Will They Ever Return?

Face to face works so much better for many jobs. Can you imagine RR dispatchers having to WFH trying to get next distric on the phone when next distric is tied up with some trivial problem. All the jobs I have had required much co ordination with others and bosses.

west point wrote:Face to face works so much better for many jobs. Can you imagine RR dispatchers having to WFH trying to get next distric on the phone when next distric is tied up with some trivial problem. All the jobs I have had required much co ordination with others and bosses.

Our flight dispatchers use Microsoft Teams to get hold of each other, or the weather desk, or ATC, maintenance, etc....

Not only does it work, but the union seems happy with the level of accountability that chat history affords vs. "he said she said" when there's a delay or dispute over who told whom what and when...

The dispatchers like it because they can multitask and have fewer drive-by distractions.

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eolesen wrote: ↑Sun Jun 12, 2022 10:53 am WFH has to be one of the greenest policies around. Very interesting to see liberals so opposed to it...

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I'm left center, and I greatly prefer it or maybe 2 days a week in the office AS needed. I know I'm far more productive from home. Imagine a job where, when you are in the office, you are way too close to the next person (great if you are immune compromised, have lung issues...), and where the people you are near, part of HR, are ALWAYS loudly chit chatting while you are on conference calls, vendor calls, or hip deep in a spreadsheet. Only reason for liberals to support being on premises is that local vendors get more work, for instance more people eating at food carts and the like. But the 4 hour round trip (maybe a bit faster if I was using ESA) is painful, lousy for productivity, the LIRR diesels belch smoke like a coal burner (between breakdowns), plus the drive to the station... And working in Manhattan costs a fortune - breakfast, lunch are expensive, plus the subway (unless you can avoid that). I used to use the M4 bus to get from Penn to my office, than NYCDOT and TA decided it no longer needed to be near Penn, to just end in the middle of a midtown block not close to other transportation. So that forced a lot of people off of buses, probably into UBER's or the like.

So why would 'liberals' like this?

west point wrote: ↑Sun Jun 12, 2022 4:50 pm Face to face works so much better for many jobs. Can you imagine RR dispatchers having to WFH trying to get next distric on the phone when next distric is tied up with some trivial problem. All the jobs I have had required much co ordination with others and bosses.

Sounds like they have a major communications problem if they can't make it work well from home.

eolesen wrote: ↑Sun Jun 12, 2022 10:53 am WFH has to be one of the greenest policies around. Very interesting to see liberals so opposed to it...

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I don’t consider myself liberal I’m more moderate. Some of my views would align more liberal but on some issues not so much - I’m not a huge greenie for instance. Most people think WFH is the greatest thing ever and I do understand the appeal and why some prefer it. But I’m merely pointing out what I view as the drawbacks. There’s no doubt we are a divided nation and I believe WFH will make us even more so especially because it’s a privilege not everyone has and I think it further cements people into their personal life bubbles and allows people to simply tune out the world outside of their individual lives which leads to more indifference and inability to relate to others in different situations. I think some level of flexibility and ability to work from home is great, but I don’t think people working 100% from home is a great thing for society. Again I know I’m in the minority most people think it’s the greatest thing since sliced bread and I understand why most people like it so much, but I just think it’s going to contribute to the continued fragmenting of our political discourse.

Across the society and all political views we have become very much indifferent to the plights of others outside the familiar bubbles that we live in which and the digital era has made it harder for people to relate because the technology allows people simply to not interact with anyone outside of their individual world - which in my opinion is what has fueled the growth of the nationalist populism on the right as well as the excessive preachiness and hypersensitivity of the left…. Don’t get me wrong I don’t know what the solutions are to reform how the system works in this digital era to try to bring back more stability maybe it’s more political parties. But political discourse is a mess and I wish more of the decision makers had it on their radar instead of simply trying to use the division for political advantage.

Here's an article appearing today in The Times that should please the RTO proponents around here such as Messrs. Lord and Wolf.

Fair Use:

... The shift from commuting caused by the pandemic left empty seats on the once-packed trains and buses bringing commuters from New Jersey to New York City. But those crowded conditions will return and may worsen over the next decade as the region’s population grows and more employers call workers back to their offices, a new study concluded.

Even if working from home quadruples from prepandemic levels, there still would be more commuters piling onto trains and buses to get across the Hudson River from New Jersey on some weekdays than in 2019, according to the study, scheduled to be released on Wednesday by the Regional Plan Association ...

It's a mixed bag overall. Many reasons that make one loath to spend even a minute in an office remain. Bad managers at all levels, bad facilities - people too close to each other, poor ventilation, poorly maintained offices, uncomfortable chairs, high noise levels, extremely expensive and often super slow commutes, super expensive breakfasts and lunches, and more. For me, commuting would now cost at least $1000 per month, and the round trip if to midtown about 4 hours. Plus productivity is much lower. And mass transit / commuter rail has gone way down hill since this started - on any given day huge numbers of trains and buses are cancelled due to broken down equipment and not enough employees at agencies.

Under normal conditions, I'm used to 2 days in office, 3 WFH. I'd be in for meetings with vendors and businesses, but could get little else done in a very low productivity environment. I'd make up for it the other 3 days, working longer, and getting far more done per hour minus all the distractions. Plus I wouldn't be exhausted most of the time.

Few office workers need to be IN. There are exceptions, and for them, Hybrid often works.