New research suggests narcissistic, controlling bosses drive return-to-office mandates

[lonetac]

As long as the job gets done, I (current manger) couldn't care less if they worked from a bordello and get it done.

Egocentric "managerial" dudes, lacking self respect but need to justify their jobs and salaries AND want to boss people around, wasting time with useless daily "briefings" are the problem, not the answer.

If every manager is capable and AND qualified AND knows more than their employees, I'd cut them some slack on the subject. But reality is, 90% of managers are dinosaurs who need employees in their crosshairs to feel important.

This is exactly it. Job performance is easy to measure when you arent completely incompetent and have a system to track performance such as objectives, goals and KPI's.

Our company was remote before covid even happened and we have like 15 years of continued revenue generating years not to mention we are one of the biggest financial companies in the globe.

We were successful remote even before covid. Its 100% culture and management ability to manage folks without staring over their shoulders pretending that brings value. Low performers get exposed quickly and dont last when you start looking at objectives and goals instead of "who is faking work" at the office.

I admit that some folks just dont like remote work and it doesnt work for them, sure. And it goes the other way too, some folks just dont work well in an office. I get 2-3x more done when I wfh compared to the office. I can get 8 hours of work done in like 4 hours when I dont have folks asking me to go grab a coffee every 10 minutes and gossip around the water fountain, extended lunches, fake cig breaks, etc.

If I can get the job done in 4 hours and meet my goals, nobody is hastling me if I take off early to hit a dr appointment or get some lunch. Performance speaks for itself.

 

[trparky]

Spoken like someone who has never worked in an office with real people!

How can you do any kind of group coding when you're not all in the same room or at least in the same building? Just about everyone can see the quality of the code that Microsoft, Google, and Apple produces has seen a marked decrease in quality ever since working from home has become a thing. There have been a lot more bugs that have made it into the wild than anytime in the last five years.

The only conclusion that I can come to is that not being in the same room or building contributes to a lack of teambuilding which is leading to lack of good quality code. When you work as a team, you write better and less buggy code.

 

[hwertz]

How can you do any kind of group coding when you're not all in the same room or at least in the same building? Just about everyone can see the quality of the code that Microsoft, Google, and Apple produces has seen a marked decrease in quality ever since working from home has become a thing. There have been a lot more bugs that have made it into the wild than anytime in the last five years.

The only conclusion that I can come to is that not being in the same room or building contributes to a lack of teambuilding which is leading to lack of good quality code. When you work as a team, you write better and less buggy code.

With all due respect Microsoft has had.. I'll say "hit and miss" code quality.. for decades. If you read anecdotes from those who have worked within Microsoft for decades, you have your highly talented developers who write high-quality code, and you have those who write hot garbage that (if it even barely works and there's not time to replace or improve it) ends up getting shipped that way anyway, and everything in between.

As a Linux fan, I can say that Win11 is a mess in terms of sticking ads and junk in the start menu and the phoning home to Microsoft/privacy perspective and the artificially high system requirements (TPM requirements in particular). BUT I see no indications of some decline in code quality, in fact it seems like (from a technical standpoint other than the above concerns) to me to be better than Win10 and even Windows 7.

And I can assure you, over the years Apple has shipped some flawed OSX versions; and some pretty bad errors in the previous macOS 8.x and 9.x back in the day. Even fixing some bugs in drivers (I recall a SCSI driver having bugs making it not work with tape drives -- admitedly an odd setup), probably not documenting WHY some fix was put in, so the bug fixes went away after some macOS update. So on that machine I simply couldn't update the OS (after a while I moved the whole tape backup setup to a different computer, this department had a nice budget so they had plenty of Macs to move it to.)

 

[A Tabby Person]

People work together better when they're all in the same room.

Dare to disagree with me.

MTG. She would disagree with you too, just 'cause.

 

[trparky]

With all due respect Microsoft has had.. I'll say "hit and miss" code quality.. for decades. If you read anecdotes from those who have worked within Microsoft for decades, you have your highly talented developers who write high-quality code, and you have those who write hot garbage that (if it even barely works and there's not time to replace or improve it) ends up getting shipped that way anyway, and everything in between.

As a Linux fan, I can say that Win11 is a mess in terms of sticking ads and junk in the start menu and the phoning home to Microsoft/privacy perspective and the artificially high system requirements (TPM requirements in particular). BUT I see no indications of some decline in code quality, in fact it seems like (from a technical standpoint other than the above concerns) to me to be better than Win10 and even Windows 7.

And I can assure you, over the years Apple has shipped some flawed OSX versions; and some pretty bad errors in the previous macOS 8.x and 9.x back in the day. Even fixing some bugs in drivers (I recall a SCSI driver having bugs making it not work with tape drives -- admitedly an odd setup), probably not documenting WHY some fix was put in, so the bug fixes went away after some macOS update. So on that machine I simply couldn't update the OS (after a while I moved the whole tape backup setup to a different computer, this department had a nice budget so they had plenty of Macs to move it to.)

iOS 17 hasn't exactly been a shining example of Apple's prowess. Yes, it works. Could it be better? Oh hell yes! There are glaring bugs that although they're quality of life bugs, I'd still like them to be fixed. Dimming wallpaper and a snap-in like effect with the notifications are two such bugs that are outstanding bugs that are very much not up to the quality that many people, including myself, are used to seeing from Apple.

As for Windows 11, yes... it works, however it seems like every Patch Tuesday is like playing a game of Russian Roulette. So far I've not been bitten by any bugs that a lot of people complain about but I'm sure that one day I will. And believe you me, I will have my disk images ready in case that happens.

Again, these are both examples of Microsoft and Apple not putting out the quality that many people who have been around computers for 20+ years have come to expect from both of those companies.

 

[Karl Hungus]

How can you do any kind of group coding when you're not all in the same room or at least in the same building? Just about everyone can see the quality of the code that Microsoft, Google, and Apple produces has seen a marked decrease in quality ever since working from home has become a thing. There have been a lot more bugs that have made it into the wild than anytime in the last five years.

The only conclusion that I can come to is that not being in the same room or building contributes to a lack of teambuilding which is leading to lack of good quality code. When you work as a team, you write better and less buggy code.

Group coding? I'm assuming that's some sort of computer tech job? Couldn't tell you as I don't know a single person that works in tech. Nurses, university prof, teachers, govt workers, firefighters (neighbours), cops, etc., but no computer coders. You do realize that the tech industry is one TINY slice of the overall job market, right? That's like saying 'how do you fight a fire from home'? Obviously some jobs require you to be there in-person. WFH jobs are going to be office jobs, like mine. There are a LOT of people working in office jobs that aren't in tech I am pretty sure though I saw a lot of tech people working collaboratively during COVID, over Teams and such. It's very doable, and the world didn't come to an end. This is all about those in power seeing the proletariat getting a backbone, and wanting to reign it in before we realize how much power we wield...

 

[Karl Hungus]

It has not been proven. Thats absolutely false. Thats just you pushing an agenda. JFC you people. Look at the data and stop reading headlines.

Many folks work better in the opposite space you do, imagine that, not everyone is like you. Wow.

Not MANY, the VERY few. I've been working in different offices for almost 30 years now. The CEO's and billionaires (and Republicans in the US) love people like you...pushing their agenda for them Doesn't even cost them anything.

 

[bmxtiger]

People work together better when they're all in the same room.

Dare to disagree with me.

People work together better when they're all in the same room.

Dare to disagree with me.

I disagree. I work remotely and have for over a decade and have no issue working with others without being in the same room as them.

 

[Gastec]

Work-From-Home (WFH) and Return-To-Office (RTO), because either we are all Americans or want to be Americans, and we are working for three-letter, abbreviated organisations, in three turns, in small, abbreviated offices. So, naturally, we seek to turn our home into our new work office and the shopping mall into our new home, with Starbucks becoming the new "work-from-home" office.
"If working from home leads to happy, more productive employees [...]. According to new research, the answer could be one that many people already suspected: controlling, narcissistic bosses." Those "researchers" must be living in some kind of virtual world of their own making because in the real world most employees, which are working in offices or in other such environments that do not require daily quotas and are not making physical things such as BREAD, are hardly productive and if they are sent home to "work", then they are even less productive inside the man-caves they are living in. For example: coordinators and other types of small bosses, who were sent to "work" from home during the Plandemic and the following "we-ain't-got-no-more-parts" crisis, because there was no need for their physical presence at work. (so many obsolete expressions in our obsolete and not progressive enough languages, don't you find?
Hiccup, even forget about productivity from a "coordinator" ! At least if they would do their easy job in time +/- 3 months of tolerance! But we can't bother them hipster snowflakes even with that, they need at least 6 months to do a few clicks on a file, but ONLY after they have finished "working-from-home" being busy updating and replying on all their social-networked accounts!
BTW, the cause of depression among employees in some case is directly caused by their work colleagues, not by their bosses or CEO's. Of course, the bosses are ultimately culpable for not removing the cancerous cell, the respective psychopathic narcissist who is making a bad working environment.

 

[Gastec]

I have stated it before, based on my experience the real factor of performance is your boss (and to some extent the company). When I have had an awesome boss, I would bend over backwards for them. It did not matter wither I was in the office or at home.

Working in the office can have pros but it depends on how social you are and the people you work with. If your employment does not allow you to socialize or you are not a social person then it does not matter.

I was thinking the same, until they showed down my throat a new, younger colleague, who turned out to be a psychopathic narcissist who is also lazy. He came from...Office, where he didn't perform because he doesn't have the necessary education (in Spain we call them enchufes). He spends all day looking down at his smartphone and planning to do small, mean things to his work mates (psychopathic behaviors)

 

[Gastec]

People work together better when they're all in the same room.

Dare to disagree with me.

I dare to disagree with you! I have to work daily in the same room with a lazy, psychopathic narcissist who is constantly trying to lower our productivity and poison our work environment. I, and my other work mates, would be WAY BETTER, both mentally and physically without him and we would be way more productive as well. So don't generalize, there is always a counter-example.

 

[Gastec]

It's like that article that argues that the most effective politicians are psychopaths.

The Startling Accuracy of Referring to Politicians as 'Psychopaths'

The characteristics that define clinical psychopathy are many of the same that make effective leaders.

www.theatlantic.com

Effective at what?

 

[Gastec]

This article is a load of crap...Its about some people lack the discipline to work from home... They'll run into the kitchen , do chores around the house, watch TV.... stuff you can't do in an office. Guarantee if you look at companies metadata on pandemic WFH Employees, majority did less work or were less productive.

Also, not everyone has the space in their home for a productive work enviroment. I had one co-worker where he and his wife had to share a table in their kids bedroom during covid.

Lastly, companies that are mandating RTO are ones that spend millions of dollars leasing office space. No CEO in their right mind will tolerate that as a loss on their balance sheet...if they don't have to..

During the MILITARY-controlled days of the Covid plandemic in Europe we, the working class, were sent home, to linger there legally unemployed, with less money coming from the State (never in time) that we used to get monthly from our employer. After some horrible days when we were forced to work wearing masks and plastic gloves for 8+ hours/day they invented WFH (Work-From-Home) but only for our bosses. Because bosses don't have to do physical work and that is sooo convenient!

 

[Gastec]

I would never work for a company that doesnt have qualified managers to evaluate my performance more than "he sat in his cubicle for 8 hours".

Your objectives is your performance rating. Not being seen sitting in front of a screen pretending to work and taking 15 min coffee/bathroom breaks every 10 mins to pretend being busy.

You might work for fast food joints but top IT talent does dictate their work terms up to a point. The employer WANTS our expertise and proven track record. When you start treating folks like humans and respect your employees, they are more willing to go out of their way for you. This might blow your mind but it can be a 2 way conversation where everyone walks away happy instead of just slamming your fist on the desk screaming "Come to office now, I need to feel valuable!"

Somehow this all revolves around IT and software programmers, ain't it? The rest of us be damned. You only eat bytes!

 

[lonetac]

Somehow this all revolves around IT and software programmers, ain't it? The rest of us be damned. You only eat bytes!

If you dont enjoy your career, change it. Dont get mad at folks for bettering their lives and improving their living conditons.

Most naysayers to WFH are just jealous nancies who think everyone needs to be miserable like them. its an odd human behavior instead of wishing the best for everyone, they want them to be miserable.