They don't hover. They just want the pressure of random people's eyes looking at your screen and noticing when you're not working.
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Apple Delays Return to Office for Employees Until At Least January
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I worked as a programmer at a company that was logging 'keystrokes', and I had no idea. It wasn't what I typed, but *if* I typed. I had the highest count of any program they had hired, bar none. Odd, but I showed up at the required 0800, and usually never left until 1800. (They got their money) And wrote most programs people said 'could never be written'. Not to pat myself on the back. I used a different development environment than the other staff programmer, and seemed to be able to do more heavy lifting. (I was shocked to find out that they had a need to alter come of my programs, and had to have them rewritten, which, surprisingly hurt)
But, anyway, seeing the 'key counts' was odd. Some months, I was doubling the counts of all other programmers.
Was I more productive? Well, I had more programs on the production schedule for years.
Still, I wondered if I was really actually more productive, and how effective it was, to report 'keystrokes', and not some more subjective metric. Hmm... It's all over, but thanks for the memories...
Well it's killing a thousand people a day in the US, and that's just the Delta variant, spreading like wildfire through the unvaccinated and vaccinated, and not excluding kids either. Clearly Tim Apple is looking ahead and seeing the reports coming in from the real world outside the land of make believe, and seeing what's on the horizon. Once Lambda hits the US should see a decent reduction in population. I know the executives miss casual fridays and feel a sense of purposelessness, but the more Apple can hang on to living employees, the less they'll have to spend replacing them, so it's probably prudent to head this off now and save on restaffing costs later. Good for shareholders, and that's what's important here.
Yeah, it's a bad metric. Seems only usable for telling whether people are skipping work entirely.
Cases aren't important. Its hospitalisations and deaths that are the issue and they are way down.
I'm sorry, but this is crap. You don't get to tell your employer you prefer working your own way. You were hired under the expectation of being at work. Yes a pandemic is here, and they have been more than generous in allowing remote work temporarily, but they are not being insensitive because you are a nervous Nelly. When the company says it's time and you have to come back to work, you have a choice, do the job you LITERALLY signed up for, or get a different job.
They are following the CDC and health department recommendations and are being safe with their approach. They have many safeguards and ways to make work safe. I was one of the first few to get Covid. It was shared with me by another staff member, before any state or federal closures were recommended, or before we knew it was a serious threat. The test literally came out while I was sick. We just followed the CDC and health department recommendations and we never had to close because any other staff got sick. In fact, we were always required to be at work (other than my quarantine period).
I had to go to the office for a week bc of rotation my team has to do and I for sure got far LESS work done.
I guess it depends if working in the office is worse than working from home due to mask and distancing restrictions.
My home setup is better than my office setup with three monitors, nearby coffee station etc. If it weren’t for the fact that colloboration is an important part of the job and 5 minute conversation in the conference room take more time on zoom, working from home is great.
There are other ways. If they don't get the job done they don't get the job done. Having to treat someone like a kid with the threat of suspicious eyes PROBABLY means you should replace that person. There is WAY TOO MUCH idle chatter in an open office that I am pretty much distracted for 8 hours and am extremely unproductive.
Sorry, but I am STILL doing the job I signed up for. I DID NOT sign up for traveling for 1.5 hours (it is not in the job description). So yes, I have had conversations with my employer about continuing to work from home. I am 200% more productive at home (open office spaces are a MAJOR distraction when there are idle football and other chatter for 8 hours every day), I also work an extra 1.5 hours some days since I am not in the car.
Glad you can work it with your employer to work from home. My son , who works for one of the top 5 financial institutions in the world is already back in the office part time, per the employer. And he masks up and takes the rails.
I will be going back in a few months also. Company does have a WFH policy in formulation but management has already stated those who chose to WFH might miss out on opportunities. And while the company acknowledges the employees have stepped up to the plate, the culture is one of collaboration not separation.
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What happens when working from home is nobody gets work done, and they can't blame anyone in particular. It's been that way the past year. People say they're burned out, and they try to be helpful and give more company holidays, but that doesn't fix anything.
The only solution is to give them exciting projects, which currently it's not because of poor leadership causing lots of toilsome and rather pointless work.
Seriously? Working from home means NOTHING gets done? My work stats would SERIOUSLY disagree with that statement. I got more work done than the last two years prior. I am so busy I can rarely listen to music or podcasts.
Please don't just say "working from home means nobody gets work done" That is 100% false statement. Apple did NOT completely shut down due to work from home, its been proven. My work has not completely shut down.
Then you are not using your tools correctly. We have maintained, if not increased our collaboration while working from home. We don't need the physically see each other, we get the same facial expressions while working at home. We have drawing tools and other things we can all get in a 20 person meeting and do everything we were able to do in person.
Its interesting hearing other peoples views about working from home.
I actually find myself more productive in an office. I think its just the atmosphere and I have too many distractions at home (looking at this forum being one of them). Plus I like the social interaction.
Do those who prefer working from home miss the social side?
However there are many benefits. I love not spending a fortune on fuel commuting, sitting in traffic, and just being in a more relaxing environment.
My company is staying remote and tbh I'm kind of used to it now. If I was forced to go back to an office I wouldn't be happy, give employees a choice I think.
I actually find myself more productive in an office. I think its just the atmosphere and I have too many distractions at home (looking at this forum being one of them). Plus I like the social interaction.
Do those who prefer working from home miss the social side?
However there are many benefits. I love not spending a fortune on fuel commuting, sitting in traffic, and just being in a more relaxing environment.
My company is staying remote and tbh I'm kind of used to it now. If I was forced to go back to an office I wouldn't be happy, give employees a choice I think.
As I said a few times already, I am so busy I can't listen to music or podcasts even. I am always on the phone discussing big issues and I need to implement the coding change. Nothing changed with the social atmosphere other than the distractions I had to deal with every day where the person next to be would be talking loudly about the football game last night with two other people.
Or you have a job that is so separated, you don't have to collaborate with anyone else.
Yes, the percent of collaboration has gone up dramatically to counter the loss in efficiency. And this isn't an isolated case. Companies, including Apple, want their employees back into the office for a reason.
Absolutely can get done on zoom, but not with the same efficiency. People have definitely adapted, but that doesn't mean the way the adaption went is better than discussing in person.
That’s a far fairer statement considering “you’re using it wrong” as you don’t have the vantage point to even opine on a statement like that. That’s why I cited the example of my son who works for a large organization and they think differently than your organization. Ymmv.
Well if we aren’t using these tools it would be difficult. But utilizing these tools makes it more efficient.
I agree 109%. My only point is what is true for one department or one company can’t be turned into an across the board general statement for all departments and all companies.
I didn't mean literally 100% loss of work. People tend to work less at home. Even if you're an exception, if your teammates and coworkers in other teams slack, you can only avoid being blocked on them up to a certain point. Then even employees who tend to stay focused start to slack. It spreads.
And if this were working so great like you say, they'd not want people to come back. I'm halfway convinced against working for a company with mandated in-person work since it tells me the employees aren't committed enough. This is also why they had open offices instead of cubicles before the pandemic. That's why I'm looking at other jobs right now.
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Yeah you do. My employer has been pretty accommodating because they know they'll lose people otherwise.