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guest_
· 2 years ago
· FIRST
I see two sides of the coin. It depends. It’s probably better for the worker and for the planet to not have so many people commuting. Some people can be waaay more productive working from home and it does tend to allow better work life balance. Most office jobs allow flexibility already in the office. Most professionals don’t need to worry about taking some time to talk to a coworker or get your and walk around a bit after sitting long term or grab a snack/drink etc. Talking to your kid can be no different than talking over your shoulder to the coworker at the next desk over about that big season finale or whatever. So I agree there. I also think that one of the major things companies dislike about work from home is something they can’t say- most people will feel more pressure at the office. When “quitting time” comes for a salaried worker, they’re more likely to stay longer hours- “I’m already here, might as well finish..” or “I don’t want to leave before the team/my boss- I guess…
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guest_
· 2 years ago
.. I’ll stay and do this task..” etc. they’re more likely to feel a pressure maybe to skip lunch or breaks or “work through.” To be clear I’m not saying people are more likely to “slack off” at home- I’m saying that in cases where it doesn’t make a critical difference like a routine take etc- most people of at the office will psychologically feel more pressured to not take the time they are rightfully and legally allowed to for themselves. For companies, this can add up to quite a bit of “free labor” that is lost. By the same token- many people are more likely to slack off at home. It becomes much harder for a manager to gauge wether your work load really is so heavy or wether you are padding time because you are distracted etc. it does become harder to collaborate in general. There are lots of tools that make it possible, but an employee can’t “run over” real quick to speak to someone about something or if someone doesn’t answer an email or answer through apps or phone- it’s…
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guest_
· 2 years ago
.. difficult to find out if they are legitimately busy or not. You can’t peel to see if the bosses door is open or not for example. You can’t go physically to their office or desk if they aren’t responding and see/ask what is up etc. there are all sorts of little “pocket cases” too- maybe some documents need a special printer or specific type and maybe 10 people need to use it but in the office there is one and that’s fine- but work from home you need ten or blah blah. Little things that add up. Security is a big thing too. Secure networks require VPN or special routers to access but that creates potentially thousands of possible vulnerabilities to the company data/network. Having remote access bring up all sorts of possible breaches to security or information that aren’t much of an issue in an office/lab etc. companies may have leases or have built new facilities and expected certain use but now that money is wasted of no one uses them- or some people may chose or even be required..
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Edited 2 years ago
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guest_
· 2 years ago
.. to work from the office (because their job can literally not be performed remotely) and that means that they can’t simply stop paying for a physical office. If the remote work set up allows/requires people to occasionally return to work- perhaps to use special equipment or for other practical reasons or just a whim- managing the office becomes a pain. One week they may have 6 people there and the next week 100 may be there. It makes scheduling things like cleaning and maintenance and supplies difficult. All sorts of little things.
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guest_
· 2 years ago
So I see two sides and I think both are somewhat valid to degrees and with caveats and exceptions If it is possible to work remote and there isn’t a decline in quality of work or failure to meet strategic goals etc- I think remote work should be allowed. At the same time just because it is theoretical possible to allow remote work doesn’t mean I think it should be universally allowed. There are also certain intangibles such as team work and culture that just as human nature tend to benefit from physical presence. Post pandemic it isn’t uncommon for people to have never met most or all of their colleagues. Video can help but not everyone is comfortable or agreeable to video calls. So… case by case. Sometimes work from home makes sense and can work, sometimes it can’t.
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funkmasterrex
· 2 years ago
salaried positions, especially if you a project manager, can really screw you over. I watched my mom when she worked for siruis XM (if you have a car w/ siruis XM, grats, that was prolly her)... spend hours upon hours dealing with like 3 different angles through email after work, up until 2-3 am in the morning... just to wake up at 8 and get to the office at 9. It's no wonder she's turned into such a stressed psychopath. Even in retirement she has habits that have formed through all that time that just can't be broken.
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guest_
· 2 years ago
I’m sorry they treated your mom like that, but agreed, very common- especially in locations with concepts like “exempt workers” and such where certain jobs can essentially be legally told to work basically unlimited hours with no additional compensation or recourse other than to quit. Salaried positions have their perks, and places like Apple and Google or some other companies are known for things like long hours or “chaining you to work,” but they’re also known for great pay and benefits, so everyone has to find what works for them. My pet peeve is that salary is supposed to be based on a schedule and additional hours are supposed to be “as required”- as an exception. So if you’re told a job is 50 hours most weeks and they work you 80 most weeks- you agreed to the pay based on an assumption you’d be working 50 hours and SOMETIMES 80, not the opposite. I would refuse a salary job or want ALOT of money- easily 2x the money to be “on call” vs. 40 hours.
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guest_
· 2 years ago
Of course the common tactic is to turn it around on the employee. I’m not saying it is never the employees fault, but if an employee legitimately is being given more work than can be completed, they’ll often still take any complaints or work logs showing “long hours” and use those to say: “if you aren’t completing your work within a standard work day, you have time management or performance issues…” This is especially true when a predatory company which routinely works employees long hours wants to get rid a worker who they otherwise can’t find justification. Instead of being a sign of poor management/culture or a sign of diligence, they’ll turn long hours into a performance issue. So even negotiating a raise on the principle: “you said 50 hours, I average 80, I want a bigger raise” can be turned around to give a smaller raise or deny a raise for poor performance. They can also use the “PIP,” performance improvement plan- PIPS can be a great tool to try and give employees a chance…
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guest_
· 2 years ago
.. to keep their job when they are underperforming, a “wake up call” and a an outline of what is expected- but very often they are used as a tool to avoid costs and liability in firing. Most PIP essentially boil down to a document that says the employee is doing poorly in whatever areas and will be evaluated over a period of X time. At the end, a review will be made and if it is decided they did not reach the desired performance, they’ll be let go. Most asp have some clause that says an employee can resign within the PIP period and will be given a certain severance pay and not treated as terminated. The PIP on the surface isn’t a bad thing when used sincerely- the employee has a chance to keep their job if they want to try. If they feel they aren’t reaching or able to reach the goals they can quit so that their employment record isn’t tarnished and they will receive some severance to help carry them to a new job. Pretty “employee friendly” on the surface…
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guest_
· 2 years ago
.. behind the scenes, in places where the company can face legal liability for a firing, the PIP mitigates that because there is clear documentation showing the decision wasn’t arbitrary and was performance based. If the employee elects to quit, it’s even harder to sue and there is less paperwork and cost than firing usually involves as well as less disruption. In a company where the demands being made are unreasonable but not blatantly so or illegally so, the person on the PIP is basically guaranteed to be fired- if your job is saying you have poor time management because you work 80 hours instead of 40- if you could do your work in 40 you probably would already. So I’m many cases the PIP is them telling you to quit and take the money and leave with a recommendation vs. get fired, get no money, and have it on record you were fired.
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guest_
· 2 years ago
So there are all sorts of shenanigans that go on and “fast ones” that can be pulled etc. that said it isn’t just salary jobs. In most of my commissioned jobs or jobs with bonuses I’ve had to document and watch the numbers like a Hawk. It’s not so uncommon for places to just flat out illegally screw you out of money, but they can also legally do it. Promised X commission or X bonus for X net profit or sales or whatever, and you make it and get a disappointing check? Well- accounting. If they account the money differently or game which period they count a metric in or so many things- you can miss your bonus. There are sooo many ways to block a person from making bonus and there is so much fine print most people don’t realize exists and can screw you in not fun ways. Even in hourly jobs there are ways to exploit or game employees. Keep an eye out and protect yourself as best you can. Sad truth is sometimes we really do “need” a job badly enough to have to March on and deal with the BS.
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funkmasterrex
· 2 years ago
Oh they took care of her pay-wise, she was about the only person that could do her job, and she stayed up late to communicate with the team in Japan. It's just... the habits she formed. Nothing is enjoyable around her, she constantly shouts when she's talking normally, she cannot simply focus on a movie... example, last night i asked a simple question about top gun maverick and somehow she turned it into talking about her friends husband going around the country in less than 30 seconds.
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guest_
· 2 years ago
Oh man. Yeah. It’s pretty crazy all the ways work impacts who we are over time, and often times we don’t realize it. Some of it can be that certain traits tend to already make certain types of people a good fit for certain jobs, but I think that more often, long term our work tends to affect is in life. A large number of professional adults will spend more time at work in their adult lives than anything other than perhaps sleeping or work related tasks and chores, so it makes sense.
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funkmasterrex
· 2 years ago
yep.
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