WFH - Veterans vs everyone else - post regarding Wells Fargo & Co. layoffs

WFH - Veterans vs everyone else

An interesting dynamic is taking place right now that I find a little frustrating.

For the last two decades those of us who have fought for WFH while under a magnifying glass from super critical old school establishment thinkers.

We have worked harder and longer and been forced to qualify our existence through evidences of our productivity, been expected to be available when the brick and mortars were offline, dealt with paying for our equipment and infrastructure (they dont give you internet and hardware like they used to) and generally faced the constant incorrect dialogue that we are less productive, disconnected and less promotable.

Now I am watching these same skeptics suddenly speaking as experts on WFH and making decisions that are now cancelling WFH contracts long established because they think after a year in the COVID fishbowl and the weirdness of having your family packed around you at your kitchen table while you homeschool them because you never planned to have an office that this is somehow representative of the WFH exoerience. They coukdnt get anything done so they must not either and need to come back to an office like me.

What you experienced this last year is not the WFH experience. I have a dedicated office and a locked door and a super focus I never could attain when I was in the office. I am now faced with a decision imposed on me to force myself into a culture I purposefully crafted a career to avoid so I could be the best performant employee I can be.

It has worked fabulously and I have done some amazing work, but now I will have to suffer in your cultural safe zone like you had to suffer in thebforced wfh you cant function in, because you cannot see the inherent value and the actual products I built.

We are creating an imbalance to offset an imbalance. A scale with too mush weight on one side is just as useless if you move all the weight to the other side.

Is it really so difficult to see the inherent value in a blended work strategy?

We can do better.

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When we return to the office we've been told that there will be a "team building" RTO "event". They can keep that and the stagecoach they rode in on. I always felt team building events were fake and deeply patronizing. Not to mention that I simply enjoy the solitude of my home.

@avv+1cnZtO2L

That's not your plan, it's THEIR plan. Few better justifications for layoffs and building closures than unproductive teams. All that does is make contracting the task out or offshoring it more attractive or financially viable.

Fellow WFH long timer (since WB merger) and I agree on all points

Same experience here. A former employer carved the entire center section of each floor out into a massive common area with the idea it would be for standups and colocated groups into pods and forced managers out of offices onto the floor

After 1 week it was empty unused space and managers were doind all day reservations in "privacy rooms" because everyone worked from home due to hating the new bullpen and its noise level.

A previous employer tried that shared cube concept. They called it "Hoteling".

The idea was that everyone sat in the same big room, with tables & chairs everywhere (like a cafeteria), and that people could sit with their colleagues and "collaberate".

It may have sounded good on paper, but it did not work out in practice.

When/if I do make it back to the office, I know one thing to be true… I WILL NOT be exerting any more effort than I need to …. When quitting time comes, I’m OUT. Wells will be getting only the basics from me.

It's a Power Play! They don't want to do anything or continue anything that people like or want, like WFH. That will keep people here. They want headcount numbers way down, at cheapest exits possible. So they send people back to the office, eliminate WFH agreements, and jerk you around. Jerk your life around. And hope you quit.

I'm out!

Totally agree with op. I was remote for 5 years prior to Covid with a dedicated home office setup and no distractions. Worked usually longer than those in office and was consistently the top person on my team. Had to relo to a hub.

Post ID: @qqt+1cnZtO2L

I think the point is to move functions together in hubs so we can collaborate or whatever it is that we're supposed to be doing hence the RTO strategy. Personally, I'm hoping for a package on Thursday and early retirement. I just can't be bothered with it anymore.

The concept around essentially ki----g WFH is myopic and ill informed. At least in EIT people are in a ton of locations even within the same city. In many roles you end up working with people from all over the country. For years, I worked in an office (pre-covid) with the occasional WFH. Nobody I worked with was in my building. And in many cases nobody I worked with was in even in the same city.

So ok, we go back to the office. We work in a "shared cube neighborhood" concept so you don't routinely end up in the same place. You still work with people from all over the country (and some in India). yeah, so tell me again how a blanket "everybody in the office" policy make sense?

Yeah, if you have a team that is together it helps to be actually together. But I've also seen that setup in 333 market were everybody is at 4 foot wide desks starting at each other crammed on the floor. It was generally quiet save those on conference calls.

Thread regarding Wells Fargo & Co. layoffs

WFH - Veterans vs everyone else

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