Years ago I was a unit manager in GT&O, and had a team of techies that were all WFH. What I quickly learned, is that it's a challenge to ensure productivity remotely. There is only a small percentage of WFH workers that are conscientious and disciplined enough to always be productive and available - especially in times of tech emergencies. Many people, even though their IM status was avail/busy, were usually just plain AWOL for large periods of the day. I knew of some Associates who had side-businesses they were running on Bank time. Also, in WFH, getting new hires up-to-speed takes 5x as long. New hires in the tech world should be shadowing a in-person mentor, full time for several weeks. This is impossible with WFH. I really came to the conclusion, that the same amount of work done by 10 WFH FTE, could easily have been reduced to half that amount of staff - when properly coached/supervised in-person. You're always going to have people that just want to hang around the water cooler, or just those that need to run too many personal errands every week. At least in person, these less productive team members can be singled-out much easier.
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Agree with the unit manager. I was a lead in group of WFH techs and I saw the same thing. I knew how long their project timelines should take. Some of our 'best' milked their deliverable until the last minute, with every excuse in the world. Tangible metrics in the tech project world are very difficult to measure. Daily and/or weekly checkpoints don't readily reveal these slackers.
if in person is so important, why has my manager never asked me to interview/hire a resource for co-located work? It's all off shore.
@fug+1cqYzDWY - same here!! Been WFH for 11 years and always the Top Performer / Highest Productivity on our team.
The Bank gets way more out of me, because 1) I am grateful for the flexibility so I work harder to deliver more, and 2) the damn computer is always right in front of me!
You're always going to have people that just want to hang around the water cooler > this is why you failed, never underestimate your associate might be wisely enough to read your mind regards the way you look at them and that’s why they are not willing to work for you, thanks for this perfect example proved why so many people complained bofa management here is legit and reasonable, no one should expect to be treated as salary thief, the BofA needs to get rid off any manager has the mentality like this.
You got an F as a manager then. Visibility does NOT equate to productivity. Keep that in mind.
Did you know what happened to Yahoo when its CEO - Melissa Meyer imposed all workers to go back to office? Get updated, will you?
Productivity relates to person not environment. Many tech companies never have employees in office. They hire the best they can get no matter where they sit --- home or office.
Funny! Seven years ago I started on my current team and never set foot in an office. I’ve been stack ranked at the top of the team every year. Always great reviews! Tell me again how this isn’t supposed to work well.
WOW...this is totally your failure as a manager. I have been with the company for 27 years. I was hesitant to work from home at first and I struggled to give up my desk once I did. The Bank pushed us out the door, told us that WFH was the future of technology, gave us the tools and bought us home office equipment. And guess what, it worked, I managed totally remote teams for years. We were productive and our teams were happy. Was there the occasional slacker, sure. Did I have to talk to a few folks, you bet. Did have to fire anyone, yep. But all of those things would have been required in the office as well. If you know you're people AND you actually understand the work your team performs, this isn't an issue. Perhaps you are just a manager, who has never done the work and doesn't understand what it entails. Also, I was My Work/WFH for 12+ years and remained and Exceeds/Exceeds player. As as been said by others yours is totally flawed logic.
This is out dated logic. The tech teams of today are in various pockets of the world.
If anything, you will get high caliber talent who will either sink or swim. Those who swim will function from mars if they had internet connection.
The tooling of today has also changed and you will see in the office 90%+ of the time people will function the same way they did at home (this was the same pre-pandemic) . All calls on bridge lines and screenshare tools etc.
The mass WFH shift has made people adapt and manage their own careers and to deliver. The office was just an order of "this is how it's always been" which no one dared to question.
Managers need to trust the team to do the right thing. Having a portfolio view of the the high level vs deliveries and expectations should suffice if one is cut for it or not.
A slack in the office is a slacker at home and a good employee is a good employee at home.
At least now it's apparent who you should weed out from the bunch while WFH.
failure as manager if needs to be behind the shoulder of team workers to verify they are working.
It sounds like you failed as a manager, is what that sounds like. There are many examples of companies succeeding with wfh, and many project and process examples even within our own. If I have a team who doesn't perform or who is not reachable when they should be, I hold them accountable, not blame the fact that I can't look them in the eye. We have remote teams all across the bank who work alone in offices but manage to collaborate with teammates and stakeholders just fine. How is that any different than wfh? Are you saying the bank should only have teams and tech teams who are physically located with their own teams and managers? That's completely counter-productive in today's tech world. With input like yours, there's no wonder none of this RTO makes any sense at all.
Dear Shortcomings,
Your job was to monitor productivity while your associates work from home. This is the same for in the office. This sounds like a you (shortcoming). It takes a certain type of manager to manage remote workers. Lots of very large companies do this and are extremely successful. It doesn’t sound like you were. Maybe it’s you not hiring the appropriate talent or your management style. Either way it’s been proven WFH can be successful especially on the technology side. My guess is lots of high talent will leave bank and go elsewhere even if it means less pay. Only time will tell.
Re-post? Corp post? Fire the b-ms, let real works wfh and not get sick.