I think many people have convinced themselves that they are more productive from home when that's simply not true. I know by my example. I take many more breaks at home. They are short - wife needs this, kids want me to do that - but they are consistent. Let me be clear, I prefer working from home, but I think folks are making a mistake trying to use productivity as a reason for it. I think that's bound to backfire.
34 replies (most recent on top)
Wait, this guy has 9 of the people he manages who do no work? Why would you freely admit that you’re such a bad manager?
Yeah, I’m not surprised to read this. It’s always about money. Does the OP know he’s a shill?
https://www.thestreet.com/personal-finance/jpmorgans-jamie-dimon-delivers-a-stern-warning-to-remote-workers
“ But that may not be the only reason that Dimon and other banks, including Goldman Sachs (GS) - Get Free Report, are pushing to end remote work.
Banks are exposed to significant loans outstanding for commercial buildings that have become less valuable because vacancy rates have risen. If vacancy rates remain high because of remote work, rising interest rates and depressed valuations could cause delinquencies and defaults.
Banks are also more directly exposed because they've invested big money in commercial real estate. For example, JPMorgan is building one of the tallest structures in New York at 270 Park Avenue, a 1,400-foot (430m) tower designed with 70 stories and space for 15,000 workers.”
@1ecg+1osnSTss
Weak, go yell into the wind with that nonsense
Just an fyi, that was someone else. After you’re “make me laugh comment”, I’m done wasting time on you.
USAA is not in a conspiracy to force RTO because it will keep their office real estate a little more valuable you absolute king of goobers
The savings of cutting offices completely and hiring remote workers would vastly outweigh those losses
The rest of your childish little rant and insult tirade never addressed anything but whining and moaning that you can’t work your crisp 2-3hrs per day and collect a full salary in your boxers with your DoorDash trash piling up
“The postings were remote and hybrid!” - so?
You thought Covid would last forever?
What is wrong with you dude? Your level of entitlement and complete inability to have accountability for your own life is just staggering
There’s a reason that so many companies are requiring RTO and it’s not because they’re cartoonish fat cats who are too stoopid to realize how much WFH benefits them
Your inability to see that demonstrates your juvenile world view
why are you posting here, stop giving it attention
@1uzv+1osnSTss
You are so full of yourself it's hilarious! Thanks for the laugh.
@1dfx+1osnSTss
First off, you insulted everyone on this forum first, so don’t come back with thin skin and crocodile tears when I apparently guessed right about who you are and your multi-post strategy to simulate a crowd.
Second, the losses in commercial real estate from work from home are very real, and the banking industry is setting an example to discourage wfh partly because of the damage it can do to them and the economy. https://www.investopedia.com/wfh-could-cut-usd800-billion-from-commercial-real-estate-values-by-2030-7560849
If you listened or read yourself, you would know what I said was not a fringe conspiracy theory, but a very real and understandable threat.
Whatever you’re babbling about chasing out all the other San Antonio locations, the strategic decision to unload real estate or massively shift folks who are hybrid to remote would be significant, and they ARE thinking about taking away one of the two offices in Tampa. Maybe you’re not a VP, because you don’t seem to know much about our company.
As for the in-writing thing, actually, we do have it, and the job postings say “remote”, “hybrid”, or are even more specific. And what, you think I have an employment contract? Most of us are at-will, that’s why I’m not talking about suing them, it’s not like they did something illegal. They betrayed a commitment they made to us, but they didn’t break any laws. Just think for a second, are you trying to brainwash everyone on this forum from USAA into thinking they never heard those commitments? Though if some other folks want to sound off in the comments with specific written examples, it’s easy to prove you wrong. Not worth the trouble for a troll.
Lol and yes, some people are upset they can’t slack off from home, and many of them will slack off in the office. Again, learn to be a decent manager or leader, align incentives, and layoff/fire poor performers or people who skip work. What about all the people who work hard from home? You think they just don’t exist? Or you don’t care about them?
Also let’s not forget how many leaders are still remote too, which makes the whole crackdown on hybrid days so much more ridiculous.
I’ve pegged you clearly, you are a misanthrope who hates the average employee and thinks they’re all lazy, entitled b-ms. You don’t provide any valuable arguments to support your position, and the only one talking like a child is you.
Keep your vicious little tirades to yourself.
They don’t want the corporate real estate market to crash harder than it already is. Also, everyone is not angry because wfh is a divine right, but rather because of recruitment based on lies and promises broken without sufficient evidence presented. I don’t care about the studies you haven’t actually cited and the secret corporate data you claim they have.
And again, you’re one angry loser driving this whole forum. Probably some sad VP whose department is in crisis or a flunkie of Wayne. If you have some strong arguments to support the case of betraying us, we’re all ears. But all you’re doing is ranting about how this immoral behavior to try to make yourself feel more right. You’re not an intelligent person, just some sad misanthrope with undeserved power that you’ll probably lose very soon.
No, of course not
All of these “studies” are as garbage as the “studies” that showed us that we’d be dead of climate change in 2015
If you haven’t checked linked-in - you might not notice that there’s a huge incentive to spew platitudes about how WFH is truly the best etc etc etc
You think companies haven’t done internal productive studies that show people are slack as--s?
You think they want to pay for office buildings and maintenance and pay for expensive American workers to come to those buildings?
Just check the reactions - fury and flying spittle - of you even asking this question
Why are they so angry about coming to the office like most other jobs have to do? Or we did in the past?
Like screaming children throwing a tantrum
My only hope is they s-b and cry their way out of the org and make room for people who want to stay at USAA!
Increased productivity is literally data-backed by study after study, but by all means, let's lean into the anecdotal evidence. It is The USAA Way, after all. 🙄
Absolutely get more work and better work done at home.
Wayne, is that you?
Was able to multitask smoking weed and taking calls so yes more productive
My team is far less productive in the office. They talk all the time, leave early for happy hours, stop mid conference call to talk to people passing by, meetings are cut short due to travel time needs, and not to mention the shenanigans going on all the time. It’s annoying.
Sounds like you have poor time management skills, along with critical thinking. You're applying your plodding, bunny-slippered, cheeto-bellied slacker stereotype to everyone that works from home. That's awful weak. Sounds like you're in management and would love to add the micro tag to it.
@fyy+1osnSTss
Super happy to be betraying the promises you made to folks you hired too, right?
Regardless, this is just one person posting multiple comments to try to make it look like a crowd. I don’t believe you have 9 folks doing nothing for work from home, and if so then you are a lazy boss who would rather stare at people then set clear goals, track progress, and align incentives to help motivate people. Basics of being a good manager, but USAA is filled with middle management and upper management dreck.
You must have no friends in the office because when I'm onsite, people drop by allll the time. Not to mention cubicles are so close together it's hard to focus on what I'm doing when I can hear my colleagues on the phones. I think that wastes more time than getting your butt out of the chair at home to do a quick task.
You clearly are not neurodivergent.
This post is 100% accurate. Everyone talks about how much more productive they are at home. In reality the slackers slack more when at home and the workers work wherever they are. In my kid's school they have monitoring software, and the teacher can see real time each student's screen. How many work from home folks would be ok with a manager being able to see what you are doing in real time?
Anyhow, on my team two people have worked harder at home while 9 have done virtually zero while at home. Super happy to bring everyone back so we can have a better division of work.
@cdg+1osnSTss
Think carefully about this before you post. People are mad because they were promised remote or hybrid, and now it’s being taken away. At a bare minimum, many are saying that you should make a stronger case not just that “there are different perspectives”, but rather you would need to prove wfh is such a disaster that the company can’t succeed without changing its stance.
Where is the evidence? Are leaders going to pretend we had our first losses in a hundred years because of wfh lol? No, and just like I said to OP in my first comment, y’all are trolls. Most likely people just trying to get a reaction, or people so brainwashed by Wayne’s lies that they want to white knight for him. Wayne isn’t posting here lol, you REALLY think he cares or makes time for his employees? Why do these simps bother? If you feel some burning need to be a devil’s advocate with no stake, make points that actually matter. Otherwise we’ll just assume you’re losers from HR or trolls.
If OP is serious, then he or she doesn’t have self-discipline. Just simple as that. If they need to be micromanaged to work, then that person should be at an office or have their performance reviewed closer. Many of us that wfh have no issues with productivity and many are top performers.
Nice try Wayne, nice try...
Very serious. There is a ton of research on this. Employees and managers have very different views on productivity when working from home.
You can’t be serious, right?
The 90min drive in the morning, then trying to find an open desk that has all the connections, then being on zoom meetings for the next 6 1/2 hours, then being in rush hour traffic for the next 2hours, getting home around 7pm, then logging back in to actually do some work and staying on until 1030-11pm most nights. Yeah, going into office was very productive, smh.
Researchers have found that most employees think they are more productive working from home. Most managers think employees are less productive when working from home.
Difference is probably perspective,.
Employees focus on the whole self — ability to focus uninterrupted, not commuting, stepping away for a quick household chore, etc. Thinking tends to be ‘me-centric.’
Managers focus on the work self — how much of what a person is paid to do is getting done, how quickly and at what level of quality; how the team is performing as a unit, not just how each individual is performing as an individual. Tends to be ‘team-centric.’
Neither is wrong, they are just different. Might help if employees and managers met in the middle by better understanding each other’s perspectives.
Add the drive to work, sitting in traffic, looking for parking, taking the elevator once it becomes available, finding a desk (one that works), being disturbed by coworkers on personal stuff, waiting in line at lunch (because its so packed lately). Should i go on? I think you can eliminate all this and it’ll at least even out on productivity. Physically being in the office is no more productive. Its called waste, caused by greed.
I have worked at home for 15 years and have it Exceeds 13 of them. I have gone from a QC role at another company to ED level. Yep. I am pretty damn productive. We take less breaks. We aren’t constantly being interrupted by coworkers. We don’t have to walk a mile to go the bathroom. We work longer hours since we don’t have to commute.
imagine OP waking up this morning and thinking this was a good post lol
And are you at work? A quick snack here, check sports scores there, etc? Generalizing your situation to everyone is not helpful or accurate.
I work from home, and I don’t have anyone at home with me. My children are at school, and I pay for after-school care and summer camps during breaks, the same as I did when I was in the office. My husband works outside the house. So YES, I am more productive at home and don’t appreciate sweeping statements like the ones you made.
This is not an anti-WFH post. I thought I made that clear. I just think increased productivity shouldn't be used as an argument in favor it. I might be wrong, but I do believe more people are in the same position as I am than you think.
@OP+1osnSTss
You’re probably a troll, because someone who thinks this and has no stake won’t bother saying it.
But regardless, this akin to saying, “Everyone should be micromanaged, because I slack off unless I’m micromanaged.” Obviously for wfh to be successful, the distractions and time away from work should not affect the productivity required for you to be effective at your job. If YOU can’t do it properly, the you shouldn’t work from home. However, I don’t have kids and I have a home office. My wife works and is probably smarter than yours since we know that if we constantly distract each other, we wouldn’t be able to work from home.
Reminds me of that crying woman they put on stage complaining how depressed she was working from home, so we must all be secretly depressed and just don’t realize it.