Is the office dead?

originally posted by: 38181
How many workers are drinking on the job at home? Sometimes a little booze encourages new thoughts and ideas, to a point. Promotes a little motivation, just don’t show the long skinny glass in the zoom meeting, that’s not grape juice.

We never do video calls, don't want to see someone in their underwear...lol Hell, being upper management I'm unshaven, haven't bathed in a day, BB shorts on, T-shirt and barefoot in upper management meetings all day...lol

originally posted by: Irishhaf

Right now trying to figure out which Cyber AFSC, in the USAF to cross train into, seems like my degree blends well with 4 different ones.

The safest jobs are ones you need a security clearance to have...

Here in Southwest Michigan we have about 6000 people in 8 buildings. As far as I know only Lab people are allowed in without requesting access. We have 122 lab people. In the last 6 years we spent $100 million updating and building new offices that now sit empty. Going to be an interesting spring. Breaking ground for a new $35 million dollar lab building to consolidate t of our largest labs.

We gave all people working from home $500 To setup plus whatever computer hardware they needed.

On the funny side we have overnight packages from Europe that have been sitting in mail drop areas since April. Maybe not so important

originally posted by: Blaine91555

I'd expect companies will return to normal after the pandemic is no longer with us. The purpose of a business is to make the most profit possible. The only way it can work is if they abandon hourly wages and pay based entirely on output. When people manage to wrap up minimal expectations by 10AM, only a very few call in to say what else do have for me to do and they quickly move to upper management.

We base much on direct charge or OH time. You have a project to do then you should have it done in XX hours/days using direct charge, anything past that then a lot of unwanted questions. If you do not have enough direct time projects to charge to then your area is overmanned and either you slow hiring to increase direct charge productivity or you do something drastic like layoff. This works both ways in if mangers consistently have too much team OH time, overruns, lack luster performers with little involvement then pack your bags...this is all the way up to the CEO as I have had two CEOs basically fired in the last 5 years. You also have a higher chance of getting canned the higher you go and its not like they let you go back to a lower position that you did super in to get the promotion in the first place...lol

The days of needing to look over your shoulder are over as I can look anytime I want or just look at metrics to determine productivity of one or the whole team. Its like a reflex thing for me that I don't even think about. I own all the charge codes I put people on and off them, I sign timecards seeing all charges and I run intelligence reports on all projects.... If you are performing at "minimal expectations" it is very easy to see.

If you have some that are always late on their projects meeting minimal expectations then they are the first to go, or you just replace them sooner if they are really bad. These are things mangers constantly deal with and it really doesn't matter if you are in the office or at home do it with either mangers or employees.

Based on my own corporate/factory experience ... I'd warn people working from home not to become to comfortable and to complacent ... I've certainly noticed a drop off in productivity (late program task starts and finishes) due to covid and people working from home ... I've also noticed how "essential" employees who do come into the facility are picking up a lot of slack from those staying at home.

The director level are letting it slide for now because they don't want to appear tone def during a pandemic; but they aren't going to feel that way forever. I suspect at some point they are going to let the less productive go and expect "essential" works pick up the slack permanently.

a reply to: Xtrozero

BOOM. As much as I never had hope that the Trump administration would help to guide us into this emerging reality, I have little to no hope as well that the Biden administration will either. It's coming at us to fast for twentieth century thinkers to deal with.

a reply to: Xtrozero

currently hold a secret most of what I am looking at would require an upgrade.

a reply to: Never Despise

i agree. I like the delineation. Right now my office is 'shut' by recommendation due to our 'cases' rising but if we want to come in we can. The previous 4 or 5 months we had been having everyone in on an alternating 50% capacity basis. one week in, one week at home. I got so used to that that I am still continuing to do it.
As a consequence I am to totally alone in an office that once held 70 people continuously but I kind of like it.
Yesterday I had 3 coworkers in with me.
It is what it is.
I think humans are basically social creatures, even if you dont want to socialise with your coworkers after work, most people still prefer to come in at least part time every week.
So it's not going anywhere its just shifting.
My two cents.

originally posted by: Irishhaf
currently hold a secret most of what I am looking at would require an upgrade.

Perfect...

a reply to: DanDanDat

I agree.

We had to fire a lot of people in Oct not just bc of the economy but also bc their productivity at home was lacking. Severely.

originally posted by: DanDanDat
I suspect at some point they are going to let the less productive go and expect "essential" works pick up the slack permanently.

I'm actually freaking out a little, I'm at full compacity of my team right now due to downsizing in the past and normal attrition without rehiring with all the crap going on with the limits of COVID, and I just think about what happens if the flood gates are open again... They will not let me hire and it takes me 6 months to create a productive team member. Program Managers are not going to be happy in 2021 when I tell them...ya I can not support you until 3rd/4th quarter and its like February...lol

originally posted by: chris_stibrany

We had to fire a lot of people in Oct not just bc of the economy but also bc their productivity at home was lacking. Severely.

Well COVID is making many downsize for at least the near future time frame. Your example above makes that job easy to do, and sometimes opens the door to get rid of someone that is basically a poor performer with attitude that you typically are unable to do.

originally posted by: chris_stibrany
a reply to: DanDanDat

I agree.

We had to fire a lot of people in Oct not just bc of the economy but also bc their productivity at home was lacking. Severely.

We let people go in September; it was stated that it was because of covid related cost cutting; but being in management myself I could see their was a direct correlation between those who where chosen and their work from home status.

Luckily for my group we have a glut of work so we didn't see any losses. We were also able to save some people; but they will be the first to go if we slow down again.

originally posted by: Xtrozero

originally posted by: DanDanDat
I suspect at some point they are going to let the less productive go and expect "essential" works pick up the slack permanently.

I'm actually freaking out a little, I'm at full compacity of my team right now due to downsizing in the past and normal attrition without rehiring with all the crap going on with the limits of COVID, and I just think about what happens if the flood gates are open again... They will not let me hire and it takes me 6 months to create a productive team member. Program Managers are not going to be happy in 2021 when I tell them...ya I can not support you until 3rd/4th quarter and its like February...lol

I'm in the exact same boat. And the flood gates are opening now. We have more work in 2021 than we normally do in a good year by double. I have requisitions open for two more engineers but they will not be trained up in time to help and I assume they are going to want to work from home some of the time and that doesn't help.

I myself have been doing two full time jobs both managing projects and working as an engineer just to get stuff done. But that means I'm billing the customer 1/2 of what we would normally; as I do 80hours of work in a 40 hour period. That doesn't make the directory level happy.

Next year isn't going to be fun.

originally posted by: Bluntone22
a reply to: Never Despise

No..
The office will fill back up when employers see how little work gets done when employees are not supervised.

That and employers will subcontract workers at home. You get this much for this task that is due Friday.

My better half has been working at home since April. The company gave the employees a computer ( they can't use their own due to confidentiality), and a mouse and she must be wired directly into the router ( no wifi).
They have some sort of program or something that monitors her activity, and issued her a company cell phone.
They know exactly when and what she is doing during business hours

originally posted by: DanDanDat

Next year isn't going to be fun.

No it is not...

a reply to: DanDanDat

Exactly.

The owner put it the polite way on our conference call but my bosses put it more bluntly. Also now I am the one fixing their projects

a reply to: Never Despise

That is amazing!!!!


Do we have anything like that in the united states?

a reply to: ntech

The end of cities would be great.

Less roads, less buildings, less concrete everywhere.
I can only dream to see that in my life time.

On the plus side some of our company systems got hit by ransomware a few weeks ago. Took out time tracking and scheduling out. No way to track hours we recovered some but not much. Major systems were safe. When the dust settled they had no clue how much vacation people took and asked everyone to fill in the blanks. Well in February when covid hit vacations were cancelled till they figured out what to do. So until August no vacations. Then lockdown so why take a vacation if you can't do anything so we all are off for the month of December.

Rather funny actually