I have worked as a freelance for around 14 years, from home. My husband, a developer, always had told me that he couldn,t work without his colleagues around. Then the pandemic come and he had to work from home for more than two years. He loved it. No distractions, no commuting (I think that is the worst), better environment to concentrate in silence…he didn,t want to go back to an office. Like never ever.
But then the company he worked for said that everybody had to go back to the office because that is what’s the company wanted. My husband and the rest of his department got very angry. In three months, all the 10 people in it had gone to other remote works. The day my husband said he was leaving in three weeks was the last day of his immediate boss. So he gave notice to a higher boss, that had a big tantrum because he thought it was a workers plot.
It wasn,t, but seems that nobody has to be forced into the office if they can do better work elsewhere. Because they leave if they can. As a consequence they lost all their senior developers and two middle managers. My husband now is happy, works from home and travels to the office for meetings and things like that a two or three days every three months. He works for a big international company with people in remote in several countries. His prior company is struggling really hard to finde people to work for them. It is up to them: expert people on remote or junior people wanting experience to go remote later on other job.
expert people on remote or junior people wanting experience to go remote later on other job
This is what it’s shaping up to be. Also, junior people understand that there is no real loyalty on the part of the company - they will replace or lay off staff at a moment’s notice. And there is a real salary penalty for staying as studies have recently shown. (Also common sense and anecdotes from most everyone you know). Those junior people willing to be in the office will leave in a year or two for a WFH job elsewhere with a salary bump. If RTO /fulltime in the office companies want to keep them, they will have to compete salary-wise with WFH companies.
ETA: Here’s a very interesting article on the permanent shift to remote work.
In 2022, 34 percent of workers over age 15 reported working at home vs. 69 percent in the workplace, dipping slightly from the previous year. […] The pandemic spike in working from home was limited to college-educated workers, especially those with a bachelor’s degree or higher, about 54 percent of whom worked at home in 2022.
I on a 4/10 schedule, mostly work from home except 1 day a pay period.
While I’m not actively looking for a new job, I won’t turn away a fully remote position that meets my requirements, so I keep my resume posted on various job sites.
I get hit on by recruiters about 2 - 5 times a day looking for someone to fill my specific niche role or similar, for a contract term and/or fully onsite position. I always reply, “I don’t even consider looking at a position unless it is a permanent FTE and fully remote”.
I may not actually find a replacement job, as I’m happy where I’m at, but I figure I can at least help out all the other jobseekers out there by letting the headhunters know, that there are qualified people out there that won’t except any offer that isn’t fully remote.
I have worked as a freelance for around 14 years, from home. My husband, a developer, always had told me that he couldn,t work without his colleagues around. Then the pandemic come and he had to work from home for more than two years. He loved it. No distractions, no commuting (I think that is the worst), better environment to concentrate in silence…he didn,t want to go back to an office. Like never ever.
But then the company he worked for said that everybody had to go back to the office because that is what’s the company wanted. My husband and the rest of his department got very angry. In three months, all the 10 people in it had gone to other remote works. The day my husband said he was leaving in three weeks was the last day of his immediate boss. So he gave notice to a higher boss, that had a big tantrum because he thought it was a workers plot.
It wasn,t, but seems that nobody has to be forced into the office if they can do better work elsewhere. Because they leave if they can. As a consequence they lost all their senior developers and two middle managers. My husband now is happy, works from home and travels to the office for meetings and things like that a two or three days every three months. He works for a big international company with people in remote in several countries. His prior company is struggling really hard to finde people to work for them. It is up to them: expert people on remote or junior people wanting experience to go remote later on other job.
Lol @ “he thought it was a worker’s plot.”
Capitalists are the fucking worst.
A true leopards ate my face moment.
Also, the ones thinking that they will inherit the company, like this one.
This is what it’s shaping up to be. Also, junior people understand that there is no real loyalty on the part of the company - they will replace or lay off staff at a moment’s notice. And there is a real salary penalty for staying as studies have recently shown. (Also common sense and anecdotes from most everyone you know). Those junior people willing to be in the office will leave in a year or two for a WFH job elsewhere with a salary bump. If RTO /fulltime in the office companies want to keep them, they will have to compete salary-wise with WFH companies.
ETA: Here’s a very interesting article on the permanent shift to remote work.
https://archive.ph/2023.06.23-054431/https://www.washingtonpost.com/wellness/2023/06/22/remote-work-family-socialization-time-use/
Thank you for sharing, very interesting.
I on a 4/10 schedule, mostly work from home except 1 day a pay period.
While I’m not actively looking for a new job, I won’t turn away a fully remote position that meets my requirements, so I keep my resume posted on various job sites.
I get hit on by recruiters about 2 - 5 times a day looking for someone to fill my specific niche role or similar, for a contract term and/or fully onsite position. I always reply, “I don’t even consider looking at a position unless it is a permanent FTE and fully remote”.
I may not actually find a replacement job, as I’m happy where I’m at, but I figure I can at least help out all the other jobseekers out there by letting the headhunters know, that there are qualified people out there that won’t except any offer that isn’t fully remote.
This is a good answer. Mostly to let companies know that they are going to have a lot of difficulties finding the best people.
Thanks for sharing