After years of productive remote work, I was dragged back to the dog bone farm, and let me tell you, it’s been a total letdown.
All I see are groups of people clustering together, chatting away in their own language, and yapping on their phones right in the middle of work hours. Meanwhile, the rest of us are trying to focus and get stuff done, but the constant noise and exclusionary vibe is overwhelming.
It’s disappointing and downright discouraging. How are we supposed to collaborate or feel like a team when it’s all cliques and distractions? Anyone else dealing with this?
15 replies (most recent on top)
@11b exactly, they will do layoffs until everyone on a team is in the same office. Is you are experiencing what you stated you are slated to be let go soon no matter how good of a performer you are. Sad but true.
@ne They've been singing that 'collaboration' song since OT assimilated my company. Collaborate? with whom? My team is all over the place.
And, collaboration is the one thing I've yet to see here. When I'm starting a new project and seek others to collaborate, or even be available to answer questions, a huge thread ensues on how to charge this off and who to charge it to internally.
I've never seen such a thing.
@t8 , Wouldn't AI Bots be working remotely since they are virtual. ;)
Eventually OpenText will just have one office filled with AI bots.
H-1Bs for the win!
I honestly don’t get how people can be so dismissive about this. It is a real issue, especially if you’re alone in the office without any teammates around. I feel the same way. Some of the louder groups can be really distracting, and it definitely didn’t feel this bad pre-Covid. If you’re an individual contributor on a globally distributed team, it can feel especially isolating when you’re surrounded by in-office cliques. So the office does not feel like a welcoming place. For me, noise-cancelling earbuds and music are the only thing that help me get through the day. I hope you’re able to find something that works for you too.
I love when people speak Hindi in the Canadian offices right in front of me
@a1 No, you disingenuous shitheel, the point RTO is about encouraging voluntary staff reduction. Please fu-k all they way off with your nonsense.
@bc most people move from OpenText into an Assisted Living home
@ag To be fair - I think OT is following other companies and not hiring people that young much anymore. I have maybe one other person around me in the 20s. So most people are going to be a bit older and not as adversely affected by covid. Late 20s, early 30s at the best is usually the youngest I see.
At that point it can be more not really being able to have much in common with people significantly older, general office politics disdain, or it could be just wanting to do the job and gtfo.
For OP, unfortunately you're going to be hearing people. Even depts not customer-facing can have reasons for calls and meetings - and some of them sharing an office are what I call 'friends until 5'. If it does considerably affect your performance OT is in a place where that may be used against you.
I do have some recommendations:
1)if you can, music or a podcast. It's more a bandaid but it's at least something minimizing noise unless you prefer complete cancelation. Decent headphones or buds will not inconvenience the people around you and still block out some noise. As long as it's not super loud.
2) If you're going to be there, maybe you can find someone there that offers some kind of personal support. The closest thing I have is actually someone nearly twice my age. We disagree on nearly everything politically or outside of work, but there's still enough similarities there's something. They can say gen Z can't do certain things or something political that a young person could lash out from or ask for HR involvement over and I can remind them their day had houses sold for $5 and a firm handshake or always get them connections to Senior Bingo night.
It's not even but there's enough similarity with enough give and take for that to still happen with it amicable. So that is the person I am most confident in talking to and that is my support. As long as I'm allowed to do my job mostly in peace, that's usually enough.
3) If you know you're not going to find that at work - it's going to need to be offset. That can be others in the company if there's a group similar to you or friends outside of work. If there's nothing though, that's not healthy. At that point there's some choices to make, be it looking into if ADA accommodations apply, or if it may be time to start an exit plan.
Admittedly I dunno how the ADA process would go right now (assuming you're in the states or have an equivalent) and if you weren't already seeing a professional it may take time before they decide if there's medical concern or not. But it's a potential option.
The people on here tend to be polarized - so all yall take care of yourselves.
@ag
Not everything is political.
I worked in an office environment for 40 years (in Tech) and also WFH for several years.
I think what the OP is experiencing is simply a management of change issue...
It is incumbent upon the Site Leadership..to ensure there are Team Building activities, continuous communication and opportunities for people to get to get to know one another. Building a sense of community no matter the individual business and functional areas represented is key if OT wants RTO to be a success. One need only to look at the Corp HQ of most (successful) companies to see it is possible as almost each function in a Corp HQ supports various functions, process teams and/or business lines across the company. Also having a dynamic, multi-functuonal office is great for cross training and KT.
This is office culture 101. Like in school, you need to find a place to fit in. Obviously you are not customer facing. The pandemic restrictions created so many socialization issues for 20 somethings and we are seeing what the forced shutdown is doing to the future groups of workers. Thank the dems.
I hope you can find a new job where your entire team is in the same building.
We were happy doing that for a few decades before we were acquired by the evil dark side.
And smaller companies are usually better for your soul. You generally are rewarded much better as so many give some kind of bonus if the company is doing well.
You are the perfect scenario where AI would be a better employee than you with your mental health issues. It has to affect your performance and take away your focus on your work.
You should go and see mental doctor to figure it out. Your situation like this is not the point for Opentext RTO policy. That’s your own personal situation.