Mystery Tower( speculation, news and ideas) post here!

[sgt. pepper]

Obviously, this thread has nothing to do with a "mystery tower" anymore....lol

[Scott5114]

What a shock! In theory, working from home sounds good. But in reality, being at the workplace is probably a better idea. You can see what your employees are doing, leading to better accountability. Then, on a social front, it leads to more social interaction. I'm a believer that in coming years, we're going to learn that doing things from home such as shopping, work, etc, leading to less social interaction, is going to have some bad ramifications.

I think this is the reflexive opinion from management types...but in practice a lot of the "accountability" that gets practiced in person is policing stuff that really doesn't matter to the bottom line. Things like how people dress, how they speak, whether they start or end working according to a strict schedule, how much time they spend on lunch, etc. We're learning with work from home that in a lot of industries, none of these things really matter, and people do better work when they're just allowed to do it without the distraction of someone breathing down their necks. Some businesses may find that with work from home they don't really need a lot of middle managers focused on enforcing these sorts of hall-monitor rules. I think that has a lot of managers scared they're going to be downsized out the door.

Social interaction with coworkers is something I don't miss at all. I've never worked somewhere where I have a whole lot in common with most of my coworkers anyway, so it's just nine hours straight of "how's the weather, what are you doing this weekend, how 'bout them Sooners" sort of conversation. I'd rather cut that sort of time-wasting conversation out of my day and be at home where I can at least message my actual out-of-work friends in a separate window in between getting work tasks done.

[bombermwc]

Obviously, this thread has nothing to do with a "mystery tower" anymore....lol

Its skewed a bit but to a related topic. There are conflicting opinions on if there would be enough demand to spark the need for a tower.

[stratosphere]

Our group has been working from home since late March of 2020, honestly it has its benefits, but also my house feels like a prison. And there are certain aspects of my job that i really need to be in the office for. I feel that working from home has hurt my job performance.

That said, with the price of gas increase over the past year, and the never ending road constructions projects ongoing, driving anywhere on the highways is anxiety inducing. I think a good compromise would be working from home 2 days per week and in the office 3 days.

Hopefully we return to some form of normalcy at some point in the near future. Most of my coworkers that i speak with somewhat agree.

[Snowman]

I have been working from home since march 2020, for me it has pretty much all been upside, granted I am somewhat of an introvert so deal with being on my own pretty well. My job transitions pretty much as well as possible to working remotely, kind of related my field tends to attract introverts so between that and how we work we were not doing that much interaction in the office anyway, so working from my home office was mostly just an upgrade from the cubical I was spending work hours in before.

Not having to deal with traffic makes the start and end of the day much more pleasant. I expect I save around 2 hours a day between not having to commute, shorter prep at start of day, shorter lunches since eating at home verses driving and getting fast food (granted started getting fast food occasionally again after got vaccine). The saving on fuel and lunch add up to at least a couple thousand per year, harder to estimate is savings from reduced millage/wear on car.

Plus had switched up my diet before covid mostly just for variety, but was kind of surprised with that started dropping body fat percentage on a small but noticeable on the scale of a month after that. Then pulled out the exercise equipment had from college out of storage shortly after was working from home. Now after a couple years of this am at the lowest body fat percentage have been since I quit playing multiple sports in middle school.

I would rather not go back to working in an office.

[Pete]

Estimates show that on average, a business pays about $18,000 per year per employee for office space. If you employ lots of people, that's a ton of overhead.

I've said it before, but the pandemic has demonstrated that technology has finally caught up and that telecommuting is completely feasible.

As decision-makers start to be replaced by younger people not so invested in the butts-in-seats management style, I think we are going to see some profound shifts in not only the way businesses work, but the likely dispersion of population as employees won't necessarily need to live near an office; or even a city. That in turn means that companies won't have to pay Silicon Valley and big-city salaries.

[Pete]

Also, I wanted to add that this pandemic may finally force real change in education.

For all the advances in the last century, school is still almost exactly the same: an adult (almost always a woman) stands in front of 20-30 kids and lectures. Yes, there are iPads and smartboards and computers, but the classroom is still very much the same. Same in college, they've just added outlets so students can plug in their laptops.

Education will be slower to change because everyone in it is a direct product of the way things have always been done. And for high school and below, schools have always been functional daycare for parents, as we've seen in the recent forced more to remote learning.

[Swake]

I've been involved in 10-15 office changes in the last couple of years for my company. New offices, closed offices, expand, shrink, you name it.

At first with the pandemic we expected no changes to offices. Then we started closing smaller offices that had no technology footprint and sending the workers to work from home, but the larger offices were unchanged. Pre-Omicron we had announced a move to a formal hybrid model where employees could go in as little or much as they could work out with their manager with the goal that most employees would come in 2-3 days a week. That model was never put into place with Omicron and as of now, employees only go if they have a reason. And anyone that goes in is required to be vaccinated.

Before Covid we had just completed a project to redo all offices to an open floor plan with very few private offices and lots of collaboration spaces. Everyone is basically in a low walled cubicle with people packed in tight around them. The hybrid home/office policy post Covid thinking was that if only half an office was present at a time it would allow for better social distancing.

My current office project is to expand an office in Ireland and as of now it's on hold as the execs decide what to do with offices. Some want most employees back in the office eventually, but that would mean the open floor plan model is out, so we would need much more office space. Some people want employees mostly home and close even more offices. A third idea I have heard is a hybrid model with very few assigned employee offices/spaces and shared workspaces, but not with an open floorpan. Regardless, there will be big changes.

[Dob Hooligan]

Also, I wanted to add that this pandemic may finally force real change in education.

For all the advances in the last century, school is still almost exactly the same: an adult (almost always a woman) stands in front of 20-30 kids and lectures. Yes, there are iPads and smartboards and computers, but the classroom is still very much the same. Same in college, they've just added outlets so students can plug in their laptops.

Education will be slower to change because everyone in it is a direct product of the way things have always been done. And for high school and below, schools have always been functional daycare for parents, as we've seen in the recent forced more to remote learning.

Could you expand on how you think it should change? I believe educating minors is mostly about social interaction and cooperation, and I’m not sure what you feel could be changed.

[Dob Hooligan]

Let me suggest that humans are social creatures, and the vast majority of jobs will always require face to face interaction. Obviously, blue collar and service jobs are interactive. So it appears we are discussing large, white collar businesses and how they can operate without offices? But when a business cannot operate with zero office activity, I think it will require maximum attendance in order to justify facility expense.

[G.Walker]

I will say that I have been working from home for 2 years now. But we do have an option to work in the office if we choose to. Or we can do a hybrid a few days home, a few days in the office. However, the more I work from home, the more I am considering going back to the office.

One of the main issues we have had with employees working from home is from a technology stand point. When something goes wrong with your software or something breaks, there is not a IT person on hand to help you with the issue. And it usually takes hours to get the issue fixed. We have had some major technical issues with our employees working from home, either the VPN is not working, or its something else. This has caused major delays in daily production with employees.

[Snowman]

Could you expand on how you think it should change? I believe educating minors is mostly about social interaction and cooperation, and I’m not sure what you feel could be changed.

There still seemed areas slow to shift away from basically evaluating students capacity to memorize for a test in an educational setting. If it is actually important then it seem like something that might be better standardized and the score broken out from individual subjects. However the importance of long term memorization seems to have been on the decline for decades, which often people forget most of specifics weeks after the class is done anyway.

[bombermwc]

Could you expand on how you think it should change? I believe educating minors is mostly about social interaction and cooperation, and I’m not sure what you feel could be changed.

Agreed. The kids that came back this year from being virtual last year were absolutely insane. The teachers across the board had to retrain kids how to properly behave in the classroom. Translate that up to the workplace. Not everyone is going to be working remotely forever. And not being able to interact socially in the proper way and getting to be an anonymous voice on a Teams call, does not create the best environment. Think about how many times your own way of talking or working with someone changed after you met them face to face after first just meeting them over email.

Kids need to be in the classroom. They need to learn how to juggle a schedule (and not have someone plan every minute of their life). They need to have to interact with a wide variety of authority figures. They need to navigate learning how to interact with a wide variety of different people, including friends, bullies, and everything in-between. They need to learn how to tackle the challenges of study/tests/activities. They need The Arts.

[bombermwc]

Could you expand on how you think it should change? I believe educating minors is mostly about social interaction and cooperation, and I’m not sure what you feel could be changed.

Agreed. The kids that came back this year from being virtual last year were absolutely insane. The teachers across the board had to retrain kids how to properly behave in the classroom. Translate that up to the workplace. Not everyone is going to be working remotely forever. And not being able to interact socially in the proper way and getting to be an anonymous voice on a Teams call, does not create the best environment. Think about how many times your own way of talking or working with someone changed after you met them face to face after first just meeting them over email.

Kids need to be in the classroom. They need to learn how to juggle a schedule (and not have someone plan every minute of their life). They need to have to interact with a wide variety of authority figures. They need to navigate learning how to interact with a wide variety of different people, including friends, bullies, and everything in-between. They need to learn how to tackle the challenges of study/tests/activities. They need The Arts.

[Rover]

Kids don’t need school just for socializing. They transition and learn habits and thought processes that enable them to learn their whole life. They learn basic building blocks that acquiring, understanding, and building knowledge and reason grow from. They learn respect for others than their parents. They learn how to follow orders and what accountability is. They learn discipline. Yes, some of this is socialization, but much is just laying the foundation for future learning and mind development.

[HOT ROD]

well said Rover.

Also happy to see OKC taking a big launch into being a back-office destination. If we can't land headquarters then let's get the back-office/operations/2nd HQ. They're not always call centers. And IMO these need office space even if the most of the employees are remote/vitrual.

Working for the very large Redmond-based IT Company that I work for it has been positive and negative working from my home office. Yes it's wonderful for work-life balance and flexibility as well as not having to participate in the Seattle area's notoriously horrible traffic but I do miss my office (granted I have a nice one though, lol). We have the option to flex, full remote, or full office upcoming; I've chosen to retain my office but also work from home half the week - flex. I suspect many more might agree there is value in being face-to-face for important meetings and collaborations but my individual work can be done at home giving me more time for personal freedom (or at least I can arrange my time without unnecessary outside impacts).

I can say from the pandemic prospective, I have been one of the lucky ones in that regardless of my child's school situation I could still keep working. I feel for everyone who has had to get/pay for support for their children and is one of the Biden initiatives I totally support and think they should just implement. We need to focus as a nation on our children and helping those who need it in order to even go to work. I digress but did want to express my gratitude to situation as well as my support for those who struggle.