Workplaces and employer attitudes Megathread

JTMan

Twitter, a company who knows how to treat their staff ... interesting article here.
- Nearly all employees told they can work from home forever.
- 1,000 USD per employee for work from home equipment.
- Likely to be after September that Twitter offices start to reopen.

Sheep Shagger

JTMan wrote: »

Twitter, a company who knows how to treat their staff ... interesting article here.
- Nearly all employees told they can work from home forever.
- 1,000 USD per employee for work from home equipment.
- Likely to be after September that Twitter offices start to reopen.

Just another nail in commercial real estate coffin. The days of large offices could be over with the 5 days in the office working week well and truly gone.

krissovo

JTMan wrote: »

Twitter, a company who knows how to treat their staff ... interesting article here.
- Nearly all employees told they can work from home forever.
- 1,000 USD per employee for work from home equipment.
- Likely to be after September that Twitter offices start to reopen.

Nearly every Silicon Valley based company is adopting this or a very similar policy, my own confirmed this last Thursday. Our CEO did a global town hall meeting and stated that tech CEO’s are aligning and trying to influence global policy.

Playing devils advocate here these same tech companies are still making good money from increased sales (or adopt our product now pay later policy) for products that enable work from home so there is also an underlying agenda.

JTMan

Sheep Shagger wrote: »

Just another nail in commercial real estate coffin. The days of large offices could be over with the 5 days in the office working week well and truly gone.

The NY Times are reporting that Manhattan is in serious trouble if work from home becomes the norm. It is not just real estate companies that are screwed, it is also the businesses in the area. IFSC businesses etc must be worried.

Post crisis - I think offices will still serve a purpose, they will be there is you want to go or need to do, but on a hot desk basis and with a footprint that is in some cases 60-80% lower than what it is today.

Companies can set whatever policies they like, force people back into the 1970's 9-5 (which has now become 9-5.30) daily grind and long commutes crammed into over crowded inadequate unreliable public transport. They can say what they like but at the end of the day this will be dictated by the workforce. I will never work a 9-5.30 office job again. I'm ok with regular meet ups outside of rush hour commute times, but that's it.

The last decade was about perks and benefits. This decade will be all about WFH and what equipment can you supply me for my home office.

PhilOssophy

Funny thing is I hear lots of people in my workplace who can't wait to get back to the office. I am the other way. Maybe because I don't like very many of them but I dread the day I've to go back in and look at these people for 7-8 hours.

leahyl

I don't want to work from home full time at all - my "office" is in my bedroom which is not ideal.....and I way prefer to be out of the house and work elsewhere so that when I come home, there is nothing there to remind me of work....I like the separation between work and home life.

hmmm

JTMan wrote: »

The NY Times are reporting that Manhattan is in serious trouble if work from home becomes the norm. It is not just real estate companies that are screwed, it is also the businesses in the area. IFSC businesses etc must be worried.

I can see it already that there is the beginning of a campaign by property owners to talk up offices. They're all over CNBC about how this is all a passing fad.

There is no-one to make the counter-argument that instead of companies spending thousands a year per employee to put them into offices, they could spend that money helping employees upgrade their home offices.

There'll be lots of money behind this, and probably a few bogus surveys in the coming weeks and months. The nice thing about commissioning a survey is you can throw away the ones that don't give you the answer you like.

iQuestion

I like working from home, however my workplace ruined this.
I was able to work from home all the time before COVID, without any meetings and stuff got done and I was happy.

However, now that we are all working from home something weird happened where we have multiple meetings every day. Those meetings really wear me out, they don't provide a value to me and I am forced to attend them. I am really upset about those meetings.

I guess before I had it going and I was happy because I was able to do my tasks whenever I wanted without wasting time on stupid meetings, and now I have to and I am really sad and angry.

iQuestion

iQuestion wrote: »

I like working from home, however my workplace ruined this.
I was able to work from home all the time before COVID, without any meetings and stuff got done and I was happy.

However, now that we are all working from home something weird happened where we have multiple meetings every day. Those meetings really wear me out, they don't provide a value to me and I am forced to attend them. I am really upset about those meetings.

I guess before I had it going and I was happy because I was able to do my tasks whenever I wanted without wasting time on stupid meetings, and now I have to and I am really sad and angry.

For every invite ask what the agenda is and question why you need to attend. If you have to, switch your mic off and continue with your work. Dont even be afraid to tell them, I'm here and listening but I'm really busy and am continuing my work at the same time.

reklamos

WFH should have been a thing long time ago.
Hopefully this will shake things up and move to that directions.
Lets face it, many of us stare at the screen in the office, so what difference does it make if I do the same at home.
I've been working from home for almost 10 years now and it is fine with me. I think people should be measured on the work done not when they clock in and clock out.
I am not saying that this will work for everyone as you need to have self discipline and I've seen people that just cannot do that.
Things are moving to the right direction, this is why wework, make offices etc. are getting popular over last couple years.

PhilOssophy

leahyl wrote: »

I don't want to work from home full time at all - my "office" is in my bedroom which is not ideal.....and I way prefer to be out of the house and work elsewhere so that when I come home, there is nothing there to remind me of work....I like the separation between work and home life.

I suppose I am lucky in that I have a dedicated office. A day or two a week in the office would be fine but the rest of the time, I will be delighted if I can work from home.

MadYaker

If the greens are going to force some mental carbon emissions target on us WFH could well be accelerated by necessity. Good way to significantly emissions. Commuting for a few hours a day has always seemed bizarre to me.

sentient_6

I really wish this WFH agenda would stop being pushed so hard. Although I only see enthusiasm for it here and not in real life talking to work colleagues in person at the moment. Wonder has that got to so with the demographic of people that hang around posting on boards all the time!

Panda Killa

The "Return to Work Protocol" seems to be written exclusively for large office spaces...
What about bricks & mortar stores?...are we to assume that the same rules apply ..or perhaps they don't?

stephenjmcd

leahyl wrote: »

I don't want to work from home full time at all - my "office" is in my bedroom which is not ideal.....and I way prefer to be out of the house and work elsewhere so that when I come home, there is nothing there to remind me of work....I like the separation between work and home life.

I'm like yourself, much prefer to be in the actual office. I've gone in a few days this week and plan on doing 3 days in and 2 days from home during the rest of this month. WFH just isn't for me, I've always had the option and never used it. Most of my team and department feel the same too.

leahyl

stephenjmcd wrote: »

I'm like yourself, much prefer to be in the actual office. I've gone in a few days this week and plan on doing 3 days in and 2 days from home during the rest of this month. WFH just isn't for me, I've always had the option and never used it. Most of my team and department feel the same too.

I can't understand why so many people apparently are in favour of it to be honest - but then I suppose I don't have a huge commute and don't have kids so maybe these things are a factor in wanting to work from home.

MadYaker

If you live on your own wfh is excellent imo. I still have to go in the odd day depending on what’s happening but I hope I’ll be allowed to continue working from home and it looks like I will. Why waste time and money commuting? Could save companies a load of money if they don’t have to rent office space anymore.

reklamos

leahyl wrote: »

I can't understand why so many people apparently are in favour of it to be honest - but then I suppose I don't have a huge commute and don't have kids so maybe these things are a factor in wanting to work from home.

I think you listed valid reasons.
For me(and many others) commute is major thing. This is one of the reasons why I do not accept jobs in Dublin City center. I had my fair share of traveling. Spending 2-3 hours a day in the car. on the road is really not exciting. This is dead and lost time for me that I could have used somewhere else. Also I find that I am much more productive while WFH as I can zone in and do not have anyone distracting me with 'Quick questions' that end up being 1-2 hours long. I like being in the office for the social aspect this is why 1-2 days a week is enough for me.

_Brian

Will temperature checks be mandatory on return from the 18th ??


The guidance documents from the HSA says they are a must, but I know of one employer who says they don't have to be done..

sentient_6

I'm in a particular situation thats causing me a lot of stress since all this started. Both myself and my wife work for medical device companies that are operating as normal. But we have a 3 year old. Herself is expected to do a full weeks work and I'm expected to do a full weeks work.

My company is allowing me the flexibility (ya cheers) to work the hours anyway I can, so im in evenings and weekends to make up the time while I mind the little one all day every day.

Its starting to really wear me down and there is no give from the company thats claims to be essential but don't seem prepared to offer me anything in terms of leeway.

I had to laugh this week HR sent a mail about a VHI webinar about helping people to cope and whatnot working from home. Sound I'll abandon my child for an hour to watch it.

I'm curious if there is anyone else is similar situation and how are you coping?

jrosen

sentient_6 wrote: »

I'm in a particular situation thats causing me a lot of stress since all this started. Both myself and my wife work for medical device companies that are operating as normal. But we have a 3 year old. Herself is expected to do a full weeks work and I'm expected to do a full weeks work.

My company is allowing me the flexibility (ya cheers) to work the hours anyway I can, so im in evenings and weekends to make up the time while I mind the little one all day every day.

Its starting to really wear me down and there is no give from the company thats claims to be essential but don't seem prepared to offer me anything in terms of leeway.

I had to laugh this week HR sent a mail about a VHI webinar about helping people to cope and whatnot working from home. Sound I'll abandon my child for an hour to watch it.

I'm curious if there is anyone else is similar situation and how are you coping?

Everyone who has both parents working are int he exact situation you are. I cant see it changing until childcare is back.

Your company is being flexible by allowing you to work the hours in a way that suits your family.
Friends are tag teaming with their kids, one parent gets up and does the early shift with the kids while the other logs on. Then they swap. There is also TV/movie time to occupy the child. Others have ordered lots more activity based toys to keep kids occupied too. Its a an impossible situation for parents.

Metroid diorteM

sentient_6 wrote: »

I'm in a particular situation thats causing me a lot of stress since all this started. Both myself and my wife work for medical device companies that are operating as normal. But we have a 3 year old. Herself is expected to do a full weeks work and I'm expected to do a full weeks work.

My company is allowing me the flexibility (ya cheers) to work the hours anyway I can, so im in evenings and weekends to make up the time while I mind the little one all day every day.

Its starting to really wear me down and there is no give from the company thats claims to be essential but don't seem prepared to offer me anything in terms of leeway.

I had to laugh this week HR sent a mail about a VHI webinar about helping people to cope and whatnot working from home. Sound I'll abandon my child for an hour to watch it.

I'm curious if there is anyone else is similar situation and how are you coping?

Pretty much word for word my life. Not sure how to keep going if childcare stays closed. We never had support from family but both my wife and I are expected to work from home as though nothing has changed.

I've been telling people for years not to get married and not to have kids. There is no support.

TheBoyConor

ReginaldSmythV wrote: »

The company is wrong, not me. Why should I die for other people?

That’s a low life dirty rotten answer.

The men of 1916 died for all Irish people, including you!
So did all the IRA fighters who fought the Brits 1919-1921.

PhilOssophy

Myself and OH are both working from home at the moment. We sort of do hour on hour off, minding our child.
So basically we have 1 productive hour and 1 unproductive one, when child asleep we both go flat out at work until wakes up.
To be honest, the person above is lucky to have the flexibility to work the non core hours. Neither of us have that luxury as we both work with large teams and the public.

ixoy

I wonder if guidelines will be issued for cases where employees are asked back into the office, even when they have been working from home, and are thus forced to use public transport.

sentient_6

PhilOssophy wrote: »

Myself and OH are both working from home at the moment. We sort of do hour on hour off, minding our child.
So basically we have 1 productive hour and 1 unproductive one, when child asleep we both go flat out at work until wakes up.
To be honest, the person above is lucky to have the flexibility to work the non core hours. Neither of us have that luxury as we both work with large teams and the public.

Working non core hours hours gets exhausting fairly quickly when your up at 7 every morning with an energetic child. Iv a full day done before I even get into work.

the kelt

I know of a well known City Centre company that in recent years bought out a rival.

They were so vehemently against working from home that there was about a dozen employees from the company they bought out that were remotely based and worked from home as their place of work that they paid well over a million in redundancies to get rid of them rather than accommodate them.

They had no plans in place back in March for working from home and people were still expected to be in the office until they were forced and their trial of how working from home might work was to put 6 employees in the office on their own in a different part of the building to see how much they could do.

If you knew the company and hoe they operated with working from home and seen the ads they run on TV you would p1ss yourself at the irony.

PhilOssophy

sentient_6 wrote: »

Working non core hours hours gets exhausting fairly quickly when your up at 7 every morning with an energetic child. Iv a full day done before I even get into work.

7 is a lie in in this house, we have an energetic child too!

JTMan

ixoy wrote: »

I wonder if guidelines will be issued for cases where employees are asked back into the office, even when they have been working from home, and are thus forced to use public transport.

Firstly, as per the government roadmap, those who can work from home, should continue to remote work until at least 10 August and perhaps beyond. So no employer should reopen offices, for those than can work from home, until 10 August. No doubt there will be rouge employers out there who ignore the roadmap or claim that it does not apply to them when it does but if your office reopens before 10 August, you can in theory log a complaint with the HSA which can shut premisses. First step should be to make a complaint with HR if the office reopens before 10 August.

After 10 August, all reasonable employers will make returning to the office optional. There are two many valid reasons not to return to the office until virus eradication or a vaccine. Public transport, underlying health condition, childcare or just not willing to take the risk.