The place where I currently work has been continuing to crack the whip on returning employees back to the office. A few months back upper management has been making noise about wanting folks to return to the office 3 days a week. We were told we wouldn't have to worry about that until Oct 1st. But apparently they want us to start coming back to the office 3 days a week effective now.
I was having my weekly one-on-one with my manager while in the office (well me in Chicago and she in Indianapolis...LOL). She mentioned that her boss's boss pulled up a report on her team and it said that the average office rate for her team was 1.3 days. As a result she was told that we have to effective immediately go into the office 3 days a week.
I have been going in twice a week (Tuesdays and Thursdays) and now I have to add a third day to the mix. My plan is to go in Wednesday this week and then I think I'll replace Wednesday with Monday go forward. Though I may alternate between Monday and Wednesday depending on life circumstances. I figure Mondays are crappy anyway so might as well be in the office.
But man does this blow. I'm trying not to complain because well better this than Amazon. At least too most of the time I can take the train and walk to the office. The walking does give me some much needed exercise.
One of the things they say coming in the office is supposed to do is provide more team collaboration. But in my case, almost all my immediate team is in Indianapolis so not sure what kind of collaborating I'm suppose to do since my only mode of communication with my team is via instant messaging. If I say that though I don't want them then saying I should commute to Indianapolis. They don't pay when I commute there now and they don't pay if I have to stay at a hotel. I'm sure they won't pay either if it's mandated I go to Indianapolis instead. There are a few other folks in the same circumstance living in offices near Atlanta and Boston respectively. There are also some grandfathered folks that were hired in as fully remote employees that are not impacted. Lucky bastards...LOL.
I have a feeling that they will push for everyone to come back 5 days a week. There are another group of employees that are considered full office employees that are expected to come in 4-5 days a week starting Oct 1st. Unless some of them are in an unlucky team where their average was 2.6 times a week so they have to start coming in 4-5 days immediately.
To top it off my manager had to throw in concerns from her boss that the company may be looking to do another round of layoffs. That's so crazy to me since they've been hiring recently though most of it has been in Mexico City, Mexico where I imagine the salaries are a lot cheaper. So supposedly going three days a week is supposed to potentially keep us off the layoff chopping block. Except I know it doesn't work that way. You could kill yourself to produce and they may still lay you off because you're costing the company too much to keep you. Man, Blackberry, I need your stock to hit $15 now. If only it worked that way...LOL.
It's so strange that except for Amazon (where I had to go to the warehouse since items aren't picking or packing remotely), I used to go in the office 5 days a week ages ago. But thinking of going 3 days now is a major pain. I definitely had to do the 5 days during my brief consulting role that I had for a few months in 2018. As humans we are adaptable and I'm sure I'll get through this as painful as it is thinking about it now. Besides as I said before, it beats the alternative.
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