General Politics Discussion

[danbrotherston]

I have genuine reservations against remote work and I think it has larger societal and personal costs that remote work enthusiasts don't really have answers for. I think a hybrid approach makes the most people happy between the two extremes of fully remote vs 100% on-site.

BUT: The employers who have gone the hardest into return-to-work policies have been the ones who have been trying their hardest to make workplaces miserable. It sounds like in many offices you don't even have a desk anymore - you have to reserve them and hop around the office like some kind of cubicle rental. Why do they want people to come back to work and experience the "team building environment" when workplaces are becoming more anti-human over time?

There's also something really quite perverse about the Suburban NIMBY-in-Chief (Ford) forcing people back into commuting while ranting about traffic and congestion and bike lanes at the same time. And making it impossible to plan communities where you can live near your workplace. I think it's true that The Public™ needs to believe that public servants are working and can be seen to be working, but I have no faith that Ford is the guy to manage any of that.

(paraphrased) "several banks including TD have mandated 4 days back in the office."

The irony of this is fucking palpable. Before the pandemic, TD (the bank I worked for) was spending considerable effort to reduce the time in office, in order to decrease the real-estate costs. They redesigned their office for a much higher density as well (making it rather uncomfortable IMO). They in fact forbid workers in the office from coming in more than 3 days a week. This was pre-pandemic.

Honestly, people are different. Some want to be in an office, some don't, there is no one right answer for everyone. The only interesting discussion is how much it costs (not economic cost, but in ephemeral costs) to be flexible an allow different team members to optimize their schedules for themselves, of how much they want to be in the office. And this probably depends a great deal on the manager, as well as the team dynamics.

But to me, these continual "back in office" pushes are just conservatism at it's worst. "Things have changed, and I don't like it, so stop it, and go back to the way it was before."