“In probably unrelated news, remote workers love how they can’t be micromanaged or watched over their shoulders and are frustrated and disoriented by return-to-office plans.”
The kinds of bosses that don’t want me working from home are the exact ones I want to hide at home from. The ones who already aren’t a micromanager I’m actually quite happy to come into the office and work with and around.
Been on both sides and Oof. Luckily now with a boss that’s happy to have me wfh but I don’t take him up on it too much cause I just genuinely like being in the office!
You don’t say!
FYI, this posted twelve times, in case you aren’t aware.
The kinds of bosses that don’t want me working from home are the exact ones I want to hide at home from. The ones who already aren’t a micromanager I’m actually quite happy to come into the office and work with and around.
Been on both sides and Oof. Luckily now with a boss that’s happy to have me wfh but I don’t take him up on it too much cause I just genuinely like being in the office!
Fascinating!
The kinds of bosses that don’t want me working from home are the exact ones I want to hide at home from. The ones who already aren’t a micromanager I’m actually quite happy to come into the office and work with and around.
Been on both sides and Oof. Luckily now with a boss that’s happy to have me wfh but I don’t take him up on it too much cause I just genuinely like being in the office!
Employment, right?
The kinds of bosses that don’t want me working from home are the exact ones I want to hide at home from. The ones who already aren’t a micromanager I’m actually quite happy to come into the office and work with and around.
Been on both sides and Oof. Luckily now with a boss that’s happy to have me wfh but I don’t take him up on it too much cause I just genuinely like being in the office!
Fascinating!
The kinds of bosses that don’t want me working from home are the exact ones I want to hide at home from. The ones who already aren’t a micromanager I’m actually quite happy to come into the office and work with and around.
Been on both sides and Oof. Luckily now with a boss that’s happy to have me wfh but I don’t take him up on it too much cause I just genuinely like being in the office!
You said it!
The kinds of bosses that don’t want me working from home are the exact ones I want to hide at home from. The ones who already aren’t a micromanager I’m actually quite happy to come into the office and work with and around.
Been on both sides and Oof. Luckily now with a boss that’s happy to have me wfh but I don’t take him up on it too much cause I just genuinely like being in the office!
Really?
The kinds of bosses that don’t want me working from home are the exact ones I want to hide at home from. The ones who already aren’t a micromanager I’m actually quite happy to come into the office and work with and around.
Been on both sides and Oof. Luckily now with a boss that’s happy to have me wfh but I don’t take him up on it too much cause I just genuinely like being in the office!
Bosses, right?
The kinds of bosses that don’t want me working from home are the exact ones I want to hide at home from. The ones who already aren’t a micromanager I’m actually quite happy to come into the office and work with and around.
Been on both sides and Oof. Luckily now with a boss that’s happy to have me wfh but I don’t take him up on it too much cause I just genuinely like being in the office!
This seems to be a popular opinion!
The kinds of bosses that don’t want me working from home are the exact ones I want to hide at home from. The ones who already aren’t a micromanager I’m actually quite happy to come into the office and work with and around.
Been on both sides and Oof. Luckily now with a boss that’s happy to have me wfh but I don’t take him up on it too much cause I just genuinely like being in the office!
Whoa, deja vu!
The kinds of bosses that don’t want me working from home are the exact ones I want to hide at home from. The ones who already aren’t a micromanager I’m actually quite happy to come into the office and work with and around.
Been on both sides and Oof. Luckily now with a boss that’s happy to have me wfh but I don’t take him up on it too much cause I just genuinely like being in the office!
A unique viewpoint!
The kinds of bosses that don’t want me working from home are the exact ones I want to hide at home from. The ones who already aren’t a micromanager I’m actually quite happy to come into the office and work with and around.
Been on both sides and Oof. Luckily now with a boss that’s happy to have me wfh but I don’t take him up on it too much cause I just genuinely like being in the office!
Really?
The kinds of bosses that don’t want me working from home are the exact ones I want to hide at home from. The ones who already aren’t a micromanager I’m actually quite happy to come into the office and work with and around.
Been on both sides and Oof. Luckily now with a boss that’s happy to have me wfh but I don’t take him up on it too much cause I just genuinely like being in the office!
Managers, right?
I’ve been working remotely for almost a decade now and have been a manager for 6 of those years and I do the following:
Is [EMPLOYEE]’s work getting done? If yes then do nothing aside from thanking them. If no then talk to employee and/or start the corrective action process.
I have neither the need nor the desire to hover over them. They’re grown ass adults.
A few issues with your method for the average manager.
What work exactly is the employee doing?
How do you know if it is being done correctly?
The average manager has no clue on either of these questions.
These managers rely on wandering around the office judging productiviy by who looks busy and holding constant meetings to hear themselves talk.
Fair. I’ve had a few bosses like that.
That sounds like the manager is the one not doing their job and is in need of monitoring.
As a manager, agreed
The average manager has no clue on either of these questions.
But being in person wouldn’t help.
I managed a support team of about 30 people at a fully remote company. I’d check their numbers of closed cases, review cases when customer feedback was bad, and take into account any other side projects they were working on.
Praise when people did good and have one on one talks with people that were falling behind to see what the cause was so we could work on it. It’s not that hard.
I have a pretty similar work flow. I stay on top of my crap, they stay on top of theirs and everyone’s happy. As long as they’re doing what they’re supposed to I don’t give a damn if they’re also taking some down time during their day.
So don’t. Give your employees tasks and then leave them the hell alone. If they don’t get things done, find a new employee.
I had a one on one with my boss today. He told me he was very happy that sometimes he doesn’t even know what I’m doing, but he doesn’t get any complaints and all my deliverables are on time. I am for help when I need it and before everything is urgent
Meanwhile he needs to babysit the two most senior employees and have daily meetings with them because they don’t deliver anything on time and is going to force them to go to the office twice per week. I guess not everyone knows how to be responsible, but at least my boss knows he can trust some people
Last meeting with my boss he told me “I don’t know what you’re doing but keep doing it because you’re the most productive employee we’ve got.” Having a job where it’s easy to see what people accomplish day to day clearly helps though…
I think this is what a lot of people here miss. Yes many people can be productive from home, but a few are not and I could see them ruining it for everyone on some teams. If you say ‘just fire them’ you either work for a terrible company or have never been a manager. It doesn’t work like that, for good reason.
The other one I think a lot of people miss is training. I’m not worried about my senior engineers, I’m worried about my junior engineers. The juniors specifically complain about seniors not being around to train them and I worry about their career development. Obviously it depends on the role/type of work/etc, but I don’t think it’s unreasonable to expect some time in the office for senior positions that are responsible for training others. My junior staff shows up to the office voluntarily every day because they see a lot of value in it in terms of technical growth.
And before you say they can just call/message. Sure, but they won’t. Even in the office I have to go up to junior staff and only then do I get the ‘well while you’re here’. I know there’s a lot of shit managers and shit companies out there but I think blanket saying ’ any form of any level of in office work is tyranny!!!1!’ is really oversimplifying things. Also, not everyone writes code for a living, you’re in a bubble. I’ll now accept all your hate
This is what the problem is. If you trust your team, you don’t need middle management whose sole purpose is to hover around. They’re the ones complaining to uppers about wanting in-person time. If everyone’s at home checking off their milestones, what do you need all these managers around for?
what do you need all these managers around for?
I think a lot of careers are bullshit but we somehow tolerate them so the rich kids who went to college for them don’t have to work at burger king.
I could write a long-ass reply to this, but I’ll get to the point, I rock at multi-tasking and juggling all my priorities. It makes absolutely no sense to me that some random dude should get to what I can and can’t be working on, for the only benefit of meeting made-up deadlines and not mixing “points” up in some burn chart. I am good at this because I know how to exploit my brain to fill my entire days with relevant work. If you assign me stuff at random because of office politic it is gonna be shit.
Skill issue.
This is correct.
They can’t adapt or change. They don’t know how as they are too comfy and stuck in their ways…
But then they force us to read “who moved my cheese”…
It also likely reveals that for many of these managers, their role as micromanagers is completely unnecessary. So they have an identity crisis, unable to justify their position.
My department has transitioned to WFH and it’s been wonderful. Every single employee much prefers it and my boss notes that productivity has increased while “issues” have subsided. That’s what you want to see.
Now that I’m doing WFH, I will forever seek a job that enables me to do this at least 75% of the time.
“Bosses” can go fuck themselves, alongside the astroturfing scum that keeps pumping out articles trying to validate the idiotic decision of returning to offices.
You can monitor the work being done. Is the work being done? That’s all you need to know.
They’re frustrated because it shows that they aren’t necessary. People can just get on and do their work without some micromanager breathing down their neck.
This is true. Your job as a “boss” should not be to command and control but rather to remove obstacles preventing your workers from doing their jobs effectively.
A good boss trusts their employees to do their work, but is comfortable working with them if there is an issue with their performance.
Exactly this. I like my manager, but they busy themselves with their own job and making sure I’m not going to quit. If they had time to look over my shoulder, I would question their utility to the company.
Micromanagers HATE this one trick.
Simple solution. Is the work getting done? Then your minions, sorry employees, are doing their jobs.
A lot of the time there is no way to tell if the work is getting done because most of the jobs have at least some amount of bullshit job woven into it. Most of what people do is just time filler.
This is a symptom of jobs undervaluing good workers…
If working harder gets you no raise, then why would anyone work harder than they need to?
I’ve discovered this at my current job. I worked tons of unpaid overtime (I’m salary), did everything I could get my hands on, I was getting compliments from upper management, my reviews were stellar, etc, etc, and my raise was 3%. My rent went up more than my paycheck did. After that, I started doing only the bare minimum. Some days I even play some Xbox in the afternoon to kill time. My latest review was excellent, and I got a 5% raise. They can go fuck themselves. I’m not going to work any harder for this company than I absolutely need to. Working less got me a bigger raise.
I’ve noticed with each increase in my income, the work has gotten easier and easier to do. The opposite result of what I have been told to expect. We have nothing in common with a meritocracy.
Food for thought: I bet you were happier when you were working less and taking time. Good things (career wise) seem to find happy people.
And then they call it “quiet quitting”. Fuck em.
This exactly. I work at 40% because any faster irritates my supervisors.
Lesson I learned early in life: most bosses prefer predictability over excellence.
I hate remote work because it means I have to pay attention to overall output and the progress of the project instead of constantly surveilling and lording my authority over the workers, who I view as subhuman tools for my own enrichment.
Does that about sum it up?
One thing I’ve learned is people don’t read, at all, even short text.
The micromanagers they have no fucking clue what’s going on if it’s written down, they need to interrupt and have you explain what it is or they have no idea what is happening.
Their boss goes “how’s the team doing, what are they working on” and they look like shit because they don’t actually read your status updates or standup or project board.
I really think that’s 80% of the problem here. We went remote without retraining and rethinking who the bosses are for that environment.
Is the work being finished and timelines being met? Congratulations, you know all you need to know.
But how will the managers know if the employees are being abused enough in workload? We can’t have people doing an adequate amount of work. They need to suffer for the company.
drinking alcohol during work hours is against company policy bud
im a commie but i can understand why workers need to stay in line or seek more Relaxing work.
of course if drinking is not against policy im drinking too if i dont got to anywhere
/idk lil drunk
I’ve worked at places that regularly drank in the afternoon
this. a 2 hour, 4 beer lunch was a twice a week thing when we were in the office. Now that I’m WFH and don’t have any soul-crushing office horseshit to deal with staying sober til 5 is actually a lot easier than it was.
Did we work together? Lololol
Only thing I miss about the office is the free taps 😞
Most industries should do remote work as much as possible, specifically the ones that involves sitting in front of a computer all day: less traffic on the road, no commute time, more commercial office real estate that can be converted to housing/shops…
I don’t really see the downside to any of this except to micro-managers.
real estate billionaires will have their office buildings devalued.
I think this is one of the major reasons they’re forcing RTO down our throats
But the micormanagers will find it much harder to justify their existence which is why they’re freaking out.
Because they’re fucking morons that don’t deserve to hold the reigns
Why’d you just say “bosses” again?
I think the biggest problem is that employers used to require that we do all the work we can do. The easiest way to achieve that is to observe that no one is slacking off. With Home Office there is suddenly a need to find out what is a reasonable workload. They seem to fear that they don’t get occupy the employees 100% of the time and as usual on capitalism it is not enough when you produce enough bit when you produce all you can.
That’s a feature not a bug. Enjoy the increased productivity and the less having to be on top of things that don’t matter.
“We don’t know what you’re up to!”
You don’t know that in an office either. You trust us because you have your own tasks.
“We can’t get a hold of you”
That’s an individual’s responsibility. Don’t bunch me up with others.
The whole reason is jealousy and it sucks.
Lol I don’t need to be watched. I do my job and still end up finding office people screwing up badly. I’ve had to fix their mistakes.
