Microsoft tells workers to prepare to return to the office | Hacker News Reader

Microsoft tells workers to prepare to return to the office

nytimes.com

40 pointswanderer232321 comments

Is this because they found working remotely using Teams has harmed productivity?

The irony.

Maybe the top companies can do this because people like saying "I work for ___", but I would never consider working in an office again. Work life balance with remote is worth so much more to me than the extra money I'd make working at Microsoft or anywhere in person.

I recently did a number of job interviews and my wife is a IT recruiter, we've both noticed the same thing. The places that want you in office want to pay the same (or less!) as roles that are remote. I could be talked into going into a office, but I'd need to be paid for the 2+ hours a day commuting and reimbursed for my costs getting there. Those costs make the in office offers hilariously uncompetitive compared to remote.

Microsoft doesn't even seem to pay competitively, if levels.fyi is to be believed. It seems like rather the opposite: you can make more money working remotely than working for Microsoft in person.

>Maybe the top companies can do this because people like saying "I work for ___", but I would never consider working in an office again.

That, though, is for as long as market conditions give the choice (or perpetually, if you have money in the bank).

Otherwise, all it takes it a downturn of the economy making the IT job market much worse, and devs wont have much choice anymore if they want to work.

The title seems a it of an exaggeration, here is what is in the article:

> In a Monday morning blog post focused on its headquarters near Seattle, Chris Capossela, an executive, said that starting Feb. 28, “employees will have 30 days to make adjustments to their routines and adopt the working preferences they’ve agreed upon with their managers.”

Wow. What a bunch of ridiculous clickbait. They are literally just outlining a policy, which happens to be the same policy as many other companies. Can't say I'm particularly surprised with the NYT though.

That reads like corporate doublespeak to me. It just so happens that their managers said they all have to return to the office. Another article says they are adopting a hybrid approach which will bring more employees back to the office. So probably both.

Not mine. Mine told our team that we need to decide on the percentage, and file that in some HR tool. I'm going to work from home, for the foreseeable future, and if my dear employer ever overrides this, I guess I'll be looking for a new job ASAP.

Is anyone surprised? A lot of the large tech companies that have been saying it's ok to work from home have almost as much invested in real estate as they do in their own technology.

Sustained WFH would reduce the value of this real estate greatly so it's in their best interest to do an about turn as soon as it's "safe".

I don't think Microsoft is any different.

Absolutely. Some tech companies -- like all companies-- have purchased real estate in flush times. Google owns plenty of office space in expensive areas like Palo Alto or Manhattan. Of course they want to keep getting value out of them.

Well, in this case why won't they just sell it? I mean, if they don't need it now, they most likely won't need it in 5 years time...

It can be more complicated that that—take pride for example. Admitting you were wrong in buying that property in the first place is not a look that a company wants.

Microsoft’s real estate value is probably negligible relative to their annual revenue, no?

https://blogs.microsoft.com/blog/2022/02/14/the-next-chapter...

> From this date, employees will have 30 days to make adjustments to their routines and adopt the working preferences they’ve agreed upon with their managers.

How much flex have managers been given with their teams?

No idea what my grandmanager told my manager, but my manager never gave me any trouble about 100% WFH.

I just said I want to WFH, and filed this preference with this HR tool thing that probably only influences how many portions of lunch they have to make every day.

If you’re < 50% then your space planner will probably stop allocating you a permanent desk in the office. For many people electing a WFH option that’s the big change, but a “Work Site” change can trigger all sorts of other effects, tax implications and visa implications (on H-1 and similar).

Good luck with that haha. It's weird, it took two years, but at this point I can't really imagine having to be in an office for more than three days a week. Granted, if I had a FAANG tier salary I'd stop complaining.

I look forward to the day where we can accept that working from home or working from the office is purely a personal decision based on different needs, motivations, likes, the type of work and your environment.

There is no right or wrong.

A lot nicer when everyone is one or the other though. A mix seems to be annoying for people.

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