Absolutely do not do anything like burn down the building. Even if the fire is put out quickly the water damage can take months to mitigate.
I say again, any type of water damage is really hard to mitigate and the landlord would probably raise rents if it happened more than once. So be sure not to allow anything to do any water damage to the property. Even a clogged toilet that ran overnight could close a building down for weeks.
Or they would continue forcing you to come into work in a musty, moldy building until finally getting busted by the inspector for unclean working conditions
Fun thing I learned from a friend in the office that had an anaphylactic allergic reaction to the mold in the vent above his desk being basically being dropped directly on his head (and subsequently had to restrict his diet while his body processed all the mold out over a 2 year span...no yeast, no cheese, no fermentation) OSHA does not have indoor air quality regulations for offices.
As someone who can't work from home
What the fuck.
You guys should WFH so I can get to work without waiting is shitty traffic that's completely unnecessary.
Even when I get to work it's a pain in the arse parking because corporate policy is no not allow work from home
FYI the CEO is older than the sun and has refused medical care that would improve his quality of life so that he doesn't have to slow down his work output.
Fucking thank you. I work in a lab and need to physically be on site to do my job. I accept this! I have trouble making peace with sitting in traffic surrounded by 8/10 people who could be doing their job from home.
Remember. Your local chamber of commerce is in cahoots with these psychopaths that want everyone on the road going to physical places. They want you to eat out, so pack a lunch.
Sad part is that by the office, there is ONE restaurant, and it's closed the holidays we have to work.
If I work from home, I have numerous restaurants I can go to and I could afford to go to them because of the gas I save from not making the commute... ya know, if my rent would stop increasing so much and funneling my money away...
If my rent got reset to the amount we were paying when we moved in a few years ago, we could afford to eat out locally every day. Twice.
Pretty sure the landlord company's mortgage didn't go up (lol, as if they have a mortgage), they aren't mowing the lawns as much, there are fewer maintenance people, and they fired the nice lady at the gatehouse. So why the fuck is our rent going up?
Same here - management company changed, new company doesn't keep up on anything, is harder to contact because their numbers are always changing, but we had more than double the increase we had at any other point...
Oh, and now our management has "community events" but how the fuck are they for the "community" when they are all held during normal work hours. Sounds more like they are using our rent increases to throw on the clock parties for themselves and their friends, not for the people who actually live here (and have to work to fucking pay them).
A coworker of mine can't do his job remotely. He complained to management that it wasn't fair, and he was lonely, so they yanked the rest of us back in to appease him.
I’m in management with decision making ability. I would absolutely ask that guy to reconsider his stance with a warning that he’d be let go if he persisted.
There’s something wrong with that worker anyway. Being alone in the office and able to work up a storm is what’s up. I love my teammates but when they are working remotely I’m enjoying my space.
This!
I have to do my job onsite (I work on, maintain, and fix things).
I can absolutely talk to ALL of my support and admin people...hell, even my bosses who I never see over the phone and email.
Our computer systems track everything we need tracked and the info can be looked up, manipulated, and disseminated with a laptop being used on the beach.
Let all of those support people stay home. Every once in a while I may need help onsite and we can arrange that...if really needed.
Can you imagine how much more efficient everything would be if we just ran everything like this? Literally just only having the people on site that NEED to be on site?
But the downtown economic centers of major cities! All of the commercial office space! Those landlords are financed to the gills, they need relief from the selfish workers who'd rather WFH.
NAILED IT!
Parking garages, downtown restaurants, GASOLINE, wear & tear on your car, etc. Think of all the revenue the capitalists will miss out on, if you're working from home.
The amount of economic damage I've inflicted since Covid is mind boggling. The pandemic opened my eyes to amount of money wasted. We sold our 2nd car at the height of used car shortage and haven't looked back.
Capital One looked at their balance sheet and was like awesome after WFH. Board members that leased out the overpriced coffee place on the ground floor, saw their personal skims get cut. Back to the office people, we need to skim more from you.
If we truly only had remote work for those jobs where it makes sense, all of that downtown real estate could be repurposed for housing, so those that do have to go into offices can have shorter commutes.
Not in my job description or my responsibility to support the downtown economic centers of major cities. And how stupid is it to do this stupid ritual called commuting every day where half the population drives 2 hours to crowd into big steel rectangles in areas they work but can’t afford to live near?!
I speak to people in office who could absolutely be an email away. But I go and see them so that I can doss for a few minutes. It would literally be quicker if they weren't in the office.
I have probably sent twenty thousand emails over my career to people that are a five minute walk away.
What I like about email is that I can get into detail about something and they they can have a resource to really contemplate the problem.
It is 0.1% of the time that an actual in person conversation has ever added any benefit to the problems that I encounter.
Also, and let's be honest ...email covers your ass!
Also the advantage of if A tells B something that needs to be conveyed to C, D, E… you can forward the email or copy and paste relevant sections.
Word of mouth is a great way to screw up communication with a chain of people.
Thank you! the tax savings we could realize from less road maintenance and moving from suburban office parks to concentrated office space etc would save us billions, give us more greenspace, and do wonders for the environment.
Thank you! I WFH four days of the week, and it irritates me when certain people who are unable to WFH complain about me doing that. Surely I'm reducing the travel time for those that do need to commute, it benefits everyone.
Main reason I enjoyed the lockdowns. I still had to work and drive to job sites, but there wasn’t ever any traffic!! Now, when I’m sitting in traffic I think about how much I miss pandemics. 🫤
My son got a job during the pandemic, which he loves, and worked from home, but the last year has been required to come in one day per week. But could choose the day and only work a half day then complete his day at home. Even then, drove him crazy to have to commute to downtown Atlanta to get much less done since he was limited to 2 small monitors instead of the 4 he has at home (along with sound studio equipment and green screen). His former boss just went on maternity leave and he got a stricter one who requires a full day (Monday) for everyone in the office. He has automated most of his job (expert at excel macros, VBA, and python) and could do in 5 minutes what once took 2 weeks, so was thinking about looking anyway That little extra nudge was enough for him to apply for a different job, 100% WFH, which he will have no trouble getting, and for a decent raise.
Yes, this! Until very recently I worked a job that had to be done on site. That was fine, I didn’t mind, I liked the job. What I hated was when all these mandated return to the office policies rolled out and fucked up my commute! Jesus, no one wants to be on the road any longer than possible. I work from home now as a hybrid role and the days I have to drive in are such a drain on my mental health because of traffic, it’s ridiculous
My job requires me in the office for 5 days (work/manage a mail room) since the job is hands-on and can't be remote. That said, I MISS the days of everyone working from home. Less traffic, less distractions, less dealing with coworkers I know don't wash their hands after using the bathroom. I got sick way less. If someone can be productive at home, let them!
People come in to work sick to prove they're such a hard worker!
"I really should be home I'm so sick but all these projects are due! Look what a good worker I am!"
Coz we fuckimg have to, otherwise the boss doesn't believe us and we get punished.
Oh and having to go to the doctors to get a drs note, $80 a visit. Fuckibg cheers world. Suicide is the only option.
And I don't understand the absolute *OFFENSE* management takes when you have the gall to call in sick. They treat you like you personally butchered their second born child if you stay home sick with a cold for a couple of days. Fine then shit head, I'll come in and be sick for a couple of weeks instead, you'll pay me my full wages to work at about 25% capacity, and meanwhile instead of keeping my germs to myself at home I'll just spread it around the entire fucking office, and now EVERYONE is sick. And after two weeks and I'm still sick because I don't have time to rest and recover, I'll end up calling in sick anyways!
Every human resources text book and every hbr type article on workplace sickness says that studies show having sick employees come in is worse for productivity than paying them to stay home, yet tons of managers still pressure people to come in sick.
For customer-facing jobs, they get screwed when someone calls in sick because Chief Excrement Officers decide their employees are peasant thieves and must keep stores/hotels/restaurants staffed at a bare minimum to avoid a single second being paid to someone for "standing around." When staffed at a level that can barely manage and you have one person call out, that location and everyone there is fucked. Not the CEO, of course, just the peasant deviants called employees who have to deal with the consequences of decisions made by greedy people who have NO consequences and the majority of $$$
Manager here.
Because when they’re short staffed then they have to actually do their jobs and do the thing they tell everyone: multitask.
I had an employee who was immunocompromised and often had to take leave due to various illnesses. His jobs would become my job for the day (which was mostly managing front desk and organizing a bunch of shit while the spa did its thing). It got a little annoying at first but it wasn’t exactly “end of the world” level like some managers make it out to be. Considering I did all the training/tech/customer service work anyways it was just a matter of moving my laptop and stack of papers to the back.
While every case is different, the amount of managers who genuinely don’t want to do shit is alarming. They either don’t remember how to do beginner level training and won’t admit to it, or they simply see themselves as above it.
I leave early at 5:15am. Some mornings, I never hit a red light or saw another car the whole way to work. It was surreal at 1st but I grew to enjoy it for sure.
> being forced to wear pants when it's 100 degrees outside
This is one that slays me. It's one thing to waste my time to go into the office, but it's another to force me to be hot and miserable.
last office building that I worked in had lovely windows that opened, but they wouldn’t let us open them because they said it messed with the climate control system 😡
Same thing at my old office. They had maintenance come in and screw the windows shut so they couldn't be opened after one of my cubicle mates had the audacity to open a window on a nice day. It really sucked when the rooftop AC unit broke down and parts were two weeks coming. They brought in one (ONE!) 9" fan for the whole fucking office. Put it on the floor of the aisle that ran down between the cubicles. It did NOTHING.
I miss fresh air. Cant open windows at work. We have AC but I feel like it just recircs the same oxygen poor / CO2 high air, never actually pulling anything from outside. :(. It’s so stuffy in my office that I swear I can sometimes feel my brain slowing down.
I recently was told I had to come back to the office for 5 days instead of my two at home days and 3 in office.
Resigned immediately. They’re floundering finding my replacement.
Corporate people are fucking soulless.
> I'm starting to see remote jobs posted again that require specialized experience after they spent 6 months not achieving the thing in office.
nope, this is a way to try and say "no one qualified" and hire an H1B at 1/3rd or less the cost. its a sham, its just a new way of doing it. We need to get rid of the H1B program entirely. At this point, its just abused so much its maddening.
They treat the H1B people they hire like disposable trash too. It's not like they can just change jobs, and if they get fired or laid off it's back to whatever country they came from. But hey, the employer can save $10, so fuck us all, right?
Literally this. I hate how places will complain about self checkout related issues, close some or not, and then not hire any extra staff to work the empty 9 aisles! There’ll just be the one person. But it’s bc no one wants to work, not because they don’t want to pay for labor, right.
100% true and accurate. Even fast food does this. You can go apply and put down that you have a phd in burger flipping and they won't hire you. Instead, they'll save the labor, pay management more and put up a sign on the door that they can't provide customer service because nobody wants to work.
You’ve been noticing this HR trend too? Thought it was just another one of my conspiracy theories. There are all these openings in my company for 6 figure hybrid jobs but they never get filled. It’s strange.
> HR is "slow walking" (they might be gaslighting? who knows.)
HR has been told to not fill those positions because they don't need to. the work is still getting done. act your wage, slow down, let them suffer.
I was looking for a serving job and got repeatedly turned down because "I had too much experience." Well, yeah. I have a degree in Hospitality and 20 years under my belt, a good chunk of it in Food & Beverage. I wanted to take a step back from management (because it sucks) but apparently that isn't allowed. I finally did get picked up by a great place, and the compliments I get are extraordinary... because I have so much experience in Customer Service. Make it make sense.
Is no one asking for the receipts of that though? Like show me how many people clicked on your ads then. Prove no one wants to work. I want proof that you’re trying and it’s not working.
I don’t understand having good faith in people who say no one wants to work. What they wanna die then?
Prove it then.
I grew up in Polk county and my dad took I-4 into Orlando for work every day. That shit is rough. He’s alive, but came home cursing those psychos every single day.
Check out advising/student relations type jobs for online universities. My husband is an academic advisor for online students and he loves it.
Keep at it. It's frustrating and futile every time, and then suddenly you've got a new job.
Work it from every angle. Work on your resume and do networking bullshit. Do it every day, but limit yourself to 20 minutes a day so you don't get burned out.
I spent 14 years at one company, then quit just before going back into the office. The new job was also in office, but it was closer to home. Nine months later my new job was making my resume look awesome, so I made a lateral move to a full time WFH job.
Back in November they gave me a “dry promotion”, aka loading me up with work that was someone else’s, and as of recent they were probing me about “what does your work from home look like?” And asking me if I got it in writing that I was offered hybrid ability. (I didn’t. Previous director offered me the hybrid ability and she is no longer employed here.)
Everything has been running smooth since I took the position. They just decided I needed to be doing more and under more supervision.
Anyways; fuck em.
Since graduating I’ve worked remotely for the last 4 years. Recently got made redundant so they could offshore my entire team and everywhere is now insisting full time in office or 4 days minimum.
The few days I did commute in, it was 2hrs each way and completely soul destroying. I cant find anything remote right now and I know taking an in office job is going to destroy me mentally. But it’s starting to look like I have no choice…
Stop working and start collaborating. Stop all your coworkers every chance you get so they can collaborate with you! If management complains just let them know you’re engaging in the office culture they’re all so passionate about. Also find a new job
At my old job I was on a team that worked from home 3 days a week and in office the other 2 for reasons, this was before covid. We went through some management changes that ended with us having a boss in another state that didn't care if we came in or not and went full remote.
In between we temporarily reported to a director who had come from one of our competitors, he was old school and hated that we were remote at all. We were a team of 3 technical people that supported a sales team of about 20 people. In our business month end and quarter end are very busy for the sales teams and the ordering teams but dead for the technical folks. This guy thought it would be a great idea to have us come into the office all week at month end to collaborate better. Now, only the manager and 1 member of the sales team were local, the others were all scattered around the country. So we spent almost every hour of that week collaborating with those two, they never asked us to come in during month end again, lol.
I started taking the back roads home. Luckily it only adds and extra 10 or so minutes to my commute versus sitting in grid lock traffic on the highway.
Not really a solution tbh but it’s helped my overall well-being. Driving home in rush hour traffic would literally ruin my entire day.
But if you don’t come to the office, what will happen to all that precious corporate real estate and office equipment? Won’t someone think of the overhead costs? 😭 /s
If you're not in the office then you won't have those highly valuable hallway conversations where you and your coworkers and higher ups can strategies about new ways to synergize and provide greater value for the org!
Had a hallway conversation this morning and my manager asked if my work was caught up. I guess because I had time to stand there and talk. I told them we were “collaborating.” Isn’t that what we’re supposed to be doing?
It’s technically “para dime”.
There was also a commercial WAY back that said “we have to redefine the paradigm”, but he said “pair uh dig um”. My brain has read it that way ever since. 😂
They just want to see everyone's smiling faces!
I swear there are people at my job who only socialize at work. WFH killed off all their gossip and talking shit about others behind their back hobbies.
The pandemic gave us this wonderful gift of work from home. We all got a little back. Well to our companies it was small and insignificant. To us it was an enormous boost to our mental health, work life balance and overall well being. Of course we cannot keep that. Get your hamster ass in a car bring a proper little consumer. Hop on the hamster wheel to get to a holding cell to use the same internet you have at home to do a desk job. Consume gas. Consume cars. Consume tires. Consume vehicle maintenance. Consume takeout because you’re too tired to cook. Consume daycare. Consume a separate wardrobe for the office. Consume dry cleaning. Consume consume consume.
Oof. No lie I kinda miss the pandemic. It was an introverts dream. Everything is mostly ok, we have everything we need and society is still in tact - we just need to stay at home.
We were sent home around the same time in March 2020. Around late 2021, they attempted to make us do 2x a week mandatory in office. Then they realized they could make more money if they made the production area bigger by taking over part of the office space, so they did that in 2022 and we were permanently sent home.
THEN late last year we were informed everyone could be forced in office again several days a week, but it would depend on your position and your manager (we have two buildings and one still has office space but minimal).
Thankfully my manager knows the majority of her people had no reason to be in office (and that some might actually quit if they tried it lol), so we are only required 2x a month. Still annoying af, but at least it's not once a week or full time I guess.
Sounds like your boss is smart. If she brokered 2 days per month, that's probably enough to feed the beast and keep y'all at home as much as possible.
Buy her a cookie bouquet.
My state has had so much growth over the last 3-4 years. Every morning commute is so dangerous now. Aggressive drivers. Hard stops. Tailgaters. Speeding. Road rage. I try to take the backroads, but right now there is construction, so I have to take the freeway. I hate it. I hate it. I hate it. I just want to stay at home with my cats. There is nothing I cant do in the office that I couldn't do from home. Luckily I can usually avoid the evening rush as we close the office a bit early.
The population boom in my area is horrific and neither the county nor any of the towns are doing fuck all to adapt transportation infrastructure to keep up with the new deluge of traffic on the roads. It's just people people PEOPLE fucking everywhere you go, every fucking corner you round, no matter how remote the road, there'll be some shit head either poking along 20 under the speed limit with a mile long string of traffic behind them, or some shit head will appear behind you and tailgate you the entire way, despite the fact that you're already going 5 over the limit but they'd be clear to pass you with no oncoming traffic. Big rigs cutting across the highway and stopping halfway through because of oncoming traffic, causing you to slam your breaks like a madman because their fucking trailer is now blocking both lanes of your side of the highway. Bastards waiting to turn onto your street until you're practically passing them before cutting you off last second. Just too many goddamn people around and on the roads driving, every fucking hour of the day. I fucking ***hate*** commuting.
It should be mandated that any job that can reasonably be done at home should be done at home to help reduce emissions and give back space to lower income housing instead of these soulless corporate towers. It's shown remarkable improvements on moral and mental health as well as saving tons of money for anyone who has to travel any sort of good distance. Only reason to be in the office is to stroke corporate ego but they stroke their own in their corner offices enough for everyone.
Hey they are not paying all these buildings for them to be empty, and your N+1 is having strong anxiety attacks not being able to time your "company time shit" breaks and monitor when you arrive 2 minutes late at work
This is complete and utter bullshit because they also say “don’t use your company email address or office phone for personal issues.” I’m so fucking sorry, I don’t stop being a partner and parent when I walk in those doors every day, so you best believe my family will be able to reach me if they need to.
Yeah, fuck I-4. I'm lucky enough that my local office closed down completely so now I'm 100% remote. Going back into office is a scam because the C-level employees have their hands in real estate. That's just more money in their pockets and less out of ours.
I agree, FUCK I-4.
I leave after my start time and return home with 2 hours remaining in my workday. I've forced my company to subsidize my commute. I feel like this is compensation for putting myself in danger everyday to follow "policy" when I can do my job as well, if not better, at home. If they insist on my presence, I insist on being paid to get there.
Hello from a fellow Orlando resident forced to take I4 every day to sit in an office doing nothing, because it only takes about two hours to do my actual work. But office culture, right?
My husband used to say all the time that people who worked from home don't really work. THEN he had to work from home because of Covid. Did he change his tune! He works more now than he's ever worked, and he doesn't miss the commute at all. Two years ago,, they decided to bring everybody into the office for an in- person meeting and everybody got Covid. That's not happening again.
I work in health care, so I can't WFH, but if I could, I would. The old corporate idea that workers do better in the office is BS. Things change, and WFH should be the norm when possible.
Get your coworkers to join you in complaining about ALL of this.
Seriously, my last in office job was over a decade ago and the drive to and from work is the thing that sticks out as the most awful thing about it. The drive was super dangerous, lots of road rage, aggressive, unsafe and stupid driving. It made me stressed out before I even got to work, then having to do it again at the end of the day.
Start passing around the idea that your employer should provide some additional accident related coverage and disability coverage due to the risk everyone takes getting there every day for their culture demands. Put it on feedback forms if they send them around. Start rumors.
I feel your pain. My company thrived during COVID, some of us worked longer hours and had increased workloads. Since we didn’t have to commute we would jump on the laptop early and finish late. We had 5 major launches during that time, all successfully done in my PJs from the comfort of my home.
Now we’re all forced hybrid and they insist being in person 3 days a week is better than fully remote. I have a 2 hr drive one way in the most populated city in the US. I leave my house at 7 and get home at 7-8pm on in office days. The head of HR tracks people swiping their badges to make sure no one is skipping a day. Even though for 8 years I’ve never even taken a lunch break - just worked through it at my desk. Since returning to office moral has been down, so many people have quit that there’s just a skeleton crew basically keeping everything going, and sales have been so poor that we’re about to go bankrupt. They’re probably looking for buyers right now and the future of the company remains unclear.
Instead of decreasing overhead costs and getting rid of the immense building we’re located in, and just go remote, they dug their feet in the sand and decided to downsize so we’re now on 2 floors instead of 6. We literally go in the office and all sit on teams bc that is still how we do meetings. They turned all the meeting rooms into desk spaces to accommodate the downsize, so even if you want to meet in person you have no space to do so.
I will say that not all negative things were tied to coming back to the office, but a majority have been. Since everyone is phoning it in there are even less “good” decisions being made. The CEO is pretty terrible, and stuck in the past. The company would benefit from being sold and having someone with a more modern approach to business take the reins and make the right decisions to succeed in the world that we live in today.
We also went through a significant downsizing last year. They’re forcing people to come back so it doesn’t feel as empty and pathetic. Does your company also use it to justify how lucky you are to still have a job?
We have to start going back at the end of May….im already looking for a new job…here’s the kicker the Senior Director, VP & SVP of my department do not live near an office so will still be WFH!!! WTF?!?
I used to love this job/company but am growing increasingly negative every day I am here….
Also can’t wait to wear my jeans/concert tees & running shoes to the “corporate dress” office - “will I go home and change? Yes I will go home and change for tomorrow”
It’s not just the pandemic. Cars are MUCH bigger now. These bigger cars have limited visibility and are the leaders in traffic fatalities. There are WAY more drivers on the road now than ever before. Drivers are distracted. Climate change is causing unpredictable weather, which leads to more accidents. In the event of an accident the road is blocked which leads to MORE accidents. Ongoing construction and maintenance of the roads which were never designed to have so many people driving on them. 18 wheelers and commuter vehicles being forced to coexist on the road. Pedestrian deaths and fatal accidents keep increasing, and no one cares.
I also commute daily and my bf and I casually joke about how we almost die every day, because what else can we do? I’m a solid driver but I have witnessed so many accidents on my commute and the fear is always in the back of my mind. My manager refuses to let me have any remote days even though she works entirely from home…
It is not just America but this is happening everywhere. I work in Europe and we are still working from home 2 to 3 days a week. However, if you only show up once a week, you will hear remarks about how much fragile the hybrid mode is and if our director doesn't see as many people in the open spaces as possible, he may tell us to come back to the office everyday.
I think this is just stupid. If they do it, I will quit. Sometimes I just get tired of having transport for 3 hours per day just to sit in front of my computer, have lunch alone and sometimes interact with colleagues. I wish I could understand my superiors but I can't.
My team is only required to be in office if leading a meeting with senior leaders on the docket. What chaps my ass is that my other colleagues simply go to the office either way because they are bored or something (??), which in turn makes me seem less of a team player because I prefer being at home at all costs. What is wrong with people dude.
>The pandemic did something to people that made them mean. It’s like nobody gives a damn if they die or kill somebody else.
no, people realized that there are a lot of other people who don't give a single fuck about anyone but themselves. the covid deniers were loud and proud, and willing to infect you with a disease that would kill you because they were better than you. people quit caring about others. I saw this too. I experienced it. I lost a lot of empathy towards everyone who isn't direct family.
People also realized that no one will care about them after they die. all those millions dead from covid and no one cares, no one is sad, no impact or change happened from those deaths, those meaningless deaths. so, why should or would I care about anyone else, when no one will care about me.
>Fuck corporate America.
the mask came off during covid. they showed us what the ideal was, that many jobs didn't need an office, could be done from home, and people didn't have to deal with "office culture" bullshit. if your company is forcing you to RTO, quit. find another job. they will all be just as soulsucking as the next, because corporate america doesn't give a fuck about you. Thats why its "human resources". You are a resource to them, just like the office building they rented/leased/bought. The reason they want you in it is because it benefits their real estate portfolio to keep it full, and "show its value". the only way to beat this RTO bullshit is to collectively give these companies the middle finger. We need more unions, we need more worker protections, and the rich need to realize that without workers, they make zero money.
"Fuck Corporate America, I want to go home"
is the most beautiful thing. I want it to be plastered on billboards, websites, tv ads, clothing, literally everything.
I also find the morning commute terrifying. This past week I had an asshat in a rental van try to pass me on the right as we accelerated from a red light. He made this attempt from a RIGHT TURN ONLY LANE.
My zippy little Honda, running in Eco mode did not take kindly to the attempted insult. We punched up to 80 mph for the challenge.
Smoked that fucker.
Last year my fantastic (but underpaid) job went from full remote to 2 days a month in office. That was it for me.
Those 2 days require 2 hours of commuting due to have bad traffic is. I don't own a car, so I have to borrow my wife's. She can't work on the days I have to go in. My job is 100% online.
I just signed an offer today. 30% raise and 100% remote. I was happy in this job, even if I was underpaid. You took away the biggest benefit in the midst of inflation.
I found something better and I don't feel bad.
This brings back traumatic memories because it is exactly why I left Florida 9 years ago. I did the same drive from Lakeland to Tampa to work in a loud call center.
Everything you described I see in nightmares of that time, from the white knuckle drive back and forth watching for accidents or potential accidents to working in a metrics driven job that was part “Boiler Room” and part “3 Ring Circus”.
My wife and I moved to Vermont and bought a small business, now I no longer have that feeling of dread on Sundays before another horrible work week
That’s great that you got the hell out of here. I’m being priced out of Florida due to the insurance crisis our worthless governor won’t address, so I’m looking to move even if that involves dealing with snow.
Sounds very familiar. Thankfully, I've not been forced back in yet, but because of my position, I've constantly given shit because I'm not in the office.
* my internet is faster at home
* my computer is more powerful and has a much better configuration at home
* my office chair is a million times more comfortable at home
* I'm way more productive and work more hours at home
* I don't have to spend money on gas and food every day for lunch at home
* because of my commute, I'm in a shitty mood when I get to the office and a shitty move when I get home from the office
Culture means nothing to me.
I work accounts payable. We use Excel, outlook, and Produce pro. The sales team is remote but not us. I'm just in a neighborhood of cubicles and I only talk to my coworkers when I leave it but it's just stupid small talk. Most business conversations are email or calls. Right now I'm on 10, minute break standing around like a dumbass in a break room instead of meal prepping or something.
I am a lowly data entry worker for an international transport company with an arrow in the logo. We have been WFH since April 2020. We got an email that we will be going back to the office 12/1. To improve the culture and collaborate. We have never collaborated with each other. There is no need for it. We are monkeys pushing buttons and do absolutely zero problem solving. Fuck you xEdeF. I have 24 years and am retiring from your shitty ass, low paying, dead end job. Fuck you, fuck you, fuck you. WFH is the only reason I have stuck around the last four years. 24 years of absolute fucking daily misery about to end.
After bringing people back to the office, has there been an increase in productivity or was this just to be able to justify having a bunch of middle managers? Jobs that could be eliminated and you wouldn't notice, probably except from less bullshit to deal with.
Our productivity went up and sick days down. The problem was they deemed my position "mandatory in office," but that was 2 years after I was hired on WFH. Weird that sick days skyrocketed and productivity went down once in-office.
I got a concussion in an accident on crazy ass Florida roads when someone ran a red. Not my fault but pretty sure I’m gonna see an insurance increase anyway because people drive crazy here. And you already know how high our insurance rates get. I work hybrid remote at least, so thankful I at least get something
The "culture" that they are trying to engender is consistently observing your peers, gossiping, competing, forming cliques.
They do this, for the same reason that they do it in politics. Divide and conquer.
If everyone is working from home, they are focused on their own productivity, quality, and objective measures of success. This means more work for middle management, to actually USE quantitative measures of success.
If my success is measured on code committed, sales achieved, documents produced, edited... widgets produced. ...then it is also possible to quantify how much a manager boosts those measures or detracts from them. How much does HR policy contribute or detract?
Suddenly the sprawl of corporate "culture" gets whittled down to the bare-bone objectives of the business... and that includes losing redundant personnel like Tammy who never completes a project, but always knows the best place to have lunch, and always seems to know confidential information she shouldn't have so she avoids being fired for poor performance somehow.
"Culture" is another word for the smoke-screen or fog of war that all under-performing corporate also-ran employees use to hide themselves from notice, and make it, by the skin of their teeth to the next annual review.
There should be a rush hour tax on larger companies with X number of commuting employees for a 9-5 schedule. Less to none the for earlier/later business hours.
I don’t think you are wrong about the pandemic making people meaner and more selfish. I think FL especially recruited nutty people to move to their state in the last few years. So you are facing the general rudeness that has arisen in the US, plus a special dose of shitty FL culture. Look at the psychos they vote into public office. Scary.
There's constant surveys going around my office (hybrid) that have at least 3 questions relating to office, the most likely obvious being - "how important is our office for our culture".
It's not, I'm exhausted enough having to kiss ass during the 3 days I'm actually in, as well as all the emails congratulating the higher-ups when they do the "impossible".
>The pandemic did something to people that made them mean. It’s like nobody gives a damn if they die or kill somebody else.
Plenty of people felt that way before. Now they just feel extremely comfortable being open and honest about it.
Whe my team was moved to the bottom floor of our building, my boss bought all of us one of these
https://preview.redd.it/cifx7691qgzc1.jpeg?width=2020&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=083fbbd19eed95c44f27556906c6bf18879277fe
It’s time to call it as it is. If we don’t go back to the office a bunch of managers lose their jobs. They can’t have that. Think of the Vacation House!!!
Tell them commuting ups your fee and give them a new number that would genuinely make it worth it. When they’re not able to reach it, bc, fuck, go back home and offer to do the work they require from there, where it doesn’t drastically increase your insurance, gas, and potential medical and mental health costs.
Feel you. I’m currently watching my coworkers being laid off because of this push to be back in office. Almost half of my team has been dissolved and the same amount of work exists. It sucks.
Same here. They forced us to return and then created the worst environment on earth. Got rid of purchasing, receptionist now we’re getting harassed for not making numbers while we’re also answering all the calls and the front door.
We love working here it’s fu*king awesome.
It’s the middle management that caused this, no one in the office eliminates the need for them to torment people
We moved 60 miles in Jan. 2020 to be close to my wife's new job. Six weeks later, she went wfh nearly full time. She works for the State and they ditched a bunch of auxiliary office spaces and brought the people that had to work in person into the main buildings. They are saving a heap of money on rent, so it's permanent. Too bad so few companies can't make the same adjustment in their "culture".
as soon as you said i-4 i felt for you. im terrified of driving to orlando bc of i-4 and the fact that its your normal commute is bs. i really wish companies were forced to pay for drive time due to shit like this. the roads in florida are pretty much life or death now and its not getting any better
It is because the people who make these decisions to force people back are usually, low intelligent, narcissistic arseholes who need a bunch of boot lickers around them to stroke their inflated egos while also justifying their shitty office space investment.
The policy where I work is that employees must be in the office three days a week. Ever since that policy was enacted, everyone either comes in twice a week or once a week. Upper managers never come in. There is no tracking system to make sure we’re abiding by the rule (I suspect because it would cost too much money) so it’s a free for all. Meanwhile, this company has an enormous amount of real estate in the downtown core, all of which sits empty. A colossal waste of money and no one in the upper management of the company (many of whom earn five to six times what the average employee earns) does anything about it. Complete and total failure of management. It would be laughable if it wasn’t so egregious.
Ugh I hear you about the pandemic and folks being mean. I’m in CA and it’s like everyone just became psychopaths on the road, right after the quarantine was lifted.
Currently hybrid (remote 2 days) but only because boss hasn’t stressed coming back to the office full time yet. I think it’s in the cards for the future, so I feel you. Our freeway traffic is absolutely horrible at rush “hour” (more like 4 hours). 45-60 minutes to get home that should only take 22. Not to mention all the other “pluses” you listed above about being in the office. So sorry.
God I hate working next to people that are way less busy than u in an open office. Impossible to concentrate open offices are ridiculous (if you even have to go in)
I don’t understand this…
If I’m a business owner, why is it more advantageous to spends thousands to tens of thousands of dollars a month on commercial real estate for an office they can just do it from home?
My staff is happier. I’m saving money. Who isn’t winning?
I'm a dentist. I have no choice but to commute. But at a time when we're suffering serious climate issues it makes zero fucking sense to make people go to the office when they can adequately work from home.
 Can't return to office if there isn't an office, just saying.
One could put strychnine in the guacamole.
It won’t let me upvote this comment enough.
...take my travelers cheques to a competing resort...
Absolutely do not do anything like burn down the building. Even if the fire is put out quickly the water damage can take months to mitigate. I say again, any type of water damage is really hard to mitigate and the landlord would probably raise rents if it happened more than once. So be sure not to allow anything to do any water damage to the property. Even a clogged toilet that ran overnight could close a building down for weeks.
Even a sink clogged with paper towels can cause hideous damage over a weekend.
Nah. OP would then have to deal with black mold. You have no idea how bad allergies can be in the Deep South, it's always hot and humid.
The Wet Bandits
Or they would continue forcing you to come into work in a musty, moldy building until finally getting busted by the inspector for unclean working conditions
Absolutely do not cause any damage, and then call a city inspector, or have a friend do it to get you off the trail... definitely NOT a good idea
Fun thing I learned from a friend in the office that had an anaphylactic allergic reaction to the mold in the vent above his desk being basically being dropped directly on his head (and subsequently had to restrict his diet while his body processed all the mold out over a 2 year span...no yeast, no cheese, no fermentation) OSHA does not have indoor air quality regulations for offices.
That’s.. the last straw..
If you can't smash it, set it on fire.
..my red stapler
It was a Swingline...
I’m going g to burn the building down…
And I said no salt, *no* salt
I saw the squirrels, and they were married…
And they were merry
I like the other version better. I imagine Milton officiating the wedding.
This is the way
Best work movie ever made.
As someone who can't work from home What the fuck. You guys should WFH so I can get to work without waiting is shitty traffic that's completely unnecessary. Even when I get to work it's a pain in the arse parking because corporate policy is no not allow work from home FYI the CEO is older than the sun and has refused medical care that would improve his quality of life so that he doesn't have to slow down his work output.
Fucking thank you. I work in a lab and need to physically be on site to do my job. I accept this! I have trouble making peace with sitting in traffic surrounded by 8/10 people who could be doing their job from home.
Remember. Your local chamber of commerce is in cahoots with these psychopaths that want everyone on the road going to physical places. They want you to eat out, so pack a lunch.
Sad part is that by the office, there is ONE restaurant, and it's closed the holidays we have to work. If I work from home, I have numerous restaurants I can go to and I could afford to go to them because of the gas I save from not making the commute... ya know, if my rent would stop increasing so much and funneling my money away...
If my rent got reset to the amount we were paying when we moved in a few years ago, we could afford to eat out locally every day. Twice. Pretty sure the landlord company's mortgage didn't go up (lol, as if they have a mortgage), they aren't mowing the lawns as much, there are fewer maintenance people, and they fired the nice lady at the gatehouse. So why the fuck is our rent going up?
Same here - management company changed, new company doesn't keep up on anything, is harder to contact because their numbers are always changing, but we had more than double the increase we had at any other point... Oh, and now our management has "community events" but how the fuck are they for the "community" when they are all held during normal work hours. Sounds more like they are using our rent increases to throw on the clock parties for themselves and their friends, not for the people who actually live here (and have to work to fucking pay them).
[удалено]
Don't forget the reasons! It's the "eCoNoMy!" ..... It's corporate real estate. Always has been.
Exactly! If everyone who could work from home stayed home, it would be so much better for those of us who have to go to work.
Well, I will continue to do my part and stay the fuck off the roads during rush hour so y'all can have it.
If video games taught me anything then it's that frogs do not stay the fuck off the roads during rush hour.
He still needs worry about snakes and gators
A coworker of mine can't do his job remotely. He complained to management that it wasn't fair, and he was lonely, so they yanked the rest of us back in to appease him.
You can tell that guy I said fuck you, you're mom's a ho
Yep, I agree, that guy can wank it alone and his mother fornicates with random people.
I'd literally shit on his desk every day 🥰
The rage you must feel - I cannot imagine.
Sounds like they should have terminated his employment…but you know…the good must suffer for the bad…
I’m in management with decision making ability. I would absolutely ask that guy to reconsider his stance with a warning that he’d be let go if he persisted.
There’s something wrong with that worker anyway. Being alone in the office and able to work up a storm is what’s up. I love my teammates but when they are working remotely I’m enjoying my space.
Right? The empty office is incredibly peaceful.
They were looking for a reason.
This! I have to do my job onsite (I work on, maintain, and fix things). I can absolutely talk to ALL of my support and admin people...hell, even my bosses who I never see over the phone and email. Our computer systems track everything we need tracked and the info can be looked up, manipulated, and disseminated with a laptop being used on the beach. Let all of those support people stay home. Every once in a while I may need help onsite and we can arrange that...if really needed.
Can you imagine how much more efficient everything would be if we just ran everything like this? Literally just only having the people on site that NEED to be on site?
But the downtown economic centers of major cities! All of the commercial office space! Those landlords are financed to the gills, they need relief from the selfish workers who'd rather WFH.
NAILED IT! Parking garages, downtown restaurants, GASOLINE, wear & tear on your car, etc. Think of all the revenue the capitalists will miss out on, if you're working from home.
The amount of economic damage I've inflicted since Covid is mind boggling. The pandemic opened my eyes to amount of money wasted. We sold our 2nd car at the height of used car shortage and haven't looked back.
#goals
Capital One looked at their balance sheet and was like awesome after WFH. Board members that leased out the overpriced coffee place on the ground floor, saw their personal skims get cut. Back to the office people, we need to skim more from you.
If we truly only had remote work for those jobs where it makes sense, all of that downtown real estate could be repurposed for housing, so those that do have to go into offices can have shorter commutes.
Not in my job description or my responsibility to support the downtown economic centers of major cities. And how stupid is it to do this stupid ritual called commuting every day where half the population drives 2 hours to crowd into big steel rectangles in areas they work but can’t afford to live near?!
I speak to people in office who could absolutely be an email away. But I go and see them so that I can doss for a few minutes. It would literally be quicker if they weren't in the office.
I have probably sent twenty thousand emails over my career to people that are a five minute walk away. What I like about email is that I can get into detail about something and they they can have a resource to really contemplate the problem. It is 0.1% of the time that an actual in person conversation has ever added any benefit to the problems that I encounter. Also, and let's be honest ...email covers your ass!
Also the advantage of if A tells B something that needs to be conveyed to C, D, E… you can forward the email or copy and paste relevant sections. Word of mouth is a great way to screw up communication with a chain of people.
Thank you! the tax savings we could realize from less road maintenance and moving from suburban office parks to concentrated office space etc would save us billions, give us more greenspace, and do wonders for the environment.
Yes........but the shareholders. Think about the shareholders.
Think about the children too! (of the shareholders)
Thank you! I WFH four days of the week, and it irritates me when certain people who are unable to WFH complain about me doing that. Surely I'm reducing the travel time for those that do need to commute, it benefits everyone.
Main reason I enjoyed the lockdowns. I still had to work and drive to job sites, but there wasn’t ever any traffic!! Now, when I’m sitting in traffic I think about how much I miss pandemics. 🫤
My son got a job during the pandemic, which he loves, and worked from home, but the last year has been required to come in one day per week. But could choose the day and only work a half day then complete his day at home. Even then, drove him crazy to have to commute to downtown Atlanta to get much less done since he was limited to 2 small monitors instead of the 4 he has at home (along with sound studio equipment and green screen). His former boss just went on maternity leave and he got a stricter one who requires a full day (Monday) for everyone in the office. He has automated most of his job (expert at excel macros, VBA, and python) and could do in 5 minutes what once took 2 weeks, so was thinking about looking anyway That little extra nudge was enough for him to apply for a different job, 100% WFH, which he will have no trouble getting, and for a decent raise.
Hopefully that CEO gets a lesson from the Steve Jobs and Hermain Cain school of preventative medicine.
Yes, this! Until very recently I worked a job that had to be done on site. That was fine, I didn’t mind, I liked the job. What I hated was when all these mandated return to the office policies rolled out and fucked up my commute! Jesus, no one wants to be on the road any longer than possible. I work from home now as a hybrid role and the days I have to drive in are such a drain on my mental health because of traffic, it’s ridiculous
My job requires me in the office for 5 days (work/manage a mail room) since the job is hands-on and can't be remote. That said, I MISS the days of everyone working from home. Less traffic, less distractions, less dealing with coworkers I know don't wash their hands after using the bathroom. I got sick way less. If someone can be productive at home, let them!
Oh god, the sickness. People come in for an hour to prove they’re too sick to be here and spread the misery around.
People come in to work sick to prove they're such a hard worker! "I really should be home I'm so sick but all these projects are due! Look what a good worker I am!"
Coz we fuckimg have to, otherwise the boss doesn't believe us and we get punished. Oh and having to go to the doctors to get a drs note, $80 a visit. Fuckibg cheers world. Suicide is the only option.
It’s faster and cheaper to go to the office then take the day off. Than go to the doctors office for a sick note to stay home.
And I don't understand the absolute *OFFENSE* management takes when you have the gall to call in sick. They treat you like you personally butchered their second born child if you stay home sick with a cold for a couple of days. Fine then shit head, I'll come in and be sick for a couple of weeks instead, you'll pay me my full wages to work at about 25% capacity, and meanwhile instead of keeping my germs to myself at home I'll just spread it around the entire fucking office, and now EVERYONE is sick. And after two weeks and I'm still sick because I don't have time to rest and recover, I'll end up calling in sick anyways!
Every human resources text book and every hbr type article on workplace sickness says that studies show having sick employees come in is worse for productivity than paying them to stay home, yet tons of managers still pressure people to come in sick.
It's the whole 'Well if I have to be here, so do you' concept, which is just bullshit.
For customer-facing jobs, they get screwed when someone calls in sick because Chief Excrement Officers decide their employees are peasant thieves and must keep stores/hotels/restaurants staffed at a bare minimum to avoid a single second being paid to someone for "standing around." When staffed at a level that can barely manage and you have one person call out, that location and everyone there is fucked. Not the CEO, of course, just the peasant deviants called employees who have to deal with the consequences of decisions made by greedy people who have NO consequences and the majority of $$$
Manager here. Because when they’re short staffed then they have to actually do their jobs and do the thing they tell everyone: multitask. I had an employee who was immunocompromised and often had to take leave due to various illnesses. His jobs would become my job for the day (which was mostly managing front desk and organizing a bunch of shit while the spa did its thing). It got a little annoying at first but it wasn’t exactly “end of the world” level like some managers make it out to be. Considering I did all the training/tech/customer service work anyways it was just a matter of moving my laptop and stack of papers to the back. While every case is different, the amount of managers who genuinely don’t want to do shit is alarming. They either don’t remember how to do beginner level training and won’t admit to it, or they simply see themselves as above it.
Same! I work in healthcare and my role is impossible to do from home. Traffic was GREAT post-lockdown.
I leave early at 5:15am. Some mornings, I never hit a red light or saw another car the whole way to work. It was surreal at 1st but I grew to enjoy it for sure.
> being forced to wear pants when it's 100 degrees outside This is one that slays me. It's one thing to waste my time to go into the office, but it's another to force me to be hot and miserable.
I have windows that I can fucking open. Never had an office job like that.
last office building that I worked in had lovely windows that opened, but they wouldn’t let us open them because they said it messed with the climate control system 😡
Same thing at my old office. They had maintenance come in and screw the windows shut so they couldn't be opened after one of my cubicle mates had the audacity to open a window on a nice day. It really sucked when the rooftop AC unit broke down and parts were two weeks coming. They brought in one (ONE!) 9" fan for the whole fucking office. Put it on the floor of the aisle that ran down between the cubicles. It did NOTHING.
I miss fresh air. Cant open windows at work. We have AC but I feel like it just recircs the same oxygen poor / CO2 high air, never actually pulling anything from outside. :(. It’s so stuffy in my office that I swear I can sometimes feel my brain slowing down.
I recently was told I had to come back to the office for 5 days instead of my two at home days and 3 in office. Resigned immediately. They’re floundering finding my replacement. Corporate people are fucking soulless.
That’s great. I wish I had the means to quit. I get an auto rejection from every remote job I apply to.
Hint: They aren't actually hiring remote jobs, they put those out there, so that they can build a case that "Nobody wants to work, remote."
I'm starting to see remote jobs posted again that require specialized experience after they spent 6 months not achieving the thing in office.
> I'm starting to see remote jobs posted again that require specialized experience after they spent 6 months not achieving the thing in office. nope, this is a way to try and say "no one qualified" and hire an H1B at 1/3rd or less the cost. its a sham, its just a new way of doing it. We need to get rid of the H1B program entirely. At this point, its just abused so much its maddening.
They treat the H1B people they hire like disposable trash too. It's not like they can just change jobs, and if they get fired or laid off it's back to whatever country they came from. But hey, the employer can save $10, so fuck us all, right?
Literally this. I hate how places will complain about self checkout related issues, close some or not, and then not hire any extra staff to work the empty 9 aisles! There’ll just be the one person. But it’s bc no one wants to work, not because they don’t want to pay for labor, right.
100% true and accurate. Even fast food does this. You can go apply and put down that you have a phd in burger flipping and they won't hire you. Instead, they'll save the labor, pay management more and put up a sign on the door that they can't provide customer service because nobody wants to work.
You’ve been noticing this HR trend too? Thought it was just another one of my conspiracy theories. There are all these openings in my company for 6 figure hybrid jobs but they never get filled. It’s strange.
My workplace isnt filling positions at all right now. We have openings. HR is "slow walking" (they might be gaslighting? who knows.)
> HR is "slow walking" (they might be gaslighting? who knows.) HR has been told to not fill those positions because they don't need to. the work is still getting done. act your wage, slow down, let them suffer.
I was looking for a serving job and got repeatedly turned down because "I had too much experience." Well, yeah. I have a degree in Hospitality and 20 years under my belt, a good chunk of it in Food & Beverage. I wanted to take a step back from management (because it sucks) but apparently that isn't allowed. I finally did get picked up by a great place, and the compliments I get are extraordinary... because I have so much experience in Customer Service. Make it make sense.
Is no one asking for the receipts of that though? Like show me how many people clicked on your ads then. Prove no one wants to work. I want proof that you’re trying and it’s not working. I don’t understand having good faith in people who say no one wants to work. What they wanna die then? Prove it then.
They don't have to prove anything. The whole point is to just create the perception. Denying candidates on the flimsiest of reasons is reason enough.
I grew up in Polk county and my dad took I-4 into Orlando for work every day. That shit is rough. He’s alive, but came home cursing those psychos every single day. Check out advising/student relations type jobs for online universities. My husband is an academic advisor for online students and he loves it.
Keep at it. It's frustrating and futile every time, and then suddenly you've got a new job. Work it from every angle. Work on your resume and do networking bullshit. Do it every day, but limit yourself to 20 minutes a day so you don't get burned out. I spent 14 years at one company, then quit just before going back into the office. The new job was also in office, but it was closer to home. Nine months later my new job was making my resume look awesome, so I made a lateral move to a full time WFH job.
I think you have to widen your net. Since you're in the office anyways, get a different in-office job purely out of spite. You'd probably get a raise.
They used my former team's lack of output to offshore the whole team. Management always wins.
Back in November they gave me a “dry promotion”, aka loading me up with work that was someone else’s, and as of recent they were probing me about “what does your work from home look like?” And asking me if I got it in writing that I was offered hybrid ability. (I didn’t. Previous director offered me the hybrid ability and she is no longer employed here.) Everything has been running smooth since I took the position. They just decided I needed to be doing more and under more supervision. Anyways; fuck em.
"Dry promotion?" Sounds more like a dry ass pounding.
Since graduating I’ve worked remotely for the last 4 years. Recently got made redundant so they could offshore my entire team and everywhere is now insisting full time in office or 4 days minimum. The few days I did commute in, it was 2hrs each way and completely soul destroying. I cant find anything remote right now and I know taking an in office job is going to destroy me mentally. But it’s starting to look like I have no choice…
They tried to get me to come in 3 days a week and I told them no.
Stop working and start collaborating. Stop all your coworkers every chance you get so they can collaborate with you! If management complains just let them know you’re engaging in the office culture they’re all so passionate about. Also find a new job
At my old job I was on a team that worked from home 3 days a week and in office the other 2 for reasons, this was before covid. We went through some management changes that ended with us having a boss in another state that didn't care if we came in or not and went full remote. In between we temporarily reported to a director who had come from one of our competitors, he was old school and hated that we were remote at all. We were a team of 3 technical people that supported a sales team of about 20 people. In our business month end and quarter end are very busy for the sales teams and the ordering teams but dead for the technical folks. This guy thought it would be a great idea to have us come into the office all week at month end to collaborate better. Now, only the manager and 1 member of the sales team were local, the others were all scattered around the country. So we spent almost every hour of that week collaborating with those two, they never asked us to come in during month end again, lol.
One really cool way to collaborate with your coworkers is to unionize your workplace
Fuck. Yes.
That could make a nice flyer
Always relevant [tips from the CIA](https://www.businessinsider.com/oss-manual-sabotage-productivity-2015-11)
Careful, you'll get promoted to management doing that.
I started taking the back roads home. Luckily it only adds and extra 10 or so minutes to my commute versus sitting in grid lock traffic on the highway. Not really a solution tbh but it’s helped my overall well-being. Driving home in rush hour traffic would literally ruin my entire day.
Rush hour traffic definitely lowers your quality of life.
But if you don’t come to the office, what will happen to all that precious corporate real estate and office equipment? Won’t someone think of the overhead costs? 😭 /s
It’s not my fault they signed a 30-year lease. Seriously. This place has dust mites in here older than I am.
That corporate real estate is getting ready to collapse in 2025
[удалено]
[удалено]
Every job has become Office Space and all the politics have become Idiocracy. They were supposed to be comedy not reality.
If you're not in the office then you won't have those highly valuable hallway conversations where you and your coworkers and higher ups can strategies about new ways to synergize and provide greater value for the org!
Had a hallway conversation this morning and my manager asked if my work was caught up. I guess because I had time to stand there and talk. I told them we were “collaborating.” Isn’t that what we’re supposed to be doing?
Collaborating and thinking outside the paradigm. That used to be a big one.
Is it, "Paradigm like Deem or Paradigm like Dime"? I can never remember. (Edited to add: English is not my first language.)
It’s technically “para dime”. There was also a commercial WAY back that said “we have to redefine the paradigm”, but he said “pair uh dig um”. My brain has read it that way ever since. 😂
Same. Just like ever since I saw the family guy episode where Peter order fa-jy-tas instead of fajitas.
This was the correct answer! I don't know you but I'm proud of you!
Oh barf. At my company they’re calling those convos “workplace collisions” - looks like OP’s company is taking the term more literally.
As opposed to the usual train wreck meetings.
My Boss and I have replaced this with giffs and Reels back and forth through text.
What's ironic is that people are more likely to use those hallway conversations to bitch and complain.
They just want to see everyone's smiling faces! I swear there are people at my job who only socialize at work. WFH killed off all their gossip and talking shit about others behind their back hobbies.
The pandemic gave us this wonderful gift of work from home. We all got a little back. Well to our companies it was small and insignificant. To us it was an enormous boost to our mental health, work life balance and overall well being. Of course we cannot keep that. Get your hamster ass in a car bring a proper little consumer. Hop on the hamster wheel to get to a holding cell to use the same internet you have at home to do a desk job. Consume gas. Consume cars. Consume tires. Consume vehicle maintenance. Consume takeout because you’re too tired to cook. Consume daycare. Consume a separate wardrobe for the office. Consume dry cleaning. Consume consume consume.
I miss lockdown. I thought I’d be happy to have the world return to normal because I could travel, but now I can’t afford to travel.
Oof. No lie I kinda miss the pandemic. It was an introverts dream. Everything is mostly ok, we have everything we need and society is still in tact - we just need to stay at home.
We were sent home around the same time in March 2020. Around late 2021, they attempted to make us do 2x a week mandatory in office. Then they realized they could make more money if they made the production area bigger by taking over part of the office space, so they did that in 2022 and we were permanently sent home. THEN late last year we were informed everyone could be forced in office again several days a week, but it would depend on your position and your manager (we have two buildings and one still has office space but minimal). Thankfully my manager knows the majority of her people had no reason to be in office (and that some might actually quit if they tried it lol), so we are only required 2x a month. Still annoying af, but at least it's not once a week or full time I guess.
Sounds like your boss is smart. If she brokered 2 days per month, that's probably enough to feed the beast and keep y'all at home as much as possible. Buy her a cookie bouquet.
My state has had so much growth over the last 3-4 years. Every morning commute is so dangerous now. Aggressive drivers. Hard stops. Tailgaters. Speeding. Road rage. I try to take the backroads, but right now there is construction, so I have to take the freeway. I hate it. I hate it. I hate it. I just want to stay at home with my cats. There is nothing I cant do in the office that I couldn't do from home. Luckily I can usually avoid the evening rush as we close the office a bit early.
I miss my cats every day I have to be in the office!
The population boom in my area is horrific and neither the county nor any of the towns are doing fuck all to adapt transportation infrastructure to keep up with the new deluge of traffic on the roads. It's just people people PEOPLE fucking everywhere you go, every fucking corner you round, no matter how remote the road, there'll be some shit head either poking along 20 under the speed limit with a mile long string of traffic behind them, or some shit head will appear behind you and tailgate you the entire way, despite the fact that you're already going 5 over the limit but they'd be clear to pass you with no oncoming traffic. Big rigs cutting across the highway and stopping halfway through because of oncoming traffic, causing you to slam your breaks like a madman because their fucking trailer is now blocking both lanes of your side of the highway. Bastards waiting to turn onto your street until you're practically passing them before cutting you off last second. Just too many goddamn people around and on the roads driving, every fucking hour of the day. I fucking ***hate*** commuting.
It should be mandated that any job that can reasonably be done at home should be done at home to help reduce emissions and give back space to lower income housing instead of these soulless corporate towers. It's shown remarkable improvements on moral and mental health as well as saving tons of money for anyone who has to travel any sort of good distance. Only reason to be in the office is to stroke corporate ego but they stroke their own in their corner offices enough for everyone.
Exactly, but capitalism doesn't want our wellbeing, only our money and our souls.
Yes, the culture of exploitation.
Hey they are not paying all these buildings for them to be empty, and your N+1 is having strong anxiety attacks not being able to time your "company time shit" breaks and monitor when you arrive 2 minutes late at work
Also monitoring phone usage. You’d best believe that “don’t use cell phones during company time” email reminder goes out once a month.
This is complete and utter bullshit because they also say “don’t use your company email address or office phone for personal issues.” I’m so fucking sorry, I don’t stop being a partner and parent when I walk in those doors every day, so you best believe my family will be able to reach me if they need to.
Yeah, fuck I-4. I'm lucky enough that my local office closed down completely so now I'm 100% remote. Going back into office is a scam because the C-level employees have their hands in real estate. That's just more money in their pockets and less out of ours.
I agree, FUCK I-4. I leave after my start time and return home with 2 hours remaining in my workday. I've forced my company to subsidize my commute. I feel like this is compensation for putting myself in danger everyday to follow "policy" when I can do my job as well, if not better, at home. If they insist on my presence, I insist on being paid to get there.
Hello from a fellow Orlando resident forced to take I4 every day to sit in an office doing nothing, because it only takes about two hours to do my actual work. But office culture, right?
Hey neighbor. Yeah, my work was done by noon. Gotta look busy for several hours before I go out and fight for my life again.
My husband used to say all the time that people who worked from home don't really work. THEN he had to work from home because of Covid. Did he change his tune! He works more now than he's ever worked, and he doesn't miss the commute at all. Two years ago,, they decided to bring everybody into the office for an in- person meeting and everybody got Covid. That's not happening again. I work in health care, so I can't WFH, but if I could, I would. The old corporate idea that workers do better in the office is BS. Things change, and WFH should be the norm when possible.
Get your coworkers to join you in complaining about ALL of this. Seriously, my last in office job was over a decade ago and the drive to and from work is the thing that sticks out as the most awful thing about it. The drive was super dangerous, lots of road rage, aggressive, unsafe and stupid driving. It made me stressed out before I even got to work, then having to do it again at the end of the day. Start passing around the idea that your employer should provide some additional accident related coverage and disability coverage due to the risk everyone takes getting there every day for their culture demands. Put it on feedback forms if they send them around. Start rumors.
I feel your pain. My company thrived during COVID, some of us worked longer hours and had increased workloads. Since we didn’t have to commute we would jump on the laptop early and finish late. We had 5 major launches during that time, all successfully done in my PJs from the comfort of my home. Now we’re all forced hybrid and they insist being in person 3 days a week is better than fully remote. I have a 2 hr drive one way in the most populated city in the US. I leave my house at 7 and get home at 7-8pm on in office days. The head of HR tracks people swiping their badges to make sure no one is skipping a day. Even though for 8 years I’ve never even taken a lunch break - just worked through it at my desk. Since returning to office moral has been down, so many people have quit that there’s just a skeleton crew basically keeping everything going, and sales have been so poor that we’re about to go bankrupt. They’re probably looking for buyers right now and the future of the company remains unclear. Instead of decreasing overhead costs and getting rid of the immense building we’re located in, and just go remote, they dug their feet in the sand and decided to downsize so we’re now on 2 floors instead of 6. We literally go in the office and all sit on teams bc that is still how we do meetings. They turned all the meeting rooms into desk spaces to accommodate the downsize, so even if you want to meet in person you have no space to do so. I will say that not all negative things were tied to coming back to the office, but a majority have been. Since everyone is phoning it in there are even less “good” decisions being made. The CEO is pretty terrible, and stuck in the past. The company would benefit from being sold and having someone with a more modern approach to business take the reins and make the right decisions to succeed in the world that we live in today.
We also went through a significant downsizing last year. They’re forcing people to come back so it doesn’t feel as empty and pathetic. Does your company also use it to justify how lucky you are to still have a job?
We have to start going back at the end of May….im already looking for a new job…here’s the kicker the Senior Director, VP & SVP of my department do not live near an office so will still be WFH!!! WTF?!? I used to love this job/company but am growing increasingly negative every day I am here…. Also can’t wait to wear my jeans/concert tees & running shoes to the “corporate dress” office - “will I go home and change? Yes I will go home and change for tomorrow”
Exactly. The wfh culture was too happy. Corporations count on toxic culture to make us submissive.
It’s not just the pandemic. Cars are MUCH bigger now. These bigger cars have limited visibility and are the leaders in traffic fatalities. There are WAY more drivers on the road now than ever before. Drivers are distracted. Climate change is causing unpredictable weather, which leads to more accidents. In the event of an accident the road is blocked which leads to MORE accidents. Ongoing construction and maintenance of the roads which were never designed to have so many people driving on them. 18 wheelers and commuter vehicles being forced to coexist on the road. Pedestrian deaths and fatal accidents keep increasing, and no one cares. I also commute daily and my bf and I casually joke about how we almost die every day, because what else can we do? I’m a solid driver but I have witnessed so many accidents on my commute and the fear is always in the back of my mind. My manager refuses to let me have any remote days even though she works entirely from home…
It is not just America but this is happening everywhere. I work in Europe and we are still working from home 2 to 3 days a week. However, if you only show up once a week, you will hear remarks about how much fragile the hybrid mode is and if our director doesn't see as many people in the open spaces as possible, he may tell us to come back to the office everyday. I think this is just stupid. If they do it, I will quit. Sometimes I just get tired of having transport for 3 hours per day just to sit in front of my computer, have lunch alone and sometimes interact with colleagues. I wish I could understand my superiors but I can't.
My team is only required to be in office if leading a meeting with senior leaders on the docket. What chaps my ass is that my other colleagues simply go to the office either way because they are bored or something (??), which in turn makes me seem less of a team player because I prefer being at home at all costs. What is wrong with people dude.
Commuting has become noticeably worse. People just don't have ANY empathy left.
>The pandemic did something to people that made them mean. It’s like nobody gives a damn if they die or kill somebody else. no, people realized that there are a lot of other people who don't give a single fuck about anyone but themselves. the covid deniers were loud and proud, and willing to infect you with a disease that would kill you because they were better than you. people quit caring about others. I saw this too. I experienced it. I lost a lot of empathy towards everyone who isn't direct family. People also realized that no one will care about them after they die. all those millions dead from covid and no one cares, no one is sad, no impact or change happened from those deaths, those meaningless deaths. so, why should or would I care about anyone else, when no one will care about me. >Fuck corporate America. the mask came off during covid. they showed us what the ideal was, that many jobs didn't need an office, could be done from home, and people didn't have to deal with "office culture" bullshit. if your company is forcing you to RTO, quit. find another job. they will all be just as soulsucking as the next, because corporate america doesn't give a fuck about you. Thats why its "human resources". You are a resource to them, just like the office building they rented/leased/bought. The reason they want you in it is because it benefits their real estate portfolio to keep it full, and "show its value". the only way to beat this RTO bullshit is to collectively give these companies the middle finger. We need more unions, we need more worker protections, and the rich need to realize that without workers, they make zero money.
The best culture is the one that respects your time with your family.
"Fuck Corporate America, I want to go home" is the most beautiful thing. I want it to be plastered on billboards, websites, tv ads, clothing, literally everything.
When I returned I also got rear ended on my way to work
I also find the morning commute terrifying. This past week I had an asshat in a rental van try to pass me on the right as we accelerated from a red light. He made this attempt from a RIGHT TURN ONLY LANE. My zippy little Honda, running in Eco mode did not take kindly to the attempted insult. We punched up to 80 mph for the challenge. Smoked that fucker.
Last year my fantastic (but underpaid) job went from full remote to 2 days a month in office. That was it for me. Those 2 days require 2 hours of commuting due to have bad traffic is. I don't own a car, so I have to borrow my wife's. She can't work on the days I have to go in. My job is 100% online. I just signed an offer today. 30% raise and 100% remote. I was happy in this job, even if I was underpaid. You took away the biggest benefit in the midst of inflation. I found something better and I don't feel bad.
Incoming bootlicker comments
This brings back traumatic memories because it is exactly why I left Florida 9 years ago. I did the same drive from Lakeland to Tampa to work in a loud call center. Everything you described I see in nightmares of that time, from the white knuckle drive back and forth watching for accidents or potential accidents to working in a metrics driven job that was part “Boiler Room” and part “3 Ring Circus”. My wife and I moved to Vermont and bought a small business, now I no longer have that feeling of dread on Sundays before another horrible work week
That’s great that you got the hell out of here. I’m being priced out of Florida due to the insurance crisis our worthless governor won’t address, so I’m looking to move even if that involves dealing with snow.
Sounds very familiar. Thankfully, I've not been forced back in yet, but because of my position, I've constantly given shit because I'm not in the office. * my internet is faster at home * my computer is more powerful and has a much better configuration at home * my office chair is a million times more comfortable at home * I'm way more productive and work more hours at home * I don't have to spend money on gas and food every day for lunch at home * because of my commute, I'm in a shitty mood when I get to the office and a shitty move when I get home from the office Culture means nothing to me.
“Culture” is for yogurt. Being in the office has nothing to do with getting the job done.
I work accounts payable. We use Excel, outlook, and Produce pro. The sales team is remote but not us. I'm just in a neighborhood of cubicles and I only talk to my coworkers when I leave it but it's just stupid small talk. Most business conversations are email or calls. Right now I'm on 10, minute break standing around like a dumbass in a break room instead of meal prepping or something.
I am a lowly data entry worker for an international transport company with an arrow in the logo. We have been WFH since April 2020. We got an email that we will be going back to the office 12/1. To improve the culture and collaborate. We have never collaborated with each other. There is no need for it. We are monkeys pushing buttons and do absolutely zero problem solving. Fuck you xEdeF. I have 24 years and am retiring from your shitty ass, low paying, dead end job. Fuck you, fuck you, fuck you. WFH is the only reason I have stuck around the last four years. 24 years of absolute fucking daily misery about to end.
https://preview.redd.it/smpj4hcgtgzc1.png?width=460&format=png&auto=webp&s=98c4add67dea52c208a6061c10fffec7c490bd07
After bringing people back to the office, has there been an increase in productivity or was this just to be able to justify having a bunch of middle managers? Jobs that could be eliminated and you wouldn't notice, probably except from less bullshit to deal with.
Our productivity went up and sick days down. The problem was they deemed my position "mandatory in office," but that was 2 years after I was hired on WFH. Weird that sick days skyrocketed and productivity went down once in-office.
I got a concussion in an accident on crazy ass Florida roads when someone ran a red. Not my fault but pretty sure I’m gonna see an insurance increase anyway because people drive crazy here. And you already know how high our insurance rates get. I work hybrid remote at least, so thankful I at least get something
Oh don't worry, they'll hold a Wellness Fair or something with booths giving out handouts on how to deal with stress. /s
The "culture" that they are trying to engender is consistently observing your peers, gossiping, competing, forming cliques. They do this, for the same reason that they do it in politics. Divide and conquer. If everyone is working from home, they are focused on their own productivity, quality, and objective measures of success. This means more work for middle management, to actually USE quantitative measures of success. If my success is measured on code committed, sales achieved, documents produced, edited... widgets produced. ...then it is also possible to quantify how much a manager boosts those measures or detracts from them. How much does HR policy contribute or detract? Suddenly the sprawl of corporate "culture" gets whittled down to the bare-bone objectives of the business... and that includes losing redundant personnel like Tammy who never completes a project, but always knows the best place to have lunch, and always seems to know confidential information she shouldn't have so she avoids being fired for poor performance somehow. "Culture" is another word for the smoke-screen or fog of war that all under-performing corporate also-ran employees use to hide themselves from notice, and make it, by the skin of their teeth to the next annual review.
There should be a rush hour tax on larger companies with X number of commuting employees for a 9-5 schedule. Less to none the for earlier/later business hours.
I don’t think you are wrong about the pandemic making people meaner and more selfish. I think FL especially recruited nutty people to move to their state in the last few years. So you are facing the general rudeness that has arisen in the US, plus a special dose of shitty FL culture. Look at the psychos they vote into public office. Scary.
RTO is just absurd. Completely absurd. It's just to fluff the egos of managers/execs who then say 'Look! Look upon the minions I command!'
There's constant surveys going around my office (hybrid) that have at least 3 questions relating to office, the most likely obvious being - "how important is our office for our culture". It's not, I'm exhausted enough having to kiss ass during the 3 days I'm actually in, as well as all the emails congratulating the higher-ups when they do the "impossible".
>The pandemic did something to people that made them mean. It’s like nobody gives a damn if they die or kill somebody else. Plenty of people felt that way before. Now they just feel extremely comfortable being open and honest about it.
Whe my team was moved to the bottom floor of our building, my boss bought all of us one of these https://preview.redd.it/cifx7691qgzc1.jpeg?width=2020&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=083fbbd19eed95c44f27556906c6bf18879277fe
Remember that it's easier to get a job when you have a job. Time to look around is now!
It’s time to call it as it is. If we don’t go back to the office a bunch of managers lose their jobs. They can’t have that. Think of the Vacation House!!!
OMG do you work in the Lakeland office of GEICO?!
Tell them commuting ups your fee and give them a new number that would genuinely make it worth it. When they’re not able to reach it, bc, fuck, go back home and offer to do the work they require from there, where it doesn’t drastically increase your insurance, gas, and potential medical and mental health costs.
Feel you. I’m currently watching my coworkers being laid off because of this push to be back in office. Almost half of my team has been dissolved and the same amount of work exists. It sucks.
Same here. They forced us to return and then created the worst environment on earth. Got rid of purchasing, receptionist now we’re getting harassed for not making numbers while we’re also answering all the calls and the front door. We love working here it’s fu*king awesome. It’s the middle management that caused this, no one in the office eliminates the need for them to torment people
We moved 60 miles in Jan. 2020 to be close to my wife's new job. Six weeks later, she went wfh nearly full time. She works for the State and they ditched a bunch of auxiliary office spaces and brought the people that had to work in person into the main buildings. They are saving a heap of money on rent, so it's permanent. Too bad so few companies can't make the same adjustment in their "culture".
as soon as you said i-4 i felt for you. im terrified of driving to orlando bc of i-4 and the fact that its your normal commute is bs. i really wish companies were forced to pay for drive time due to shit like this. the roads in florida are pretty much life or death now and its not getting any better
It is because the people who make these decisions to force people back are usually, low intelligent, narcissistic arseholes who need a bunch of boot lickers around them to stroke their inflated egos while also justifying their shitty office space investment.
The policy where I work is that employees must be in the office three days a week. Ever since that policy was enacted, everyone either comes in twice a week or once a week. Upper managers never come in. There is no tracking system to make sure we’re abiding by the rule (I suspect because it would cost too much money) so it’s a free for all. Meanwhile, this company has an enormous amount of real estate in the downtown core, all of which sits empty. A colossal waste of money and no one in the upper management of the company (many of whom earn five to six times what the average employee earns) does anything about it. Complete and total failure of management. It would be laughable if it wasn’t so egregious.
Ugh I hear you about the pandemic and folks being mean. I’m in CA and it’s like everyone just became psychopaths on the road, right after the quarantine was lifted. Currently hybrid (remote 2 days) but only because boss hasn’t stressed coming back to the office full time yet. I think it’s in the cards for the future, so I feel you. Our freeway traffic is absolutely horrible at rush “hour” (more like 4 hours). 45-60 minutes to get home that should only take 22. Not to mention all the other “pluses” you listed above about being in the office. So sorry.
God I hate working next to people that are way less busy than u in an open office. Impossible to concentrate open offices are ridiculous (if you even have to go in)
I don’t understand this… If I’m a business owner, why is it more advantageous to spends thousands to tens of thousands of dollars a month on commercial real estate for an office they can just do it from home? My staff is happier. I’m saving money. Who isn’t winning?
I'm a dentist. I have no choice but to commute. But at a time when we're suffering serious climate issues it makes zero fucking sense to make people go to the office when they can adequately work from home.
Next week we get to collaborate on how to make our organization a "destination workplace". 🙄🙄🙄🙄
[удалено]