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But Anne how ever will we function as a workforce if we are not forced to attend a purely performative lunch-break baby shower or "employee appreciation" pizza party.

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Jun 13, 2021Liked by Anne Helen Petersen

This line from the Just Trust Me has me nodding my head, yep, yep:

"My body and soul are hungover, dehydrated and malnourished after this last decade of 2009 onward."

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My office currently has us coming back August 2nd. This time, it'll be 2 days in office (Monday and another day picked by our supervisors I guess), 3 days at home. I hope that lasts, honestly. Previously to COVID, we were doing 2 days a week at home which was a refreshing change from any of my other work environments. I have truly loved working from home this whole time. I don't feel isolated, I get more done, and I'm less stressed out. I'm not looking forward to commuting back into the city and eating at my desk again but beggars can't be choosers and all that.

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"(See especially: those working in education, academia, and non-profits)."

I felt so seen. I've worked in community nonprofits my whole career until the current job as staff in an academic institution, which I started the day they sent us home. Even from home it is a miserable, patriarchal and paternalistic, opaque structure, and I started looking for a way out the day they started hinting about requiring an on campus schedule (even though I'm not student facing). I'm considering not going back into nonprofits, but I haven't figured out how to effect that. Obviously I'm not alone - what commonality made you call out these three specifically?

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I would be more upset with my agency's 99% back to the office mandate if I didn't live walking distance from my job. I have chronic health issues so commuting an hour each way to my previous job wore out my body and I took all of my paid time off (sick, vacation, personal) as sick time. I'm someone who works better from home for lots of reasons, including that I am more productive at home because I don't have to overhear my co-workers parrot Fox News talking points all day. I could totally understand why BlPOC and LGBTQ workers would thrive better at home - they would face micro-aggressions and potentially be put on a pedestal as the "token".

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My office is currently claiming they are interested in hybrid, but trust me, it's a lie. MY unit (and almost no other units) will end up having to go back full time in person because we are unfortunately the public service unit, and even though we have managed just fine without in person as an option for over a year, they will be dying to "go back to normal" and "business as usual." They want full all day long in person service again, and that means we're effed. Once they declared that at least two people would have to be in the office every day--and I note we have five adult peon employees that that's referring to--I knew it was doomed. We've been known to have 3 out of 5 call in sick on one day, and what are they going to do when that happens, as it happens fairly frequently and has happened for half the week in the last few weeks? Are they gonna call someone who lives 1.5 hours away at 7 or 8 a.m. and tell them they have to come in after all? Multiple days a week? So you can NEVER know from day to day when you have to drop everything and run to the office? Hahahah, yeah right, it'll just be easier to force everyone to be here every day and "be flexible." Unfortunately, I had no job options before the pandemic--I spent a lot of years trying to get off public service team--and it's not going to be any better now.

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Good article, and in line with most other 'the office is changing' literature. But what if your work isn't in an office? Shift workers in retail, hospitality and manufacturing have had the opposite problem - too much flexibility in scheduling, all of it dictated by the needs or whims of the employer, creating just as much difficulty in meeting domestic or caregiving responsibilities as many office workers have faced. Some thoughts on how that work environment is evolving post-pandemic would be appreciated.

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Excellent article. When management asked for feedback on plans going forward, I basically told them there is no going back now that people have tasted flexibility. Get a plan that is comprehensive and fair to all or get left behind.

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Bloom worrying about the divergence between single men coming into the office and women with kids staying home is valid, but framing ignores single women and modern dads. Pre-covid, my teammate with the most kid-related WFM was a dad with a doctor wife.

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Interesting article. The best part was the prediction of the possible long-term disadvantages in regards to promotion for those employees who choose to stay home due to childcare or other needs. The author's use of the words "shitty" and "shit show" were distracting. That choice of vocabulary seemed immature and unprofessional in an otherwise admirable article.

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I really like how this article addresses the companies who do not trust their employees. I felt the same way when I read about the company that will make their employees work Tuesday through Thursday. It screamed distrust. If productivity has been the same or better while everyone was at home, why not leave it as is with the flexibility to come to the office? I also like how this points out the possibility, of people who come to the office more often than the rest, might get more opportunities because of management that sees productivity as coming into the office, no matter how much work is done.

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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.

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Forbidding people from going to the office every day makes no more sense than forbidding people from wearing more formal clothes than the standard, or forbidding people from taking less than X number of sick days per year. Frankly, it seems like Communist thinking to me - "forcing equality" by prohibiting what you believe will cause some to get ahead. Just like Red China. Why not just ditch capitalism entirely? You'd have just as much an argument for that on the basis of "forced equality".

In March 2020, we were promised that forced remote work would be TEMPORARY in order to "flatten the curve". If that promise is broken, then then next time there is any sort of crisis, I'm going to do everything in my power to fight change, because I won't believe anyone's promises that it won't be permanent.

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I work for an Oxfordshire UK based company where we have clearly been told there will never be any Hybrid or WFH model. This despite the entire office exceeding our numbers while WFH in the last 15 months. We as company have technology and staff that can work from anywhere in the world. However, the company did not engage with any staff to make this call and staff were left with no other option. The senior management team is very clear in this stance and refuses to buldge on this point when asked or requested to reconsider. 9 resignations have been submitted in the last 6 weeks and there a few more in the pipeline for a total office strength of 27 people. Lack of trust is the number one reason why the company is refusing to allow hybrid working models.

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If you ignore the identity politics that come out now and again, it's not a bad article. I think my company is doing a very reasonable job at coming out on the other side. No doubt there are opportunities in the current work environment to improve one's lot in the corporate jungle. I wish everyone the best in your quest to find a better way to pay the bills and put food on the table.

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EXCELLENT DESCRIPTIVE ARTICLE ANNE!!!!!!!

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