this post was submitted on 01 Aug 2023
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Work Reform
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A place to discuss positive changes that can make work more equitable, and to vent about current practices. We are NOT against work; we just want the fruits of our labor to be recognized better.
Our Philosophies:
- All workers must be paid a living wage for their labor.
- Income inequality is the main cause of lower living standards.
- Workers must join together and fight back for what is rightfully theirs.
- We must not be divided and conquered. Workers gain the most when they focus on unifying issues.
Our Goals
- Higher wages for underpaid workers.
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- Better and fewer working hours.
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I'm sure that's part of it, but most office-based companies do not own commercial real estate. They're renters of it. Having workers return to the office does nothing for the value of their property, as they don't own any.
While it does give management a sense that they're paying rent on those long-term commercial leases for a reason, it's pretty clear that the real value for them is in being able to directly see employees when they're not in-camera. Managers and ownership have demonstrated that they do not trust their employees, and pulling them back into the office is much more about feeling like they can control their lessers than it is about anything else.
If after 3 years of a pandemic, a manager is unable to achieve success with remote employees, that manager is failing and should be let go.
I led a team on two continents at my last company, and my CEO had the nerve to tell us that RTO was so we could "get the crucial face to face time that ensures cooperation and efficiency"
Face to face. With Europe. From Ohio. Okay.
She could've just told us she has no idea how to function in a remote environment, but Forbes articles about how our company's value was "deteriorating rapidly" was a big enough clue.
Preaching to the choir. I left my last job because they mandated return to office so that I could work remotely with teams in Montreal and Paris.
The only difference between doing that in my home office and doing it from their office was they could watch over my shoulder from there.
It's not about managing remote teams. It's about controlling workers, and those are very different things. These people are worried that you might be getting your laundry done between work tasks, or that you're actually working 5 jobs, or other ridiculous bullshit, not about whether you're achieving your assigned tasks.
Remote work is cheaper, more efficient, and leads to happier workers, and they'd rather wreck the first two to ensure the don't have the third.
I'd argue that if you're worried about what your salaried employee is doing between tasks, when their tasks are being completed, you're a bad manager full stop.
That's what I meant by saying people were incapable of managing remote teams.
You and I both know it's always entrenched senior leadership, too, and they're never the ones losing their jobs to incompetence.
This whole shift in working has been eye-opening and frustrating in equal measure.
It's something of a prism of top-down class warfare, there are so many layers to it. I'm sure middle managers have exactly the same motivations as you (edit: as you mention. sorry), because I've had those managers doing exactly what you're describing to me right in the middle of lockdown.
The media campaign against working from home is definitely based on the falling value of commercial real estate.