Culture The Productivity Problem With Remote Work

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The Productivity Problem With Remote Work​

The debates about remote work, hybrid work and in-office work are (still) raging—and they mostly center around productivity, performance and employee motivation.

A quintessential new example of the discussion is the press generated when the CEO of Zoom ordered employees back to the office. What could be more telling than the leader of a company who was arguably one of the biggest benefactors of the remote work phenomenon wanting people back in the office?

There are certainly advantages to remote work and hybrid work as well—but a new study by Stanford University also points to problems. Namely that productivity drops with remote work. The data is compelling.

New Ways of Working Are Here to Stay​

New ways of working are certainly here to stay, and they have been on the rise since before the pandemic. The report from Stanford University found rates of working remotely have doubled every 15 years, and researchers Barrero, Bloom and Davis expect the increase to continue at even faster rates.

The Stanford report also found 60% of workers are at the workplace full time—and they tend to be the lowest paid—often doing retail, food service, travel or security-type jobs. Hybrid workers make up about 30% of employees and they are typically the highest paid and work in the office two or three days per week (usually Tuesday to Thursday). Fully remote workers make up the smallest proportion of employees at just over 10%.

Similarly, a poll by AtlassianTEAM found that 71% of knowledge workers were remote at least once a week, and 82% worked for companies who expected them to be in the office at least some of their time.

Education is the most important factor in whether people have the option to work from home—with greater levels correlating with more flexibility to work from home. Men and women tend to work remotely in approximately equal amounts, although women report greater desire to work from home. Employees in their 30s and 40s are also most likely to work from home—compared with other age groups. And those with young children are also more likely to work from home.

The Problems with Productivity​

But are employees who work away from the office as productive?

Perception is a problem, and the Stanford report found workers thought productivity was higher at home (about 7% higher) while managers thought it was lower (about 3.5% lower). And according to the Atlassian poll, 10% of people believe they will be viewed as less productive or lacking in commitment if they work from home.

The bottom line, regardless of perceptions: The Stanford analysis across multiple studies found a 10% to 20% reduction in productivity, depending on the nature of the research and its conditions.

Just as there have been many reserach efforts examining productivity, there are also many explanations for why productivity is reduced with remote work. According to the Stanford paper, these include challenges in communicating and coordinating work; degradation of communication networks and reduction of new connections; reduced creativity partly because of multi-tasking, rather than being fully focused in person together; and a reduction in learning, mentoring and feedback.

Another significant reason for reduced productivity with remote work is related to discipline and self-control. Data from by Upgraded Points found when people work remote, they spend time in front of their screen in non-work activities such as scrolling social media (75% of people), shopping online (70%), watching shows or movies (53%) and planning trips (32%).

They also spend time away from their computer doing things like household chores (72%), errands (37%), napping (22%), going to the doctor (23%) or drinking (12%). Some people (13%) report they work only three or four hours per day when they are remote, according to data from Upgraded Points.

What People Say​

Ironically, despite reporting distraction and time spent on non-work activities, some people say they are adequately productive at home. This is demonstrated in multiple polls.

• 63% of women and 55% of men say they are productive working from home, according to the data from Upgraded Points.
• 51% of employees said that working asynchronously or setting their own schedule contributed to their productivity according to a poll by Mmhmm.
• 43% of people feel most productive working in the office and 42% feel most productive working from home, also based on data from mmhmm.

On the other hand, some employees feel better about their productivity when they’re in the office, with those onsite reporting they are 11% more likely to feel productive on busy days, compared with other workers. And remote employees saying they are 33% less likely to feel productive working collaboratively compared with onsite or hybrid employees, based on data from Deputy.

And interestingly, the largest group of workers in the country—government employees who make up 15% of the national workforce—report that a majority of work is done best in-person. Examples include new project kickoffs (71%), getting a project back on track (70%), meetings (62%), brainstorming (58%), classified work (61%) and IT support (58%).

Consider Engagement, Happiness and Esteem​

So even while the research report from Stanford points to reduced productivity, workers have mixed perspectives about how productive they actually are—and where their best work gets done.

Perhaps most significant is that when people are productive, they tend to be happier, more engaged, more satisfied and more likely to stay with their company. Performance and the opportunity to make a contribution are also significantly correlated with happiness which is in turn linked with better outcomes for people and companies.

In fact, when people were productive, they were more likely to be very satisfied with their work, according to a poll by ClickUp. And when people were asked why they stay with an employer, for 34% of them, job satisfaction was their primary reason, according to data from B2B Reviews.

Create the Conditions for Productivity​

Employers can create the conditions for productivity by aligning work with skill levels, by giving people meaningful work, by providing the opportunities for growth and stretch and by hiring and developing leaders who can motivate and give feedback.

Organizations can also enhance productivity by building strong teams with rewarding relationships, by ensuring equity and inclusion and by providing fair pay and benefits. All of these require intention and focus—and all of them pay off in terms of employee engagement, motivation, retention and yes—productivity as well.

People want to do great work. They don’t want work to be the only thing in life, and don’t want work to be the central feature of their lives—but work is a positive source of meaning. Through doing productive work, people express their talents, and they contribute to their colleagues, companies and communities. All of these suggest a bright future—if we can create the conditions for productivity no matter where people are working.

 

[Don't Tread on Me]

classified work (61%)

39% of government employees do not believe classified work is best done in-person. What the fuck?

 

[Otterly]

You can divide office drones into those who will slack at any opportunity and those who can motivate themselves and get stuff done.
The latter will get it done in the office or at home. The former will slack in the office too and do nothing at home. Everyone gets punished for them.
Some jobs need you to be there. Others don’t. My line of work needs to be in contact with people who are geographically all over and it doesn’t matter most of the time where we are to do it. When it does, we get together.
But if you think I will ever willingly work in an open plan office or lab again, you’ve got another thing coming. It’s hell. The gossip, the constant noise and distraction and people talking. Office politics, office bitching, endless tedious chit chat. Hot desking. Hideous toilets. Terrible tea. Commuting. Desks that leave you with your back to a big open room. Horrid.

 

[Watcher]

A journo discusses the obvious that nobody who relies on remote work wants to talk about. Of course people say they are productive at work because they don't want the golden goose to go away. Self reporting this question is worthless people will streeeetch the truth if it means they don't have to go back to the office. In many instances they have a clear financial reason since they actually moved far away from the office or obtained dogs during the pandemic they need to walk regularly. Of course when asked "Do you want to upend your life or always work in your Pajamas" people will always side with the option that keeps them in the latter.

Remote work will eventually be reduced to very niche industries for major reasons but the biggest being it dramatically lowers productivity at these companies and eventually reduces the economy in a measurable degree as a result. I could even see the Federal Govt imposing regulations on it to try and boost the economy. It also depresses a lot of economic sectors like real estate.

Another factor that isn't often discussed is it causes employees to be less loyal and less engaged with a company. When you go into an office you meet the other employees and socialize with them. It encourages productivity and developing the company further. When the only difference between working at Microsoft or Amazon is what UI appears on your screen it causes people to job hop more and reduces innovation. A big reason why the offices at these places are more akin to palaces than workspaces is to try and encourage employees to stay at the company and not job hop for that reason.

 

[Vic Viper T301]

When the job I had a couple years ago went remote, my numbers went up because it turned out I was more productive when not being micro managed and constantly distracted by my cunt of a boss.

 

[GunCar Gary]

Another factor that isn't often discussed is it causes employees to be less loyal and less engaged with a company. When you go into an office you meet the other employees and socialize with them. It encourages productivity and developing the company further.

if i lost my remote job now i would not join another company that required in-person work. if all companies shuttered their remote positions i would turn to consulting and run my own business even if it cost me money. the pandemic taught me that i can do more with less, and i have continued going down that path since 2020

i do not have loyalty for any company. i do not want to "engage" with other employees. i want to do my work and get paid. that's it

the hate towards remote work is not because of productivity loss, it's because of middle managers who only maintain their position by bothering employees who are doing their job just fine without them. also, like you mentioned, bughivers who are finding out if people aren't forced to be live in cramped cities for jobs they won't

 

[bliblblblbbllb]

With how many people desperately want remote jobs, can't they just hire people in a probation period, then fire them if they're not hitting strict productivity goals, and pick the next guy in line?
I know there's all sorts of strategies like using mouse-jigglers to fake activity, but I'm not talking "time spent looking at screen", I'm talking actual tangible results.

I definitely see a splint in people who want remote work between the people "worth their salt" who basically say as @GunCar Gary said, they work fine with no middle management and get it done and the entire company is a bit of a waste, they can do the work solo even. And the other half is people who want to do as little work as possible and are a blight on the world, but feel they're morally in the ok because they work for Microsoft. Those are the people that hope they can just buy a mouse-jiggler and pray no one will notice while they collect paychecks.

 

[Criticallacitirc]

They're really cranking out the "remote work is bad" propaganda after gaslighting us for two years that there were no productivity issues.

 

[Jean ValJean]

"Perception is a problem, and the Stanford report found workers thought productivity was higher at home (about 7% higher) while managers thought it was lower (about 3.5% lower). And according to the Atlassian poll, 10% of people believe they will be viewed as less productive or lacking in commitment if they work from home."

Big fucking surprise. If they can't see you working, you must not be working.

Just like every other corporate fad that comes and goes, when one company does it (make everybody go back to the office) the others will follow.

 

[Watcher]

i do not have loyalty for any company. i do not want to "engage" with other employees. i want to do my work and get paid. that's it

the hate towards remote work is not because of productivity loss, it's because of middle managers who only maintain their position by bothering employees who are doing their job just fine without them. also, like you mentioned, bughivers who are finding out if people aren't forced to be live in cramped cities for jobs they won't

The attitude "i do not have loyalty for any company. i do not want to "engage" with other employees. i want to do my work and get paid. that's it" leads to less productivity and less innovation. When someone has such an apathetic attitude it's much less likely you'd do something like develop a system that improves labor or suggest a superior product idea to better the company.

Innovation/productivity is a somewhat precious thing and you can only look at how employees act in less developed countries like India to see what happens when it's not there.

 

[MrJokerRager]

if i lost my remote job now i would not join another company that required in-person work. if all companies shuttered their remote positions i would turn to consulting and run my own business even if it cost me money. the pandemic taught me that i can do more with less, and i have continued going down that path since 2020

i do not have loyalty for any company. i do not want to "engage" with other employees. i want to do my work and get paid. that's it

the hate towards remote work is not because of productivity loss, it's because of middle managers who only maintain their position by bothering employees who are doing their job just fine without them. also, like you mentioned, bughivers who are finding out if people aren't forced to be live in cramped cities for jobs they won't

Don't forget the long commute and that almost every city in America is a crime ridden niglet infested shithole.

You would think the mainstream Republicans would encourage more of this, but they are beholden to Mr. Shekelstein as well and worry about subway funding while doing nothing to stop the crime.

 

[GunCar Gary]

The attitude "i do not have loyalty for any company. i do not want to "engage" with other employees. i want to do my work and get paid. that's it" leads to less productivity and less innovation. When someone has such an apathetic attitude it's much less likely you'd do something like develop a system that improves labor or suggest a superior product idea to better the company.

Innovation/productivity is a somewhat precious thing and you can only look at how employees act in less developed countries like India to see what happens when it's not there.

for me personally in the last few years i've never gotten more done or learned more new things...but on a personal level, not a company level. i'd argue that innovation/productivity for american people is doing just fine, but they're using their time for things other than toiling away at the corporate ladder. that effort is turning inwards, towards their families and their local communities

my goal in life is to move away from entities beholden to ESG loans and fat dangerhair HR harpies with community college degrees. as long as companies are willing to let me siphon money to my local community i'm fine for working with them, but once they want me to live in crime-ridden shitholes i'm out. i don't think i'm alone in that sentiment. and while that might make it look like america is falling apart, in reality it's that cities are actively pushing out the kind of people who upkeep polite society (who happen to be the same kind of people who are responsible enough to get work done from home)

the laptop caste going all-in on covid hysteria opened pandora's box and now there's no going back

 

[MrJokerRager]

The attitude "i do not have loyalty for any company. i do not want to "engage" with other employees. i want to do my work and get paid. that's it" leads to less productivity and less innovation. When someone has such an apathetic attitude it's much less likely you'd do something like develop a system that improves labor or suggest a superior product idea to better the company.

Innovation/productivity is a somewhat precious thing and you can only look at how employees act in less developed countries like India to see what happens when it's not there.

India is a shithole that doesn't encourage creativity as part of their culture.

Though they are slightly better than China, their culture is all about screwing others to become the boss or end up broke in the slums.

They're really cranking out the "remote work is bad" propaganda after gaslighting us for two years that there were no productivity issues.

Leave it to the shitlibs to protect remote work, in the most retarded manner.

Remote work gave them a reprieve from racism. They don’t want to go back (Archive)

As LeRon Barton weighed his options, he realized what he had to do.

If he took a pay cut of $5,000, he could have a fully remote tech job that would let him roam the country and give him the flexibility he craved. Or he could keep his salary and stay at his current job — a network engineer position based at a San Francisco hospital that required occasional site visits and kept him tethered to the region.

Patients at the hospital sometimes gave him funny looks when he came to check their room’s Wi-Fi, recalled Barton, who is Black, and staff members questioned his competence. Working remotely during the pandemic showed him a whole different lifestyle: no commute, more time with his family and a break from the onslaught of microaggressions and other racist behavior he’d had to endure.

Barton chose the pay cut.

“You’re totally out of the rigamarole,” said Barton, who is now a writer and technical project manager at a Southern California tech company. “And just the quality of life has improved drastically.”

It’s a sentiment expressed by many Black workers and other people of color who found that remote work lessened the racism they faced on the job.

But it forces workers to make a difficult choice — prioritize your mental health or endure for the sake of your career. Remote job opportunities are shrinking as more companies require that workers come back to the office. And even in hybrid workplaces, remote employees can be at a disadvantage for career advancement since managers sometimes forget about them or assume they are less productive than their in-person peers, a concept called proximity bias.

“Jobs are built on social capital. We could miss out on those happy hour opportunities,” Barton said. But he’s willing to sacrifice the in-office networking. “Honestly,” he said, “I would trade that in for my peace of mind.”

Throughout the pandemic, survey after survey showed what some workers of color have known for years: Workplace politics and discrimination can make the office an undesirable place to be.

In 2021, just 3% of Black white-collar “knowledge workers” wanted to return to full-time in-office work, compared with 21% of white ones, according to research from Future Forum, a project backed by instant messaging firm Slack. The research found that hybrid or remote work arrangements increased Black workers’ feelings of belonging at work and boosted their ability to manage stress.

Part of the push for remote work can be explained by the preferences of millennial and younger workers, who want the freedom to choose where they do their jobs, said LaTonya Wilkins, founder and chief executive of Change Coaches, a leadership development firm focused on workplace culture.

But how supervisors evaluate workers is also a factor.

Career coach Jermaine L. Murray said many of his clients, relatives and friends have expressed their reluctance to return to the office. Clients of all races have told him they prefer remote work, but his Black clients have more frequently emphasized that continuing to work from home allowed them to avoid office politics.

“It almost felt like the distance allowed for a more objective environment,” said Murray, founder of JupiterHR, which provides career development services.

With remote work, the data confirm whether workers are getting their jobs done, and there’s less room for co-workers to take undeserved credit since there are fewer opportunities to socialize on the job, he said. Clients whose companies are switching to hybrid work are looking for other jobs, Murray said. And because of the sluggish economy and cooling labor market, he said, they’re “quiet quitting” their current positions rather than leaving immediately.

Opportunities for remote-only jobs, however, are starting to shrink.

In April, about 11% of U.S. job postings on LinkedIn were for remote work, down from a peak of nearly 21% in March 2022, according to a May report from LinkedIn. Such jobs were in high demand: Nearly half of job applications via the website in April were for fully remote positions, and only one-third were for jobs without remote or hybrid options.

“Professionals that have the opportunity to be in these remote environments and not experience microaggressions at work or not do as much code-switching or all of those things have now said, ‘Oh, that was great for my mental health’ or, ‘It helped me be a little more authentic at work,’” said Andrew McCaskill, a career expert with LinkedIn. “And a lot of employees and workers just don’t want to give that up.”

For one 35-year-old paralegal from the Midwest, remote work is now a must.

“As a Black employee and someone who is neurodivergent, it’s just better for me,” said the paralegal, who asked that their name and gender not be published for fear of harming future employment opportunities. “I’m able to be more productive. I’m able to focus better. I get so much more work done here in my own space where I’m able to be who I am and think.”

Previous jobs often involved being the only Black worker in the office and being judged based on social interactions, the paralegal said.

If the paralegal was quiet and focused only on work, managers said to stop being antisocial and hard to approach. On bubbly or chatty days, the paralegal was admonished for not doing enough work. If the paralegal participated in a passionate conversation around the water cooler, criticism would soon follow: Don’t be so aggressive.

“There’s never really a happy medium,” the paralegal said. With remote work, however, those problems are eliminated, and the paralegal can focus solely on getting the job done.

Management experts argue that remote work opportunities have implications far beyond individual work experiences and affect corporate culture as a whole.

Eliminating remote options can also hurt companies’ ability to recruit a diverse workforce. With remote positions, companies can hire people living in geographic areas that are more diverse than the communities around their headquarters.

“Companies have to recognize that if they really want to meet their commitments to diversity and inclusion, one of the best levers they can pull for that is remote work,” said McCaskill of LinkedIn.

Employers considering a return-to-office mandate should make sure they are giving workers a reason to be in the office, which can make in-person work more purposeful and give fewer opportunities for microaggressions, said Wilkins, the Change Coaches CEO.

In a hybrid situation, managers need to make sure employees working remotely are not left out or inadvertently penalized by proximity bias, she said. Part of that could include creating opportunities for employees to get exposure and recognition for their work even if they are remote and destigmatizing mental health support, management experts said.

As senior director of talent strategy at UC Irvine, Kimberly D. Jones made sure to have candid conversations with employees about their concerns regarding a return to the office. One employee shared experiences with her that predated Jones’ arrival at the department and explained how those situations contributed to their anxiety about being at work.

Jones said she addressed the issue with the employee and the leadership team and now checks in with that employee regularly to make sure they feel comfortable at work. She also makes a point to walk through the work space and greet everyone in the morning, in part to get a sense of the office dynamics and in part to make herself available to any employees who might have concerns.

“You have a responsibility as a leader to create an environment where everyone feels welcome and can be successful,” Jones said.

Women of color especially face difficult situations at work.

Professor Joan C. Williams and her collaborators have built a database of more than 18,000 people as they research the intersection of racial and gender bias in white-collar professions. In almost every dataset she’s seen, women of color report the most bias and the least workplace fairness, she said.

Particularly telling is a survey question that asks respondents whether they have access to career-enhancing work. Nearly 90% of white men say yes; for women of color, that percentage sinks as low as 50%.

“No matter what industry they work, no matter what company … it’s unbelievably consistent,” said Williams, who is a professor at University of California College of the Law, San Francisco, and founding director of the university’s Center for WorkLife Law.

Structural engineer Rapunzel Amador-Lewis has gotten used to being one of very few women, much less women of color, at her workplaces.

She remembers being told by a well-meaning male mentor at her first job that as a female engineer, she’d have to “run 110 yards to score a touchdown.” After men at work sites called her “honey” and assumed she was there to deal with office matters rather than inspect their work, she started bringing along a male co-worker — and although that cut down on harassment, the men sometimes assumed her co-worker was the engineer, not her. Her confidence in her skills and abilities was misinterpreted as arrogance and documented as such in a performance review.

“I have never had a woman engineer to report directly to,” said Amador-Lewis, who immigrated to the San Francisco Bay Area from the Philippines as a child in 1985. “I’ve had peers, one or two peers every now and then, but I’ve never had a mentor, a female mentor, especially not a woman of color mentor.”

Eventually, Amador-Lewis started her own consulting firm and began working from home to better balance her personal and work lives. It took a lot of effort, but she relished being her own boss, she said. She later went back to corporate staff roles at engineering firms but said she left her last job over negotiations to add more remote days to her schedule and resistance to changes she wanted to make to the corporate culture, dynamics and inclusion in the workplace.

Would she ever go back to in-person work? She doesn’t love the idea.

“If I find enlightenment somewhere,” Amador-Lewis said with a laugh. She is currently taking a sabbatical and embarked on a 107-day cruise around the world with her husband while figuring out her next steps.

Maybe she’d accept a hybrid schedule, she said. After all, remote work allows her to take care of the chronic migraines she’s suffered since 2013 and helps her balance her caregiving responsibilities for her husband, who has had seizures. “I would never 100% do in-office again.”

Barton, the technical project manager, is also adamant about the benefit of remote work. Despite the shrinking pool of remote job opportunities and the possibility for remote positions to come with smaller salaries, he knows what’s most important to him.

“What do you value?” he said. “Do you value your sanctity or do you value the dollar?”

 

[Fruttasecca]

I believe that any job you can wfh is a bullshit make work job that will be sawed off in the coming recession.
You cant have functioning company, you cant have a team of engineers or scientists or directors sit at home and share stuff over email. Its just not possible. Would you fly in a plane designed by people who wfh??? Do you want the pathologist to diagnose you over a zoom call?
Of course you dont have to be physically available 24/7 either , but you need some physical location where real people can meet and work together on a joint effort, because otherwise there isnt any serious production happening and without that there isnt an economy.

wfh is a part of the wider competency crisis

 

[Doseferatu]

The attitude "i do not have loyalty for any company. i do not want to "engage" with other employees. i want to do my work and get paid. that's it" leads to less productivity and less innovation. When someone has such an apathetic attitude it's much less likely you'd do something like develop a system that improves labor or suggest a superior product idea to better the company.

Innovation/productivity is a somewhat precious thing and you can only look at how employees act in less developed countries like India to see what happens when it's not there.

I have a female family member who works better when she's not being constantly harassed by coworkers. She has the same exact mentaltiy as "I want to do my work and get paid" and she does not want to socialize with her coworkers. To date, I have yet to see anyone match or exceed her output and quality of work. She knows more than any of her supervisors. She has had over thirty years of experience in her field, and she loves doing it. The best part is that she's entirely self-taught. She is incredibly sharp and a masterful problem-solver. She has been working (in some form or another) since she was collecting trash off of a resort when she was 3.

She has been slowed down by:

1. endless orders for updates from a fellow coworker whose job does not entail bugging her endlessly for updates - this coworker cannot complete the work she was hired to do, and so to busy herself, she will impose herself on my female relative
2. a supervisor who has attempted to sabotage her at every turn because my relative knows more about the subject area than the supervisor does (the supervisor has a degree in this field)
3. a coworker who has sought to disrupt her by "narcing" on her for speaking to a client in a clear manner and her work area

These incidents were from one workplace - at another, she had coworkers bully her, steal her personal items, and create massive disruptions and conflict.

These people were not interested in making the company thrive. These people were invested in engaging with my female relative because she is so competent and self-driven, she makes them look sick. She loves doing her job and she wants to do right by the company, but "being present" and being around coworkers is not the way to do it. The other workers want everyone else to do nothing so their jobs are secure, because when someone like my female relative comes along, the bosses can see how little they contribute. The office manager cannot manage worth a shit. The one thing she excelled at was picking my female relative and hiring her.

It's like there's an unspoken code of "I'll do as little as possible, and you'll do as little as possible, and that way, no one loses their job." My female relative didn't get the memo - she just wants to work. Let smart people do what they're best at without forcing them into cramped work situations where the useless people will have an impetus to make the smart ones work less to make themselves look more appealing.

 

[LurkTrawl]

They're really cranking out the "remote work is bad" propaganda after gaslighting us for two years that there were no productivity issues.

Yes, and seeing the retards have real consequences for their propaganda, for once, delivers me no small amount of spiteful glee every time I see an article complaining about it.

Cope, seethe, and bend over for your corporate office real estate tax faggots.

 

[beepbopisuckcock]

Another factor that isn't often discussed is it causes employees to be less loyal and less engaged with a company. When you go into an office you meet the other employees and socialize with them. It encourages productivity and developing the company further. When the only difference between working at Microsoft or Amazon is what UI appears on your screen it causes people to job hop more and reduces innovation. A big reason why the offices at these places are more akin to palaces than workspaces is to try and encourage employees to stay at the company and not job hop for that reason.

The attitude "i do not have loyalty for any company. i do not want to "engage" with other employees. i want to do my work and get paid. that's it" leads to less productivity and less innovation. When someone has such an apathetic attitude it's much less likely you'd do something like develop a system that improves labor or suggest a superior product idea to better the company.

I really don't think think you can blame employees for not being loyal when the vast majority of companies do not give a fuck about their employees in the slightest. For an easy example how many people got raises that kept up with inflation over the past three years? I certainly didn't. My wages are going down desptie the fact that I've gained experience over the past three years. So I ask you why would I be loyal to this? Why would I go the extra mile and try to do something innovative for Mr. Shekelberg?

And don't tell me to just find another job because that's being disloyal or whatever.

 

[Kermit Jizz]

The attitude "i do not have loyalty for any company. i do not want to "engage" with other employees. i want to do my work and get paid. that's it" leads to less productivity and less innovation. When someone has such an apathetic attitude it's much less likely you'd do something like develop a system that improves labor or suggest a superior product idea to better the company.

Innovation/productivity is a somewhat precious thing and you can only look at how employees act in less developed countries like India to see what happens when it's not there.

Loyalty and investment does not come from being forced into a cubicle farm. What fucking retard would waste their time trying to better the company for absolutely zero benefit to themselves? That's the real reason people don't invest in their company, their investment is only rewarded with a higher workload.

 

[F13 Key]

Anywhere near where my company's offices are, rent is almost double what I currently pay and has gone up about 50% in the last three years. Gas costs 50% more now than it did pre-2020. My salary hasn't kept up with inflation. Not to mention wasting two hours of my life a day in traffic. If the company wants to give me a raise to cover the increased costs of rent and gas, then I might be willing to go back in. Otherwise they can fuck off. It would be worth taking a pay cut to continue to work from home for another company.

Also Stanford are the useless faggot SJW goblins who conjured up those "inclusivity style guidelines" with horseshit like "don't use the term war room, it's unnecessary use of violent language", or "white paper" being a racist term implying that "white is good, so black must be bad". Nothing that comes out of there should be given much credence.

 

[TheGoodNamesHaveBeenTaken]

I wish companies would fire and blacklist the super slackers that actually require a mid lever manager to remind them to do their job throughout the day.
Working from home should be encouraged and the undisciplined bums that can't do it should not be allowed to ruin it for everyone else.

Imagine working for a company with people who know how to work, are willing to work and don't have to spend 1/4 or more of the day proving to mid management they are working?

Then imagine doing it at home!
That would have sounded like some sort of dream world way back when I entered the workforce.

Sadly I think WFH is doomed.
The busy body middle managers and their bosses don't want to go anywhere, it is probably easier to poke bums with sticks and make them sort of work than taking the time to find people who actually want to work and the biggest one it is much harder to mold people in to "responsible cooperate citizens" with work from home.

Pollical correctness, SJW ism and / or whatever they are calling it now require peer pressure to work.
They need you to mistake your coworkers for friends and the company as your family. They need you to have people you can either officially or unofficially report heretics and true believers to.

If you are home actually working and earning the company money you might not know what Bob from accounting thinks about climate change.
You might not even know Bob or any of the accounting department.
If you don't know them you don't care about their politics or opinions.
You particularly do not care what they think of you.

The "like high school but with money" model has been successful for the powers that be.
I don't see them giving it up, sadly.

I am often wrong and hopefully I am in this case.
If so I will be thrilled.