I've been working in this industry for 17 years now, and only five of that was in an office. I make an obscene amount of money, so it's not like this has harmed me. The idea that the kids need to suffer through an office so they know what it'll do to their career is about as out of date as the resume advice above.
What works for you may not be what works for everybody, and that's the point.
It could be that remote work would have limited your career advancement.
For me, it's the only reason I can have a career at all.
Instead of making it personal, lets make it general. According to you how many people have a problem working in the office for the reasons you listed?
I think I'd agree with you unless something crazy happened, like a global pandemic that completely shifted the way companies think and made them massively more likely to recruit remote workers.
If that happened then you'd have to be daft to think it wouldn't change anything.
The idea that because you've been working for a decade or two and know how things were before the pandemic, these poor, dumb college kids should just listen to you and let you tell them that everything has always been this way and always will be this way just doesn't hold up to basic scrutiny.
Maybe Apple will loose enough talent over time to where their corp culture will have to adapt. I doubt it. Wouldn't mind if I'm wrong (I think at least having the option for at least some remote work is overall very healthy overall), but I'm not holding my breath.
"They said that Apple's reasons for implementing the policy don't stand up, and that the policy is wasteful, inflexible and will lead to a "younger, whiter, more male-dominated, more neuro-normative, more able-bodied" workforce."
I, for one, have no idea what neuro-normative means.
Anywho, u/EricE isn't agreeing or disagreeing. They're just advising that people can just state their preference plainly, no tortured nonsensical rationalizations necessary.
"If you're explaining, you're losing." -- Lee Atwater
Labor now has greater power. Wield it. Those who would take away your power don't bother to explain themselves. Why should Labor?
Unless, of course, you'd rather be right, over actually winning.
So do you plan to learn what it means, or do you believe that language should remain exactly as it was at some arbitrary point in the past?
Sadly, this group of authors didn't know the meaning either. Typical.
As a rule, I avoid using terms I can't define. If you know any of the authors, please pass that tip along. Thanks.
> ...or do you believe that language should remain exactly...
Wut?
And thus the majority of friction in todays discourse.
Something I still fall prey to more than I like and try to stay vigilant of so thanks for pointing it out!
Having no psychological/developmental conditionals recognized by the DSM
More seriously...
I'm totally on board with navel gazing. But I don't see how (mis)using such terms helps this letter's authors make the case for having the individual choice to work remotely.
So performative.
What I wouldn't give to see you try just to survive a day with my body and my brain.
The base level struggle of someone living in a world designed for people with completely different brains than ours would make whatever trophies you think you earned in actual competitive Little League or whatever look exactly like the worthless little ego strokes you think participation trophies are.
But we can compete with you, now that we can work remotely. If you can't compete remotely, that's because you've been relying on privileges you didn't even realize you had for your success, not because there's something wrong with remote work.
If you can't succeed now that we're on the field, you don't deserve any more trophies.
And I'm not only full time WFH but geographically remote from my office too. Have been for some time. But wouldn't be anywhere near where I am to day had I started out that way.
There is nothing wrong with remote work. What's wrong is pretending there aren't trade off's with remote work. if those trade off's aren't majority negative for you then have at it! But assuming remote work should just be the norm just because it's what an employee wants - that's nuts!
No, it isn't. Businesses tend to play "follow the leader", so the ability to find a company offering substantially different work conditions is limited.
When facing a cartel, the solution is not "find an alternative". The idea of a cartel is to limit alternatives!
Assuming your premise is true, the 'leader' here would be remote-work if we are to believe that amazing benefits and therefore success that it can bring to a business. Businesses tend to copy things that other successful companies are doing.
You calling it a cartel situation is not fair, but I'm going to look the other way and assume you did that just for effect.
But seriously you hit upon a lot of topics us older folks seem to get and younger folks don't and also vice versa. It's also well within their rights to demand remote work and not have to go into the office at all. Perhaps younger minds are better at collaboration than older minds? And even as an older guy who had a "butts in seats" policy when I managed folks, I don't buy the argument that working remotely has serious tradeoffs. If they were so bad, open source software would never have taken off. You don't have to be in the office to collaborate effectively. Maybe if your personality demands it, but a lot of us introverts (or non-neuro-normative if you will) kinda like not being around people who talk all the time.
I just think it's unfortunate that he's dragged culture war contempt into the discussion, as i think that has inhibited our ability to have curious conversation about the tradeoffs.
Yup, and when they get to my age funnily enough they will be sounding much like me.
Much like I sound like my parents despite swearing in my naivety to never be like them :)
Youth is indeed wasted on the young :p (it was wasted on me too!)
They won't have all of your biases and hangups, though. They'll be out of touch with succeeding generations, but not for the same reasons.
Just enjoy being the most privileged and worthless generation this country has ever had. There’s a reason the new generations resent you
I'm not sure what you're saying here. Do you not think neuro-normativity is a real thing? Or do you think that neuro-divergent people will be worse off with a truly flexible work-from-home policy?
I don't think they are requesting that the office cease to exist. It sounds like they want a hybrid approach that has no required office time.
> A lot of these younger folks pushing for full time remote at the start of their career are putting themselves into a box I don't think they fully appreciate
This is condescending. It assumes that people who want full-time remote are not aware of the trade offs. I try to think better of people when they make an effort at self-determination. They know their lives better than I do, I imagine.