LogFAQs > #973347335

Uglyface2 posted...

When you can work well remotely then that should be an option. The lockdowns showed that it can work in some circumstances.

This is the most enraging part - it proved the vast majority of jobs could be done 100% from home, my job included, yet all the companies are rolling back their WFH policies to "hybrid" approaches which is such a joke. And you can chalk it up to any number of excuses be it old-school presenteeism, of wanting to use office space, or just a herd mentality (or literal inter-company collusion?) of major corps all enforcing hybrid policies so nobody has the "leader advantage" of being remote. Honestly I wonder if there's municipal government pressure to have companies enforcing in-office policies due to downtown businesses suffering from reduced office worker foot traffic.

I checked LinkedIn openings the other day, where jobs are listed as either "on-site, "hybrid" or "remote" and the vast vast majority are hybrid, 2 or 3 days a week. I think I saw more that were straight-up "on-site" than "remote" too, and the remote ones were for smaller companies many of which I had never heard of. I can't think of any major Canadian corporations which still have a "you can work 100% remote" policy other than Sun Life. All the big banks and telecoms are forcing hybrid policies, governments too (was a major sticking point in PSAC's recent strike).

And when my company put out their return to office communication the rationale was the most b.s. corporatespeak possible, it was something like "people being in the office will energize us producing better results" or something. And all I'm thinking is, were you embarrassed when you wrote that? Are other employees embarrassed when they read that or is it just me? What a fucking joke.

Anyways, my hope is that 100% remote or "remote first" working arrangements do come back in vogue in time. If office space/existing building leases is part of the equation, then maybe it's just a matter of running out the clock on those contracts and then divesting of it. For roles that aren't structured to be in-person, who actually wants to go through commuting time and other expenses of going into the office, the absolute time wastage? Social people and extroverts? Of which CEOs and leadership teams are comprised close to 100% of, which is probably why we have this dumb hybrid problem.