07/13/23

CEO Shoptalk: Doing The Bloody Work

Other day a CEO who had been a client pre-Pandemic calls me and wants to chat about the difficulties of getting folks back to the office who had been weaned from the office whilst working from home during the Pandemic and post-Pandemic, hardly a novel topic.

As I often do, I explored the basis for what was happening and I asked him about hiring, objective setting, performance appraisal, and compensation. We also discussed “quiet quitting” and its management equivalent: “quiet firing.” Continue reading

06/8/21

WFH — Lateral Movement

An emerging phenomenon is that some significant segment of the work force, having experienced pandemic driven work from home, is reluctant to return to working from an office downtown.

Companies are beginning to report lateral movement — workers going to work for another company in essentially the same job with similar compensation — at another company.

Whoa, Big Red Car, what?

That’s right, dear readers. Workers have become so enamored of WFH that they don’t want to return to status quo pre-pandemic meaning work from the office.

Companies recognize this and some employers are trying to spin hybrid models with some WFH and some work from the office.

Hybrid may not work. Many workers want WFH full time.

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05/5/21

WFH >>> Return to Office Issues

As the pandemic winds down (it is, right?), persons who worked from home are returning to their original office locations. Big companies like JPMorganChase are starting to make it real.

JP Morgan Chase Bank (U.S.)

Jamie Dimon, CEO/Chairman of JPMorganChase has made his intentions clear: “I’m about to cancel all my Zoom meetings. I’m done with it.”

“Get your WFH candy asses back to work. Yes, you have to commute. And, have a blessed day.”

This sentiment, it is time to go back to work, is becoming more prevalent.

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01/15/21

The White Underbelly Of Work From Home — WFH

As we begin to contemplate a post-Pandemic world the air is awash with musings as to how WFH is going to become the new normal (God, I hate that phrase). There is no doubt that we have all discovered some interesting things about how we can or cannot work from home.

Please know that in comparison to the rest of the world, the American worker works longer hours than any competitor country. Whenever I recite that figure, I wonder how we are including the Chinese.

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05/5/20

Work From Home — Once They’ve Seen Paris

All desk bound or mind workers in the USA were “invited” to work from home — WFH — during the pendency of COVID19.

When American soldiers returned from World War I after having “seen Paris” the saying went: “How you going to keep them down on the farm once they’ve seen Paris?” It became a famous vaudeville song during the Roaring Twenties.

In fact, America became much more global and international. American changed irreversibly from the experiences of World War I Doughboys.

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