. I wouldn't mind if they scuttled our office in DTLA on Bunker Hill. I love going into the office/DTLA, but it makes for a long day. The State has offices everywhere and we're hoping they start "hoteling." Then I would only need to go into downtown Riverside on my office days, which is 15 minutes away.

Straight up, they should make everybody return to the office! Nothing replaces the interaction between co-workers and other team members. If I was a Millennial or Gen Z I would be worried about losing those skills by not developing or using them.

I got it easy. I ride the train with several peeps that work for LAUSD and they returned to 5 office days per week. One friend jumps on the train at 4:30 in Perris and arrives home about 7 every evening. And that's without any BNSF trains cock blocking us, which happens frequently.

 

[bowtiejunkie]

Except inventory counts, we've been remote since the pandemic began. The 20 years prior I would visit client's 3 to 5 days a week on assignment, then work from home otherwise. Startup companies were allowing more flexibility pre-pandemic for their workers. Since the pandemic, their accounting staff have been scattered all over the country. Some continue to not have a physical office location. There's been no mention for well over a year now of our group heading back to client locations. My company has 3 local offices 9 miles to 20 miles away, which is 180 miles closer than when I lived in California. But, for me there's zero reason to be in any of our corporate offices. Although, if I was forced to work at the one 9 miles away, I'd do that no problem.

 

[DarkHorseRacing]

You guys are lucky, I went back 5 days a week right after they deemed the crisis over. I do miss not driving to work, doing a lot remotely. Going in as needed if I had to touch hardware.

 

[Bpracing1127]

Hired on remote. Wouldn’t have it any other way. VP doubled down and we staying remote. We sold off a huge building in Scottsdale

 

[Xtrmwakeboarder]

Within the tech industry, most are doing this to. However when I talked to a few friends in leadership, all stated this is phase 1. Phase 1 is to leverage return to work to reduce headcount. Those that don’t return to the office, will be separated. Then a RIF will occur 3-4 months after.

Yep. This is happening at my previous company as well. “A” players are getting passes, but anyone else is a mandatory RTW even if being hired as remote. Basically forced reduction in HC as people aren’t going to move cross country.

 

[C-2]

You tech guys must hate the BSOD. Our IT guys are like fawk, I gotta go into the office lol

 

[DWC]

Our senior leaders have wanted everyone back since the Vid ended. Getting people back in has been entertaining. It’s not hard getting mid-level and up to come in. Impossible to get entry level/younger people to drive in. The bigger issue for us is the newfound addiction to TEAM calls. For 40 years Monday was our “office day”. Most of my Friday is consumed along with afew calls scattered through the week. Stuff that used to just be an email/FYI is now a 20 person cluster F to check a box. It’s hurt productivity more than not having someone in a cube all day. I don’t make my team come in Monday. Only a couple live within an hour. No reason to have everyone sit in traffic all day.

 

[Ladsm]

This is me right now 100%. I was told last Monday come into the Seattle office 5-days a week starting Jan 2 2025. I was hired as a remote employee from the beginning living in Bullhead. My territory I manage is CA and CO so I am directly in the middle and I drive to all my CA sites. My boss is trying to get my Remote status re-approved but this is the last time I am playing this game, 3 years ago we had huge layoffs and I dodged that barely, last year was 3 days in the office and now 5 days. In my group I am one of the last original employees left. People are bailing out the door weekly and everybody is on Indeed daily looking to get out. All this is doing is promoting attrition and they wont have to say they had layoffs.

 

[rivrrts429]

If you’re driving revenue then all your problems go away. It’s the roles where it’s more difficult to quantify your role in revenue growth that makes it more difficult to know your worth as an employee so they want to see your face.

 

[Singleton]

I have a customer presentation on 10/10, where the customer has stated I need to wear a suit and tie.

Told the sales executive, F that. In 10 years of pre-sales leadership roles I have never wore a suit or a tie. Jacket only.

 

[Sportin' Wood]

I'm 100% remote most my team across the globe is. I had 1 person that came through a recent acquisition. The SBU leader for that business would not budge on her joining the rest of my team remote and forced her to come to the office 5 days a week. She was one of the least productive team members and she gave notice two weeks ago to take a 100% remote work role.

So for the last two weeks I have been doing battle with the SBU leader about hiring her replacement in a climate where we have a hiring freeze. He has been really crazy about how we need to quickly replace her, so I've asked for a detailed account of her daily duties that were unrelated to her job description.

As suspected 50% or better of her daily activities were outside her job description and completely unrelated to our department. There were 4 other departments back filling staffing shortages on my cost center. No wonder she was unproductive. Because it was a new acquisition I suspect that it was always that way and she was not feeling empowered to speak up and took the path of least resistance and found a better opportunity. Next week we are going to have a tough discussion.

This is a topic I've spent a lot of time trying to prepare for if I'm ordered back to an office. The nearest is Fort Collins, Colorado.

The business gets 10-12 hours a day out of me now that I'm remote, I was 6-8 hours when I had to report to an office and productivity was shit because people were in my office BSing for hours every day. I manage a global team, I won't be able to do that if I have to report to an office.

If I am ordered back into office I have a strategy, but it burns the ships. I have no aspirations of staying in the industry I work in, I'll work my way back to self employment.

I suspect most of these people ordered back to an office will not stay with the companies they are working for and will be sucking the life out of the company. It is a terrible idea, they should just fire the remote workforce, lay them off or retire them early. If they were not getting value out of their remote workforce it is because the managers are crap, they should be fired as well. Clocking in and out is a joke, it is too late if that is required.

FWIW I suspect my chances of finding the same job I do is slim at my age. Moving back to an office would take me a long time to recover the costs.

 

[C-2]

Told the sales executive, F that. In 10 years of pre-sales leadership roles I have never wore a suit or a tie. Jacket only.

Lol, nobody wears a suit and tie anymore unless you're going to court. If we see a young buck in DTLA with pep in his step and wearing a suit - we're like....NEWB.

 

[rivermobster]

Hit the "Like" button...

If you're retired and enjoying this thread.

 

[HNL2LHC]

Hit the "Like" button...

If you're retired and enjoying this thread.

Thanks for the reminder.

 

[napanutt]

Hit the "Like" button...

If you're retired and enjoying this thread.

Couldn't "like" fast enough.

 

[CLdrinker]

We really recently went back to 2 days in office from 1.
I told my manager and Sr manager to expect much less work out of me.

I then went on to explain:
When in office I have all 9 other guys coming into my office to chat or ask questions. That right there is a few hours per day.
I will be leaving early each day to beat traffic home.

When at home I typically log in 15-30 min early as I’m already up and at the end of the day I try to get just 1 more email done next thing I know someone needs me for something and I work 15-30min or sometimes an hour over. I can no longer do that when I’m in office.

Sorry

I rarely need extensions and I’m usually way ahead of my workload. Now im late and behind.

Some people take advantage of full remote some are able to get more done. They chose to punish the slackers by coming to the office. Problem is the slackers still won’t get anything done and the workaholics can’t get more done.

Smooth move.

 

[C-Ya]

Lol, nobody wears a suit and tie anymore unless you're going to court. If we see a young buck in DTLA with pep in his step and wearing a suit - we're like....NEWB.

90% of all of my wife’s court appearances are done through zoom. From the waist up, she looks completely professional. From the waist down, she looks like she just crawled out of bed. lol

For me……… If I can’t wear flip flops………. I can’t work. lol

 

[jetboatperformance]

Nothing like SELF EMPLOYMENT

 

[Xtrmwakeboarder]

I have a customer presentation on 10/10, where the customer has stated I need to wear a suit and tie.

Told the sales executive, F that. In 10 years of pre-sales leadership roles I have never wore a suit or a tie. Jacket only.

In Boston this week for my first Board presentation at the new company. Wearing a suit for work for the first time in probably 15 years. Suuuuuuucks

 

[jetboatperformance]

In Boston this week for my first Board presentation at the new company. Wearing a suit for work for the first time in probably 15 years. Suuuuuuucks

I’ll wear a Tank , Shorts and Sneakers to my own funeral

 

[monkeyswrench]

From the outside looking in, it seems incredibly foolish for any industry to hire remote, and then require people to come in. That was the reason people usually took the gig I'd figure, as they were hired remote. I can understand people being hired one day in office, four remote also being pissed, for the same reasons. If you were hired in an office role, then sent home, and now back, well, then your objectives have changed while remote. If going back and doing the same job you originally were hired for seems bad, then time has come to move on.

Like I said, outside looking in. Work in my world is here or there, but always hands on, literally.

 

[C-Ya]

At my wife’s law offices. All the staff must work in the office. Receptionists, secretaries, paralegals, everyone. The attorneys get to do what they want. (As long as they bill xyz hours per month) Because of this, my wife only goes into the office, when she feels like it. Which has turned into…….. not often. However, it is amazing how she can run a law office from our home. My wife’s home office is busy from 7am to 8pm everyday. Depositions, Court Appearances, Mediations, Arbitrations, it is non-stop. Her computer makes a sound everytime she receives an email…….. it sounds like a slot machine.

I must admit……… I feel as though I have earned a law degree , from all the eavesdropping I do. It’s certainly interesting. I like hearing the basic outline of her cases. Some are super interesting. Some are unbelievably complex. Humble brag, but my wife is really good at what she does. In her offices, if somebody has a difficult question…….. they call her.

 

[DarkHorseRacing]

You tech guys must hate the BSOD. Our IT guys are like fawk, I gotta go into the office lol

You need a better hardware vendor then. BSODs are symptoms of larger problems.