This leaked today from inside webmd, the most bullshit corpo HR video I think I’ve ever seen.
To break down the obvious ones:
- Employees who are obviously either drinking wayyy too much company koolaid or who know that their jobs will end if they aren’t in this video
- An extremely out of touch CEO who wants things back the old way without giving any concrete data proving that it’s better beyond conjecture
- A company with “internet” in the name who literally doesn’t understand the concept of the internet
- Threatening and bullying language to force people back in office.
- and just a nice touch, the office is of course not near mass transit or anything and requires driving in
Would be a real shame if the 1% gets fucked on properties that nobody in their right mind will work in.
Fuckingcapitalists
" Internet Brands did not respond to a request for comment, except to say that people were busy with meetings. "
Lololololol
Fuck them. It sounds like they’re too bust having meetings instead of getting work done.
Of the office is so good, why did they green screen it instead of actually going there?
That’s what I just noticed too! Did noone think people would notice that none of the people were actually physically there?!
Phoning it in for the video telling people they must physically go. Typical corporate bullshit.
I would boycott them, but I never use them anyway
good job, to both of us, for boycotting them early!
Sounds like a whole lotta quittin’ time.
That is the intent of RTO policies, yes. It’s a lot cheaper to compel workers to quit rather than fire them.
so strike time then?
What if you just pretend you don’t know what RTO is and stay home anyway
I barely even read my corporate bullshit emails. Unless my actual boss is telling me something, IDGAF.
That’s literally what a bunch of Amazon employees (engineers and stuff, not like warehouse workers) were doing, and last time I checked it was actually going weirdly well…?
Same thing is happening a lot of places. One large american company that I’m not going to mention is doing several rounds of layoffs along with a return to office initiative.
|__________| || || ||X || || X || || X || || X || || X || || X || || || || || || || || || || || || || || || || || || || || || || || ||—————-|| || ####### || ||###(__)##|| ||########||Close-quartered offices are disease farms. Stress lowers your immune system.
WebMD wants to make its workers unhealthy.
The most surprising thing I learned from this video is that WebMD still exists
The best thing to happen from WebMD is we got a bunch of actual medical providers like Mayo Clinic, University of Maryland, Merck Manual that went, “GAH! No!!” and made actually informative, updated medical websites.
Healthline, kids. Healthline is where we go for our medical information.
Surprisingly stubby Wiki! “Reception” section pretty weak. Surprised they haven’t fleshed their page out. Why do you trust them?
Because I think quality of presentation is not being factored into the assessments you’re seeing on that wiki.
I tend to recommend Healthline to the public because it clearly targets a lay audience, and chooses to meet that audience where they live. It’s written the way I talk to my patients, and the information is accurate and accessibly easier to read.
Just look at the difference between the pages on hypertension from Healthline and MedlinePlus:
https://www.healthline.com/health/high-blood-pressure-hypertension
https://medlineplus.gov/highbloodpressure.html
The details and accuracy of the information is not different. But the way Healthline presents it is so much more accessible.
Thanks :-)
Glad to know the marketing company who owns them (and Bankrate, I see) is doing a good job!
Everyone is so desperate to kill their workers, and then they’ll say, “Nobody wants to work anymore.”
WebMD, the site that gives a diagnosis of ‘cancer’ for everything.
I was just casually googling this video and came across this absurdity. I don’t dare give them views to find out the answer.
They want people back “for the simple reason” that they work better together. Well, yeah, I’d agree, without a pandemic.
But healthy people work even better.
This will definitely push all accounting, data entry and other such office workers to the heights of creativity and inventiveness - just what they need! /s
If they get to stay home then why can’t I?!?
That’s really it’s about.
The only people that should be in the office are people who literally need to be there.
Like if there are physical servers and they need to be physically configured then sure the tech can go in for that.
If it’s a repair show, then sure the tech has to come in to do the repair.
Otherwise let people stay home.
Oh I emphatically agree - I have a fully remote job and not even doubling my salary would make me consider switching to an office one. I was just clumsily trying to point out that a lot of corporate positions don’t require all that creativity and collaboration bullshit that clueless executives love to throw around in videos like this one.
I’ve hypothesized that they want people in person so that the things they won’t say over a network can be said in person.
in 2021 my job was “informing, not asking”. a bunch of us walked, and it crippled the OU. They actually shut it down not long ago, they decided to keep a skeleton crew on to keep the app running while the contracts run out, then they’re gonna sunset it
I agree the video is cringy AF, but I don’t have a problem with the company demanding its employees return to working in the office rather than remotely. There are a whole host of tangible benefits (for both companies and employees) from coming into work and I don’t see a problem with a company insisting on it. There are some industries and/or jobs in which remote work is probably fine, but most organizations benefit more from having people come into a shared workspace.
People always say there are tangible benefits, but then rarely ever give any actual evidence. (Note the CEO in the video said the exact same thing and then also did not provide any evidence backing it up, unless you count someone drawing a graph on a whiteboard in an “up” direction evidence)
Covid forced anyone who could work remotely to work remotely, and the economy went through the roof. Tech especially had some of their best years - ever.
I also want to call out that a lot of employees that were hired during the pandemic were hired out of region - in other states, across the country. Most “return to office” mandates are veiled layoffs hiding behind the need for employees to be in person for arbitrary reasons. By forcing them back in office they get to claim employees failed to show up for work, neglecting the whole “They work in Arizona and the job is in Tennessee” bit.
The brass tacks is that:
- Employers pay sometimes by the decade to rent office space and are annoyed that it’s sitting empty and
- Bad managers don’t know how to manage if they aren’t micromanaging their employees. Good managers have no problem managing remotely.
- It’s an easy way to cut costs by forcing people working out of state to quit while claiming they were never fired.
As a manager, here are my observations. They’re qualitative, not quantitative.
- When my folks are working on something independently, most are more productive at home, as long as home has fewer distractions and not more. They don’t get sucked into hallway chatter, there’s no walking to conference rooms, etc.
- When they’re doing something collaborative, they’re more productive at work. People will yell over the wall or drop by to ask things that they won’t make a phone call for, or even an instant message. And the communication is better and faster in person.
- Collaborative stuff isn’t just more productive in person, it’s better. People get into a riff of bouncing ideas back and forth and the end result is better.
- In my opinion, the results aren’t so stark that everyone needs to be in everyday. Productivity and quality is at least adequate when people are remote, and there are other benefits. Some of my people commute like an hour each way, so a 9 hour day becomes an 11 hour day, and that’s a big difference. Some also do things like walk the dog at lunch, connect with their kids, and other things that improve their quality of life.
- Most (but not all) of my people will choose to work from home when they have a choice. That being said, I’ve lost count of the number of times people have said something like “I’d forgotten how much I appreciate connecting with people in person to solve problems, or even just chat about the weekend.” The balance might be in favor of work from home, but for most it’s not all good.
- I’ve noticed that when I’m on site, employees drop by to talk about things that they almost never do when one of us is home. Even though I personally also prefer working from home, I don’t do it as much because I think being a manager is more effective when I’m there.
- Overall, I think a hybrid arrangement makes the most sense for the work we do. You can debate what the right ratio of on site vs off is, but I think some in person collaboration mixed with some affordance for people working from home works best overall.
Thanks for the anecdotes.
Unfortunately in most sectors the data disagrees with whatever bullshit you decided to make up for the sake of argument.
Wow, what an ass. I’m telling you my experience leading an organization. I said it was qualitative, not quantitative. What makes you accuse me of making shit up?
So give us the data if you have it.
Did you actually read the articles you linked, or did you just search for ones with titles that seem to support your point of view?
That first one cites a number of studies that don’t support your view. The first says that less that half of companies had higher productivity with remote employees. The second says a third of managers say productivity increased and 22% say it decreased. The third says it depends on the employee. There’s one that says remote employees are happier, which no one is disputing. There’s one that says hybrid gives a small benefit to productivity (which was my experience) while fully remote is a net negative, and so on.
Your second article mostly talks about working from home sometimes (e.g., “at least a few times a month”) and my whole point was that hybrid seems to be best overall.
Your last one isn’t data, it’s mostly anecdotal, but the overall thrust is that employees work longer at home, which isn’t the same as productivity and which I said in my comment.
None of these touch on my point that teams work more effectively and come up with better solutions when they work together in person. That’s my experience over the last four years, and my employees tend to say the same thing.
