Originally Posted by
Adam Smith
My wife was quite happy with the cherry blossoms just walking around the West End the other day.
I wish I did. As some who are regular attendees on the Virtual Do are aware, I'm living the total opposite experience at the moment. By the way, we're past the second anniversary, so you're more than fashionably late for joining us
Despite having shifted from a very old-world sector to the tech sector, my current world is one of an obsession with physical presence and ridiculously long hours spent at the office. One of the co-founders threw a fit on Family Day that there were so few people in the office for a meeting. A regularly scheduled Monday meeting, nothing urgent. And on December 27th (a stat holiday in lieu of Christmas, which was on a Saturday) accused one of my team of "absenteeism", at a different regularly scheduled Monday meeting, for mentioning he was taking a couple days off later that week.
As a member of senior management, I don't mind long hours and recognize I may never have that ability to just pack it in halfway through the day, and I'm fine with that.
But the current situation is not sustainable. Either things will change or, more likely, I won't be there much longer. Earlier today, I actually suggested they may want to eliminate my position, although that was for different reasons entirely.
Yes. As long as people get stuff done and do a good job of it, I really don't care what hours they work.
I work for a consumer tech company. The culture is work from the office. I changed that for myself first and then for my team. Unofficially. I had to argue for a T2200 in my first year. I see no point in sales going into the office to do emails and calls. My team and I would rather not spend 1-2 hrs commuting to get on a phone. Some of my team plus the extended team (mktg, PMs etc) are not in the same city. Even weird was the expectation of being in the office on alternate days during Covid, wear a mask, cannot have lunch at the same table. So my team working from home is viewed with mutterings under breath and discontent by other teams but the results have been stellar so no one wants to poke the bear. Also, no one has left our team for four years - they are making their bonuses, we are gaining share, work life balance is good. Hard to argue with that though there have been spirited attempts by micro managers. I have been known to loudly profess that I do not care if my team members are on a beach in Mexico provided the numbers are great and customers are happy. My team and me have been known to take calls during kids soccer games, at the dentist, etc. Most of my team has 10+ yrs experience, some double that so no newbies that need micromanaging.
I have worked from home and only gone in on a set day or only for meetings at three employers (all fairly large) over the last 16 years. I understand this does not work for all industries or even for all roles. Unless there is a critical need for people to be in the office like our service team that fixes stuff, there is no point in the old way of working at least for my field of work. Performance is measured in other ways, not by time in the office. Most tech companies have reduced their office footprint and costs by WFH. I may be generalizing but I see a lot of Asian and South Asian companies that have this must work in the office culture.
I guess I am fortunate.