Return to Office - Reduced Productivity

[Anathema]

If your company loses senior members over this and hires younger ones for a fraction of the salary, that's a win for them. The younger ones will have no savings, and no means to access healthcare without the employer. They are more controllable.

Not necessarily a win when you try to replace someone with 20+ years of experience and extensive local knowledge with someone who doesn’t even understand the job. We aren’t talking manufacturing or labor positions. We’re taking about skilled professional work. They might save money until they realized that productivity and work quality fell through the floor.

 

[Augustine_]

There are no statistics regarding working at home vs productivity because it might impact public opinion about the covid restrictions and the administration.

Companies have no incentive to provide those stats because they have invested too much in office real estate whose value will collapse if employees are not forced to commute there anymore. Small businesses that rely on workers being forced to commute to offices near their locations will die. Real estate values in all areas zoned for office buildings will collapse.

Those are all more valid than your stupid Q covid bullshit

 

[Augustine_]

Not necessarily a win when you try to replace someone with 20+ years of experience and extensive local knowledge with someone who doesn’t even understand the job. We aren’t talking manufacturing or labor positions. We’re taking about skilled professional work. They might save money until they realized that productivity and work quality fell through the floor.

Skilled professionals are everywhere. You'd probably be long gone if not for your union. If your business persists with not giving a shit about you despite your senior status, ask yourself if they actually value you.

 

[Anathema]

It's simple. Companies have paid for office space. They hate to see that go empty.

We are 13 people in an office built for 50 in a building that holds 300 currently and is being renovated to hold roughly 500. They could actually benefit from not having us in the space we occupy

 

[Mr Natural]

Not necessarily a win when you try to replace someone with 20+ years of experience and extensive local knowledge with someone who doesn’t even understand the job. We aren’t talking manufacturing or labor positions. We’re taking about skilled professional work. They might save money until they realized that productivity and work quality fell through the floor.

That does not filter up the line to the powers that be who call the shots. What they see is 50 year olds who have been with the company 20+ years making all kinds of money doing a job that a recent college grad could do (in their minds) for half.

 

[Anathema]

Skilled professionals are everywhere. You'd probably be long gone if not for your union. If your business persists with not giving a shit about you despite your senior status, ask yourself if they actually value you.

That’s interesting. Especially in a Union environment, you can’t replace experience. You can’t hire a Level 3 employee when they have to have multiple years of experience at Levels 1 & 2 to get to Level 3.

The entire Department was set to be outsourced before we Unionized. The Company has now admitted (in writing) that it would have been a massive mistake to have done so.

I’ve long understood that my employer doesn’t give a crap about any of the employees. They’ve admitted we are seen as Liabilities, not Assets. They proved it by cutting 20% of their non-Union employees in 2012 to maximize profits they’d guaranteed to investors.

 

[Mr Natural]

I’ve long understood that my employer doesn’t give a crap about any of the employees

You’re nothing more than just another resource to them. Hence the name change of the Personnel Department to Human Resources.

 

[Anathema]

That does not filter up the line to the powers that be who call the shots. What they see is 50 year olds who have been with the company 20+ years making all kinds of money doing a job that a recent college grad could do (in their minds) for half.

Thankfully most of our personnel decisions are made at relatively low leveks. I know my Supervisor and his Manager don’t want to lose anyone. I’m not sure the other guy would really go through with it (he’s 24 months from retirement), and I would pursue alternatives to leaving before doing so, but I’ve updated my resume and I’m ready to go if I have to.

 

[Mr Natural]

I know my Supervisor and his Manager don’t want to lose anyone.

Of course not! They’re ones who’ll suffer from the inexperience of the new (lower paid) people.

 

[Magnus]

We are 13 people in an office built for 50 in a building that holds 300 currently and is being renovated to hold roughly 500. They could actually benefit from not having us in the space we occupy

Agree. But most companies are locked into long-term leases. Even worse, they may own the building and which, with office space going a-begging, will only be able to be sold at a loss.

But, mainly, it is a lack of imagination by senior older execs. People have always come into an office space to work and that is all they know...

I see this more in companies that are in traditional industries. Not so much in technology. We, in tech, have always worked from home and so for us it is just working as usual.

Companies have to start re-thinking the workspace. Some suggestions -

• Instead of enforcing everyone to come in on a daily basis, make it more of a gathering place. So, teams can come in to meet maybe once or twice a month instead of every day.
• Instead of keeping the old traditional cubby holes - convert to office rooms that anyone (no matter their rank) can use. This way, if someone has a noisy house (kids, visiting relatives, etc), they can come in and work in a quiet zone.
• Keep the company fridge well-stocked! When I was young - I was always hungry. LOL
• With extra area, convert it to game rooms. Pool, ping-pong, Arcade games etc.
• Rent out extra rooms

Just a few suggestions. None of the above are radical. Many are already being done. All one needs is some imagination. Or, maybe, we need the new younger generation to become execs to stop the old way of working.

 

[Dont Taz Me Bro]

It's simple. Companies have paid for office space. They hate to see that go empty.

That may be part of it, but my company has actually started closing offices or consolidating floors / suites in the same building, giving the extra space back to the landlord, as our leases come up for renewal. Some of the smaller offices that had groups they determined were working just fine remotely, they decided to shut down altogether and allow them to continue the remote work and save money on real estate costs. Other locations we may have had four or five floors in the building and we consolidated down to two or three.

 

[Disir]

I’m wondering if others are experiencing similar issues at work…

I work in an operation/engineering support department for a major electric utility company here in the Northeast.

For the last two years we’ve been working from home. After we de-centralized in March of 2020, our department’s productivity and efficiency increased markedly. In the last month we have been forced to return to the office one day a week, which will increase to two days a week within the next month. They claim it won’t exceed that, but I have my doubts.

In the four weeks we’ve been back in the office part-time, department productivity and efficiency have dropped. Not quite to pre-pandemic levels, but we’re definitely not at full WFH efficiency anymore.

can anyone explain to me why a company would prefer to have us work less efficiently and productively? They claim it has to do with allowing for more efficient collaboration between groups, morale building, etc… None of that applies to us. I just don’t get it.

They AREN'T thinking or there is an ulterior motive where someone stands to profit some other way from that lack of productivity including outsourcing.

Technically, I am supposed to be working remotely. I still go in to the office but I am out in the field 90% of the time either way. We don't have what we need. It's not just us. Everything is in slow motion and stagnant.

What it has done is slow me down long enough to see some of the people I work for exactly for who they are. I will be leaving soon.

 

[BlackSand]

I’m wondering if others are experiencing similar issues at work…

I work in an operation/engineering support department for a major electric utility company here in the Northeast.

For the last two years we’ve been working from home. After we de-centralized in March of 2020, our department’s productivity and efficiency increased markedly. In the last month we have been forced to return to the office one day a week, which will increase to two days a week within the next month. They claim it won’t exceed that, but I have my doubts.

In the four weeks we’ve been back in the office part-time, department productivity and efficiency have dropped. Not quite to pre-pandemic levels, but we’re definitely not at full WFH efficiency anymore.

can anyone explain to me why a company would prefer to have us work less efficiently and productively? They claim it has to do with allowing for more efficient collaboration between groups, morale building, etc… None of that applies to us. I just don’t get it.

.

Working from home threatens job security for mid to upper level management in some cases.
It's not always an efficiency or production situation when it involves more structural concerns.

This is especially crucial in situations where people were promoted to management because they sucked at their previous position.

.​

 

[Anathema]

Agree. But most companies are locked into long-term leases. Even worse, they may own the building and which, with office space going a-begging, will only be able to be sold at a loss.

But, mainly, it is a lack of imagination by senior older execs. People have always come into an office space to work and that is all they know...

There’s only so much imagination they can employ. We’re in a “secure” building that only certain people have access to. I have multiple access control points to deal with between the street and my desk. Even basic access to the building is restricted, and access to certain areas of the building are restricted (by Federal regulation) beyond that.

This is what they get for not listening when they were told not to sell the former Corporate Headquarters/Control Center 15 years ago. They didn’t listen. Now they’re abandoning their “new” headquarters and trying to move those employees into the building they built just for the Control Centers.,