How do you work from home?

[temery]

Just curious. I spoke with a neighbor yesterday and he said his employer installed software that tracks mouse clicks. If he doesn't click the mouse at least every four minutes, he'll get a call or email.

Nothing about productivity, just mouse clicks.

 

[NYC_HUSKY22]

Used to be in 5 days a week 40 hours. Now post COVID we're supposed to being 3 days a week, but my boss is in Chicago. And i'm the only director in NY. I frequently leave @ 1:00-3:00, log back in @ home, take a nap. So long as we swipe our badge it counts as a day in. They hired this loser HR team to monitor eveyrone being in 3 days a week and they were a bunch of incompetent dweebs. They once wrote me up for coming in 2 days a week when I had a doctors note post knee surgery. Very happy they will eventually be jobless soon.

I continue to get great reviews / bonuses - and max my 401k. Reckon i'll do this until they force me out or I retire early. If hybrid work schedules have taught me anything it's how much more i want to do what I REALLY enjoy and spend time with my family.

 

[JMick]

No. Just that they won’t have picked up as much mentorship as workers who work together in an office, and that as a group they therefore will not be as good at running organizations.

Most companies don't even hire management positions from within anymore so pretty much everyone is just learning leadership on the job. It's rare that anyone goes out of their way to mentor people or set them up for promotions in most lines of work.

 

[B1GEast]

Used to be in 5 days a week 40 hours. Now post COVID we're supposed to being 3 days a week, but my boss is in Chicago. And i'm the only director in NY. I frequently leave @ 1:00-3:00, log back in @ home, take a nap. So long as we swipe our badge it counts as a day in. They hired this loser HR team to monitor eveyrone being in 3 days a week and they were a bunch of incompetent dweebs. They once wrote me up for coming in 2 days a week when I had a doctors note post knee surgery. Very happy they will eventually be jobless soon.

I continue to get great reviews / bonuses - and max my 401k. Reckon i'll do this until they force me out or I retire early. If hybrid work schedules have taught me anything it's how much more i want to do what I REALLY enjoy and spend time with my family.

The three office day hybrid seems to be the trend if you live within a certain radius of an office. I know several other companies that do this. What varies is the compliance to the three day. Some people log out after lunch and finish the work day at home. Some people also will work from home if they have a family issue, kids, dr's appointment, etc. It's the same policy enforced differently depending on the company.

 

[B1GEast]

Most companies don't even hire management positions from within anymore so pretty much everyone is just learning leadership on the job. It's rare that anyone goes out of their way to mentor people or set them up for promotions in most lines of work.

One of the companies I worked for cleaned house at the leadership level and several others jumped ship. Most of the new managers had very little experience in the role. Their credentials were great, but they had a steep learning curve and leaned on their subordinates to understand the job.

It was an odd experience. On paper the new managers looked great, in action they were silent and non visible. We'd have department team meetings you'd only hear the managers that were always around speak.

I've been fortunate to have mentoring relationships at a few of the companies I've worked for and it's served me to survive some of the poor companies I've unfortunately had to deal with.

I try to pass that knowledge on to younger employees whenever I get the opportunity. If you stick around long enough to understand why they hired you, that's half the battle. Your role is often bigger than your title.

 

[navery12]

The answer is there is zero chance people who were just starting their careers when Covid and telecommuting hit will be mentored as much as prior generations, and thus will be as good as senior leaders in 30 years as prior generations. If you don’t need leaders, and everyone doing their job is enough in a business, great, but most companies need not just workers but leaders. Law firms certainly do.

Counterpoint, in 30 years those people will be leading teams of people who all they know is the hybrid/WFH model and they'll still be great leaders and mentors still

 

[businesslawyer]

Counterpoint, in 30 years those people will be leading teams of people who all they know is the hybrid/WFH model and they'll still be great leaders and mentors still

It really is simple math — if you don’t maximize your exposure to more senior leaders who you learn from, you won’t have all the tools you otherwise would have.

Look, my commute is roughly an hour and a half round trip. Do I like saving that amount of time? Of course I do. But do I really think that only coming in half the time younger people are learning from me the full amount they would be if they were all in the office? Of course they’re not.

I’m not an old person howling into the wind. I recognize various benefits from people working from home and am not wasting time fighting the inevitable. But that doesn’t mean I shouldn’t be pointing out the clear negative consequences as well.

 

[uconnfan68]

Funny usually people have teams so you can see when someone is online. Dated someone who’s mom had a mouse that spun automatically to keep her laptop active as she did stuff around the house/ran errands.

Your neighbor is going to have to find something for mouse clicks.

Yup, there are apps for that.

 

[navery12]

It really is simple math — if you don’t maximize your exposure to more senior leaders who you learn from, you won’t have all the tools you otherwise would have.

Look, my commute is roughly an hour and a half round trip. Do I like saving that amount of time? Of course I do. But do I really think that only coming in half the time younger people are learning from me the full amount they would be if they were all in the office? Of course they’re not.

I’m not an old person howling into the wind. I recognize various benefits from people working from home and am not wasting time fighting the inevitable. But that doesn’t mean I shouldn’t be pointing out the clear negative consequences as well.

And I'm saying there's plenty of opportunity to learn while working from home. That's just an incredibly outdated mindset. The world is changing and it's time to accept that

 

[Icehawk]

Yup, there are apps for that.

And you don’t want to get caught running one. We are fully aware of all software on your device (and things like USB jigglers too). A larger org will just block all that stuff anyways.

I think there can be value “in-person” but it depends on a lot of factors how valuable that really is. Hard to have informal conversations with random coworkers if you are not physically together, IMO coming in once every other week would provide enough of that for MY job. Currently we are told to come in 2x a week by our direct mgmt but the corporate directive is 3x. They checking badging but… we only swipe in.

 

[businesslawyer]

And I'm saying there's plenty of opportunity to learn while working from home. That's just an incredibly outdated mindset. The world is changing and it's time to accept that

I fully agree and have already said I agree with your first and third sentences. As for the second one, I recognize that in ‘Merica 2024 telling people they can’t have their cake and eat it too is a waste of time. But that doesn’t change reality.

 

[Chin Diesel]

Most companies don't even hire management positions from within anymore so pretty much everyone is just learning leadership on the job. It's rare that anyone goes out of their way to mentor people or set them up for promotions in most lines of work.

That sounds industry specific.

Anything to back it up?