You can't make me come to work - I wanna work from home.

[Axtremus]

@horace said in You can't make me come to work - I wanna work from home.:

It’s nice that we can still take a moment to feel sorry for oppressed Google employees. Even amidst a pandemic, 5-percenters-working-from-home lives matter.

Let’s not even get started on the lack of free gourmet food at home. After having grown accustomed to it? Oh, the humanity.

Some folks would rather root for elevating other employees to get the level of compensation and benefits enjoyed by Google employees (pre-pandemic). Some folks, like you, I suppose, would rather see Google employees' compensation and benefits lowered towards the mean.

I have seen similar psychological reactions elsewhere. For example, Hong Kong vs. mainland China with regards to the freedoms and liberties enjoyed by the populations. When looking at the protests that took place in Hong Kong against the CCP's policies to curtail the freedoms and liberties that used to be the norm in Hong Kong, some mainland Chinese would accuse the Hong Kong protesters for "not appreciating how good they have it" rather than aspiring to also fight for the same rights for themselves, all while the CCP keep suppressing away freedoms and liberties.

Another example concerns unionization and pensions in the US labor market. Quite frequently you'd see non-union workers chiding the union workers for enjoying "too much benefits" negotiated through the unions rather than fighting to get those same benefits for themselves. You'd also see workers without pension plans chiding the those with pension plans that somehow the ones with pension plans are "asking too much" when litigating to preserve their pension benefits rather than fighting for the same benefits for themselves, all while the shareholders and senior management capture more labor cost savings.

[Horace]

@axtremus said in You can't make me come to work - I wanna work from home.:

@horace said in You can't make me come to work - I wanna work from home.:

It’s nice that we can still take a moment to feel sorry for oppressed Google employees. Even amidst a pandemic, 5-percenters-working-from-home lives matter.

Let’s not even get started on the lack of free gourmet food at home. After having grown accustomed to it? Oh, the humanity.

Some folks would rather root for elevating other employees to get the level of compensation and benefits enjoyed by Google employees (pre-pandemic). Some folks, like you, I suppose, would rather see Google employees' compensation and benefits lowered towards the mean.

I have seen similar psychological reactions elsewhere. For example, Hong Kong vs. mainland China with regards to the freedoms and liberties enjoyed by the populations. When looking at the protests that took place in Hong Kong against the CCP's policies to curtail the freedoms and liberties that used to be the norm in Hong Kong, some mainland Chinese would accuse the Hong Kong protesters for "not appreciating how good they have it" rather than aspiring to also fight for the same rights for themselves, all while the CCP keep suppressing away freedoms and liberties.

Another example concerns unionization and pensions in the US labor market. Quite frequently you'd see non-union workers chiding the union workers for enjoying "too much benefits" negotiated through the unions rather than fighting to get those same benefits for themselves. You'd also see workers without pension plans chiding the those with pension plans that somehow the ones with pension plans are "asking too much" when litigating to preserve their pension benefits rather than fighting for the same benefits for themselves, all while the shareholders and senior management capture more labor cost savings.

Or, I think it’s reasonable labor market dynamics to pay employees differently if they live in less expensive places. I think the story is a cheap play on the corporations are bad, workers are good idea.

[Axtremus]

@horace said in You can't make me come to work - I wanna work from home.:

Or, I think it’s reasonable labor market dynamics to pay employees differently if they live in less expensive places.

Hence the outsourcing of manufacturing jobs to Mexico and China, and outsourcing of software development and customer support jobs to India.

You have folks who advocate to extend American labor protection standards to Mexico and China and India, and you have folks who would rather lower the labor protection standards in the USA and hope that that would then also lower the American labor cost enough to bring the jobs back to the USA.

[Horace]

@axtremus said in You can't make me come to work - I wanna work from home.:

@horace said in You can't make me come to work - I wanna work from home.:

Or, I think it’s reasonable labor market dynamics to pay employees differently if they live in less expensive places.

Hence the outsourcing of manufacturing jobs to Mexico and China, and outsourcing of software development and customer support jobs to India.

You have folks who advocate to extend American labor protection standards to Mexico and China and India, and you have folks who would rather lower the labor protection standards in the USA and hope that that would then also lower the American labor cost enough to bring the jobs back to the USA.

That all sounds more nuanced than the point of the story, which was to make a lame stab at evil corporations trodding on their poor workers, and using Google of all places as an example.

[Copper]

@axtremus said in You can't make me come to work - I wanna work from home.:

@horace said in You can't make me come to work - I wanna work from home.:

Or, I think it’s reasonable labor market dynamics to pay employees differently if they live in less expensive places.

Hence the outsourcing of manufacturing jobs to Mexico and China, and outsourcing of software development and customer support jobs to India.

You have folks who advocate to extend American labor protection standards to Mexico and China and India, and you have folks who would rather lower the labor protection standards in the USA and hope that that would then also lower the American labor cost enough to bring the jobs back to the USA.

It is the competition that matters.

Just keep the government out of it.

[Loki]

@axtremus said in You can't make me come to work - I wanna work from home.:

https://www.reuters.com/world/the-great-reboot/pay-cut-google-employees-who-work-home-could-lose-money-2021-08-10/

Google tells its employees their pay will be adjusted downward based on where they work from, for those who wants to work-from-home permanently.

No shit Sherlock. Who didn’t see this coming?

[Mik]

It’s not like they will be underpaid, but pay rates have always varied based on geographic area. As Horace said, a lame stab at evil corporate America. The comparison to Hong Kong vs the rest of China is ridiculous.

[Loki]

In our next recession it’s going to be very funny to watch so many employees suddenly try to get back to the office.

[Doctor Phibes]

Cutting pay in this manner is a pretty stupid move from the perspective of employee morale, unless they can demonstrate that working from home negatively impacts performance or profitability.

It's like cutting pension benefits - if you want to do it, you do it for new employees coming in, you don't touch the existing folks.

[Jolly]

@loki said in You can't make me come to work - I wanna work from home.:

In our next recession it’s going to be very funny to watch so many employees suddenly try to get back to the office.

Yeah, but will there be an office to get back to?

[Axtremus]

It takes money to operate and maintain offices. Rent or real estate taxes, utilities, physical security, custodial services, landscaping, new coat of paint and new carpets every few years, repaying the driveway and parking lots every few years, etc., all these cost money. Through this pandemic there have got to be employers who figured out that they can actually save money by reducing their use of office spaces.

Sure there are many jobs that can only be done on-site. But many “office jobs” can be done remotely just fine.

[Copper]

We are lucky there are any jobs after the IDIOTS!!! shut down the economy.

[Jolly]

I had a short stint working in the financial services sector. I was told that I was the best the company had ever had in my territory and earned the highest possible bonus each year I worked for the company. It was certainly not because I was any type of genius with money - far from it. And I had a heckuva time remembering names, which is an awful trait to have in any service business.

I did well, because I went out and talked to people. There is something about face to face contact that cannot be duplicated electronically. It just can't.

And that's not just true for clients, it's true for everyday work interactions between workers.

[Aqua Letifer]

@jolly said in You can't make me come to work - I wanna work from home.:

I did well, because I went out and talked to people. There is something about face to face contact that cannot be duplicated electronically. It just can't.

Not every job is like that. Far from it.

[jodi]

@jolly said in You can't make me come to work - I wanna work from home.:

I did well, because I went out and talked to people. There is something about face to face contact that cannot be duplicated electronically. It just can't.

And that's not just true for clients, it's true for everyday work interactions between workers.

This. My son is thrilled to be back in the office after so many months zooming from home (he is single and it was very isolating).

[Axtremus]

@jodi said in You can't make me come to work - I wanna work from home.:

My son is thrilled to be back in the office after so many months zooming from home (he is single and it was very isolating).

That may be a correlation a person’s domestic living condition and his eagerness to return to the office. I can imagine people who live alone wanting to go back to the office for social interactions, as well as people living in crowded small spaces eager to go back to the office as an escape for more breathing room.

[jodi]

@axtremus if also has to do with the blurring of home/work, relax/stress. He does better when there is a distinct line, a separation, so he can truly decompress after a work day. When both work and home take place in the same space, that is difficult.