10 Aug ONE OF US… ONE OF US… ONE OF US…
Man, the list of RTO fluff pieces / WFH hit pieces keeps on growing.
So much fodder for Cult-Like Tactics Used in Corporate America here.
“With spontaneous encounters having disappeared over the last year, some have sought to romanticize office life as a sort of throwback.
‘It’s almost like a retro movement, like when vinyl became cool again,’ said David Goldstein, a top executive at Savills. ‘I think it will be cool to people to be back in the office.'”
–https://www.nytimes.com/2021/04/30/business/back-to-office-work-coronavirus-pandemic.html
No, David. It’s not retro and cool like a record player. 😒 People who faced bigotry, ableism, and microaggressions in the office don’t find it as nostalgic as playing an LP on the ole turntable.
“Your remote employee may be lying
Managers who miss the office could have one more reason to push back against remote work: employee scams. Some people hired for fully remote roles in industries like IT are outsourcing their jobs to freelancers, exposing companies to risks like data leaks.”
–https://www.linkedin.com/news/story/your-remote-employee-may-be-lying-5955306/
If we can’t convince you that everyone is simply pretending to work, we’ll try to convince you that these people are like roaming marauders looking to defraud you. Buwahaha!
“Office-less society loses out: WSJ
There are three dominant camps in the workforce today: the rah-rah remote brigade, the OK-with-hybrid crew and office diehards. No matter your preference, it’s easy to find articles highlighting the pros and cons of each. Columnist Peggy Noonan argues in a Wall Street Journal op-ed that she views the abandonment of office spaces as a ‘decline in a sense of mission.’ Without the nuances of office life, she believes we stand to lose out on important life lessons and it will lead to more polarization: ‘We were meant to be and work together.'”
–https://www.linkedin.com/news/story/office-less-society-loses-out-wsj-4884929/
You can almost hear chants of, “You must be one of us… one of us… one of us…” coming out of that last line. Super yuck.
“Malcolm Gladwell slams working from home: ‘What have you reduced your life to?’”
–https://nypost.com/2022/08/05/malcolm-gladwell-slams-working-from-home/amp/
From the above article:
“‘It’s not in your best interest to work at home,’ he said. ‘I know it’s a hassle to come into the office, but if you’re just sitting in your pajamas in your bedroom, is that the work life you want to live?’
‘Don’t you want to feel part of something?’
Gladwell added: ‘I’m really getting very frustrated with the inability of people in positions of leadership to explain this effectively to their employees. If we don’t feel like we’re part of something important, what’s the point?’ he said. ‘If it’s just a paycheck, then it’s like what have you reduced your life to?'” (emphasis mine)
Yeah, I mean, sorry but there are times when people take a job because they need the money and benefits, not because they want to be “bought into a mission.” Corporate America is not the military, much as they’d like to pretend to be.
“Author Malcolm Gladwell thinks that remote work is hurting society and that a recession will likely drive employees who are sitting in their pajamas’ back into the office.
The bestselling author of “Blink” and “The Tipping Point” grew emotional and shed tears as he told the ‘Diary of a CEO’ podcast hosted by Steven Bartlett that people need to come into the office in order to regain a ‘sense of belonging‘ and to feel part of something larger than themselves.
‘It’s very hard to feel necessary when you’re physically disconnected,’ the Canadian writer said.
‘As we face the battle that all organizations are facing now in getting people back into the office, it’s really hard to explain this core psychological truth, which is we want you to have a feeling of belonging and to feel necessary.'” (emphasis mine)
Cue up Randy Travis singing, “I Told You So.” Because I have! I have sounded the alarm bell repeatedly that Corpo America would use an economic downturn for its own purposes, including demanding RTO. Now they’re just being more open about it. If you have been burying your head in the sand all this time, you had better wake up immediately.
BELONGING. NECESSARY.
These seem to be recurrent buzzwords they want to emphasize. Why does this come from your job? What is the American / Western world fascination with your job defining everything you do all the time? Why can belonging and necessity not come from, oh, I dunno… other things like who you are as a person, your family, your friends, your religious ideas and connections? Why must it result from Corpo America?
Because that’s what puts money in their pockets, I’m sure. Be naïve at your own risk!
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