Oh during my job search earlier this year, I'd say well over half the jobs I interviewed for that were advertised as flexible/remote had no intention of doing so. They just pointed to the fact that they were currently remote due to mandates. But the expectation was that I'd be moving to wherever the office is once this is over. Noped right out of those.
We had an engineer that would eat everyone’s leftovers. If you put it in the fridge he’d straight up just take it and eat it with zero fucks given. A guy at my brothers company got fired for doing it. He’d been there for years and got caught. That has to be up there with most embarrassing ways to get fired.
Same. I’ve talked to a few companies and they all said they are “remote” when I applied for them but once I talked to them it was definitely going into the office every day. Pretty shitty.
We got a legitimate email yesterday about needing information for a new work site we're using. Today got emails from several higher ups saying that it wasn't a phishing email and to please fill out the information as they need it to set up and access the site. Apparently no one was clicking on the original email. So much of what we do is just wasted time. It's so stupid
I don't know what your wife's job is or if it's the same in the UK, but in the US this shit is no longer flying because of how desperate employers are for anyone with experience in almost all job sectors. It's been remarkable to see so many friends talk about how their employers had to relent and let people continue to WFH because they would lose a third of their workforce otherwise.
It's just... so easy to look at the address lines and be like "is this the same domain that's sent me stuff before?"
The thought that someone could learn their new job remotely and be productive enough to stay employed remotely and they are somehow going to be better being forced to go to an office? Just doesn't make sense. We had a few who were the opposite. They were great in the office. But didn't do shit when working from home. Several got to keep their jobs longer than they probably should due to everything. But when we opened the office back up and they refused to come back, that leash got real short.
Yeah that’s the feeling in our business too, how do you train young people up remotely? A major engineering company did a review and found that during their remote time the experienced engineers were way more efficient, but the young ones were less efficient. Overall efficiency wasn’t better. The older engineers were more efficient because they didn’t have to belt the young ones and the young ones were less efficient because they weren’t getting the help they needed.
You can’t just flip a remote switch and be your best like most companies were forced to do during COVID. I’ve worked for an employer that was over 50% remote wfh and had structure, training, and specifically vetted candidates for the skills or traits to be successful in that situation. Most places don’t realize the investment it takes and just mark it a failed experiment.
or they did it expecting to fail and probably even tried to make it fail instead of trying to make it work
I’ve mentioned it before but I’ve never met any of my coworkers. I’ve never even been in our office. I was hired and been wfh the entire year I’ve worked here. As far as training I was the first person ever hired remotely so I had to just kind of learn on my own and I’d just record the teams calls where one of the other guys would show me how to do stuff and use those for reference. I know from our company meetings that our productivity as far as my department is concerned is up. There’s literally no reason the 3 of us would ever need to be in the office ever. Anything we need to ask would be by email and none of the people are even in the same state we are in. Hell, our boss is in our Atlanta office so we’d never even see him. It’s pointless to try to ever move us back in. They’re coming up on 2 years wfh
but how will you get to know your work family and experience the company culture? won't someone think of the culture!?
Not one of us even went to the department Christmas dinner if that’s any indication. I straight up forgot about it and had to pick up kid from daycare and wouldn’t have been able to make it as it’s almost an hour drive with no traffic. Felt bad cause my boss came in from Atlanta and hit me up to see if I was coming that night. I didn’t know he was going to be there or I would have probably tried to make it.
JMO, but company culture is <20% office environment and 80% the way you operate and treat your employees as they attempt to do their jobs.
i was being facetious but i agree with you. i think if your company is focusing on "culture" it's probably because you have some shitty practices you're trying to make up for.
I had one company that all but offered me a job "remotely" but I was expected to essentially move to near their HQ for three to six months to get acclimated. They wouldn't fly me back and forth weekly so I could see my family, I'd be put up in an apartment during that time. Kinda was a deal breaker there. I see remote work just like an element of any other job - some people will perform, and some won't and weed themselves out accordingly. My previous employer was struggling during covid for a variety of reasons but management decided to point to remote work and a "lack of communication" as a reason for these failures and forced everyone back into the office, and all it did was piss everyone off. And in fact, I would almost argue that remote work improved communication by causing us to improve our processes and getting some of the dinosaurs in our company to begin using modern technology. And the other thing - in specialized industries, it's hard to find experienced talent locally in this day and age. If you can't cast a wide net, you aren't going to get quality employees. Sales people and people who have to travel regularly are perfectly accepted by management to perform their work away from an office. Why should the expectations for others be different? Some people need oversight, sure, but are those really the people you want in your organization anyway?
Not my coworker but a guy that works on the same floor. There is one communal bathroom for us all with two relatively small stalls and one urinal. Anyway, this dude takes his phone to the shitter to watch videos. That part is fine. Normal, even. However, he watches the videos with the phone volume way up and no headphones on. Every time I walk in to piss while he’s on the shitter I hear the audio of random sports highlights he’s watching and other programming. That’s weird as fuck.
These kinds of stories remind me of George getting a private bathroom in that one episode of Seinfeld, people are too fucking weird in a shared bathroom.
We renovated our office a year ago. We have 3 single use bathrooms. The one closest to my office is basically right behind the receptionists desk. She is a slightly odd person and for some reason really jumpy. I hate using that bathroom because every time I walk out of it she turns around to see who it is walking out. It’s so freaking uncomfortable after I’ve been in there taking a shit.
I say this all the time but our children will laugh at the idea that Dad had to drive into work every day to go work on the internet. It's absurd and 100% for the ego boost managers get from having their minions in front of them slaving away. The one thing being forced back into the office in June has taught me is to save more so I can retire earlier.
Getting fired for eating others food reminded me of my favorite story regarding how someone lost their job. The biggest dickhead I ever met in my life, far and away, not even sure the next five biggest dickheads I met add up to his level. Typically with dickheads you just roll. Could not with this guy because we were subs and had to work with him. Every second of the day and every angle he had was trying to get us in trouble. Made no sense as we were brought in because he and his group didn’t have the knowledge we did. It’s no slight on him, he was very smart, it’s just a niche we fill, and it’s extremely common. I could not even tell you the number of people from his company that hated him. They all thought we would be the crew that got him fired, and not in a malicious or sneaky way either. Just down to the way he treated people. I routinely had conversations where people were shocked he still had a job. Needless to say it was hard to get fired from this place. So the organization was implementing a large system wide business application. Massive rollout, stopped any progress on any other work being completed. This did not involve my group so it was like a nice vacation. His team had to pull 24 hour shifts for support on this shit. Additionally there was always a manager for each group and director level in a war room type of shit. BTW every time I hear or see war room in a corp setting I cringe. So he’s on shift and his manager was as well. Some minor facet of his equipment is acting up, so he reports it and says I’m doing x to fix it. Manager walks over and says no, don’t do that, I want you to do this. Guy goes into a rant about what job he’s there to perform and how his fix is great. Manager says, sounds good, do what I am telling you to do. Goes on another rant and says, I don’t understand why I am here, this is what you pay me to fix and you don’t even listen. I will just put in my two week notice if no one will listen. Manager said, do what I am telling you to and let me know when it’s done please. dickhead finishes up the fix and sends manager a message. He’s then asked to go into the managers office. Manager said, hey about that two week notice you gave me, I’m going to take you up on that. Dickhead starts pleading saying he was joking, etc…. Manager very matter of fact says, “yeah I’m not joking, thanks for your time here.” He was such a big dickhead he fired himself. tldr: Good for you!
american work culture is a race to see who can eat the most shit while pretending to like it. i think we'll see a reverse away from remote work because of all the little simps who want to prove how dedicated they are.
Those are always the fuckers who don’t do shit at all either. They spend all their time sucking up to their bosses and acting like they’re so overwhelmed with how much work they have to do while not ever doing anything.
I’m not sure I’d go into the office if they made us come back. I wouldn’t just quit but I would start looking really hard elsewhere. I took the job because it was remote and I was unemployed but the commute would be terrible and not worth it for the salary. I could find something that pays more and is much closer if I had to go into an office.
Not at all. It was just pure art, all the conditions in the universe came together for one magical moment.
I have to drive to the office and attend a Christmas dinner after with a gift exchange where alcohol isn’t allowed because my boss doesn’t drink. This is about to be my second full workday at the office since the pandemic started
I was going to the Xmas party this year but balked at the last minute because I don’t want to miss my flight home cuz I got a COVID contact. The UK must Xmas party different because the pictures I’ve seen would be an HR reps dream/nightmare anywhere I’ve worked in the states. Apparently my bosses bosses boss basically got her tits out and the receptionist was kissing people. My wife said that sounded about right.
Ours have always been a shitshow before. We’re mostly a male dominated company so it typically doesn’t get sexual but my old boss shit his pants at a golf outing one year We’re doing it in smaller groups this year for some reason
Not bad for being in her 50s. I’m more attracted to her kitchen when I see it on Teams calls. 6 burners, inset appliances, big island….it’s so hot
It was very minor, he was just being a dickhead. It was still in a discovery phase when the conversation happened. Both of them were wrong. Just a matter of getting from a to b and the approach. Dickheads MO was going in with no lube to troubleshoot. Multiple times he took down large portions of users in that fashion, every single time he managed to keep his job somehow.