Wasn’t quite sure what community to post this…

A recent EnhancV survey of 1,000 full-time U.S. workers subject to new or stricter return-to-office policies found that 72 percent suspect these mandates are really a voluntary attrition strategy — a strategy by their own employers to make them quit their jobs.

The damage is strategic, not merely emotional. Baylor University’s reporting on office mandates and brain drain found that firms with mandates faced greater turnover among women, senior employees, managers and high-skilled workers, while job vacancy duration increased and hiring rates declined. In other words, the people with the most options are often the first to leave. The employees who remain may not be the most committed — they may simply be the least mobile.

  • TryingToBeGood@reddthat.comOP
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    91
    ·
    22 hours ago

    The idea of people hauling ass all the way in to the office only to sit on zoom calls—sometimes with people in the same office—simply blows my mind.

    • ThePantser@sh.itjust.works
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      54
      ·
      21 hours ago

      A close person to me is sueing their employer for ADA violations because they became disabled during the pandemic while working full time WFH but now the office is RTO and they won’t give them an exception to continue to WFH which is a clear ADA violation because they could do their job 100% without the accommodation when they worked for over 5 years remote.

      Having oversight is not an essiental function of a job if you have ever in the past been able to accomplish the work 100% remotely.

      • isleepinahammock@lemmy.blahaj.zone
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        5
        ·
        15 hours ago

        We need to pass a law requiring employers to pay twice the payroll tax contribution for any office worker that they require to work in the office.

        • TarantulaFudge@startrek.website
          link
          fedilink
          arrow-up
          1
          ·
          31 minutes ago

          I had a friend come stay with us all the way from Germany and I was astonished how much better employment laws are there. He said he wanted to switch jobs and he went on an internet portal and clicked a button and they offer complete assistance with changing jobs including paying for school to change to entirely different trade, job placement assistance etc. I couldn’t believe it

        • unwarlikeExtortion@lemmy.ml
          link
          fedilink
          arrow-up
          5
          arrow-down
          1
          ·
          6 hours ago

          Not only that. Travel time should count as work time, with full reimbursement of all travel costs: gas, tickets,…

          If they really feel that added cost is worth it? Let them.

          Takes you three hours of travel time to get to work and back? That counts into your 8h workday, so you’ll both be paid full salary for it and get to work “only” 5h at the office.

          Most should quickly turn away from the idea.

          • alternategait@lemmy.world
            link
            fedilink
            English
            arrow-up
            1
            ·
            1 hour ago

            My workplace requires everyone within a 50 mile radius to RTO. Because it’s a crowded metro area where a lot of workers had the same mandate at the same time, traffic is now absurd. At the outer ends of that radius, it could take well over 2 hours to drive in (and of course the further out you are, the less likely you are to be able to take public transit it). I bet paying an extra 4 hours a day would shrink that radius real quick.

          • VibeSurgeon@piefed.social
            link
            fedilink
            English
            arrow-up
            1
            ·
            3 hours ago

            Not only that. Travel time should count as work time, with full reimbursement of all travel costs: gas, tickets,…

            The obvious effect this would have would be to make it so that employers stop hiring anyone living X distance away from the office, which I don’t actually think would be a good thing.

            • ChogChog@lemmy.world
              link
              fedilink
              arrow-up
              2
              ·
              2 hours ago

              My initial reaction is the same, but I could also see it having the positive effect of making companies lobby for better mixed zoning.

              On the other hand, you know good and well who’s going to “invest” in the property around their buildings. Then it’s just company towns with extra steps…

            • raze2012@lemmy.world
              link
              fedilink
              arrow-up
              1
              arrow-down
              1
              ·
              2 hours ago

              Doubtful. If they live in an urban area, that means they need to up their compensation to compete with local talent in the city (because housing is more expensive). Whereas an employee in a suburb commuting might take a smaller pay. The extra few thousand dollars of stipend wouldn’t cancel this dynamic out.

              • VibeSurgeon@piefed.social
                link
                fedilink
                English
                arrow-up
                1
                ·
                2 hours ago

                In that scenario, the pay kind of shakes out to be the same between the worker living closer in the city and the suburban commuter, if the pay is going to be lower for the suburban commuter to have them remain competitive.

                So are they even really getting paid for their commute time, in that case? It seems like extra steps to arrive at the same end result.

    • goferking (he/him)@lemmy.sdf.org
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      8
      ·
      19 hours ago

      I’ve been told it’s a better experience to book conference rooms instead of us just being able to be remote on zoom or teams for things that require screensharing. Cause it’s not like half the meeting is getting that room working 🙄.

      But yeah in office is so much better

      • phutatorius@lemmy.zip
        link
        fedilink
        arrow-up
        2
        ·
        2 hours ago

        There have been a few times when it was useful being able to see the whites of their eyes, but generally, there’s no benefit besides knowing how tall people are, and (not always a benefit) being aware of how they smell.

        For difficult line-management conversations, though, face-to-face is better, although there was one guy who got spun up to the point where a physical altercation was possible-- luckily, I talked him down. He was having mental-health issues, his work was suffering, but didn’t want a paid leave of absence so he could get his shit sorted. He was afraid we’d sack him while he was on leave (which we don’t do). That problem solved itself after he had an episode outside working hours and got sectioned. He resigned while he was being treated. Luckily it wasn’t the US, where police too often shoot people when they’re having a crisis.