Leaked Zoom all-hands: CEO says employees must return to offices because they can’t be as innovative or get to know each other on Zoom::Zoom CEO Eric Yuan discussed the benefits of in-person work in a leaked meeting.

  • echo64@lemmy.world
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    211
    arrow-down
    5
    ·
    10 months ago

    I’m going to choose to believe the CEO is actively trying to tank the share price for some reason. This is approaching get fired or sued by shareholders level.

    • ramble81@lemm.ee
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      134
      arrow-down
      1
      ·
      10 months ago

      Either that or a forced reduction in workforce without having to do layoffs.

      • CirrhosesTheGreat@lemmy.world
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        90
        arrow-down
        1
        ·
        10 months ago

        It’s this. All the tech companies overexpanded during COVID when free investment money was everywhere. Now they’re all over staffed and want employees to self select out of employment rather than announce widespread layoffs. Meanwhile ruining life for everyone who can’t afford to quit.

        • StandingCat@lemmy.world
          link
          fedilink
          English
          arrow-up
          27
          ·
          10 months ago

          That and seeing corporate real estate tanking. Its in the best interest of anyone who owns an office space to encourage return to work to try to help prop up the market long enough to exit.

          • Corran1138@lemmy.world
            link
            fedilink
            English
            arrow-up
            5
            ·
            10 months ago

            But the “WORK FROM HOME” company should be doing EVERYTHING to encourage the activity that keeps THEM in business. It’s mind-boggling!

          • KIM_JONG_JUICEBOX@lemmy.ml
            link
            fedilink
            English
            arrow-up
            1
            ·
            10 months ago

            According to local news media, small businesses want this return to office because their restaurants are hurting. Doesn’t seem like they would lie about that.

        • rambaroo@lemmy.world
          link
          fedilink
          English
          arrow-up
          6
          ·
          edit-2
          10 months ago

          They are not all overstaffed lol, that is total nonsense. Most “tech” companies are not FAANG or flashy startups.

          These companies are greedy and trying to prop up real estate value while flexing on their employees, that’s all there is to it. My company is severely understaffed and still refusing to hire people out of sheer greed.

      • DrQuint@lemm.ee
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        4
        ·
        10 months ago

        This is what I believe as well.

        Companies noticed people like to give up when mistreated so they now bully them into it. Reminder: Soft Quitting is a Reactionary method. People wouldn’t do it at all if they were simply dissatisfied.

  • DigitalTraveler42@lemmy.world
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    164
    arrow-down
    5
    ·
    edit-2
    10 months ago

    Why tf do out of touch executives and managers always think that we want to make friends at work? I don’t really care to know any of my coworkers, I just want to do my job in a professional manner, get paid well for it, and then either go home or close the laptop and leave my home office.

    Also the only creativity that the office gives me is how to creatively get around the Internet restrictions they place on us, or how to creatively appear to be working when there’s nothing to do.

    If I wanted to make friends I’d go to a bar or something else that adults do together in groups, like bowling leagues.

    • lechatron@lemmy.today
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      75
      arrow-down
      1
      ·
      10 months ago

      Why tf do out of touch executives and managers always think that we want to make friends at work?

      Because it’s the type of people they are, and they think everyone is just like them. I worked a corporate job for 10 years and saw a lot of people who made the company their whole identity. Their whole friend group was their co-workers.

    • CmdrShepard@lemmy.one
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      17
      ·
      10 months ago

      I bet their real goal is to shed employees without having to do layoffs. They know some of these people will refuse to come back (or moved far away) and therefore can be fired with little press or blowback.

    • whatisallthis@lemm.ee
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      18
      arrow-down
      4
      ·
      10 months ago

      Because the #1 reason why employees will stay at a job that underpays them is because they like the people they work with. And you can’t form those bonds remotely.

      • ipkpjersi@lemmy.ml
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        10
        arrow-down
        2
        ·
        edit-2
        10 months ago

        I agree with the first part, disagree with the second part. You absolutely can form bond remotely, some of my closest friends are online-only. I’ve even met some of my online-only friends IRL once or twice. I’ve become close with online-only coworkers too, honestly closer than I was with a lot of people in the office.

        Remote work does work. Return to office is just a power grab by companies and real estate sunken cost fallacy.

      • Zagorath@aussie.zone
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        7
        arrow-down
        1
        ·
        10 months ago

        Except that you absolutely can if the company has a good remote culture.

        The company I was at prior to the pandemic and all throughout the height of the pandemic had such a culture. Even before the pandemic our work chat had rooms for different teams, different products/projects, and general subjects including non-work-related ones. And the chats were active and lively. And during the pandemic it only got more so. There was a very strong bond between coworkers, including new people first onboarded as WFH.

        After we got bought out by a new company and they mandated 100% from the office, I left (as did over 50% of the years of experience in the dev teams). My new company is actually still hybrid/remote, with most people working from the office occasionally but anything including 100% remote being allowed at least after initial onboarding.

        But I actually think this company is really bad at remote culture. There are a handful of public chat rooms but they almost never get used, and there’s nothing off-topic at all. It creates a feeling that reaching out to someone is a bigger hurdle than it was at my last place, and greatly reduces collaboration.

        At my last place, working collaboratively was the norm and it translated extremely well to remote work. Here everyone is much more siloed and I don’t think it works as well. Especially if your goal is to create interpersonal bonds.

        • whatisallthis@lemm.ee
          link
          fedilink
          English
          arrow-up
          5
          arrow-down
          1
          ·
          10 months ago

          I think that any study you find over the past 30 years will show that while online relationships can be meaningful in some cases, the average person will not form as strong a connection as they would in person.

          • Resonosity@lemmy.ca
            link
            fedilink
            English
            arrow-up
            2
            arrow-down
            1
            ·
            10 months ago

            The term for this is parasocial relationships, and you have truth to your claims

              • Resonosity@lemmy.ca
                link
                fedilink
                English
                arrow-up
                1
                ·
                10 months ago

                Huh, weird. The Twitch chats I hang out with and I tend to use “parasocial” as a term in which people develop a relationship with others that people haven’t really seen or spoken to. I’ve seen them and myself use the term to talk about how chats have relationships with streamers themselves, which aligns with your definition, but I’ve also seen it used between Internet users that have minimal interaction with others aside from texting.

                I’ve made friends online via Xbox that I have on other social media and that know my face/voice/background, but I try to secure more of my anonymity these days. I wouldn’t consider those relationships as parasocial, but in some ways, depending on how the relationship evolves and grows or decays over time, I’d say they dip in and out of being parasocial and tangible.

                Perhaps parasocial might be better thought of as a class of relationships people share that are digital and that don’t manifest IRL in any meaningful ways (excluding face/voice/identity).

                Maybe the idea I’m getting at here has a term coined for it already. I’d be willing to change my vocabulary if you suggest something!

          • rambaroo@lemmy.world
            link
            fedilink
            English
            arrow-up
            1
            arrow-down
            4
            ·
            10 months ago

            Because they aren’t putting effort into it and neither is the company.

            If you can talk to someone you can form a relationship with them. Period. This is not hard to figure out.

            Remote culture requires putting effort into it. You have regular online events with the team just for fun and you ask people to stay after the scrum for an open floor once a week or so, etc. You invest in the social aspect of remote work.

            Studies can say important things but they can’t contradict lived experience and their methodology can also be flawed or biased.

            • whatisallthis@lemm.ee
              link
              fedilink
              English
              arrow-up
              1
              ·
              10 months ago

              I’m not limiting this to work.

              And of course you can have a relationship with someone remotely.

              But overall, for the average person, in-person relationships are going to be stronger. Friends, family, romantic relationships, hobbies, work, you name it.

      • rambaroo@lemmy.world
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        8
        arrow-down
        2
        ·
        edit-2
        10 months ago

        Yes you can, what on earth are you talking about? I’ve been remote for 5 years now and I have close relationships with most of the people I work with, especially the devs on my team. Sometimes we’ll debug an issue or discuss something and then afterwards bullshit for a while on the phone.

        Are people really this inept? You can have remote relationships especially if you make time for it.

      • Lysergid@lemmy.ml
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        3
        ·
        10 months ago

        But it doesn’t make sense. If I would have people which I like so much in the office would, you know, go to the office. If I don’t wonna go well… then I don’t like those people enough and there can’t be bonds anyway. We will just come, say hi, do job, go home. What a great creativity boost

      • SubPrimeBadger@lemmynsfw.com
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        3
        ·
        10 months ago

        Definitely disagree on this one. Worked a job across the pandemic that was completely virtual and I never met my coworkers in person. A number of us left about 6 months ago due to layoffs but we all flew out to meet up with each other last week and hang out. That’s almost an entire department of folk that now work in different companies taking the time and personal expense to travel and hang out with each other so I’d say a meaningful bond was built. It absolutely can happen, managers just need to be informed on how to do it. If any org should be prepared for this it’s Zoom. This is just being super lazy on the part of Zoom and having a lack of confidence in their own product.

    • zefiax@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      17
      arrow-down
      3
      ·
      10 months ago

      Depends on the type of work. Workshops and strategy sessions are definitely better in person than online for me.

      • DigitalTraveler42@lemmy.world
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        10
        arrow-down
        2
        ·
        edit-2
        10 months ago

        Okay so what are you getting from either of those that you can’t get from attending the same on Teams/Zoom etc.?

        Workshops also just feel like school and the presenters always talk too fast, quiet, or accented for my hearing and ADHD to make it worth me going to one, some dedicated study time always was the better route for me.

        Meanwhile strategy sesh’s are just conversations with an end goal, nothing difficult about that at all.

        One thing people who are against work from home have to realize is that not everybody functions the same, some people do better remotely, others need the office.

        I just wish we could be treated like adults and work in the way we feel most comfortable and efficiently without being mistreated over it and without being astroturfed against it by entities like the Wall St. journal and Bloomberg, sorry rich people but I just don’t give a fuck about your corporate property values.

        • blockhouse@lemmy.world
          link
          fedilink
          English
          arrow-up
          8
          arrow-down
          2
          ·
          10 months ago

          Okay so what are you getting from either of those that you can’t get from attending the same on Teams/Zoom etc.?

          I don’t get the “Bill, we can’t hear you; you’re on mute” twenty times per hour. Or the guy who doesn’t realize he should be muted but isn’t, and the chat is flooded with his background noise. I don’t get to whisper snarky comments about the presenter to my coworker whom I’m sitting next to. I don’t get to spontaneously engage people hanging around the coffee stand between sessions.

          There are tangible differences between remote and in-person. As much of an introvert as I am, and as much as I love working remotely, I recognize that I do better collaborative work when I’m in-person. YMMV, but mine doesn’t.

          • rambaroo@lemmy.world
            link
            fedilink
            English
            arrow-up
            1
            arrow-down
            3
            ·
            edit-2
            10 months ago

            Does your company not do water cooler sessions for your team? Also you can message people during presentations online to gossip. I just did it yesterday to make fun of some idiotic desperation move our execs are getting ready to pull.

            When people say “you can’t do X remotely” what they actually mean is they either put no effort into it or they can do it, but it doesn’t feel the same to them, which is a completely different statement.

        • eestileib@lemmy.blahaj.zone
          cake
          link
          fedilink
          English
          arrow-up
          4
          arrow-down
          1
          ·
          10 months ago

          I found that keeping up with people over video works better when you’re in the same time zone. When I was managing teams at +8 hours and -12.5 relative hours, communication and trust just weakened steadily over time and creative collaboration stalled. Spending a week there in person usually got things unstuck.

          I know people on split engineering teams between LA and Seattle who prefer all virtual and it’s worked long term. LA to NY I think would be a heavier lift.

          And, of course, this whole discussion is always dominated by software engineers; there are lots of jobs that involve actual manipulation of matter where in person collaboration is essential to communicate skills.

          • DigitalTraveler42@lemmy.world
            link
            fedilink
            English
            arrow-up
            2
            ·
            10 months ago

            Oh definitely, timezones do throw a wrench in things a bit, but there are easy ways around that usually, splitting engineering teams like the way you described is a pretty good workaround.

            I completely agree that jobs that just can’t be done remotely obviously shouldn’t be, but any job that can be should have the option available. I just feel like most of the work from home backlash comes from people who cannot do their jobs from home and managers/executives that just want someone to babysit, usually in order to justify their own professional existence. It just seems like a lot of “crabs in a bucket” behavior.

        • zefiax@lemmy.world
          link
          fedilink
          English
          arrow-up
          2
          ·
          10 months ago

          Okay so what are you getting from either of those that you can’t get from attending the same on Teams/Zoom etc.?

          Firstly real human interaction. There is a lot of team building that can occur just from having lunch together. Second, just physically being able to put sticky notes or drawing lines and watching someone else do so without having to have someone try to point out where exactly they put something to you in a virtual whiteboard is way more efficient.

          Workshops also just feel like school and the presenters always talk too fast, quiet, or accented for my hearing and ADHD to make it worth me going to one, some dedicated study time always was the better route for me.

          Firstly if you just have a presenter talking to you, then that doesn’t sound like a collaborative workshop. Workshops might have someone who guides the discussion but never just presenters otherwise that’s not really a workshop and more just a presentation that can be done online.

          Meanwhile strategy sesh’s are just conversations with an end goal, nothing difficult about that at all.

          I am not sure what kind of strategy sessions you are having but when you are setting things like commercial STRAP for divisions of 20K or more employees, you need more than just a conversation. You need to draw out roadmaps, have working sessions, even the human interactions through lunches and dinners plays a big part.

          One thing people who are against work from home have to realize is that not everybody functions the same, some people do better remotely, others need the office.

          It’s not black or white. I am a remote worker who travels regularly. Would I ever give up being remote. No. More than half my job can be done from home and I am not wasting my time travelling to the office. But that doesn’t mean I don’t acknowledge when something is just better in person. Not everything is perfect remote and not everything needs to be done in the office. You can have a mix of both and choose based on the requirements of the task.

          Additionally, the type of people who are in positions to set organizational strategy are usually the types of personalities that do function between in person because they are typically extroverted personalities. It’s not like I am suggesting you bring a developer to an on site session. I am talking about leaders.

      • Rocinante@lemmy.one
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        5
        ·
        10 months ago

        Even if that is the case I don’t find myself caring enough to want to work in the office when going to work has such a huge impact on time and money wasted commuting, and plays such a huge role on where people can live. Its hard to care when it’s such a drain on personal time and expenses.

        • zefiax@lemmy.world
          link
          fedilink
          English
          arrow-up
          1
          ·
          10 months ago

          I prefer working remote as well and not suggesting going back full time. I just think there are some things that are better in person. Fortunately my work provides a good balance where I am remote 50 - 80% of the time but can fly in to different locations for a F2F when necessary.

          • Rocinante@lemmy.one
            link
            fedilink
            English
            arrow-up
            1
            ·
            10 months ago

            I think when I look at when it comes to remote is that as an employee what an employer sees as better in person is not better for me. But, I can see why an employer would see in person as better. As an employee I need to be paid even more to make it worth it, since it is overall a con in my time.

    • jecxjo@midwest.social
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      5
      ·
      10 months ago

      Because if your social life is tied to work you’ll stick around longer during the day and potentially do more work. You’ll also opt to stay at a job that pays less or has worse benefits because it means leaving your friends.

    • TipRing@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      3
      ·
      10 months ago

      I like my coworkers well enough but there is not a single person in that office whom I would choose to be around socially.

    • bug@lemmy.one
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      2
      arrow-down
      3
      ·
      10 months ago

      I know it’s very popular online to brag about being an asocial shut-in, but believe it or not some people like their jobs and like the social aspect of the office. The problem is the bigwigs applying the same rule for everyone either due to being out-of-touch with normal humans or just through greed, but don’t assume your experience is universal!

  • HallowellNash@lemmy.world
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    150
    ·
    10 months ago

    Glad I’m not a stockholder, since the CEO basically says their only product, remote connectivity, stifles innovation and connection. What a world.

    • satrunalia44@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      22
      arrow-down
      1
      ·
      10 months ago

      They’ve gained about 1.2 billion in market cap this week based on stock price. The super rich do not experience consequences.

    • eric@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      5
      arrow-down
      29
      ·
      10 months ago

      Sure, that’s the sensationalist and reactionary headline, but I think the real lesson to learn from all this is that with remote work, like many things, moderation is key. The CEO is not implying “innovation” and “getting to know each other” is necessary for every meeting because it isn’t. So what he’s really saying is whenever those two aspects are necessary, Zoom won’t suffice.

      • FooBarrington@lemmy.world
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        47
        ·
        10 months ago

        I don’t think we should take any lessons from what CEOs say. If studies show that too much remote work indeed makes for worse results, I’m fine with it. If a CEO says it? Most likely a lie.

        • bitsplease@lemmy.ml
          link
          fedilink
          English
          arrow-up
          16
          ·
          10 months ago

          Seriously I don’t understand the mindset of people who treat everything a CEO says as gospel. How much is a CEO actually involved in the collaboration or innovation going on at the IC level? Somewhere between “barely” and “not at all” I’d guess. No doubt the CEO has personal reasons he wants people back in office, and just put some BS in the all hands meeting to make it sound good

      • Sparking@lemm.ee
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        16
        ·
        10 months ago

        If your CEO of zoom you have to believe in the product your company makes. Its the basic requirement. When he says this, its a slap in the face to every engineer and worker who has dedicated their life to making zoom a good product.

        Its like the time the dunking donuts ceo said he doesn’t like donuts on Marketplace.

        • Drewlb@lemmy.world
          link
          fedilink
          English
          arrow-up
          15
          ·
          10 months ago

          No, it’s like Dunkin’ CEO saying that donuts are bad for you… Much worse than personally not liking them

        • ARg94@lemmy.packitsolutions.net
          link
          fedilink
          English
          arrow-up
          1
          arrow-down
          1
          ·
          edit-2
          10 months ago

          Lol. No, it isn’t. It’s a CEO suggesting that he believes that in-person interaction between workforce members is important in certain scenarios.

    • corsicanguppy@lemmy.ca
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      7
      arrow-down
      4
      ·
      10 months ago

      The only problem teams solves is “why are people too happy with remote work”, and it’s very effective at fixing that.

      I actually charge a teams tax on my wage requirements if I find out they’re using broken last-gen weak shit like teams, Ansible, or vro.

      • MullMaster@lemm.ee
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        4
        ·
        edit-2
        10 months ago

        last-gen weak shit like teams, Ansible, or vro.

        A role I worked had this holy trinity. Moving to teams was nail in the coffin for me. Out of interest, what is “broken and last gen” about Ansible? And what’s newer and better than it? I find it to be okay for infra patching tasks…

          • MullMaster@lemm.ee
            link
            fedilink
            English
            arrow-up
            1
            ·
            10 months ago

            I dunno man, that’s what I was trying to find out… I thought I was out of the loop on something here.

        • corsicanguppy@lemmy.ca
          link
          fedilink
          English
          arrow-up
          2
          ·
          10 months ago

          Tribalism will affect how this is received, like cursing out vi or apple in a crowded room, but it’s important to see what else is out there and what they offer. Hint: If Ansible is bolting things onto the side of itself like event-driven triggers and connecting to AWX, then you have a good idea of what Ansible needs crutches to do and keep up to last-gen tech. One can only bolt so many bags on the side before the entirety falls apart, and IBM no longer has the goodwill to keep enthusiasts doing the heavy-lifting – even if IBM is repeating what Canonical did a decade or more ago without repercussion.

          Patching shouldn’t need an automation scaffolding. I’ll leave that there, that it’s entirely possible to patch your systems in a very automated, patchset-promoted fashion and not need to touch what we currently call Automation. I’ve seen and done it 20+ years, but to be fair that’s only how long I’ve been in the Enterprise space where that was the focus vs the relaxed tolerances of the soho/robo market.

          This-gen tech is responsive and self-organizing from the ground up, and responds in real-time to changes. Comically, it’s usually a collection of well-established components like consul that powers the this-gen stuff.

          I joined a job with this holy trinity, but they pay the tax every paycheque. I “dead sea” left a toxic mess with failing puppet managers a FIN coup had installed but with good tooling, to a great environment with known faces and good management left behind after their arrogant toxicity couldn’t cope with remote-first workers and bailed. The fact the tooling is complete shite is just a feature we cope with in this awesome environment, and while the environment stays excellent we’ll solve that technical challenge or we’ll bail if the environment gets toxic again first.

    • cyd@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      6
      arrow-down
      37
      ·
      10 months ago

      Why would you expect Zoom to push for 100% working remotely over Zoom? So if my company makes mobility scooters, I’m not allowed to walk?

      • bh11235
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        33
        ·
        10 months ago

        If you’re the company CEO and you’ve spent years shouting a marketing pitch of “scooters! Scooters! Scooters instead of walking! Scooters! They’re the future!” then yes, it’s a bad look if you walk, never mind if you issue a company wide walking mandate.

      • some_designer_dude@lemmy.world
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        17
        arrow-down
        1
        ·
        10 months ago

        I’d push for WFH and say that if work sucks over Zoom, “innovate” until it doesn’t. Kind of our bread and butter.

      • Zrybew@lemmy.world
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        10
        ·
        10 months ago

        No, the argument is that instead of improving the product by dog-fooding, he just gave up and told people to go back to the office.

        The fact his product is not solving all the collaboration needs should be a business opportunity, but his underlying message is that he doesn’t know how to leverage it, and will not try anymore.

      • my_blackest_day@lemmy.world
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        9
        ·
        10 months ago

        You can walk whenever the fk you want. But why force other people to walk like you when they prefer the scooter?

  • Zummy@lemmy.world
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    107
    ·
    10 months ago

    The fact of the matter is when your company revolves around you being able to communicate and work from anywhere, it is a bad look for you tell people you can’t communicate effectively over the product you make. Anyone who knows business should know this and should know to keep their mouth shut and their policies focused on trying to destroy business.

    • Frozengyro@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      16
      arrow-down
      1
      ·
      10 months ago

      Makes me feel like someone is paying to or making them do this. If it’s best for ‘THE’ WFH company to WFO, then every company can say it’s best their employees WFO.

      • MotoAsh@lemmy.world
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        12
        arrow-down
        1
        ·
        edit-2
        10 months ago

        Yes, the executives who are looking at empty offices with decades-long leases is what’s “paying” them to do this.

        Greedy dumbasses around the world are subject to sunk cost fallacy, apparently far worse than normal people.

    • malloc@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      13
      arrow-down
      2
      ·
      10 months ago

      Some person in WorkReform was defending mandatory RTO because an office environment was supposedly more secure. I called bullshit on their claims. Apparently a “cybersecurity expert” lol

      I don’t care if companies want to waste resources on buying commercial properties. But don’t force people to go back to the stupid office. It worked for the past 3 years. Profits are higher than ever. People got to spend more time with their families since hours were no longer wasted commuting and sitting in traffic.

      Also seems like many companies use this culture bullshit as a reason to force RTO. Motherfucker. I produce output. You generate capital. You pay me. That’s our fucking relationship. Fuck your “cUlTuRe”.

      • corsicanguppy@lemmy.ca
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        5
        arrow-down
        1
        ·
        10 months ago

        an office environment was supposedly more secure.

        My current shop has an office for people who choose to use office space, because it’s not about pushing people into one group or another but more facilitating their best environment.

        Anyway, it was broken into and burgled along with other ground floor tenants. They threw a big fuckoff boulder through an exterior glass door and kept going from unit to unit. Laptops taken. Important shit.

        My home office requires someone to fob past 4 separate doors to get to me. Instead of the ground floor it’s more than 100 feet up in concrete. My location has me at an advantage for power and the feed is underground. Fibre comes up the middle.

        They’re not breaking in.

      • JFowler369@lemmy.world
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        2
        ·
        10 months ago

        Did you have a counter argument for calling bullshit? Because he probably had a point, there is definitely a niche for that level of security. It just generally involves state secrets.

        Certain classifications of documents require access only from physically secure locations, called SCIFs, where all access is monitored and logged. Things like phones and cameras aren’t allowed to prevent any data leakage.

        That’s not too say you can’t be secure remotely, but really only against outsiders. Good luck stopping an employee from taking a picture with their personal phone of classified blueprints off their monitor at home. Good luck even knowing they did it before the data is gone.

        When you factor in social engineering being the most successful type of “hacking”, an office setting is undeniably more secure. However, most offices don’t need that level of security, because data breaches aren’t a matter of national security, so remote is an acceptable risk.

  • unsaid0415@szmer.info
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    102
    arrow-down
    1
    ·
    10 months ago

    man i just spent 30m this morning telling jokes to my remote coworker over slack, I’ve seen him only once in my life, according to this CEO I couldn’t have possibly gotten to know him.

    Funny watching the CEOs trying to do the verbal splits, coming up with excuses where it’s just “waah we’re paying for an office that nobody uses :(”

    we have nothing to lose but our commutes

      • unsaid0415@szmer.info
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        40
        ·
        10 months ago

        Don’t forget the “commuting to an office just to talk on Zoom to somebody 400km away in his own home”

      • ipkpjersi@lemmy.ml
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        21
        ·
        10 months ago

        you have to reserve a conference room to take a zoom meeting (all meetings).

        Work in an office, they said. It will be easier for meetings, they said.

        It’s crazy how shortsighted and dumb companies are.

        • bitsplease@lemmy.ml
          link
          fedilink
          English
          arrow-up
          10
          ·
          10 months ago

          It’s not that they’re shortsighted and dumb (well, many are, but that’s not why they’re spouting this BS), they know those reasons are full of shit, they just need some excuse that sounds better than “we signed a 4 year lease and so we’re going to make that your problem” or “the CEO is getting lonely and misses being able to walk around the office among all his minions”

        • KevonLooney@lemm.ee
          link
          fedilink
          English
          arrow-up
          7
          ·
          10 months ago

          True. Even with like 20 - 30 meeting rooms there are always people posted up in all of them. Even if you reserve a desk or room, someone will be there.

          Their excuse is usually “I reserved a different one but someone’s in that one now.” So you have to take someone else’s, and they inevitably interrupt your meeting. At the beginning of this chain of room theft is probably an executive who doesn’t even know how to sign up for a room.

          Being at home is like 3x better now. I don’t care about free coffee or food. I buy exactly what I want at the supermarket.

    • LaunchesKayaks@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      12
      ·
      10 months ago

      My coworkers and I are constantly sending each other jokes and memes when any of us are work from home. Sometimes the official company chat will just be everyone communicating through gifs.

      • Echo Dot@feddit.uk
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        5
        arrow-down
        1
        ·
        10 months ago

        It’s incredibly rare anyone actually uses the Team’s chat for actual work purposes. If I need to talk to someone for work purposes I usually send passive aggressive emails.

        They’ve just added to the bottom of that email signatures.

        [Company name], certified a great pace to work 2023 - 2024

        We’re just wondering who certified that, the general consensus is that it’s probably BS.

        • LaunchesKayaks@lemmy.world
          link
          fedilink
          English
          arrow-up
          3
          ·
          10 months ago

          My company has 11 people, so Teams is the easiest way for us to communicate other than just talking across the room or walking 10 feet to a different room lol

        • seitanic@lemmy.sdf.org
          link
          fedilink
          English
          arrow-up
          1
          ·
          10 months ago

          It all depends on company culture. The last contract I worked was 100% virtual, and the chat channels were all business, all the time. I don’t think I saw a single meme the whole 8 months I worked there.

        • Mamertine@lemmy.world
          link
          fedilink
          English
          arrow-up
          1
          ·
          10 months ago

          Each office has a different communication preference. My current shop is both email and teams. It’s frustrating. Good luck trying to find conversations from a month ago.

          I wish we’d pick one.

    • kshade@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      10
      ·
      edit-2
      10 months ago

      Yeah, it’s really weird seeing these blanket statements from the CEO of Zoom, of all things.

      I’ve grown up with ICQ, IRC and forums, later worked with a very distributed, international volunteer team and made connections just fine, even though we barely used voice chat (it was still the Skype days) and nobody ever actually saw me or knew my real name.

      Those people and connections weren’t somehow less real to me than the superficial, safety-first chit-chat you sometimes get into at work. This obviously isn’t everybody’s experience, but maybe, just maybe, the CEO should “get” this instead of being out of touch with what he’s selling.

      Maybe he was left on read one time too many.

    • aidan@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      12
      arrow-down
      3
      ·
      10 months ago

      Eh, for certain people they definitely are less productive online(unfortunately including me), but I’m sure some others are more productive online.

      • Kittenstix@lemmy.world
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        18
        ·
        10 months ago

        I think the issue is the one-size-fits-all mentality, it leaves no room for each person to do what works best for them.

        My wife’s company only rents one of the 4 floors it used to, for those who wanted to return to offices and it’s worked out perfectly, they maintain a space for necessary in office meetings, a place for presentations while only paying a fraction of their old lease.

        • limelight79@lemm.ee
          link
          fedilink
          English
          arrow-up
          3
          arrow-down
          1
          ·
          10 months ago

          We’ve been work-from-home since the pandemic kicked off, so about 3.5 years now. They’re working on renovating our office building (and shrinking the footprint we occupy in it), so we’re going to be work-from-home until at least the spring, at which time we’ll have to report a max of one time per week. Supposedly a remote work policy is under development as well, which is what I’m hoping for.

          I will say, though, I went to an in-person strategy session for a club I’m in back in May. No zoom at all. What I had forgotten was the hallway conversations, the discussions over dinner, and being able to collaborate like that. It was much easier to talk to my counterparts in the club and see how they were addressing issues, for example. I softened my stance on the full work-from-home idea after that - for certain things, like brainstorming, an in-person meeting is hard to beat. But, our day-to-day work, including the quarterly meetings where we pass motions to revise the club bylaws - those can be (and still are) done virtually.

      • seitanic@lemmy.sdf.org
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        12
        ·
        10 months ago

        That’s why they should give people the option to work from home. You can choose which one is best for you.

        • aidan@lemmy.world
          link
          fedilink
          English
          arrow-up
          2
          arrow-down
          4
          ·
          10 months ago

          I much prefer to work from home, but I am admittedly less productive. That was my point. I choose to work from home given the choice, but would be less productive.

      • Azzu@lemm.ee
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        2
        ·
        10 months ago

        The question for me is, is maximizing productivity the most important thing?

        • seitanic@lemmy.sdf.org
          link
          fedilink
          English
          arrow-up
          2
          ·
          10 months ago

          I think you have to have a good work-life balance. If you are only focused on maximizing productivity, you risk burnout. I’m not a manager, but I’ve certainly seen burnout lots of times.

    • Cyborganism@lemmy.ca
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      16
      arrow-down
      1
      ·
      10 months ago

      LoL right?

      I mean the company clearly benefited from the pandemic and people working from home. Why would they want that to stop??

        • Cyborganism@lemmy.ca
          link
          fedilink
          English
          arrow-up
          4
          ·
          10 months ago

          I swear, sometimes it feels as though companies are run by a bunch of power hungry psychopaths. The system is really rigged in their favor, too. Their kind of behaviour seems rewarded all the time.

        • bitsplease@lemmy.ml
          link
          fedilink
          English
          arrow-up
          2
          ·
          10 months ago

          They’ll have much less when they lose all their customers and have to downsize lol

      • coffeeffoc@lemmy.world
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        2
        ·
        10 months ago

        Money. This guy is getting leaned on to send the message that wfh is a mistake. There is about 2.5 trillion in corporate real estate debt floating around and when contracts are negotiated conditions are made. Government and invested business are shitting bricks and doing everything they can to force occupation of otherwise obsolete buildings.

  • vasametropolis@lemmy.world
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    89
    arrow-down
    1
    ·
    edit-2
    10 months ago

    Ya, this guy is toast. He just told the world he thinks his product sucks - the sane know he’s wrong at least.

    • heartlessevil@lemmy.one
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      7
      ·
      10 months ago

      The product sucks for work and productivity purposes. It can still be useful for meetings where productivity is not a factor (social, medical, many other situations.)

      I don’t really care which teleconferencing software I use but without zoom I would lose access to several medical providers and need to travel a couple hours to them which is untenable.

      • DrMango@lemmy.world
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        8
        ·
        10 months ago

        I gotta say I’m shocked that Zoom is secure enough for use in patient care given how heavily regulated the industry is

        • Rodeo@lemmy.ca
          link
          fedilink
          English
          arrow-up
          3
          ·
          10 months ago

          Do you really think any doctors gave a second of thought to patient privacy when they made those decisions?

          Everybody was in a tizzy because of COVID so everyone just said “I’ve heard of zoom! Let’s use that! Other people are using it so it must be fine!” And nobody gave a split fucking second of thought to computer security.

        • Nowyn@sopuli.xyz
          link
          fedilink
          English
          arrow-up
          2
          arrow-down
          1
          ·
          10 months ago

          They have a HIPAA-compliant version although not sure how secure it really is. In general, companies seem to care more about companies’ privacy than individuals.

    • EnderMB@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      1
      ·
      10 months ago

      From a security perspective, the product has sucked for many years now, but it never halted their popularity. If he can survive Apple needing to intervent to remove a web server they installed on people’s machines, he’ll survive this.

  • Facebones@reddthat.com
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    90
    arrow-down
    6
    ·
    10 months ago

    The number of jobs I’ve missed out on and lost exclusively because I’m not normative enough to tell milquetoast jokes around a water cooler with a bunch of people I know two facts about but treat like my best friend numbers in the 100s.

    Fuck all these people trying to force the old ways forever just so they can exercise their social capital upon the rest of us.

    • XYZinferno@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      13
      arrow-down
      20
      ·
      10 months ago

      By old ways, do you mean in-person interviews and work?

      Because I won’t lie, I do find it easier to collaborate, focus, and communicate with my coworkers in-person, as opposed to the days I work remotely (I do a combination of in-person and work-from-home). And while I think it’s unfair to be denied a job for not being sociable enough (I’m very much in the same boat), the overall idea of wanting employees who communicate with and get along with their coworkers better isn’t inherently wrong.

  • Honytawk@lemmy.zip
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    85
    arrow-down
    1
    ·
    10 months ago

    I don’t get corporate blokes.

    They spend their whole working hours finding ways to increase profits by reducing costs everywhere, to the detriment of the company even. Then we finally give them an easy way to reduce costs that make the employees happy, by removing the need for real estate. And they do a complete 180° to not do so?

    Even if they have a lease of multiple years, not having to heat/cool the building nor pay the electricity is still cheaper.

    Is it really about micromanagement?

    • Zeron@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      41
      arrow-down
      1
      ·
      10 months ago

      At this point i’m convinced it’s more about the fact these higher ups have skin in the real estate game. They either know the people who lease their properties, or are heavily invested in the property itself. So they can’t get past the mental block that is the sunk cost fallacy to just ditch it, or lose “good boy points” with their rich peers by saying they don’t need the property anymore.

      I guess it’s also harder to brag to your rich friends how big your company is when you have less physical locations too, but at this point i’m just grasping. The amount of money these companies could save it massive, but they just absolutely refuse to do it for whatever reason.

    • Banik2008
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      18
      ·
      edit-2
      10 months ago

      an easy way to reduce costs that make the employees happy

      That’s the problem, right there.

    • KingCrimson@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      1
      ·
      10 months ago

      I think the issue is that they fear giving workers too much freedom. With that newfound freedom, they may start realizing that they can demand more

    • SCB@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      1
      ·
      10 months ago

      They can’t just reduce their costs, because they’re locked into contracts and/or the corp real estate market is in the trash can

      I’d be willing to bet sunk cost fallacy does play a big part, as a result, but I also think senior leadership there just struggles to manage remotely and thus they assume others do too.

    • alekwithak@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      6
      arrow-down
      9
      ·
      10 months ago

      CEOs and Corporate blokes are still technically working class. They have bosses to answer to. Their bosses have a large stake in real estate, manufacturing, oil, etc. Happy at home employees buy less and drive less. This is bad for their bosses. It goes way beyond the company’s bottom line.

        • Alex@lemmy.world
          link
          fedilink
          English
          arrow-up
          1
          ·
          10 months ago

          The rest of the investor class consider Musk a joke to actually run the companies he owns himself.

        • alekwithak@lemmy.world
          link
          fedilink
          English
          arrow-up
          5
          arrow-down
          6
          ·
          10 months ago

          Y’all need lessons in reading comprehension. I’m downright amazed anyone is reading my comment as sympathetic towards CEOS. I didn’t say they are average, I said they were working class. As in they’re not the 1%. They have to work a job to make money, at least for a time. Famous actors are working class, too. Hence the strikes. They may be out of touch with the average person but they still have a job to do. GD

          • Alex@lemmy.world
            link
            fedilink
            English
            arrow-up
            2
            ·
            10 months ago

            You’re not wrong but them being the executive class beholden to the investor class is a pretty big distinction from the rest of the working class that they oversee as a part of their work.

      • retrieval4558@mander.xyz
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        6
        ·
        10 months ago

        I assure you that the CEO of a large corporation like that has a very different relationship to the means of production than your average working class person. Especially in regard to how their income is generated.

        • alekwithak@lemmy.world
          link
          fedilink
          English
          arrow-up
          1
          arrow-down
          7
          ·
          10 months ago

          Y’all need lessons in reading comprehension. I’m downright amazed anyone is reading my comment as sympathetic towards CEOS. I didn’t say they are average, I said they were working class. As in they’re not the 1%. They have to work a job to make money, at least for a time. Famous actors are working class, too. Hence the strikes. They may be out of touch with the average person but they still have a job to do. GD

      • JoBo@feddit.uk
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        5
        arrow-down
        1
        ·
        10 months ago

        They own enough property that they are not, in fact, working class. They don’t have to work for a living (any more), they choose to.

        Bosses like locating in expensive cities because they have the income to buy property in those expensive cities, and rake in the capital gains that come from others locating in those expensive cities. They all stand to lose a lot if people move out of those expensive cities because the housing pyramid that supports the imaginary value of their property collapses.

  • terminhell@lemmy.dbzer0.com
    cake
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    83
    arrow-down
    2
    ·
    10 months ago

    I don’t want to ‘get to know’ my coworkers. I’m not there for friendships, or a pseudo family. I’m there to do a job and be paid for it.

    But, this might just be my introvert side.