re: Forbes - CEOs Will Be Clamping Down On Employees

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WFH makes managers measure performance.

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Why do you think this attempt to move back to some form of in-person operations is happening?

Eta
Earlier you painted all business owners and executives as money hungry villains. Surely you aren't suggesting they are pushing to move back to a less efficient or less productive environment. Is it just spite in your view?

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Why do you think this attempt to move back to some form of in-person operations is happening?

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Other than WFH showcasing managers inability to measure performance? I think vested interest in real estate. I think boomers actually hate being home alone with their wives and dont have friends other than coworkers so they want to go back to in office. I think companies are realizing many inefficiencies in their work process during WFH and instead of adapting they just want to go back to how things were to justify those inefficiencies. "I dont have a fax machine at home" Sir, you have a $1500 computer in your pocket whose battery was made from cobalt mined with child labor. USE IT to take a pic of the documents and text it to me. My phone will even transfer it to editable text.


ETA: Boomers have made their jobs "who they are" as a person. If no one is there to see it because people are working from home. "Who they are" becomes less relevant.

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I worry for our work from homers. I already see bot posts on here and once they teach the robots to wear sweatpants and post at the same time the work from homers will be obsolete

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You need to be sweating too, I saw a Boston Dynamics video where a robot dog was stacking dimes on a 6G pipe weld WHILE he was shitposting on the internet. He didn't even need a bugger. You gonna be ROMF soon old son.

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old son

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This is one of my all time favorite ways to address someone.

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I think there are studies that prove companies made record profits over the past 2 years when WFH was strongest in their companies.

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I think those account for about 6 million different variables that were unique to the time period. I suspect there were exceptional profits in some industries who didn't move to remote work.

Profits aren't necessarily linear with productivity, especially when viewed within such a chaotic time for pretty much every business.

WFH is also vast majority salary employees. Meaning mostly a fixed comp. What ends up happening, and what contributed largely to the great resignation, is employees end up working more hours to complete the same tasks. This creates burnout and blame on the company almost every time, which leads to a job change.

Just because you had to work 60 hours a week for that salary you're paid, doesn't mean you're going to cause a hit to the profits of the company.

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There are tons of jobs where being paid for your time is best for the employee and the client.

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Name a professional job that can actually be done remotely where this is the case.

I can't think of any.

I'm not paying my IT guy for how many hours it takes him to do an install. I'm paying him to do the install.

I'm not paying my engineer for how many hours it takes him to create a design. I'm paying him for the design.

The real issue is, professionals don't know how to bill for the value they provide, they only know how to bill their time.

But we aren't selling time and we aren't buying time.

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In the rare instance we charge a flat rate, the number we come up with is based on the absolute MOST hours it could reasonably take to complete the job.

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Our CPA firm is doing a lot more flat rate / value billing these days.

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A client demanding flat fee usually pays more in my experience.

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Yup. And in my experiece, they do so willingly. Never underestiamte how much a client values good work.

Most CPAs I talk to, especially boomer age ones, think we are nuts. Yet, I'm turning down new clients left and right, and not working as many hours as I used to. And making waaay more money.

Originally, I didn't want to transition to WFH.

However, due to my company not giving raises, I consider this my raise in lieu since it is a reduction of expense for me.

If I'm required to go back to the office, I will go.

I'm a salaried employee that has averaged 50-55 hours per week for 10+ years.

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You ever have a spontaneous conversation with someone in the office right after a meeting that leads to a better idea or plan or way of doing something? Or even just had a quick follow up with someone after a meeting adjourns that seals in your understanding?

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I can’t tell you how many times I pick up the phone and call a colleague directly after a meeting.

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What blows mymind is the people who are getting NEW jobs that are 100% remote.

How tf does a person get up to speed quickly and efficiently in that environment.

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It is certainly more difficult but by no means impossible.

I've seen our team hire 3 new people the last 3 years and all of them became functioning members of the group within 6 months as usual, and we are talking highly technical work (network engineering). I'm also training someone in my specific role.

It requires overcommunication, lots of documentation, and teammates being dedicated to training the new guy. I work at an ISP so we do also take the new guys on a tour of some facilities so they can more easily visualize how things work in the field.

I am a senior, so I have a daily stand-up Teams call with my noob in addition to all of our other meetings to go over what needs doing and give him a space for asking questions, and then am available for him to ask me questions anytime. Otherwise I leave him be to handle tasks because that's the best way to learn. He has a plethora of documentation I've implemented over the years to guide his work, also.