This is my uniform for working in the office. I’d really like to have a shirt that says, “I don’t want to be here.” My job can be done 100% remotely and yet in the infinite wisdom of the muckety mucks in charge they want people in the office 40% of their work time each month. The reason that they give is for fostering our corporate culture and productivity. That may work for the weekday folks who are working directly with customers and need to work together in group trainings. But with working overnights and having 5 people in a group it makes very little sense to come to the office. Even when we are in the office we still collaborate using Google Meet. So it is ridiculous to be sitting in the same room when we can do 100% of this from home.
Then you get to all the exceptions. There are people who never come to the office and there are no consequences for them. And now my whole group does not come in together to the same building. People can go to any of the buildings that are open on the weekend. So now my boss goes to another building, me and two other guys go to another building on a different day. It makes no sense if creating corporate culture is the actual reason for coming into the office. Productivity is also not going to be better by being in the office. At least for me, I can focus so much more when I am home. In the office I can’t control anything like the temp, the sounds and smells. But I’m here for the next 12 hours.
We had been leaving during our breaks to drive home so that we were not driving home first thing in the morning exhausted. I’d been quietly doing this for a year or more. Then other people began doing it. Then the weekend overnight group, my old group started doing this and they did it around midnight, way too early in the night. That screwed it up for everyone. The supervisor of that group asked someone above them in the managerial chain if it was okay and that screwed it up. So now, no one can go home during break. Luckily I’m working 15 minutes from home but I did like being able to go right to bed when work was done.