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.”