08 Mar Yeah, it’s EXACTLY like that!
In a recent tweet, CEO Dan Price made an observation that, quite frankly, ought to be much more self-evident to everyone than it apparently is:
YES. THIS. THIS x1000000.
I once had a manager who told me, “Some people like control more than they like money.” Indeed, that is the case. I’m not a psychologist, so I dunno what drives that impulse in the business world, but it certainly seems to be true. This push to “come on back to the office” is ridiculous IMO. And most of the data I have seen draws a clear line that most people who have been working remotely before or since the initial Covid-19 lockdowns DO NOT WANT to go back. They don’t want 100% in office or some sort of weird hybrid schedule. They just don’t. The few polls I have read that indicated people wanted to go back to the Cube Farm or work a hybrid schedule all had corporate sponsors. So what does that tell you? Biased “research” much? Methinks so.
In another recent tweet, Dan writes:
I am so glad Dan is calling this out for what it is. It is about control. It always was and it is again now.
For freelancers and business owners reading this: you will experience in your own practice whatever you are willing to put up with. Your boundaries and rules of engagement are meaningless if you do not require adherence. This includes:
- Twisting yourself into a pretzel to try to please someone who’s unpleaseable
- Camping out on a Slack channel for surveillance after you said you would not
- Hopping on a barrage of “touch base” calls that do nothing to move the project forward
- Offering unlimited revisions after you agreed to a set number
- Taking calls at 3am because the client is Ned the Needy
- Working for free
You can recreate the corporate hell you sought to escape from inside your own company if you allow that to happen. So don’t allow it to happen!
If your company is struggling to find employees, it’s time to stop blaming literally everything else in the world other than your strategies, attitudes, and work environment. Yes, this includes:
- The economy
- The Great Resignation
- Inflation
- Entire generations of people
It’s way past time to take an honest appraisal of your hiring funnel as well as your internal company culture. Is it true that no human being on the planet wants to work anymore or is it perhaps more likely that they don’t want a long commute, a seat in the middle of a florescent light soul crushing cube farm, and a below par salary?
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