It is a bit of a stretch maybe, BUT ALSO, try being a woman in a toxic male dominated workplace and I get it.

But the problem isn’t actually the layout, it’s the environment and culture of that place.

I’ve been remote for 5 years, since Covid. And it’s been wonderful. I’ve been more productive, happier, better relationship with my family, had more time for hobbies and cooking healthy, spent WAY less money on fast food and gasoline. Before Covid I was in an office and hated it, but didn’t even know why, after I was home for a few weeks I realized why, it’s because I wasn’t being interrupted and distracted every 5 seconds all day long and when I had meetings I could keep working while talking on the video call instead of having to log off, get up and walk to a meeting room.

Now they are making half the company come back in if you are within some arbitrary radius. Which means teams are all split like mine where half must now commute in, but half don’t, so me and half my team now has to commute in just to go into a conference room and join a video call with the other half.

And the meetings are scattered all over every day so that basically means no actual work will get done every day.

I’m looking forward to chatting with my coworkers and laughing as productivity tanks.

Maybe instead of having meetings all day and forcing people to commute in for a computer based job management could be clear about what is needed, enable people and set them up for success and then leave them alone to get it done.

It feels like trying to swim 100m, but there is a manager walking along the edge next to you asking you for updates every 5 seconds. Still swimming and the more you ask the longer this takes.

I think RTO is just a power play. They can do a soft pay cut, a soft layoff as people quit, establish dominance and force employees to be their fake little family instead of their actual families.

It’s so ridiculous.

It’s the same fad thing as Open Office Layouts were a decade or two ago. Everyone hates it, productivity tanked, it was miserable, but everyone was doing it so CEOs did it to show how current they were.

It’s a classic manipulation technique. It’s never “I think that…” It’s always framed as “Lots of people think that …” to give it credibility, but it’s a lie and meant to manipulate you into feeling like you are alone and the group all thinks differently than you to force you to comply.

Lots of leaders do it. Trump does it constantly. CEOs do it. Abusive people do it in their relationships.

Once you know it and recognize it you start seeing it EVERYWHERE from dishonest people.

It’s funny to ask them “Which people say that?” If you can. It makes them SQUIRM.

I guess that can be true, but my company is all over the country. Teams like mine are half local and half out of state. They are forcing us all back in the office, but not for all those far away. There are small teams that have only 1 or 2 people local and they are making that one person drive into an office anyway. It’s like a slap in the face to me.

We’ve proved remote work is better in every metric.

If they really want people to have a better rapport, there are other ways besides decreeing blindly that everyone must travel to a central space. It just puts all the cost and burden on the employees and takes 0 effort from management to actually, ya know, manage.

L̶̨̢̢̮̼̬̼̬̠̗̳̜͈̣͇̮̼̱̪͙̰̯̝͉̽̃̏̓́̂̈́͗̂͋̇̍͊̈́̏̌̔̓̐̈́̈́͐̃͋̀͛̃͑̕͝o̶̯͉͂̽̏̇̄̑́̈́̾̋̄̎͗͝o̸̧̨̭̭͙̲̫̲͖͇͊̉̉̎͒̓̃́̌̍̓́̌͛̈́̔͌͌̏͌̕̕̚̕͠͝͝ͅǩ̴̪̹̺͓̭̤̗͉̟̰̣̫̻̙̳̞̐̈́s̵̡̨̢̨̩̖̜͉̺̖̼͇̲͕̩͎͖͒̉̃͒̂̽̇̂̉̈́̓̇́͌͑͆̇̈́̍̄͌͑̕̕̚̕̚̚͝͝ͅ ̸̢̡̢͙͔͙̦̺̪͖͎̪͖͔͖̙̘̯̠̙̙̱̠̖̻̳͖̰͔̜͌̔̍̐͛̐̓̒͐̂̎̀̄̈̄͐̇̎͒̃͊̇̈́̈͘͝͝f̶̧̡̟̤͈͍͇͖͔̹̲̘̫͈̟̙̫̙͓͎̙̘̰̹̅̽̓͌̐͗̊̓̀̒͒͛̌̎̆̇̈͋̐̀̋̍̓̿̚͜͝͝i̴̛̬̠͉̺̪̮̮̻̞̬̳̗͎̺͔̘̖͈͖̖̻̝͔͍̬̖̪̙̫̦̓̓͋̍̂̀̌̅͆͂͋̏͌̓͋́̀͑͆̉̚̚n̴͓̰̗̘̞̍̍̽͛̃e̶̡̨̳̼͍̮̼̤̮̮̹͕̜̭̬̭̳̣͍̰̾͗̈́̉́͆̄͑́̎̀͑̈́̉͐̈́͑̍̇͑̆͌̕͠͠͝͝͝͠ ̵̨̨̛̲͕̞̻̜̳̞̻̯̹̦̗͓̮̈́̈͝t̷̢͇͉͈̲͎͉̘̩̼͖̖̤̝͂̂̍͆͊̈́͑͆͌͛͗̔̃͐̎͛͋̍̂̒̈́̂̀̒̈́͌̕͝͝͝ͅơ̷̺̊̾̑̈́̾̑̊̾̃̋̆̾͝ ̷̡̮͇̺̙͕̝̯͚̦̥̝̬̉́̓̄̏̂̄̏̎̒̐͒̓̐͌̋̅̀͊̎̐̓̄̊̂̓̊̕m̴̢̡̛̬̟͖̖͎̰̹͊̍̈͗͑̐͑͐̇͒̈̎̏̍̏́̾̿̐̚̚͜͝ȩ̸̡̛̫̩̞̲͉̩̪̳͊̂̃́̊́̌̑͋͆͛͗̏̒͐̉̊͌̋̉͘̕̚͝.̵̧̪͖̳͇̩̫̺̜̱͍͍̻̋͗̉̔̾̈́́̈́͋̏͒̾̍̾̉͌͆̉͑̎͐͑͌̄͆̓͜͠͝ͅ

Praise be his hypocritical name. In the name of the racism, the grift, and the holy crime, amen.

They play your favorite song, but the tuba is right in your face and the band is off key.

Florida is already the rusty old car on blocks in the front yard.

All we gotta do is trick convince some company to hire us as CEO. Get paid millions more than the employees and do nothing! Sounds like my kind of gig.

And that’s different from now, how exactly?

He rose from the dead? I knew something about him seemed zombie like. The dead eyes and awkward hand motions gives it away.

Yeah, honestly once a month isn’t that bad. Annoying because you MUST do it, but like you said, not so bad. I’ve done once a week and it feels ok ish. Like, I can’t get ANYTHING done in the office anymore. It’s too distracting, too many meetings, and as opposed to being at home, I now have to commute, get lunch, etc. And when in meetings in person you can’t really keep working, but a zoom call, yeah I can get half my work done while sitting through all the meetings all day, but not now and I’m not about to go into unpaid overtime to make up their awful decision. And I’m not going to log on early or stay late either. Done with all that. You get your 8 hours, no more now. So I’m sorta looking forward to sitting around in meetings all day discussing all the things we could be working on.

That would be hilarious if you took PTO that 1 day every month. Amazing. Come in like, one time per year just to make a point that you didn’t skip them ALL. Hahaha.

Honestly though, if your pay isn’t that great keep looking and bail asap.

The jar got stuck in my drain.

I’ve been WFH since Covid forced it, but then a year ago the promised us WFH full time was here to stay and only those that needed or wanted to be in the office could. They downsized buildings and everything. Nice!

They just told us we all had to be back in the office in a month. There isn’t enough offices, not enough parking, we’ve blown away all the productivity metrics at home, half the company is out of state. But, uh, REASONS! We must have butts in THIS specific chair or work doesn’t count.

There is literally no valid reason to force it. I think it’s all about control and power. They really don’t care about productivity or employee satisfaction at all, they just want to force everyone to comply. If they wanted either of those other things we’ve proved what works.

I hate it. It feels like the dumb “open office” fad all over again. Let’s cram 200 people into a single giant open noisy room. Employees HATED it. Managers all gloated how innovative they were. Then it faded away again as they all slowly accepted that no one gets anything done in that chaotic environment.

So too with office vs home. We live in a digital age. The computer age. The internet age. Long gone is the age of work being done by shaking hands and looking at a binder of papers. It’s an email, zoom call and a pdf now. Accept it.

In a weird way I’m actually looking forward to my company all going back with 0 coherent plan and not enough parking or desks and then I’ll giggle as productivity and morale absolutely tanks.

It’s also very likely they know a certain % will quit over it and do it on purpose to lay off without having to. The only problem is that all the most experienced and qualified people leave first.

Companies have had 5 years to accept reality, sell off the MASSIVELY expensive offices and stay fully remote where possible, but no, I think they want control over profits. They want to FEEL like they are managing instead of actually managing.

He is, without a doubt, the worst and second worst president in the country’s entire history.

Trump: “Ah, but you have heard of me!”

I tried every combo and magic trick I could find and mine will not. Sadge.

89 of 155, holy shit my dude.

Yeah, forget what I said, you are committed now. Sorry, but you gotta finish it. LMAO

I mean true. At least Germany and Romans didn’t have JarJar.

If it helps, read the first one and if you don’t like it, you don’t have to finish it or the series. It stands alone decently well. I know that’s obvious, but I often don’t do things because I feel like starting something mean I have to finish it. Books, games, movies, etc

I reread 1984, Animal Farm and Farenheight 451 recently, for no particular reason, but they are more accurate and depressing than ever about current events.

Highly recommended. But be prepared to be angry or depressed.