If Badge Swipes are such an important statistic to Ford, that means work is not getting done, and they want to prove the WFH is the reason why, or they want to use the statistic to get rid of you, or they wanted to create a job for someone that had nothing to do. Any way u look at it, it means there's trouble within.
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They only track unique badge swipes within the week. If you go to the same building multiple days you are counted as only 1 day that week.
Something to keep in mind
There is a whole ecosystem built around commuting to work. Less commuting means less fuel used, less wear and tear on your vehicle, less eating at restaurants for lunch, less stopping at stores on your way to and from work. Even less donuts and bagels bought and taken in to the office.
All of that means less revenue for those affected businesses and means less local and state taxes collected.
That's a lot of hands in the cookie jar.
The point is that this is a far more complex issue than "I can be more productive at home!" People that simplify it to that miss the point.
I don't know if WFH or RTO or hybrid is the right approach. But I've been around long enough to know that you can't make huge changes like WFH for everyone with out serious downstream consequences.
Anyone puzzled by the seemingly irrational push for RTO, read this article:
”Since the introduction of lockdowns and the rise of work-at-home culture during the COVID-19 pandemic, many corporations have viewed office rents as a cost ripe for cutting.”
The Ford family, seeing themselves as part of the ruling elite, must demonstrate they are ‘on the team’.
This isn’t about Ford using their own buildings. It’s about perpetuating the myth of RTO so that other companies don’t abandon their rented office space. They need to keep the “system” hobbling along.
www.zerohedge.com/economics/incoming-commercial-real-estate-crisis-no-one-seems-prepared
I don't get to work from home very often because I need to be present for my job.
But my wife does. She is an "information worker" for another big company. She's worked at home exclusively since 2020 and only this year has been required to go into the office one day per week. She says she can't get anything done on those days and has to work late-- at home-- to catch up.
I agree, it's easy to goof off when you're working at home, but managers know when you are getting the work done and when you aren't. The people who goof off working at home are the same ones who goof off in the office. Sitting in a cubicle doesn't prevent that.
And FYI, I'm not using company resources to read this web site and I'm on my lunch break.
I'd start looking if I were you
My badge is still at home with me somewhere -if I can find it…
I have never come back into the office since 2020 timeframe but no one has ever said anything to me.
I just continue logging in and working from home.
I think it's rude Ford hired people who have never been to Michigan and don't have to come in at all.
I'm with @1qvu+1sxqQv4P
I didn't get the RTO resistance. Before March 2020 everyone was in everyday.
My boss told me they are looking at implementing a fingerprint time card system, nuts!
🥱, is coming into Dearborn the most absolute waste of time ever, YES!
Does mgmt care, NO!
U work FOR Ford Motor. Do what ur told or quit. Whining, in the office, or on the line is just a bad look.
U do U though.
Well , the definition of stupidity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting a different result, so a change of course may not be a bad idea for certain situations and people, depending on their desired outcomes.
@1vwv+1sxqQv4P BS! At Ford, it is who you know, not what you know, what allows people to go up, and Ford is hardly unique regarding this. I am a night owl, but I have adopted an early bird approach all my life (during school and work). I only sleep late on weekends and days off. So I know when everyone arrives at work. Some of the people promoted to management used to arrive late and leave early, particularly during the summer days. But all of them played golf, who was/is the favorite "sport" of some higher managers.
There are books about adopting the mannerisms, dress code and behavior of higher managers, with the idea of getting promoted because managers tend to pick for promotion the people they like, and they like themselves very much. Therefore, your chances of promotion improve when you become a brownnoser and imitate your manager. After all, it is widely consider that “Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery”.
In today’s Wall Street Journal, I read that most people who want to get ahead are early risers who get to the office first, even before the boss. Can I get promoted faster at Ford this way ? One guy who lives in Connecticut rises at 5 to take the train to NYC to arrive by 7. Early emails to the boss impress the boss, and early go getters have some work completed by the time most people are yawning/badging/, and sipping the first cup.
@1qvu+1sxqQv4P - Best answer!
Just go in three days a week and don't worry about it. Stop fighting it. You get paid a lot of money, going in 3 days a week is a small thing. Before the plandemic we all did 4-5 days a week without complaint.
Have any of you questioned some of the stats provided by other teams? Some of those cannot be real. LL6s spend a lot of time filling documents with false data, just to look good.
How to measure the output of a team? Is it by the number of customers they handle? Is it by the amount of emails processed? Is it by hitting the arbitrary deadlines imposed by the clueless upper management? How to measure work quality? How to measure performance? All depends on the team, the work they do, etc.
However, RTO is a simple to measure metric, that doesn't require too much trouble to gather, it doesn't require an understanding of the work the team is doing, and moreover, it is common along different teams and divisions, so they can be compared easily among groups. That's why all managers are emphasizing badge swipes.
Remember, that while technical positions need an average IQ of 112, managerial positions have an average IQ of 104.
Post ID: @xmn+1svJgCvN
It may be for tax breaks.
You are right, it’s a terrible metric and is not worth anything on its own. It can be combined with other measures though. I use to have an employee who sat outside my office and I couldn’t help but notice that he often came in late relative to others and during things like the World Cup, he would watch games on his monitor. But he was also a top contributor, so his tardiness and doing non work activities during work hours was meaningless.
That said, boy is it hard to get through to his peers that I measure based on how well you do against your goals and tasks, not how many hours you sit at your desk or that you always have code on your screen when I walk by.
It doesn't actually tell you how long people are staying at the office because you don't need to badge out.
You are right, badge swipes are an easy metric to obtain and we-ponize. But what is it really telling anyone?
Is it showing who is doing the best or most work? Who is helping coworkers? Who is mentoring newer employees? Etc?
No. Nothing like that. All you are able to discern is who is physically present and for how long. I would not be comfortable managing people by that metric.
badge swipe counting is just like the reams of quality reports and plots that are produced. they just monitor how bad it is. it is bean counting by another name.
You vastly overestimate the effort to track badge swipes. The statistic has always been there and it’s part of the “system”, looking at it and deciding to do something with it is different. It may be an efficient way to manage.