this post was submitted on 15 Jun 2026
719 points (97.9% liked)
me_irl
7919 readers
870 users here now
All posts need to have the same title: me_irl it is allowed to use an emoji instead of the underscore _
founded 3 years ago
MODERATORS
you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
view the rest of the comments
I live 200 km from the office. They hired me to work remotely and only drive to the office about twice a month for team events and to meet visitors. It worked for years. Nobody cared as long as my work was done. I got promoted twice and every one of my managers wrote very good reviews about my performance every single quarter. Still its a pointless exercise, These days are by far my least productive. I drive 2,5-3 hours each way on office days and the open plan office is worst than a Turkish bazaar. Impossible to get work done.
Until last year we got a new CEO, our department got merged with another one and all of the sudden there is an issue with my "visibility". I asked them repeatedly in what metric is this showing, since my numbers are always way above average. They said they didn't look at my numbers, only the one which shows how many times I swiped my card a month.
Now they want me to come to the office twice a week. So I said its not very reasonable to ask this and now I got till September to change my attitude and improve my visibility or I can start looking for a new job. So I'm pretending to play along with this, but already looking for a new job. Wish me luck as the job market right now is an AI-centric hellscape with fake listings and data stealing traps. Honestly fuck big corporations.
For the life of me I cannot comprehend why people think open plan offices are a good idea. They're worse for solo work and group work than regular offices, with cubicles between them on both factors. In open plan offices it's both rude to converse with someone when you need to, but aiso people are often chatting.
Because being a good idea to you, the worker, and being a good idea to Tommy, the Manager/Executive are not the same thing.
Tommy loves seeing all his peons at once. There is no shadow lands beyond his reach, no closed doors. His domain is the entire office.
Tommy doesn't give a fuck if you don't like your job
Tommy is a total piece of shit.
That's fair, I'm just an engineer who focuses on actually improving functionality. When it's a choice between functionality and comfort I can have a reasonable discussion. When it's a choice between functionality + comfort and Tommy's fucking gut instinct and need to feel big and useful well then Tommy gets to learn that I'm kind of a bitch to idiots who aren't at least self aware or nice.
My work brought in a „return to office“ policy and was repeatedly challenged on what metrics they were basing it on. Their only answer is that it’s „values based“. Value to the building owners maybe…
There is no metric how they don't trust people to do their jobs without close surveillance. The results are not enough, your company IT checking on you is not enough, you also need a shit for brains middle manager looking over your shoulder.
Er. Just leave your swipe card with a trusted colleague.
Wouldn't work, it's underestimate the level of power trip these sorts of managers will go through.
They probably see a cheap way to increase their paycheck by dropping what they think is not a relevant worker, not knowing nor caring the sort of role said person serves.
yes, my new manager is the kind of person, who talks about socializing, and work family, and goes around once a day just to see who is there, nods from the distance and fucks off...
I was interviewing for a position that they made a big deal about "100% in office". I'd be doing manufacturing R&D, which is usually conducive to a pretty nice "when we're here it's an intense 14hr day(s) executing a run, the trade off is when we're planning we do it from home in pajamas". I was disappointed they weren't open to that. It was a start-up using toll manufacturing which means a small team planning runs, and usually a sparsely populated, poorly provisioned office. Get to last round of interviews with the CEO, the day before the interview I'm told "<Mr.Smith> will be joining remotely". I canceled and withdrew my application.
I'm at a job now that's also not remote, but its 24/7/365 so, you know, it makes sense lol.
As much as I hate the culture of linkedin, it's useful in situations like these. A few years back my job suddenly wanted me back in the office, and a friend of mine suggested making an account on linkedin. I immediately started getting headhunters contacting me, despite the fact that I'm just a lowly estimator at a medium distribution company in the construction sector, and within a week I had a job offer lined up for a fully remote position with a competitor. I used it to negotiate an almost-entirely remote position (I still come in once a month for a department meeting) and a significant pay raise. I thought it'd put a target on my back to stay where I was, but I haven't had any issues so far, and I still get plenty of people contacting me on linkedin in case something does change.