Breaking on Morning JoeScum

[malaise]

Google will be keeping their employees at home until July 2021

[NoMoreRepugs]

1. Holy Shit Batman!!!!

[underpants]

2. They have the greatest policies and procedures

If you ask a supervisor something they say “Hold on a minute” and use the company database to find the answer.

[Johnny2X2X]

3. This is what was always going to happen

Working From Home was always going to be the wave of the future, this pandemic kick started that by a factor of 20 though.

I work in aerospace, so we're a tech company (avionics software and hardware) so you'd think we'd already be used to this model, but we had some execs who were relics and pushed back on the WFH model a few years back. Well those same execs are sold now, working from home is showing it's a better model for us. They're seeing that we still meet milestones, we still deliver for our customers, and we are just as efficient with 90% of the staff at home. And the cost savings they are seeing is substantial.

There are still several challenges to overcome, but the market will respond to those. Also, more than ever broadband needs to be treated like a utility.

I've been working from home since mid March and my experience has been mostly great. I get more work done, I'm more relaxed because I'm at home and can take breaks when I need and be in my preferred environment. I'm actually helping others in my group because I have more time. I do miss the face to face time that is one of my strengths, but chat and voice are just fine. And not commuting into work or having to dress for work is just awesome. Outside of cutting the grass I haven't worn anything other than flip flops on my feet the entire Summer.

Management is seeing that workers take less time off when working from home, and they're actually monitoring that to an extent and pinging workers to take some more vacation days. I think this is permanent for me, I will be work from home going forward with the ability to go into the office occasionally when needed, but the office will be more like a campus now without assigned desks.

I'm expecting this to be permanent and when I get the word it is I'll probably sell our 2nd car, no need for 2 cars when the 1 was just for my commute. I'll invest in a better desk and chair too.

[malaise]

6. Thanks for this post

Very helpful

[lagomorph777]

11. My experience is almost exactly the same in most details.

[PatSeg]

12. That all makes sense to me

The amount of time people spend getting ready for work and the commuting, could be spent actually working. Plus it is less stressful and fewer sick days.

Meanwhile, the employer can reduce their overhead by moving into smaller buildings. I think ideally (when there is no pandemic), there would still be some time spent at the work place, interacting with other employees and management, depending on the company and the type of work being done. I think many people could become too isolated being at home all the time. Many of my lasting friendships were made at the workplace.

The one downside I see for some people is not everyone has a decent workspace at home, so work at home might not be right for everyone.

[Johnny2X2X]

14. Workspace is key

And I'm sure people I work with will ask if the company can ship them a desk and office chair.

We also have employees who live out a ways and don't necessarily have access to fast internet.

As it is now, we were told in March this would probably be for 4-5 weeks. So we packed our monitors and went home. I still have a desk and a cabinet full of all of my belongings at work and my part of the office has been commandeered by another department that has to be there. So I need to make a time to go and get my stuff.

Also, we had a 10% permanent RIF in June and are adding another 15% to that tomorrow. 25% of our North American workforce laid off permanently, a total of 13,000 workers losing their jobs. I'm told my job is not being cut, but it's difficult knowing so many of my close work friends might not be so lucky.

[PatSeg]

33. Yes

I think providing employees with a desk and office chair would really be cheaper in many respects than maintaining expensive unused office space.

That is such a shame that so many have permanently lost their jobs though. I am glad to hear you haven't.

[Johnny2X2X]

34. Thanks

I am still nervous, been told I am totally safe, but I work for a massive company, oversights happen. Tomorrow is D Day for layoffs, I won't sleep well tonight and then I'll check my email first thing to see if I have a meeting invite from HR.

I figure I am 99.9% safe, but I am still losing sleep, literally I woke up at 3 am last night worrying. I have buddies who know it's a coin flip for them, they are really struggling. But at least tomorrow we will all know.

Very good jobs in aerospace engineering, not a lot of aerospace in the area to fall back on, so people will have to change fields. And what's worse, we'll layoff maybe 200 people, so any engineer in the area will have 200 more people to compete against for the jobs that will be out there. Not a small town, but not a huge city, 200 extra engineers to compete against is a nightmare to think about.

[PatSeg]

36. That is really intimidating

I can imagine how stressful it must be. It appears there are very few secure jobs anymore, as things tend to change so rapidly. I remember a time when people stayed at the same job for 20 or 30 years. Now things can change in a heartbeat and workers can be starting all over again from scratch, often with few prospects. I'm retired now, but I remember what it was like to be out there looking for a job when so many people were competing for the same position.

[Johnny2X2X]

38. I made it through

HR meeting went out at 7:30am, I was spared. Really tough though, 4 of my really good work friends didn't make it through. Brutal.

[PatSeg]

39. That is brutal

I'm glad you survived, but I know that must suck to see friends and colleagues get the ax.

[Johnny2X2X]

40. Yeah, it's hard

I feel total relief, but then I feel horrible for my friends who all have houses and some have families.

I was in a little 5 person team with a bunch of mismatched parts, I left that group 18 months ago, the rest of the group was let go this Summer. Was really close to these people, we sat right next to each other for several years. You get to know their families, their houses, their little house projects. Just sucks.

Aerospace is getting hit hard right now, I may not be out of the woods, but I think this guarantees me a job through the end of the year. Outlasting people is important when things could be really bad for a long time. The longer you do without a job, the less hire able you become in a lot of company's eyes.

[NJCher]

17. the environment gets a break, too

And not commuting into work

plus think how much pollution you keep from putting out from driving a car. I don't know if this is still true, but environmentalists used to say we put out a pound of pollution for every mile we drive. No wonder auto emissions are down so much.

[nolabear]

21. Yes, Mr. Bear has worked from home for years. Also tech.

His company is tech as well. I used to ruefully joke that he was always either home or in Silicon Valley, India, China or South Korea. Now he’s just home, but works with all those people still, sometimes at very strange hours. It is indeed the future in many fields.

[Johnny2X2X]

25. Social distancing

At first our work put in place social distancing and no meetings while in the office, so you were basically going into your cube and holding all meetings through teleconference...just like we do at home now.

It's great for me so far, but this also will have a negative impact on the community. We had 1200 people at the office daily, that's a lot of people to feed so we had a full cafeteria with 5 full-time cafeteria workers who are now out of jobs. Cleaning staff is cut down, facilities staff is way down. And the restaurants around my work are slower without all the people who went for lunch daily, some of those restaurants relied heavily on the business lunch crowd. Support staff is down.

But I love the fact that I'm not polluting by driving into work. I have filled my gas tank up once since March. If we go full time from home permanently I am considering just owning a moped as a 2nd vehicle.

Looking at it on a Macro scale, less gas being sold, less wear and tear on cars means less new cars sold, less used cars sold. If we go down to maybe 100 people on site, there will be several dozen jobs lost in support staff and for local businesses that serve our staff. Of course,we may need to beef up our IT staff to support working remotely long term. And when that is all scaled up nationwide, you're looking at perhaps millions of jobs lost. But also way less pollution, way less wear and tear on the roads, and less demand for cars.

[nolabear]

27. We're going to have to retool the economy. Clean energy jobs, etc.

The world’s needs are far different than they were. Interestingly agriculture is always going to be massive, though mechanized. Clean energy will require labor, as will medical care, construction, the pet industry, home oriented products...I'm trying to think across skill sets and how service industry workers might shift over as in person work, socializing and possibly school undergoes changes.

I have a son in the wine industry and he may be shifting to tech, largely because they’re having a hell of a time figuring out how to adjust away from bars and restaurants and into the growing home consumer market. The supply chain and marketing issues are in great flux.

[Johnny2X2X]

28. Agree

Things were already changing, this is accelerating them quickly though. And we have some really good support staff at my work, but they aren't considered highly skilled, more secretarial work, some great people, but unfortunately I don't see a need for them. There's a lot of office workers who don't realize how expendable their position is.

Also, what about HR? That position is changing completely with remote work.

[PatrickforO]

22. Yes. I'm in local government, and we have found that a) most of our workforce

is fine working from home, and b) our attendance at things like program orientations has actually gone UP.

TANF participants, for instance, were required to attend a 'works' orientation, and before the work from home order, we were lucky to get 50% to show up. Why? Well, if you have to ride the bus for three hours to get there after you've dropped your children off at childcare, then it's hard. And, arrogantly, we used to have people (again I like the word 'relics' who smugly told us that people who were ten minutes late would not be admitted, because "this way, they can learn the lesson of being on time."

Classic capitalist 'pull yourself up by the bootstraps' bullshit. I DARE anyone who thinks this to take three small children with you on the bus and then ride to our office, then walk the final eighth of a mile there and be on time. Good luck with that.

But, virtually, people are able to attend. It is so much better and more gentle to the participants, many of whom are mandated to work with us to find jobs.

Here's the issue, though:
- What about Workers Comp? How is that handled in a WFH environment?
- What about PTO?
- What is the best way to define productivity (butt-time-units vs completion of tasks).

[Johnny2X2X]

26. Interesting

"Here's the issue, though:
- What about Workers Comp? How is that handled in a WFH environment?
- What about PTO?
- What is the best way to define productivity (butt-time-units vs completion of tasks)."

- Workers Comp is going to be a tricky one, but I am sure there is already precedent in place.
- PTO, we do permissive time off at my work, there is no limit to vacation or sick days within reason. We're finding people are taking less time off and the company wants them to take more. So some workers are getting notes from their bosses that they need to take some vacation time. But honestly, for me, I don't feel like I need as much time off right now, work is so much easier without having to go to work.
- Productivity is defined the same now as it was at the office, we're professionals, have set workloads, the amount of work we cover and the quality of it is measured the same. Could be trickier for other professions. Depends on the industry, but I'm an engineer, nothing changes for me in this regard.

[Skittles]

37. I wouldn't mind if I could do everything from one laptop

but two, three laptops, extra monitors, hard drive, etc......I miss my quad setup

[tinrobot]

4. Not a surprise. My wife and I have already been told the same by our employers.

I work for another Silicon Valley company, she works for University of California. We're home until at least January.

We feel very blessed that we are still working. I feel so bad for all the other people who aren't so fortunate.

[smb]

5. It's A Beneficial Trend In Several Ways

In addition to reduced disease transmission, there's reduced fuel usage, traffic congestion (and thus reduced need for additional roads/transit) and improved flexibility (though that also brings the one big downside if your idiot boss expects you to be available at any time).

[MissB]

7. According to my boss last week

my position description is being rewritten to allow for 100% telecommuting.

A lot of employers want their employees to work; during a pandemic that means work from home.

Good for Google for announcing this early and not just stringing folks along every few months.

[Delphinus]

35. And, this early,

it can be used to help companies on the fence about telecommuting time to get their plans in place.

[xmas74]

8. Cerner and BCBSKC

Both announced a week or so back that they will revisit returning to the office after the new year, no sooner.

[caraher]

9. Good news for me and my grandson

My daughter-in-law works at Google and had a baby last October. By the time her generous maternity leave ran out the coronavirus shutdown had begun. Looks like they'll be avoiding any kind of paid infant day care entirely.

[malaise]

10. Definitely good news for your family

[luvtheGWN]

19. Well sure, unless she has a caregiver to look after baby

while she works from home. My niece and nephew (both executives in the insurance industry) have 2 boys -- one is 9 and the other is 3. They had to take turns working-- she in the morning, and he in the afternoon, and both after 8 p.m. when both kids were in bed.

It's difficult -- so they finally hired a live-in nanny. It's questionable whether the boys will be returning to school in September...

[caraher]

29. My son is able to care for the baby

Also about the time COVID hit my son lost his job. For the near future, at least, they felt it made more sense for him to stay home than seek a new job. So that's another luxury.

[hunter]

24. Working at home with babies and small children is very difficult.

I might have done better at that if my wife had been working at home as well.

We managed to raise our children without daycare even when we were both working outside the home because we had flexible schedules, but that was difficult as well.

I don't know how people are coping with this virus when schools and daycare are closed, but know some of our neighbors have returned to the ancient human tradition of extended families. There's always some adult relative at home who can watch the children full time when the parents are working, even when the parents are working at home.

[caraher]

30. It is

And I think we're seeing the negatives of the "nuclear family" model, as you point out.

Even with my son there, my daughter-in-law finds it hard to work sometimes, just hearing her son as she's in another room trying to work. And they have it very good...

[Rebl2]

13. My sister

works for an architectural firm and is still working from home. From her house to work was a long drive and horrible traffic. She doesn’t miss that part, but does miss working at the office.

[bucolic_frolic]

15. Companies need to protect their human capital and no one wants to get sick

Should someone tell Trump, Pence, Kudlow, Mnuchin, Ross, Pompeo?

[MontanaMama]

16. As an employer myself...

owning a small business with 6 employees, I can tell you that employee compensation is the largest line item in our budget. Payroll, health insurance, 401K, bonuses, etc. That said, it’s the highest line item because employees too important to treat otherwise. Keeping them safe is paramount. Period.

[DownriverDem]

18. I resent

you calling the show JoeScum. How long do you hold views that are no longer valid? Joe has been against trump and the repubs for the last 3 plus years. Times are way not normal. We seriously need all the help we can get to get rid of trumpscum!!!!

[malaise]

20. OK - that's your right n/t

[Sewa]

31. Joescum works for me

He only became anti-Trump when his tv ratings cratered

[malaise]

32. Me too

[USALiberal]

23. I agree! nt