So this is a rant and I'm going to ramble. If you don't want to read it or engage, or if you want to engage in a negative way, I truly appreciate you just skipping this one. Seriously, if you want to engage in a negative way, pat yourself on the back for skipping this one, it's not necessary, we've all heard your negative judgmental energy. Your comments to this post will contribute nothing except to justify your own need to agitate others as a purpose you've created for your existence. I just feel the need to put this energy into the universe and am exhausted by angry judgmental online (and real world) trolls.
For whatever reason, we in Houston, that have had the privilege of working from home (read: non essential workers) for the entirety of the pandemic, are being asked to come back to the office tomorrow. The business need for this has not been defined clearly. The VOI for bringing us back has not been shared with us. The impact of losing talent and the emotional toll on loyal workers has not been shared us. However, management feels strongly that this is the time (when the omicron wave is starting to, but has not yet subsided) that we bring the nonessential workers back to the office.
We will share elevators with people that have a different risk tolerance than us. We will need to plan ahead for our lives based on this difference in risk tolerance. It will change the way we eat lunch, it will change the way we attend meetings, it will change our time management and our work-life balance based on our commute times, our parking stress, our general disposition in a building we've not been forced to inhabit for almost 2 years. It will affect our mental health and resilience to perform our jobs.
Management has data on this decision. Management feels this is a need and a value-add for the corporation and our shareholders. I (personally, and knowingly to a fault) frequently judge management decisions based on limited data, knowing they have way more data than I do, knowing they know better than I do how this corporation will grow and provide value for shareholders. This may very well be a good decision for the Chevron corporation. However, I have no doubt that this will not be a good decision for many individuals that work for the Chevron corporation.
This IS TRAUMA and a MAJOR ADJUSTMENT for a lot of people. Many peers that I have interacted with have a massively different risk tolerance regarding their own health. Working from home, attending meetings via Teams and sharing all your work over Sharepoint has been effective, has driven value, has contributed to the HIGHEST STOCK PRICE our corporation has ever seen; but management feels that being physically in an office will make it MORE effective. I do not have the data to dispute this claim.
I DO have the data, via personal interactions, to share with anyone that will read this that many (very talented and value-adding) people will experience trauma and a massive shift in work-life balance. Energy will be spent on worrying about commutes, arranging for meeting times in the office, putting effort into lunch planning for the week, SPENDING MORE TIME WORRYING ABOUT PREPARING FOR WORK RATHER THAN WORKING.
Management has all the data that I do not have. They have a much better idea on productivity (surely they know how hard we've worked or not worked from home via spyware), they have a much better idea on how meetings will progress (how many Teams meetings have failed because of our personal internet connections?), management has more data to know how to drive value for the CORPORATION AND SHAREHOLDERS. They surely have the data to suggest that the massive amount of stress and energy we are spending on commute times, parking, lunch planning and stress being around coworkers who do not respect our risk tolerance for a new virus (or for that matter, any other virus or infection; some people have always valued their work over your health) will provide more value to shareholders than working from home. The trauma and loss in workers mental health and talent to the corporation is a savvy sacrifice for the value we will create in coming back to the office.
I want to thank the management for looking at the data I do not have and creating value for shareholders at the cost of my mental health and wellbeing. Your sacrifice will not go unnoticed. All hail the CVX stock price over "human energy".