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Ron Sandack's avatar

Amen!! I don't know how new employees can really learn & get ahead via remote work; too much is lost in the absence of face-to-face interactions. Mentoring requires real personal relations. Great post.

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ETat's avatar

As much as I sympathize with new employees and their reduced apprenticeship opportunities, in my personal experience work from home is much, much preferable.

From employee's perspective:

a) no distractions by unnecessary meetings. Those on goog-meet, etc could be turned on simultaneously with workflow in no-video mode, and attend to (or not) as I see fit

b) ability to organize my day by priorities I set myself, not my [numerous] bosses.

c) no personal interaction with annoying SJW, career opportunists-backstabbers, generally all kinds of unpleasant arrogant human traits and asocial behavior.

d) expense-wise, on balance, I think it's a win (NYC): save ~$200/month on commute); ~$250/month on lunches; ~$50-$300 on new/repaired clothes and shoes. In debit column, Spend $extra: we are not given a stipend or reimbursement on workday portion cost of utilities, home office, internet, etc

e) safety. Again, NYC here: you all heard, I think, of our street & transport crime situation. Until I can be sure I'll not become a "random knife attack" statistic during commute, I'd rather work from home

f) no wasted time on commute (1hr each way, min) in crowded environment (leading to common infections, among other things)

From an employer POV: all of the above improves my productivity, as I'm able to sleep more, concentrate better and spend extra free time on professional training. Plus, less sick-day absences cost.

The only reason, I think, companies demand bodies return to fill office seats is they have existing long-term leases of huge offices they renovated at high expense, and now they don't want to break these contracts and lose the money. That's it. All and any noise about "productivity", "mentoring", "collaboration" etc are just that: tall tales.

Thank you, but no, thank you - as much as I can I'll resist.

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