Quote:
Originally Posted by MrChip72
My team went fully remote early on in COVID (March 2021). I work on a small team supporting a particular line of business for the bank. 99% of the time we're all doing work on the computer or communicating with other people on other teams that don't even work in the same building. Even during COVID we maintained the same workload and deadlines as we did while working in the office. The tools available now to get the job done while not in the office are incredible now versus what was available even 10 years ago. A co-worker can share a document online and we can both live edit it at the same time with ease. Apps like Zoom often make meetings run more smoother than in person to the extent that even at in person meetings half the people are logged into Zoom to see the screen sharing more clearly.
About a year ago they asked us to return to the office 2 days a week with around 6 weeks notice. That was fine, but some people rightfully questioned "what's the point?". I now go into the office and half the time I'm at a desk doing Zoom meetings and most days have no real interaction with people on my time unless I bump into them in the coffee line downstairs.
I can understand the resentment on both sides. Sure the employer can threaten to fire people but skilled people in certain roles often aren't easy to replace, and replacing people has a huge cost of time and money. My job which is in high demand worldwide didn't even exist 20 years ago. Besides, firing people over wanting to make their half empty office look full isn't very smart for business when the bottom line ($$$) might suffer.
Short answer is that times have changed.
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Employers like to see employees on the job visually (not sipping booze watching tv until the phone rings), maybe don’t want the lost opportunity for the employees to sporadically assume some additional duty at the office, etc. The other side of the coin for the employer is a pretty big cost saving in office space should they continue “work from home”. Benefits to the employee are immense. Frankly I like it when my calls are answered right away from the employee’s home. I don’t even mind the occasional baby crying, dog barking, etc. Unfortunately I have often waited as long as 10 minutes for a person to come on the line only to find they were working from home (customer service line for some window treatments).