Office Productivity

gets to office and signs into zoom meeting

I was pushing to hold desk meetings back before we were in COVID.
Why am i stopping everything I'm doing to go sit in a room for 30 minutes and listen to everyone else talk about crap not related to me in which I've got maybe 5 minutes worth of things to say by the end.
In most cases we were already broadcasting the meeting to someone not in the room across the country.
- I see all these posts/comments about meetings that are obnoxiously inefficient, and I'm so sorry for everyone who has to deal with them; it's almost completely foreign to me
  I work medical, and our meetings are usually reps teaching us about some new or revamped devices... but they gather us on-shift to listen to a 5 min schpiel and have us sign a paper. If I'm busy, too bad and you can try and catch me next time. If I get called mid-teaching... my name is signed, and nobody cares. If I somehow miss it entirely... oh well, guess it's on me now to learn any changes. We have one formal review per year that takes all of 10 minutes. Maybe 2 or 3 formal meetings per year... and if I can't make it, doesn't matter
  I already hate the few meetings we have, as is; and I'm only "required" to go to one per year... and it's maybe 10 minutes. Or I can dodge it, and just say "my bad" (though not a good look for you). I simply can't imagine being constantly pulled away for bullshit... and I guess I'm grateful for that
  Granted, my job has it's own special flavor of hell and I should've been an electrical engineer. But all the lack of meetings involved makes me feel a little bit better; as penance for the other rampant bullshit I have to deal with
  These meetings y'all speak of — I just can't imagine how antsy and aggravated I would be to have to attend such idiotic fluff that "could've been an email". Fuck, I can even ignore my emails with almost no recourse. Kudos to y'all for getting through it, cause I'd really rather not. Let me work, leave me alone, and then I go the fuck home; that's all I want
- Why not make a step further, and ask why do you even have 30 minutes meeting if it's not useful?
- Great 25 minutes of very relaxing work....
my wife kept getting pressured to go into a specific office location every week. 2-3 hour commute each way to sit at a desk on video calls with little IRL interaction

It's not about productivity.

It's about control.

Guess who gets to work in private offices instead of the "productivity enhancing" open offices!

When my last company went to an open office plan, everybody (even the CEO) had to be out in the open because the whole company moved into one big room (with a little cordoned-off area for meetings). Granted, this was because we were on the edge of folding and we moved into the one big room to save on rent. But it did produce a nice "we're all in this together" vibe because it sucked ass for everyone.
This point i don't get...in all my jobs, team leads, department managers and basically all management level employees are sitting in the same open office as everyone else. I have never been somewhere where this is not the case. Is this a predominantly American thing?
- They're talking about the c-suites who make the decision to call everyone back to office, I presume

Remote work has been studied extensively for decades and the findings overwhelmingly show that remote workers, when provided the right tools and support, are significantly more productive. Demanding people commute to an office was never about productivity.

Its partly tradition, power displays, and disbelief. People who've been managers for decades somehow believe that being in the office is the only true way to do work because that's how it's always been done. Then you have some managers who will always get off on the fact that they can hold people's ability to feed themselves hostage to make them do what they want. Lastly, some managers just don't believe you can be productive at home. After all, all the not work things are there.

I know this site is heavily weighted towards IT professionals and other pure-office-work type professions, but sometimes in office work really is better than work from home. Online meetings are largely useless, even when it's a proper meeting, not just a should-have-been-an-email meeting.
In my current job, remote work isn't an option, and I can't tell you how much time I've wasted trying to get engineers and software devs to understand things that would have taken two seconds to understand if they would go physically look at the thing. But of course, they can't do that because they are working remotely. Instead we get to waste half a day playing picture/video tag
- I think this is all really subjective and depends on how your team does work. Getting people to work with you or understand things is a communication problem, and in my own experience, being in the office didn't eliminate those issues.
  I agree there are times to be in the office, but it damn sure doesn't need to be every day all the time. IMO people need to adapt, be smart and figure out what works for their teams and themselves, not hold themselves to tradition for its own sake.
  Managers should be empowered to make these decisions to do the research and figure out the best strategy for their situation, and I think many would like that responsibility.
- Online meetings are largely useless
  Oh! Oh! This is where people say "skill issue", isn't it?
  If you can't run a productive meeting over zoom you probably can't do one in person, either.
- This will depend on your work. All my work is on the computer. Showing someone something is as easy as sharing my screen (and this might even be better, as I can draw on it).
  And I don't agree online meetings are useless. All of my team work from home most of the time, and we work out how to make that work.
  Having half the group in the office and half joining remotely I think is the worst of both worlds.
- I think most people acknowledge that some things do gain efficiency in physical proximity. Most dont. We aren't talking about you.
  Though sending a solidworks file shoukd be easier than it presently ie.
- Wasting a lot of time on "explaining things" is an excellent indicator of overstaffing.
  Which is completely orthogonal to the question of remote work or not.
Those things, and needing to prop up the commercial realestate market.

Who owns commercial and office property? Guessing most aren't by non executive, non board member, working class

https://realestate.usnews.com/real-estate/articles/commercial-real-estate-market-trends

There's a reason they combine office with data centers and the rest of commercial has been down

They made a bad decision gambling on overvalued office and commercial property leases and want to push their loss onto workers because they love to socialize the losses and privatize the gains

100%

The whole "return to office" thing is a cocktail of like.. "Feelings Driven Leadership" and "The Cruelty is the Point". Oh, and "I'm incompetent so everyone else must be incompetent in the same way, too."

Many managers make decisions based purely on feelings. You can show them data but they don't care. They feel like being in-office is better. And maybe, maybe, it is, on some metrics. Are those metrics better for workers? Probably not.

And the cruelty? Well, as others have said, some people get off on having power over others.

The last point, there are some people who just can't manage themselves so they seem to think no one else can, either. Like someone the other day was saying he can't work from home because he'll just play xbox. To which I respond, from the depths of my soul, fuck off. Grow up and stop making everyone else around you suffer because you're an incompetent, unmedicated, shit. You can go into the office if you have to. Don't make everyone else suffer a pay cut too because you're trash tier at self control.

You're forgetting the whole...." I invested entirely too much in corporate real estate".
When there's instability in the market a lot of fortune 500 corporations will start investing in corporate real estate as a "safe bet" to hedge more risky investments.
Skyscrapers and large office spaces are on paper horrible investments and have an awful time filling enough vacancies to offset their upkeep. The only thing that makes them a "safe" investment is that every company uses them as a way to bank equity. If those same companies pulled the rug from under themselves they would all lose that safe equity piggy bank.
- Skyscrapers and large office spaces are on paper horrible investments and have an awful time filling enough vacancies to offset their upkeep. The only thing that makes them a “safe” investment is that every company uses them as a way to bank equity. If those same companies pulled the rug from under themselves they would all lose that safe equity piggy bank.
  This is just the sunk cost fallacy though. You can inflate the paper value of assets by playing games like this, but the bill always comes due in the end. Yes, companies that do this can juice their books a bit in the short term, but they're harming themselves in the long term. They retain a bit higher book value for their real estate, but they make whatever goods or services they provide noncompetitive in the marketplace. They have competitors who aren't bogged down by past bad real estate decisions. Those competitors can outcompete them on price and can attract better talent. Meanwhile, they're stuck in their ways, fruitlessly trying to inflate their real estate holdings, all while their revenue is plummeting because they can't attract good people and have to charge higher for their services than their competitors.
  It's just the sunk cost fallacy. You could inflate the book value of real estate by doing all sorts of foolish things. You could create a subsidiary and have that company rent out some of your floor space for absurdly high rates. But you're ultimately just robbing Peter to pay Paul. Those commercial real estate properties have already lost their value. The value was lost the minute it was proven that work from home was a superior work model.
  These companies are going to go bankrupt at a mass scale when the next recession rolls around.
  Fuck, these companies might actually be violating the law. Deliberately choosing unproductive business practices just to cook your real estate books is something Enron would do.
- Capitalism, such efficiency!
- Pull all your own, sell office space. Profit?
fuck your unmedicated ass, you can go to theboffice if you want
The office or a park with cell reception, a cafe, a fucking wework, a...
Yeah, you just have to know yourself. Personally I feel like I need to go into the office once per week otherwise work starts becoming an abstract thing. But I've known some co-workers I wouldn't see for months at a time that were really on the ball. Ask an obscure question about something really technical on slack and get an answer within seconds kind of thing. I knew another guy that said he had to come into the office every day because his family was too distracting.
Everyone needs to know what works for them and be a responsible professional about it.
And yeah managers that want 100% RTO are just admitting they can't handle working from home. Ok that's your thing, but it's not a thing for everyone else.
Anyway I got out the the RTO thing because I told them of the times some computers were having issues and I had to work the whole weekend (from home) to fix them. If I'm going to be 100% RTO then I'm 0% WFH and the next time something like that happens I won't be able to start working on it until 9am on Monday morning. So I'm still in the office one day per week, weather permitting, which is my preference.

IMHO, it depends on the role. Do you have a role that benefits from in person collaboration, or do you have a role where focus is the priority?

People get into warring camps about remote or onsite work, and we rarely talk about engineers, designers, accountants, etc. having very different needs. One size doesn’t fit all.

You guys don't understand that this is is the goal. Happy rested people thinl a lot, demand things, want a better life. Unhappy and exausted people only want to go home and go to sleep, they loose their souls and think that this is better enough. Those are easy to control

It's not a conspiracy, it'a a distributed systematic failure that can only be solved by cultural change.
- Luigi is culture right?
- I think its a conspiracy fact
Plus, look at the great job of keeping commercial real estate prices high they're all doing
Eh? Since when Happy AND rested people think a lot and demand things? They are happy AND rested. They would not. On the other hand, tired, angry people would definitely demand a better life. The question is - is it going to be granted to them.

They don't care about this part at all. This is your time. It's your fault for not being rich.

That guy in white with air pods looks like he's going to be at 110% at prompt engineering and LinkedIn engagement.

Surely he'd be more productive if he got the LLM to do the prompt engineering for him?
- He's writing a LinkedIn post on this exact matter as we speak, on how he LLMed away his own position for the greater good a.k.a. The company.
Yep! Who else would set their bag on the floor of a metro, lol.

Trains are a much more desirable way to get to work than driving is.

I’m counting down the months until my work relocates to our new head office. I can say goodbye to the 35-75 minute commute (each way), and have a reliable ~60min train ride.
Sure it might take longer, overall - but I’ll be able to relax by reading a book, taking a nap or playing a game. I’d much rather that than deal with the anxiety of bumper-to-bumper traffic in a sea of SUVs filled with inattentive drivers.
I literally drive past at least one accident every day on my way to work. The Monash Highway in Victoria, IYKYK.
- It really is the least talked about benefit to public transport, yet is so significant. Sure you can't do too much but you can watch a show/movie, play a game, read, write, draw or even do your taxes and shop from your phone and laptop.
  Certainly can't do that driving around. And it let's you relax and change from work mode to home mode. Even if you have to do a little drive to and from the station.
  Plus like you mentioned, less chance of delays and being involved in accidents. Win win win win.
- taking a nap
  Well, I see you don't live in America lol.
Environmentally, absolutely...personally? I absolutely fucking hate using public transport. I'd take 90min of sitting still in traffic alone in my car over bumping and griding with random strangers for 90min on a train any day.
- I do not. I can read or watch movies while riding a train. No chance in a car.
If they're really, really good.
Here in Munich, our public transport is much better than any American city, but I still hate taking the train in summer. AC either does not exist or is far too weak. Taking the car takes 40, maybe 50 minutes, the train 1h25min. I still take the train, mind you, but it's so much more exhausting than the car...
I have to mention my daily commute is between two cities outside Munich.

White shirt guy maybe, probably either at making you extremely mediocre coffee (looks too straight to be a good barista) or doing something like the ux design for the app interface to a microchip that doesnt let your dog love you without microtransactions. The owners are lobbying for it to be mandatory, and all dogs without it will be liquidated by 2030. The app is spyware written by a large language model, and only sometimes works. Iphone only.

Tan jacket lady maaaaaaaybe.

Black+white checkered shirt guy is a cop, he's already at work. He'll be very productive later, already planning on attending the protest.

🤣🤣🤣

I don't overthink people's expressions on trains, nor do I think we should be taking pics of people who look upset because they look upset.

- It's easier to just say "just because something is legal doesn't make it okay".

Significantly more productive than anyone forced to commute by car.

Curious why you say that. I used to do the slog to lower Manhattan every day, 90 minutes by train, and another 10 or 20 minute walk, depending where I was going. I'd get back in the train later in the day knowing I should open the laptop up and work, but just couldn't do it.
Now, in fairness, if I was driving 90-120m, I'd kill myself. But at least I'd do so listening to the Wheel of Time audiobook.
And extra fairness, my job went remote after COVID (for the majority of it). Public meetings have returned to in person sadly, but my day work is 90% remote. And on those rare occasions I get dragged out of my home wearing a suit, I do so belligerently. I'm done showing up 20-30m early, I get there when I get there. And I gotta leave early now too. I have really just started to not give a fuck, which is not great as an independent contractor.
- Now, in fairness, if I was driving 90-120m, I’d kill myself. But at least I’d do so listening to the Wheel of Time audiobook.
  I've never had trouble listening to audiobooks on the train (assuming I knew the route well enough).
  And on those rare occasions I get dragged out of my home wearing a suit, I do so belligerently. I’m done showing up 20-30m early, I get there when I get there. And I gotta leave early now too.
  Which is fine.
  But I've found a lot of merit in the personal collaborations with coworkers that only really happen in an office setting. I'm in office hybrid - three days a week - and I mentor new hires, grab lunch with senior managers, get tipped off on problems from people I pass in the hallway, and occasionally just shoot the shit with people I'd never otherwise know existed if I wasn't in the building.
  I value my Work from Home, but also get a lot of mileage from a communal office.

evryone look irritated getting randomly photographed

Uuh, I remember the London Tube.

It's so soul draining (noticed the empty eyes and avoidance of eye-contact) that it convinced me to start commuting to work by bicycle in London when it wasn't all that common (and which ultimately took around the same time).

Bike commuting kind of rules though.

Looks like a lot of people who are waking up off the clock! I roll out of bed, clock in, and then have to spend 30 minutes actually waking up for the day.

how to tell if a tube photo was taken in summer:

Why? They are not wearing summer clothes

I can guarantee every company demanding in office work has owners that either own (or are friends with the owners of) tons of commercial property or have stake in retail that over extended into commercial districts.

Statistically, most of them will be blue collar workers.

Eh, we don't have buses or trains at all.

But fighting traffic pumps up your adrenaline and you're ready to crush it when you walk in the office door! /s

Damn it. That’s me on my current commute. I’m on a bus though. I hate the bus. Soo much rather be on the train.

There's at least one time traveler in this picture

Is that the Northern line?

I think all the lines (except Overground etc) share rolling stock, and just change the number of train cars, so it's impossible to tell
edit: this has been a slow process since 2010, so they are slowly converting to "S-Stock" from previous stock. I've not lived in London for a decade now, so I can't comment first hand, but I recall the District/Circle lines used to be different to the Northern/Central lines. I dont know if that's changed.
The video did not provide the exact metro line.

Work remotely if you care about speed. Work in-person if you care about velocity.

Is this you being silly or is this an actual thing?

I enjoy being in the office with my co-workers. We have lots of fun together.

Awful AI slop

Hey what part do you think looks like AI slop?
I can't see anything suspect but I'm looking pretty hard for it. If I'm wrong then that's scary.
Is the photo somehow glitched that I don't see?
- He thinks smartphone camera upscaling is AI slop
  WHICH IT IS, but it's not what he thinks it is
- i also didnt see it at first.
  look at the person in the brown coat on the right. their glasses and eyes melted together. the text above them is garbled nonsense. and the person sitting to their left is wearing shoes that dont fit into the background and slightly overlap with the other ones' shoes. the person on the left holding their glasses seems to still be wearing glasses, and their ear is an unusual shape.
  thats about all i noticed tho. pretty scary indeed.
  EDIT: i believe i stand corrected and the glitches i pointed out are just camera glitches or possibly some kind of unusual photo editing.
- Signs all over the image, most obvious place to look would be the woman’s face directly under the “is”. Glasses and eyebrows and nose all swirling together
So much debate about the pixels, when you could just reverse image search and find it's from a video.
Now talk about the pixels in the tiktok original instead I guess.
- Literally an AI generated video generated by an AI scammer account who is actively using it to shill his AI scams. Thanks for clearing that up lol
Detectors aren’t 100%, blah blah, but this isn’t even pinging on any I used. Text doesn’t look AI. The image has a weird quality to it, but to me it looks more like a filter/bad camera/bad lighting than AI.
- Yeah this is a real image. It's all post-processed smoothing from subtle movements captured on what was probably a 3 photo HDR bust by a camera phone. Meanwhile, some of the issues are literally artifacts from compression and the rolling shutter.
- Look at all the additional comments that have been added. This is almost definitely ai
It’s a screencap from a TikTok video.
- Someone in the thread posted the source. It’s from an AI scammer’s account. He generated it to promote his AI scams
is that important to the discussion?
It's even better than a real photo in this case, because you don't have to worry that any depicted person is real and doesn't want their face plastered over the internet.
I can't wait until the novelty of GenAI wears off so we can resume concentrating on the message instead of the carrier medium. Either that, or until it becomes undetectable, which will probably be in 1-2 years at the current speed.
- I don't agree with your view on AI but I definitely support your first point. Taking pictures of strangers and posting them on the internet has become way too normalised.
- What “discussion” lol
  “Does this look like (specific policy) is good?” [AI generated frowny faces]
  Just wow man. The only thing trash like this accomplishes is making the movement look like it has nothing, hence the need to try and pass off slop. Enjoy your moralizing corporation worship though I’m sure next year’s perfect AI will do really great things for the world
Hah yeah the woman's eyeglasses frame goes under her nose