- cross-posted to:
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- news
- workreform
- cross-posted to:
- [email protected]
- news
- workreform
Wasn’t quite sure what community to post this…
A recent EnhancV survey of 1,000 full-time U.S. workers subject to new or stricter return-to-office policies found that 72 percent suspect these mandates are really a voluntary attrition strategy — a strategy by their own employers to make them quit their jobs.
The damage is strategic, not merely emotional. Baylor University’s reporting on office mandates and brain drain found that firms with mandates faced greater turnover among women, senior employees, managers and high-skilled workers, while job vacancy duration increased and hiring rates declined. In other words, the people with the most options are often the first to leave. The employees who remain may not be the most committed — they may simply be the least mobile.
After SIX years fully remote my agency is now death rolling us into rto. First it was “just once a month”, then “well only once a week”, and now “two days a week isn’t bad!” and it’s absolute bullshit. I’ve heard my direct manager and director both say we returned to the office to “make our new building look full” (that started construction AFTER we went full remote) and “to socialize.” Fuck them.
The worst part though? Our new building is ALL open office/open table spaces with no privacy bullshit. I cannot explain how fucking terrible that is to anyone who hasn’t experienced it. If you still have cubicles, consider them a luxury.
Cubicles were often seen as the most hellish form of office design… It is crazy to think how things are becoming so that people are fucking looking back at them with nostalgia…
I’ve worked with people that would innocently say about “open plans” - “well, at least it’s not a cubicle farm”. Also, I’ve had co-workers that liked/advocated for for those “cubicles” that are less than waist-high. I’ve been in some corporate shops where the cubicle walls were about 8 feet high, and honestly, short of having real offices, they are far better than having an open plan. Cubicles get a bad rap since things can always be worse.
I cannot even comprehend wanting to have an “open plan” and trying to do knowledge work. I’ve done it, and I absolutely hated it. Some people even had the fucking balls to ask why I used headphones. In open plans, virtually any passer-by can just “drop-in” for a quick chat if you are near a high-traffic area, like, say, a printer.
That’s the way it used to be, all the desks just lined up in room, the supervisor at the front facing them, like a classroom. They were all men, too, unless typing was involved.
The Sociopathic Oligarchs want to take us back to the olden days of routine employee abuse.
I’ve seen many stupid layouts, and one of them was a contract for GE. I was only there for less than a week (my company was trying to place me there).
The “cubicles” were all in this room about the size of a football field, it seemed. None of the walls were higher than just above desk-level. Very bright and harsh fluorescent lighting. Bathrooms that didn’t have toilet paper on rolls, but instead these folded squares.
I have no idea how people could do even basic IT maintenance work in such an environment. I’ve worked in lots of places, with lots of various layouts - cubes, offices, open layouts. But this seemed designed to punish and infuriate anyone trying to do knowledge work.
Another work story. I worked for a company that bought some office space - it was an older building, and it had a maze of spaces that were basically really small rooms. Not sure if it was a dentist or doctor’s office prior or what.
We all set up in various areas as programmers, 1-3 of us in spaces, with walls, and eclectic office furniture, etc. This was the back portion of the company, and you didn’t lead clients through these areas - they had separate entrances, too. You could hide the people doing the real work and let them do their thing. It was really quite nice.
The company came into some money and wanted to be More Professional ™ and cleared out all the offices, put in new carpet (the old carpet was pretty rough), new drop ceilings (same as carpet - it could have used an update), painted the walls, etc., and then…put in cubicle-height (about 5 feet or so) drywall (!) sections.
It had all the drawbacks of cubicles, and none of the benefits. Good luck reconfiguring your workspaces with drywall, LOL. Every sound bounced right off the drywall, so it became much noisier. Some of the interior rooms now had more (indirect) sunlight I guess. But it was one of the stupidest decisions I’ve ever seen.