You seem to really be discounting the productivity gains of being in person. Yes, in some jobs - maybe if you're a writer or doing lots of solo work - you can be just as productive or more so working from home. I work in wealth management at a major bank and we're a team of 10 people. We have clients to whom we provide advice, financial …
You seem to really be discounting the productivity gains of being in person. Yes, in some jobs - maybe if you're a writer or doing lots of solo work - you can be just as productive or more so working from home. I work in wealth management at a major bank and we're a team of 10 people. We have clients to whom we provide advice, financial planning, administrative functions, etc. I can't tell you how much more productive we were in person - we could just easily shout out to one another in the office, or walk to someone's desk with a quick question. Now, everything is over email / internal IM / phone and it's the worst. It takes 2-3x as long to get tasks done, and it's draining. Myself and two other team members have come back to the office to sit together recently and we were shocked at how productive we were. Work was a breeze and we were actually "done" at 5pm. So yes - I'm not claiming there are spontaneous hallway gatherings happening, but I think people are not realizing that many types of jobs exist in the corporate world and some really are easier to do in person.
I completely get the point you are making. But if a product like Slack or Teams can't replace you asking questions over desks at the office, I feel it's more just a resistance to change and not the occupation itself. I believe that the inability to change that culture of shouting around the office or walking up to someone's desk is what has resulted in the reduction in production while remote, and not the "nature of the job".
Total opposite effect here on the front end website developer side. Driving into the office serves no function other than wasting gas, time and sanity. We get more done than ever this way and the ol' boss can't wait to micromanage everybody again, for whatever reason.
I agree with Stephanie. I lead a branch office of over 200 workers, and there is a big mix of jobs that are done well collaboratively (and more productively in person) and other jobs that can be done effectively in a distributed environment. I travel internationally every month (even during the pandemic), so I am used to working remotely and on-the-road, but easily recognized which parts of my job suffered because of a lack of personal contact as my travel was greatly reduced.
As a manager, I have noticed areas where productivity has fallen off and I have seen abuse (in some cases substantial) of the WFH conditions. So, I am struggling with to define a policy that will safeguard my company's interests. [In my younger days, I ran a small construction-like company with hourly workers - the rule was: you were paid 8 hours wages for holidays, but only if you worked on the scheduled workday before and after holiday.] Lets keep in mind, for most people, work is something they would not do if they didn't have to :] Companies pay a wage to have you do something your wouldn't otherwise do, and they have the right to ask you to do some of that at certain times and in certain places. That may create certain biases - and the companies that can manage to minimize that should fare better than others.
I thought this article had many interesting points of view, but didn't really give strong consideration to the challenges that managers must face. Managers seemed criticized if they were not "flexible" and "chill" or had not already learned how to judge value from non-present workers in the same way they have (for years) from present workers. Managers are people, too, and will have to discover reliable methods to evaluate things we used to be able to evaluate in person with our own eyes.
Please understand that different people might have a different job than you do. My industry and job is collaborative, there really isn’t the same type of deep concentration required as with other roles. It’s more administrative and we handle hundreds of small tasks a day (we don’t have projects). You’re painting everyone with a broad brush, I’m just trying to say that not everyone is more productive WFH.
You seem to really be discounting the productivity gains of being in person. Yes, in some jobs - maybe if you're a writer or doing lots of solo work - you can be just as productive or more so working from home. I work in wealth management at a major bank and we're a team of 10 people. We have clients to whom we provide advice, financial planning, administrative functions, etc. I can't tell you how much more productive we were in person - we could just easily shout out to one another in the office, or walk to someone's desk with a quick question. Now, everything is over email / internal IM / phone and it's the worst. It takes 2-3x as long to get tasks done, and it's draining. Myself and two other team members have come back to the office to sit together recently and we were shocked at how productive we were. Work was a breeze and we were actually "done" at 5pm. So yes - I'm not claiming there are spontaneous hallway gatherings happening, but I think people are not realizing that many types of jobs exist in the corporate world and some really are easier to do in person.
I completely get the point you are making. But if a product like Slack or Teams can't replace you asking questions over desks at the office, I feel it's more just a resistance to change and not the occupation itself. I believe that the inability to change that culture of shouting around the office or walking up to someone's desk is what has resulted in the reduction in production while remote, and not the "nature of the job".
Total opposite effect here on the front end website developer side. Driving into the office serves no function other than wasting gas, time and sanity. We get more done than ever this way and the ol' boss can't wait to micromanage everybody again, for whatever reason.
Yes, I think you’re proving my point that different jobs require different amounts of concentration and you feel the opposite way.
I agree with Stephanie. I lead a branch office of over 200 workers, and there is a big mix of jobs that are done well collaboratively (and more productively in person) and other jobs that can be done effectively in a distributed environment. I travel internationally every month (even during the pandemic), so I am used to working remotely and on-the-road, but easily recognized which parts of my job suffered because of a lack of personal contact as my travel was greatly reduced.
As a manager, I have noticed areas where productivity has fallen off and I have seen abuse (in some cases substantial) of the WFH conditions. So, I am struggling with to define a policy that will safeguard my company's interests. [In my younger days, I ran a small construction-like company with hourly workers - the rule was: you were paid 8 hours wages for holidays, but only if you worked on the scheduled workday before and after holiday.] Lets keep in mind, for most people, work is something they would not do if they didn't have to :] Companies pay a wage to have you do something your wouldn't otherwise do, and they have the right to ask you to do some of that at certain times and in certain places. That may create certain biases - and the companies that can manage to minimize that should fare better than others.
I thought this article had many interesting points of view, but didn't really give strong consideration to the challenges that managers must face. Managers seemed criticized if they were not "flexible" and "chill" or had not already learned how to judge value from non-present workers in the same way they have (for years) from present workers. Managers are people, too, and will have to discover reliable methods to evaluate things we used to be able to evaluate in person with our own eyes.
in other words, you were the people pissing everyone else off while they're trying to get work done without breaking concentration
Please understand that different people might have a different job than you do. My industry and job is collaborative, there really isn’t the same type of deep concentration required as with other roles. It’s more administrative and we handle hundreds of small tasks a day (we don’t have projects). You’re painting everyone with a broad brush, I’m just trying to say that not everyone is more productive WFH.