What’s a company without companionship?
The word “company” comes to us from from Old French compagnie meaning “society, friendship, intimacy, as in body of soldiers” and prior to that from Late Latin companio, literally meaning “bread fellow, messmate,” from Latin com “with, together” (see com-) + panis “bread,”
I’m an extrovert so I love company, companionship and breaking bread with my fellow workers. I get that some people are introverts and they got exhausted just reading that last sentence. Part of me thinks that people working together in fellowship or solidarity is how things get done. Working from home and literally “phoning it in” can check off the required output boxes, but can it help us be the growing beings nature intends us to be?
Also, if you can do your job from home, some dude in Bangalore India can do it for 1/60th of your pay.
‘No way I’m going back in the office’: Farmers Insurance told workers they’d be WFH permanently. Now they need to come in 3 days a week
‘When you tell your employees it’s a permanent change, they’re gonna act like it’s a permanent change.’
The return to in-office work has not gone well. As detailed by Entrepreneur, companies that have forced workers back into the office are currently facing a litany of issues ranging from employee dissatisfaction to difficulty hiring.
“Unispace finds that nearly half (42%) of companies that mandated office returns witnessed a higher level of employee attrition than they had anticipated,” writes author Gleb Tsipursky. “And almost a third (29%) of companies enforcing office returns are struggling with recruitment.”“According to the same Greenhouse report, a staggering 76% of employees stand ready to jump ship if their companies decide to pull the plug on flexible work schedules,” Tsipursky details. “Moreover, employees from historically underrepresented groups are 22% more likely to consider other options if flexibility goes out the window.”
Even though the data shows that ending remote work will bring issues for companies, that hasn’t stopped several major companies from trying. One such company is Farmers, which captured headlines and sparked reactions across the internet after reversing its remote work policy and forcing employees to come into the office 3 days a week.
Matthew Layson (@matthewlayson), a TikTok user who makes videos about insurance, also posted on the topic, generating debate in the process.
In a video with over 14,000 views, Layson lays out the Farmers story, including the response from the company’s new CEO, Raul Vargas, who allegedly told employees, “We read all your comments. We understand and we appreciate them. But we’re still moving forward.”
As Layson notes in the video, numerous employees have voiced their concerns about returning to the office.
Several employees said that, when they were hired, they were told the position would be entirely remote and that this remote nature would be enduring. This led them to make decisions like moving out of state.
“I sold my house and moved closer to my grandkids,” said an employee quoted by the Wall Street Journal. “So sad that I made a huge financial decision based on a lie.”
Yes, remote work can replace in-person work in some professions. Just because it’s the best option for you doesn’t make it the best option for everyone.
No, overseas workers can’t replace everyone. The quality and communication often isn’t there.
Is this really Jason? Did you wake up drinking the capitalist Kool-Aid this morning?
I know most companies are bad and want to eliminate all workers eventually. But creative teams* working under one roof can be the spark that differentiates good companies from great companies.
*my definition of creative is very expansive and includes the creative thinking power of every person in the enterprise – not just the artsy.
You read drivel like this and are reminded of how woefully inadequate liberalism is for the task of cutting off the path from corporatism to fascism
You read comments like this and wonder if the writer understands irony.
Clearly not Jason’s intent here
I’ve heard from youngsters that “liberal” has doesn’t mean today what it did when this blog saved it from near extinction. Kids today hear it and cringe because it has been stretched to include everyone to the left of Coons.
I get the feeling notliberal is not not liberal in the same way that the usual not liberal commenting here is not liberal.
A quintuple negative! My head is spinning.
I meant you. It wasn’t yours, either, but there you are.
When I was the Department of Energy we conducted some process improvement studies, especially as it pertained to organization design. One of our discoveries was that some of the work that was being accomplished was done by individuals working in isolation, Upon completion, they passed their product to the next person in a work flow construct. The problem was much of the work did not lend itself to work flow instead requiring consultation, coordination, and collaboration, which with complex (especially science) was difficult if not impossible to accomplish remotely. Companies are discovering that work that is accomplished by work flow can largely be out sourced and removed fairly easily. That work is also a prime target for AI.
And, if a person made significant financial decisions based on language employed by their employer stating that some is permanent, they need to make the employees whole. There need to consequences to “I changed my mind”.
“The problem was much of the work did not lend itself to work flow instead requiring consultation, coordination, and collaboration, which with complex (especially science) was difficult if not impossible to accomplish remotely. ”
A much more direct path to the point I was trying to make.