Finally amazon mandating a return to work 5 days policy!!

[VicBee]

Most remote work came about as a result of covid. While it's been a boon to those living in large suburban homes far from their companies' offices, it's been devastating to city based offices where employees contributed heavily to cities' service economy which shut down and led to increased crime, drugs , etc.

That may not be your business to care about, but that's why I suspect government is letting large companies know it would behoove them to be more forceful in getting back to what was. It isn't in the interest of these large employers to find themselves in the middle of unsafe urban working environments which may push their best employees to find work elsewhere.
My feeling is, very few employees will quit their jobs to work from home lifestyle. I do think it's unfortunate because many (as my wife) excel here or there, but I suspect with time productive work will slow.

 

[Sergio123]

Most remote work came about as a result of covid. While it's been a boon to those living in large suburban homes far from their companies' offices, it's been devastating to city based offices where employees contributed heavily to cities' service economy which shut down and led to increased crime, drugs , etc.

That may not be your business to care about, but that's why I suspect government is letting large companies know it would behoove them to be more forceful in getting back to what was. It isn't in the interest of these large employers to find themselves in the middle of unsafe urban working environments which may push their best employees to find work elsewhere.
My feeling is, very few employees will quit their jobs to work from home lifestyle. I do think it's unfortunate because many (as my wife) excel here or there, but I suspect with time productive work will slow.

The technology to enable WFH has been around for over 20 years. Covid forced it to finally happen.

I say let people WFH.

Who wants to waste all that time commuting and risking going into the cities. You have to consider if its actually worth it. Defunding the Police and allowing rioting has consequences. Let the government and large corporations work togethor to convert the office buildings to homeless shelters.

 

[nitrene]

Well if you leave WFH in place for a significant number of people the CRE in urban areas will collapse. Which means the regional banks are left holding the bag of a massive debt write down and likely capital flight aka bankruptcy.

I'm pretty sure that is the real motivation for the federal government, to avoid even more bailouts of financial districts across the US. Here in the SF bay area they used most of the excess Fed money during Covid to shore up their transportation problems and BART & MUNI still need a lot more money to survive. BART is now at 48% of pre-Covid ridership. So its obvious that the tech companies here don't seem interested in RTO, at least not in any large numbers.

The bay area has a lot of small tech companies and its better to leave WFH in place and save money on a sublease in Sunnyvale, Palo Alto, SF, etc.

 

[nitrene]

The technology to enable WFH has been around for over 20 years. Covid forced it to finally happen.

I say let people WFH.

Who wants to waste all that time commuting and risking going into the cities. You have to consider if its actually worth it. Defunding the Police and allowing rioting has consequences. Let the government and large corporations work togethor to convert the office buildings to homeless shelters.

I see your point, however who is going to pay for the CRE bailouts in downtown USA? Are these employees going to pay it? It is not free.

 

[Sergio123]

I see your point, however who is going to pay for the CRE bailouts in downtown USA? Are these employees going to pay it? It is not free.

The owners will need to workout a deal with the government, which means building owners and tax payers......Who else is there?

 

[Sergio123]

Well if you leave WFH in place for a significant number of people the CRE in urban areas will collapse. Which means the regional banks are left holding the bag of a massive debt write down and likely capital flight aka bankruptcy.

I'm pretty sure that is the real motivation for the federal government, to avoid even more bailouts of financial districts across the US. Here in the SF bay area they used most of the excess Fed money during Covid to shore up their transportation problems and BART & MUNI still need a lot more money to survive. BART is now at 48% of pre-Covid ridership. So its obvious that the tech companies here don't seem interested in RTO, at least not in any large numbers.

Aren't they letting repeat offenders out due to overcrowding in the jails in the Bay area?

Lot's of potential space with these office buildings to build some state of the art, high tech correctional facilities.

 

[BMK]

Bummer.

I was hoping to get a job working from home as an Amazon delivery person or at an Amazon warehouse.

With all the advances in AI, I expected to be able to work from home controlling a forklift or a delivery drone.

 

[ph1l]

https://www.usatoday.com/story/money/2024/09/18/remote-work-from-home-survey/75266226007/

Are remote workers really working all day? Here's what they're doing instead
Jessica Guynn
USA TODAY

remote and hybrid workers do all day?

They often brag about how productive they are with no gossipy colleagues to distract them or time wasted on long commutes.

But a new survey is offering fresh insights into how remote workers really spend their time. Spoiler alert: It’s not all white papers and PowerPoint presentations.

While employees in the office might kill time messaging friends or flipping through TikTok, remote workers take advantage of being far from the watchful gaze of bosses to chip away at personal to-do lists or to goof off.

Nearly half of remote workers multitask on work calls or complete household chores like unloading the dishwasher or doing a load of laundry, according to the SurveyMonkey poll of 3,117 full-time workers in the U.S.

A third take advantage of the flexibility of remote work to run errands, whether popping out to the grocery store or picking up dry cleaning.

Sleeping on the job? It happens more than you might think. One in 5 remote workers confessed to taking a nap.

Some 17% of remote workers said they worked from another location without telling anyone or watched TV or played video games. A small percentage – 4% – admitted to working another job.




Multitasking during Zoom calls is another common pastime.

Nearly a third of remote and hybrid workers said they used the bathroom during calls while 21% said they browsed social media, 14% went on online shopping sprees, 12% did laundry and 9% cleaned the kitchen.

In a finding that may shock some, 4% admit they fall asleep and 3% take a shower.

"Employees are making their own rules to accommodate the demands of high-pressure work environments," said Wendy Smith, senior manager of research science at SurveyMonkey. "One thing we uncovered was that what you might consider 'off-the-booksbehavior' is widespread."

And it's not just the rank-and-file. More than half of managers and 49% of executives multitask on work calls, too, Smith said.

When asked “have you ever browsed social media while on a video or conference call at work,” managers, executives and and individual contributors, who have no supervisory responsibilities, were about even (22%, 20% and 21%), she said.

But managers and executives shopped online more frequently than individual contributors (16% and 14% compared with 12% of individual contributors), according to Smith.


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Different generations also have different work habits:

• 26% of millennials admit to taking a nap during the workday compared with 16% of GenX.
• 18% of GenZ have worked another job compared with 2% of GenX and 1% of boomers.
• 31% of GenZ have worked from another location without telling anyone compared with 16% of GenX.

So people aren't always doing what they're supposed to do when "working from home" -- what a shocking revelation!

When I used to work from home, I would never run software to make it look like I was active when doing something else. I would never send emails, check in code/documents, or log into work servers for the sole purpose of appearing to be working. And I would never ever watch TV, videos, porn, do online shopping, web surfing, etc.

 

[Sergio123]

Bummer.

I was hoping to get a job working from home as an Amazon delivery person or at an Amazon warehouse.

With all the advances in AI, I expected to be able to work from home controlling a forklift or a delivery drone.

When I worked in the system integration industry, I couldn't begin to tell you how many calls I got during the nighttime hours when the AGVs and ASRS systems went down.
If I am going back to working onsite then I am shutting my work phone off after hours.

 

[VicBee]

We're not all made equal. Some will thrive working from home, some will be able to juggle work and all the other life chores, some will abuse the privilege and others will milk it. That's humans for you.

It reminds me of rental protections meant to prevent landlords from kicking tenants out or raising rents whenever they want. It worked until some figured out the rules and became squatters, no longer paying rent and refusing to leave. It's a never ending cycle of taking advantage of others when possible to maximize benefits and minimize effort.