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IBM, Remote-Work Pioneer, is Calling Thousands Of Employees Back To the Office (qz.com)
An anonymous reader shares a report: Less than a year into her tenure as IBM's chief marketing officer, Michelle Peluso prepared to make an announcement that she knew would excite some of her 5,500 new employees, but also, inevitably, inspire resignation notices from others. In a video message, Peluso explained the "only one recipe I know for success." Its ingredients included great people, the right tools, a mission, analysis of results, and one more thing: "really creative and inspiring locations." IBM had decided to "co-locate" the US marketing department, about 2,600 people, which meant that all teams would now work together, "shoulder to shoulder," from one of six different locations -- Atlanta, Raleigh, Austin, Boston, San Francisco, and New York. Employees who worked primarily from home would be required to commute, and employees who worked remotely or from an office that was not on the list (or an office that was on the list, but different than the one to which their teams had been assigned) would be required to either move or look for another job. Similar announcements had already been made in other departments, and more would be made in the future. At IBM, which has embraced remote work for decades, a relatively large proportion of employees work outside of central hubs. (By 2009, when remote work was still, for most, a novelty, 40% of IBM's 386,000 global employees already worked at home). [...] "When you're playing phone tag with someone is quite different than when you're sitting next to someone and can pop up behind them and ask them a question," Peluso says. Not all IBM employees see it that way.
Aside from this story? I'm thinking specifically of Marissa Mayer.
Mod me down with all of your hatred and your journey towards the dark side will be complete!
Well, Marissa Meyer did it - and, in the end, she got tens of millions of dollars.
...and Yahoo! Went! Down! The! Shitter! Faster! ;)
Quo usque tandem abutere, Nimbus, patientia nostra?
When this edict was handed down in my IBM department I quit. Found a new telecommute position for more money, more freedom, better products and management that actually appreciates employees. IBM was once a great place to work, but that was a decade ago. Now I'm only ashamed I stayed as long as I did.
Except with Reddit it was plainly obvious that it wasn't the employees' choice. No one in their right mind is going to pack up their life and trade in their current arrangements to go live in a $5,000/month closet in SF. Not anyone with a family or any kind of balanced lifestyle, anyway. So you can't attract the best or the brightest, instead you get people who are stuck in SF after being laid off from some other company and are desperate for work. No offense to people working at Reddit.
I have a friend who is celebrating his 21st year at Intel. He has considered leaving a few times, but just couldn't because they take such good care of him. He gets stock options that come out to about 1/3 of my salary, he makes very good money, usually gets double-digit raises and bonuses that are about 1/4 to 1/3 my salary.
Every seven years, he gets a paid 3-month sabbatical, in addition to vacation. This year will be his 3rd one. He had to move once for the company, and when he did they pretty much covered every expense.
Quite honestly, I have known a couple of other people who have worked there, and none of them complained about it.
What I was told about Intel was that they take care of their employees, and during hard times (like during the economic downturn) they take better care of them. It's how they keep good people. I always respected them for that. I can't say as much for any software or financial company that I have worked for in the last 24 years.
My beliefs do not require that you agree with them.
Depends how you swing it. I've moved a few times in my career and each time I've retained my property in my previous location as a rental property. Even turning over management of those properties to property management companies still nets me a small net profit every month, and meanwhile someone else is paying my mortgages and I am building equity.
Yes, I have occasional large expenses like the furnace going out in one of my properties last week... but because I put all of my net profit into a single account and retain for just these kinds of expenses I still know I'm making money on the entire portfolio.
No, it's not enough that I can quit my job... but if I were to liquidate all of my properties tomorrow I'd have enough cash to live on for a couple of years and still maintain my current standard of living.
A house can be an investment if you're creative.