07 Apr “Now comes the discipline”
Cynical dog/wolf is cynical.
I mean . . . what did you expect? The triumph of John & Jane Q. Public over the giant corporate crony capitalist beast? 😆 As Scrooge said, “I’ll retire to Bedlam.”
“Earlier this year, Kelly decided to leave New York City to care for a sick relative. She figured she could move away while continuing to work remotely as a software engineer for Bloomberg, just as she’d done for the previous two years. But Kelly’s decision introduced her to the sharp end of office life in 2023, as companies try to persuade their employees to come back to the office. Her plans to move clashed with Bloomberg’s return-to-the-office directive. In the end, Kelly, who asked to go by a pseudonym because of her company’s confidentiality policy, lost her job.” –https://finance.yahoo.com/news/first-came-return-office-policies-100000996.html emphasis mine
🔮 Prediction alert: we’re segueing from the carrot to the stick.
–https://causeyconsultingllc.com/2023/04/05/a-job-i-dont-love/ written on April 4, published on April 5, 2023. Perhaps the fastest vindication I’ve ever had.
I return again to Jed Hill’s comment in Malice: This is the present. This is the here and the now.
“Bloomberg had been trying to get staff to come into work since last November. At first, Kelly says, the return to the office (RTO) was communicated informally by managers and human resources staff, and through group emails extolling the virtues of face-to-face collaboration. The policy was not strictly enforced. At that time Kelly was still living in New York, and like everybody on her team she continued to work from home. Some colleagues had even moved to other parts of the U.S. ‘This had never been called out at all,’ Kelly says. Her most recent performance review was ‘glowing,’ and last year she received a healthy bonus. Even though she wasn’t showing up to the office, Bloomberg seemed perfectly happy.
In February, the company started applying more pressure. Employees were expected to use an internal system to record their location each day. Those who failed to work at their assigned office for the requisite three days a week—Bloomberg’s Manhattan headquarters, in Kelly’s case—started getting verbal reminders from their managers. When Kelly informed the company that she was planning to move—far enough away that coming to the office three days a week would be impossible—she was warned that doing so might be ‘difficult.’ (Bloomberg declined to comment in response to detailed questions for this story.)” -Yahoo Finance, Ibid.
This is why I have been on my blog and on my podcast warning you and warning you and warning you like a broken record about RTO and the shenanigans of Corpo America. Just because the company said WFH was a forever policy DOES NOT MAKE IT SO! They can change their mind at any point in time. If you don’t hold it, you don’t own it. If you’re not the owner of the firm, you don’t make the final rules.
“Kelly pushed back. ‘I was very frank with my manager,’ she says. ‘I explained the situation—that it wasn’t just a personal preference but a necessity.’ Her manager was sympathetic, and Kelly figured the company would see her side. After all, there was still a process in place that enabled employees to request remote work as an exception. According to Kelly, the company had never said explicitly that office time was mandatory, nor indicated what the consequences would be if people didn’t comply. Then there was that performance review: she had consistently exceeded the company’s expectations.
But Bloomberg doubled down. Earlier this month, according to correspondence seen by Fortune, its HR department informed Kelly by email that if she didn’t adhere immediately to the return-to-office policy, her employment would end. They would treat her case as one of ‘voluntary resignation.'” -Yahoo Finance, Ibid.
And guess who’s likely to be on the chopping block first? See, that’s a point of disagreement I have with Sarah Knight’s book. She makes the claim that it’s quite difficult to get fired if you’re good at your job. I’m telling you it’s not, especially in a bad economy. If your boss dislikes you but needs you, you have a temporary reprieve. But the minute someone else comes along who will do the job reasonably well AND play the schmooze game, bye bye. Again – it’s not right or fair. I don’t agree with this and I think it sucks. I’m writing about this because: if you need a job to survive, you’re more likely to hang on to it knowing how the game is played than relying on hopium.
–https://causeyconsultingllc.com/2023/04/02/why-does-corpo-america-have-to-be-introvert-hell/ published on April 2, 2023
Had a great performance review? Awesome at your job? That’s cool but are you gonna toe the line or are you gonna be a problem, pal?
“Kelly’s story is indicative of a wider shift taking hold in the workplace. Last year, companies tried to coax employees back to the office. They did so tentatively, acknowledging that workers—now accustomed to remote work’s flexibility—might need incentives to give it up. … The trouble was that this gentle approach didn’t really work.” -Yahoo Finance, Ibid.
Coaxing and offering perks didn’t do the trick so now it’s time for punishments instead. And once their cronies at The Fed crash the job market good and proper, it’ll be easy as pie. C’mon back or get fired – and if you get fired, good luck finding something else.
“So in recent months, businesses have begun to put down their carrots and pick up their sticks. According to staff at Roblox, a gaming giant based in California, the company is checking the number of times employees swipe their ID cards to access the building, and recording the location data from company laptops and phones to monitor whether staff are complying with the firm’s RTO policy—which, as of last month, requires them to be at work three days a week.” -Yahoo Finance, Ibid.
Wow. We get a twofer there. RTO by force + the Digital Panopticon surveillance.
“Earlier this month, Bloomberg HR emailed Kelly termination instructions. She wrote back, asking for a copy of the official RTO policy and an opportunity to negotiate severance—which she says the company wasn’t offering her because, in their view, she was resigning. HR replied to say they were bringing her termination forward by three days.” -Yahoo Finance, Ibid.
I’m going to end where I started: I mean . . . what did you expect? The triumph of John & Jane Q. Public over the giant corporate crony capitalist beast? 😆 As Scrooge said, “I’ll retire to Bedlam.”
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