Cubicles and 40 hour work weeks are antiquated. Time to reduce to 20 hours per week and more wfh.
23 replies (most recent on top)
People miss why working together matters: things get discussed face-to-face (especially when new joiners are involved) that simply do not in remote working. This brings ideas and progress, not ossification. A little WFH can be tolerated, but we should aim for 3-4 days a week in office. Also, a thriving culture there makes the place more attractive to potential hires visiting or for third parties coming for meetings. This is urgent and is a culture issue that needs fixing now.
When I think of the Woodcreek offices I think of the now demolished ones. Remember those great atriums. The way noise echoed in them. The way that guests had no idea how to find your office. The way that there were more offices than parking spaces so people had to get shuttled from Tully stadium... I just think of how folks in the 1970's must have thought about what was cool and futuristic.
If Wael wants to reduce US staff without having to pay for severance packages, take away the 9/80 and end all WFH.
Yeah seriously. If you want a team to come back to the office, then have the whole team in the same office.
I can’t believe how many people here think we will be more productive because we call Indians from Woodcreek instead of home. So out of touch. If your team is only in the US, let me know and I’ll gladly trade you roles and be 100% back to office. I hope you like hours of calls starting at 5:30-7am every single day.
Do your best to not be shocked when full RTO lowers productivity for many teams and raises it for far fewer teams. It’s common sense if you have any perspective on the different roles and hubs in the company.
@nb+1jmk3h2g6 You do realize that any post here that contains the empty phrase "learner mindset" is immediately ignored?
@kp+1jmk3h2g6 you may be in the cohort of line managers and employees that are insecure and can’t trust someone to be collaborative unless you can see them in person and control them.
Being reliable and getting work done is what fosters trust. You are confounding being face to face as the reason.
Long-term success is built by people with a learner mindset, ability to grow, expertise, and ability to create real value. Face to face is not a top variable and definitely not always a positive coefficient to success.
Bringing everyone back to the office has not proven to be the key missing link for a companies failures. Some people work better WFH, and some people work better in the office. Flexibility is key to a company’s long-term success; not RTO.
Its great working for shell travelling to and sitting in office with your headset on like everyone, talking to Indians the whole day. Really great professional life nowadays at Shell.
In the past when IT hubs where balanced numbers it was a pleasure to be in office and enjoy lunch together. Gone are those days.
Working from home might boost your efficiency, but it cannot replace the human connection that in-person interactions bring. Face-to-face encounters foster trust, spark spontaneous collaboration, and build a community that fuels creativity and long-term success.
I’m still WFH 5 days a week in T&S and subject to the compliance manual. No specific health or other issues. Every day could be my last, but they keep me around for the value I provide. I created a reputation for always being available, and it’s paid its dividends. I’m way more efficient at home and am way less productive whenever I travel and visit the office
The youngest boomers are 65. I don’t think there are many left in the workforce to ruin the lives of entitled younger people.
Wonder why the big tech companies have mandated RTO?
oh yeah? how is india at drilling wells?
but seriously - our leaders work remote from planes and other hubs constantly. can we outsource all of them to india?
looks like all the boomers actually do think working in the office is more productive or think work from home is about je-king off or something
they’re only telling on theirselves
data supports remote work as being more productive, google or ai it. rto is a herd thinning strategy as well. no complaints allowed when the numbers go down after rto because “it’s tradition”
my work devices will be off after 6 during any office days and yours should too. act your wage.
Counter -counter point
it is unlikely that it will be done as well.
A copy of a copy of a copy (etc.) gets blurry and loses the sharpness and quality of the image.
But, now that you mention it, the original person could be doing it anywhere EXCEPT that there are different employment laws in each state and more so in different countries. A big example of that is the rules on how much vacation can be carried over year to year varies by state. Most US states have state income tax, Texas does not. Living and doing your work in another state could leave you owing taxes. Or you'd need a visa and have to pay taxes if you did your work while in another country.
Counterpoint, if you can do your job from home, then it can be done from India.
Keep your TWIC and/or HUET active and be visible in the field.
Some people are just so entitled. WFO for all was dictated by a global pandemic. So now it’s an inalienable right?
If your employer says in-person attendance is required, do it. If that’s not your style, go elsewhere.
No one’s required to pick up your pacifier for you because you dropped it.
if you want me to go into the office that’s fine but you will no longer get the productivity boost of me working during off hours.
and you are not allowed to complain when net productivity goes down because you don’t understand anything about root causes and sit around like a monkey going “numbers go up, me make numbers go up more with office return”
honestly that’s probably too much credit. motivation for this is usually, in order
- some people will quit which saves us money, who cares if that’s the top 5% performers
- power move makes me hard
- boomer nostalgia
so yeah, its coming. those motivations are as shell as it gets. throw the future in the trash for a quick buck
RTO is coming.
Why pretend to work at the office when pretending to work from home is so much more efficient?
I think otherwise. I wish they would make RTO mandatory. Fill up the offices again. I miss the energy at WCK when it was full of people. Tuesdays and Wednesdays are kind of like that. But Monday and Thursday look pretty empty.
Open office "is great for collaboration" according to VPs with offices.
It actually just takes focus away from your most experienced employees who get su-ked into conversations.
I think folks are actually less inclined to come to work in a cubicle than an office. What if they made it better for folks to come into the office by actually having offices they have the space now?! For folks who don't want to listen to every distracting meeting, every conversation, and smell every bit of fl-tulence an office is better. Other than the commute, that's why they stay home. Almost everywhere in WCK the floor is 75% empty. The exception, the top floor of the E building, a lot of folks go there and camp out in the offices. But if you leave, another hermit crab will take your shell.
I do notice that woodcreek is basically empty. If you don’t need to be in the office, do you need to anywhere other than willing to work in a timezone? And then people claim jobs are being stolen away, with wfm and apparent stubbornness to revert back , jobs aren’t being stolen they are being given away