When Rowan Rosenthal heard about Grindr's return-to-office mandate during a virtual town hall meeting in August, anxiety, confusion and anger set in. The principal product designer lived within a 25-minute bike ride from the company's Brooklyn office but instead was required to report to one in Los Angeles, where Rosenthal's department was assigned. This doesn't make sense and there's no way this will happen, Rosenthal thought. But it did happen. And two weeks later, Rosenthal realized that desp

Return to the office? These workers quit instead.::When Rowan Rosenthal heard about Grindr’s return-to-office mandate during a virtual town hall meeting in August, anxiety, confusion and anger set in. The principal product designer lived within a 25-minute bike ride from the company’s Brooklyn office but instead was required to report to one in Los Angeles, where Rosenthal’s department was assigned. This doesn’t make sense and there’s no way this will happen, Rosenthal thought. But it did happen. And two weeks later, Rosenthal realized that desp

  • wagonerEnglish
    89•10 months ago

    There it is, buried in paragraph 26:

    “He and his colleagues believe that the company’s move was the result of workers’ decision to unionize.”

    I’d argue this is not a valid “technology” topic, and is instead more about capitalism, workers’ rights, etc.

    • @uriel238English
      33•10 months ago

      Remote work is a product of technology. In this case it’s disrupting work culture: thanks to technology, workers now have the capacity to do productive work at home, and want to continue doing so. Their managers want them to commute to the office, even when that costs more resources, so this is a social aftereffect of a technological disruption.

      Really, it’s up to community moderators whether stories of social disruptiion by technology is a paradigm worthy of being reported here, but it is related to technology

      • @thejml@lemm.eeEnglish
        25•10 months ago

        As a manager, I don’t care where the hell you are if you’re productive and available when you need to be. And no manager worth their salt in my org currently thinks otherwise.

        This is all a game played by C-level executives who want warm bodies in the office chairs they paid money for so the buildings they leased/built are full and look like a hive of activity. It’s Optics + Real Estate + Finance + Status Quo mixed with a bit of “back in my day”.

        Don’t forget some of these companies got tax write-offs or rebates by agreeing to lease in a certain city and stimulate the local economy with X number of workers. Then they signed off millions of dollars to build/lease office space and outfitted it with desks and chairs and networking and everything else required.

  • @barry_budapest@lemmy.worldEnglish
    51•10 months ago

    Layoffs are unpopular so companies are tightening the belt by making the working conditions less hospitable.

    Return to office is designed to have employees leave willingly so they can reduce headcount without making employees feel unsafe about budget cuts.

    What they don’t seem to care is top performers are the ones most able to move to another job with better working conditions.

    With a trim at the bottom by letting go of low performers and encouraging top performers to leave they are just trending toward mediocrity.

    • @iforgotmyinstance@lemmy.worldEnglish
      26•10 months ago

      All of that pales in comparison to this:

      We created X growth in profit for our shareholders.

      If a company is publicly traded, the shareholders are now by law their highest obligation. It doesn’t matter if that growth comes in the form of new clients or salaries unpaid through RTO policies. No other appeal matters other than generating more profit than the previous quarter at any cost.

      Not maintaining. Not healthy business. Growth at any cost.

  • @Uniquitous@lemmy.oneEnglish
    39•10 months ago

    Yeah, they can try it with me, but they’ll be minus a senior devops engineer, and I don’t think they’ll understand how their build scripts work without me. FAFO, corpos.

  • @Fades@lemmy.worldEnglish
    32•10 months ago

    That’s what they want, no severance to pay! Fuck these corporate assholes playing games with their employees

  • @systemguy_64@lemmy.worldEnglish
    20•10 months ago

    Don’t forget to file for unemployment. If you were hired as remote, going to the office means a major change in your job. If anything it will make your scumbag company do extra work.