Return to office mandates in Tech Sector

[AllThingsTech]

What do you think of the impact of RTO mandates on productivity in the Tech Sector?

I believe DropBox are the latest in the series of companies to introduce such!

While I can’t speak for other professions, I feel like it’s difficult to accurately measure performance of software engineers as individual contributors - for example, while number of bugs fixed could be a measure of productivity, that doesn’t account for the complexity of the bugs.

Secondly, the CEO mandating RTO likely doesn’t have a comprehensive understanding of what’s required in technical roles given that the majority of CEOs are not technical themselves, or at the very least, not performing that particular role.

Also in my opinion there is no “one size fits all” approach. While there are exceptions for those with disabilities as legislation requires, the process for obtaining such accommodations can be cumbersome. As such, some, such as those who are neurodivergent, like myself, work much better from home, as social dynamics can be challenging. Many may also fear disclosure of such due to fears of discrimination, intentional or not. Furthermore, employers miss out on talent due to reasons such as neurodivergent, location, etc - many don’t have that flexibility to choose their location e.g. partners job etc.

On the contrary, there are concerns employers have which in my eyes are legitimate. Primarily, there is the concern that employees will waste business time or face distractions. However, can it truly be said that these distractions are worse than distractions within the office space with the constant coffee breaks, chit-chat etc?

The other concern is employees working multiple jobs. I realise this is common in councils and I feel this is probably not least due to poor productivity standards. I don’t believe this is as common in private sector jobs.

In my opinion we’re all different. Some are more productive in the office while others are more productive at home. I believe that accommodating preferences will reduce stigma of neurodivergence and enable all employees to be more productive.

What are your thoughts? I may have come across strong but of course I’m open to different viewpoints

 

[Hitcore]

You got me at "those who are neurodivergent".
If I could make a living remotely, heck, I would never leave the house. Unfortunately I work in a warehouse, and I can't really take a forklift truck back home with me.

Personal preference and situation aside, I think remote work is unavoidable, eventually. The world has automated exponentially, and physical attendence becomes less and less important when the job can be done from any computer from any location. Eventually working-from-home demands will catch up. It would also save a lot of traffic, energy, and thus money.

And you are right: there are certain stigmas on neurodivergence. I've been facing them myself. Online I may come off as sociable and well articulated, but in real life I struggle with expressing myself properly and being among people. To most I'm just "that quiet weird guy who fiddles with his hands a lot", even after explaining what I am dealing with.

I wish people would just let us do our work in peace, @AllThingsTech

That being said, if others feel better working at the office, then by all means, they should. Indeed, different people are built differently. We should all have the freedoms to do our tasks in our own ways.

 

[AllThingsTech]

You got me at "those who are neurodivergent".
If I could make a living remotely, heck, I would never leave the house. Unfortunately I work in a warehouse, and I can't really take a forklift truck back home with me.

Personal preference and situation aside, I think remote work is unavoidable, eventually. The world has automated exponentially, and physical attendence becomes less and less important when the job can be done from any computer from any location. Eventually working-from-home demands will catch up. It would also save a lot of traffic, energy, and thus money.

And you are right: there are certain stigmas on neurodivergence. I've been facing them myself. Online I may come off as sociable and well articulated, but in real life I struggle with expressing myself properly and being among people. To most I'm just "that quiet weird guy who fiddles with his hands a lot", even after explaining what I am dealing with.

I wish people would just let us do our work in peace, @AllThingsTech

That being said, if others feel better working at the office, then by all means, they should. Indeed, different people are built differently. We should all have the freedoms to do our tasks in our own ways.

I’m seen as disruptive in large group settings in person due to my auditory processing challenges. I suppose such groups are not suitable for me as it’s challenging to accommodate this. This is largely why I enjoy participating in online groups!

And yes, it’s a shame that CEOs are often forcing employees to the office without understanding requirements of the role. However, ever since COVID restrictions, as some employers realised working from home doesn’t necessarily decrease productivity (but may in fact improve it due to less chance of burnout due to reduced commutes), they realised that on the whole, remote working is beneficial due to costs of office space rentals saved.

 

[AllThingsTech]

I believe I came across an article in the past suggestive of RTO mandates being imposed in the hopes employees quit

Now I see Google mandating RTO whilst offering voluntary buyouts (as opposed to layoffs due to criticisms).

Google continues cost-cutting tactic of throwing cash at employees to leave

Some Google Search employees are being offered buyouts as part of a new program that Google calls its "Voluntary Exit Package," according to recent

www.androidheadlines.com

This further illustrates the plausible true reasons for RTO mandates in some companies.

 

[AllThingsTech]

OMG and guess what?!?!?!
DropBox CEO has now been super quick to go back on the RTO mandate:

Dropbox CEO slams return-to-office mandates, compares them to outdated malls and theaters

Speaking on an episode of Fortune's "Leadership Next" podcast, Houston said what most people have long thought: that returning to the office is a waste of time...

www.techspot.com

 

[AllThingsTech]

Would you guys prefer working from home or in the office?
Curious about thoughts
@Retro @Hitcore @Mars @Tiffany @Astro What
@Geffers @data66 @petermarkley
Of course anyone else is welcome but just tagging the members I know are most active here

 

[Astro What]

Neither. I enjoy being retired.
But in affect, since I run sites (but no income from them) and do outreach I guess you could say I "work from home".
During a large portion of my career my "office" was mounted on 4 wheels and had red and blue lights mounted on it.

 

[AllThingsTech]

Neither. I enjoy being retired.
But in affect, since I run sites (but no income from them) and do outreach I guess you could say I "work from home".
During a large portion of my career my "office" was mounted on 4 wheels and had red and blue lights mounted on it.

Ah you were driving for a career? Cool!

 

[Astro What]

Ah you were driving for a career? Cool!

For about 1/2 my working career. Got out of it after shooting someone and transferred into IT, which had been a long time hobby for me with my computer playing and running a multi-node FidoNet BBS.

 

[AllThingsTech]

For about 1/2 my working career. Got out of it after shooting someone and transferred into IT, which had been a long time hobby for me with my computer playing and running a multi-node FidoNet BBS.

I love how you mention that you shot someone so casually

Did you work from home when working in IT? What’d you have preferred - home or office?

 

[Astro What]

I love how you mention that you shot someone so casually

Did you work from home when working in IT? What’d you have preferred - home or office?

As an LEO, it is a known part of the job. If you can't deal with that aspect, it's better that you find another field of endeavor. Pulling the trigger on a sack of shit is part of the job. I have no issues with discussing it. I was fully justified and have no need to "excuse" myself.

Unluckily I did not pull the trigger quick enough (due to lag time between seeing a gun coming out of a pocket, making sure the headshot was centered and then pulling the trigger) and then the round impacting her boyfriends watch and being diverted from hitting the SOS in the back of the head - where the spine meets the brain. Sadly, the drunk boyfriend's watch ended up deflecting the round since the other piss-poor officers on the scene could not keep control and keep him out of the scene (one of the reasons I left the department).
If that had not happened... he would be dead, the schoolmate (that I found out later died) would have lived and the kids would have a living mother and not a sad sack jealous shit of a father that lived (but did later died from medical issues). But life does go on. You do what you can and accept the consequences if everything does not work out as you might have wished.

As for my IT period... nope, it was in office... I was pretty much a jack of all trades. Setting up servers, routers, running fiber and CAT5 cabling and terminating it, maintaining the servers and the integration with the AS/400.... honestly.. for what that cities salary was, they got WELL more than their monies worth as a LOT of work that would normally have been contracted out was done internally by me since I was an over-achiever. When I left, they had to hire an outside contractor at $180,000 a year to do what I was doing for $65,000. Part of the reason I left was I realized they were severely underpaying me - and I was eligible for retirement.

 

[Retro]

Pulling the trigger on a sack of shit is part of the job.

I'd love doing that bit. One more bit of trash gone, never to hurt anyone again - do-gooders be damned.

Re the IT jobe, unfortunately, being undervalued and underpaid in a job is quite common.

 

[AllThingsTech]

Re the IT jobe, unfortunately, being undervalued and underpaid in a job is quite common.

Yeah it is common to be underpaid unfortunately, given that despite it requiring niche skills, there is an abundance of qualified candidates. However, this does depend on the specific skillset required for the role e.g. there’s an excess of web developers, yet a shortage of cyber-security researchers and quantitative developers.

In addition, job hunting is mandatory to be compensated fairly in the IT fields, else employers will take the piss! No, loyalty is not rewarded this days

 

[AllThingsTech]

As an LEO, it is a known part of the job. If you can't deal with that aspect, it's better that you find another field of endeavor. Pulling the trigger on a sack of shit is part of the job. I have no issues with discussing it. I was fully justified and have no need to "excuse" myself.

Unluckily I did not pull the trigger quick enough (due to lag time between seeing a gun coming out of a pocket, making sure the headshot was centered and then pulling the trigger) and then the round impacting her boyfriends watch and being diverted from hitting the SOS in the back of the head - where the spine meets the brain. Sadly, the drunk boyfriend's watch ended up deflecting the round since the other piss-poor officers on the scene could not keep control and keep him out of the scene (one of the reasons I left the department).
If that had not happened... he would be dead, the schoolmate (that I found out later died) would have lived and the kids would have a living mother and not a sad sack jealous shit of a father that lived (but did later died from medical issues). But life does go on. You do what you can and accept the consequences if everything does not work out as you might have wished.

My apologies, I’m struggling to process this despite reading your post many times over. Note that I have processing challenges, so not a criticsm of you or anything

To summarise, my understanding is that it’s satisfying when you successfully shoot a bad arse, yet devastating when you shoot an innocent citizen! Personally I could never do your job - I’d find it super stressful! @Astro What what’s your view on rights of gun ownership? While I’m against it as it could prevent many shootings, it’s not feasible to prohibit ownership of guns at this point because a) Ownership of guns is already common enough that eradication will be extremely difficult, if not impossible and b) The good lads would be disadvantaged if they comply with the law given they need guns to defend themselves from the bad guys!

As for my IT period... nope, it was in office... I was pretty much a jack of all trades. Setting up servers, routers, running fiber and CAT5 cabling and terminating it, maintaining the servers and the integration with the AS/400.... honestly.. for what that cities salary was, they got WELL more than their monies worth as a LOT of work that would normally have been contracted out was done internally by me since I was an over-achiever. When I left, they had to hire an outside contractor at $180,000 a year to do what I was doing for $65,000. Part of the reason I left was I realized they were severely underpaying me - and I was eligible for retirement.

If you had the choice, would you have worked remotely, in the office or hybrid? Also, what’s your preference @Retro ?

 

[Retro]

I'd rather not say.

 

[AllThingsTech]

I'd rather not say.

Respect
Well, what are your views on US gun laws? Are you open to discussing such?

 

[Retro]

We can talk about gun laws ok. I think with a lot of things in life, it's a grey area, very grey indeed. As you say, since it's so entrenched into the US, attempting to get rid of them won't work and will only empower the villains who will have a huge advantage over the honest person with their illegal guns. I think they should tighten the laws and processes to help prevent unhinged maniacs from buying guns, the type who machine gun schools full of little kids and teachers at random for no reason, that shit. There's also been talk of restricting sales of machine guns as their killing power is too great in the wake of these rather too regular attacks, but I don't know what the latest is on this.

I don't really know what to suggest for a solution to this and I don't follow the issue, but know that Obama and Biden were trying to tackle the problem, so perhaps have a Google to see what they did.

 

[Tiffany]

I believe remote work depends on the type of business, the company, what is best suitable for staff, and culture.

 

[AllThingsTech]

We can talk about gun laws ok. I think with a lot of things in life, it's a grey area, very grey indeed. As you say, since it's so entrenched into the US, attempting to get rid of them won't work and will only empower the villains who will have a huge advantage over the honest person with their illegal guns. I think they should tighten the laws and processes to help prevent unhinged maniacs from buying guns, the type who machine gun schools full of little kids and teachers at random for no reason, that shit. There's also been talk of restricting sales of machine guns as their killing power is too great in the wake of these rather too regular attacks, but I don't know what the latest is on this.

I don't really know what to suggest for a solution to this and I don't follow the issue, but know that Obama and Biden were trying to tackle the problem, so perhaps have a Google to see what they did.

Ah yes good one!

Psychological assessments should definitely be conducted with checks made for diagnosis, of course without discrimination with consideration given to mental capacity. An assessment of reasoning and understanding of risk should be made for everyone purchasing a gun too. Furthermore, for parents, a safeguarding assessment should be conducted given past cases of children gaining access to guns owned by a parent. Moreover, perhaps training should be incorporated into the gun purchase process.

 

[Retro]

Those are good points there, especially the mental capacity and training ones.

 

[AllThingsTech]

Those are good points there, especially the mental capacity and training ones.

Wish we had a fistbump reaction!

 

[Retro]

Agreed and I'd like to add more of these if I ever get around to it, so perhaps put that in the Feedback section and I might add it one day, but please read the posting guidelines first for the full picture.

Feedback

Your suggestions for improving the site.

nerdzone.uk

EDIT: Oh darn it, you've already done it!

 

[AllThingsTech]

EDIT: Oh darn it, you've already done it!

Your post is @Retro, taking us back to @Retro tines