this post was submitted on 14 Sep 2023
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[–] TransplantedSconie@lemm.ee 171 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (5 children)

My wife's work is making people come back in office, and she's above the 50-mile limit they set. (Not only that, she's worked from home for 10 years now). She brought that up, and they said they were looking into possibly expanding it out. She told her boss if that happens, she's gone, and they lose someone with almost 19 years of experience who literally writes their training manuals on how to do what she does, lol.

The shear stupidity of these people is astonishing. If I ran a company, it would be nothing but WFH, and I would poach so many good workers, lol.

[–] meco03211@lemmy.world 44 points 1 year ago (1 children)

But how will you make sure their every waking moment is devoted to work? Gotta invest in some ridiculous office space and middle managers to crack the whip.

[–] Nougat@kbin.social 57 points 1 year ago (1 children)

That's the thing - if I'm being forced to come into an office when my work doesn't require it, I am 100% a clock watcher, and outside my scheduled work hours, I an unavailable. You sent me an email at 5:01 PM on Friday? I'll read it at 8:00 AM on Monday.

Take away my flexibility, and I take away yours.

[–] HurlingDurling@lemm.ee 15 points 1 year ago (1 children)

I don't understand the other side of this. I work from home and already do this. Work from home is not 24 hours work unless you let it be that. My clock strikes 5pm and my laptop is turned off.

[–] dman87@sh.itjust.works 9 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

WFH can enable flexibility on both parts. But, it's highly variable depending on the employer. I might be able to slip out and go to a dentist appointment in the middle of the day without using comp leave, etc. If the employer allows me that flexibility, I may be more willing to be more flexible to respond to an email or a message after hours on occasion. The flexibility is give and take between the employer and the employee.

Now, I understand that not everyone wants that. For me personally with kids to deal with and family things that come up here and there, I much prefer the flexibility and the occasional work evening that's a bit later or the occasional work morning that's a bit earlier. Then I can save my comp leave time for when my kids are out of school or I want to plan a vacation rather than using it up on the small trivial things throughout the year.

[–] PrincessLeiasCat@sh.itjust.works 34 points 1 year ago (2 children)

There is a guy in our group who had a special arrangement because his wife was sick so they allowed him to WFH regularly as long as he came in for certain things.

After Covid, they decided everyone needed to be back in the office NOW and didn’t want to have to deal with people whining because some people got a special pass that was in place before Covid, so they took it away from him.

Instead of answering the hard (obvious) questions and being irritated for a finite amount of time, they made this guy upend his whole life (he lives many hours away) and that of his family - to return to work on a regular basis.

Failure of fucking leadership right there.

[–] legios@aussie.zone 4 points 1 year ago

I've set up 'informal working arrangements' for a few people in my team because of family arrangements, health etc.

I might have also told one of the execs that I thought the return to office policy was BS while tipsy one night. He did agree though...

[–] n2burns@lemmy.ca 15 points 1 year ago

That's a really small bubble. My employer has a 125km range before we can request an exemption to the 2-day-a-week policy.

Hopefully things don't change for your wife!

[–] just_change_it@lemmy.world 14 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (1 children)

if that happens, she’s gone, and they lose someone with almost 19 years of experience who literally writes their training manuals on how to do what she does, lol.

She openly told her boss that if they tell her to come into the office she will willingly quit the job and forfeit unemployment so they can downsize that headcount and spread around the work to other employees?

Gotta play 3D chess, don't show them your hand. They now have an easy way to fire her on demand without cause and without having a mark on their employment numbers.

Have to go with the angle of: if you make me move you need to pay my relocation costs because you have asked me to move. After all, this isn't new and they have known your home address for 10 years. Make them cover the increased cost or they get to pay unemployment for laying you off. That's the only real angle you probably have anyway that gives them a cost.

[–] Edgelord_Of_Tomorrow@lemmy.world 5 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Not to mention she wrote a manual on her job so her replacement will have an easy time picking up.

[–] kaitco@lemmy.world 6 points 1 year ago (1 children)

If she’s as petty as I am, the manual will receive a rather intense update prior to her departure.

Better make sure version history is off

[–] morphballganon@lemmy.world 11 points 1 year ago (1 children)

*sheer fyi

Shear is a verb

[–] Nougat@kbin.social 2 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

Also two nouns.

[–] 018118055@sopuli.xyz 57 points 1 year ago (4 children)

Crash the housing market to save the office building market

[–] Wrench@lemmy.world 22 points 1 year ago (5 children)

The housing market needs to crash. Prices nationwide are insane. Bubble needs to pop

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[–] Badass_panda@lemmy.world 16 points 1 year ago (1 children)

I'm OK with that, the housing market is in a giant bubble and it needs to crash. I say that as someone who bought a house at the lowest price point right at the start of the pandemic, combined with an incredibly low interest rate. Theoretically my home is worth almost 50% more now, 4 years later.

Thaaaaat's a bubble.

[–] aesthelete@lemmy.world 2 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

Theoretically my home is worth almost 50% more now, 4 years later.

Yep, and having your house have a higher paper value doesn't help you much at all as a home buyer that lives in the place. Your taxes go up in most localities, and it makes upgrading that much more impossible because everything else went up in price too.

It only helps if you want to move to some other place where prices are much lower, which I'm good on moving to Idaho or whatever.

It's great for your paper net worth.....yay. 🙄

[–] GillyGumbo@lemmy.world 11 points 1 year ago

tbf, this is probably suburban / rural areas to move back into urban areas that are already having crises. Won't fix any of the housing markets in high population centers.

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[–] GiddyGap@lemm.ee 45 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (5 children)

"My sellers both work at the same company, which told them they have to be in the office three days a week or they'll lose their jobs. They have six months to make the move. They'll probably have to take a $100,000 loss on their home," Pendleton said.

Pretty sure I would rent out the home instead of taking a $100,000 loss? Rent something to live in where you're moving to until it's more favorable to sell.

[–] AbidanYre@lemmy.world 56 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (1 children)

Six months is plenty of time to find a new job these days.

[–] n2burns@lemmy.ca 9 points 1 year ago (1 children)

In a lot of these WFH communities, the rental market softened with the rest of the housing market, so you might not have renters or have to take a hit on the rent. Also, being a landlord more than a commute-able distance away from your property sounds like asking for trouble, unless you hire a property manager, but that's another hit to your income.

[–] GiddyGap@lemm.ee 4 points 1 year ago

Even if the market in some of these more remote areas softened a bit, I think taking a $100,000 hit over one year is crazy, though. Even if you lose $100 or $200 per month renting it out, that's a long ways from $100,000. Meanwhile, you're paying off the mortgage and building equity.

[–] Clent@lemmy.world 8 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Rent to own is also an option.

That assumes you can get a back to ground be you two mortgages though.

This is an excellent opportunity for corporations to buy up homes.

The rich will only get richer until we stand up.

[–] jonne@infosec.pub 7 points 1 year ago

Yeah, that's nuts. Also, as a couple you both probably shouldn't be working for the same company from a risk reduction POV.

[–] elevenfingerfrk@lemm.ee 2 points 1 year ago (3 children)

I’m pretty sure I’d stay put and not move back. Let’s be honest. An employer can and will terminate you for practically any reason or no reason at all. Selling a house you bought in a place you want to live in hopes of maintaining a toxic relationship that will end on a whim (your job) barely makes sense from an economic perspective and makes no sense from any other.

To put it in perspective… if you had an emotionally abusive boyfriend who insisted you had to sell your house and move in with him, would you do it? If you relied on him for half your income, would you do it? If the answer to those questions are “yes” then you’re gonna love selling your house because of RTO. If you have any self respect, the very notion of this would make you dust off your resume and resignation letter.

[–] GiddyGap@lemm.ee 2 points 1 year ago

I definitely agree. I was just commenting from a purely financial perspective. Doesn't really make sense to take a $100,000 hit when you could rent it out and move and probably at least break even while continuing to build equity.

[–] partial_accumen@lemmy.world 36 points 1 year ago (1 children)

After seeing the headline, I thought it would be people moving farther away to be outside of the RTO radius. Instead its people moving closer to work because they are cities/states away with WFH.

[–] Odelay42@lemmy.world 21 points 1 year ago (1 children)

A lot of companies (Amazon) don't have a radius. It's RTO or nothing.

[–] yyyesss@lemmy.world 11 points 1 year ago

nothing it is, then

[–] Alexstarfire@lemmy.world 24 points 1 year ago (1 children)

I told my boss the other day my upper limit for in office time is one a week. We were 3 days a week before COVID, 0 during COVID, 1 a month after COVID, and just this month they upped it to twice a month.

Hell, if I stopped coming in at all right now there is no way in hell they'd fire me anyway. We have too much stuff to do and not enough time to do it. I know people think that but we've got contractual obligations to fill and new regulations to follow. It'd cost them way more to fire me and miss those deadlines waiting for new hires to get up to speed.

[–] madcaesar@lemmy.world 10 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Dude, just don't go. If you're doing your job from home, why are they asking you to burn fuel and your time on earth sitting in fucking traffic???

[–] alienanimals@lemmy.world 5 points 1 year ago

If more people stood up for themselves, we wouldn't have this problem in the first place.

[–] solstice@lemmy.world 10 points 1 year ago

It would be a lot easier to sell RTO if rent weren't outrageously high anywhere near a downtown central business district. I prefer office personally and don't mind a 20 minute commute or so but any more than that is a real drag. It's real hard for me to tell someone to fight an hour and a half of rush hour traffic just to get to the office and be harassed for 8-12 hours and then do it all again at night.