Ashe DrydenThe people advocating for a return to the office and an end to remote work seem to almost always be rich, white, cishet, abled men who, if they have children, have a spouse that picks up their slack. Remote work is more accessible, inclusive, and safe for marginalized people. https://fortune.com/2023/05/05/openai-ceo-sam-altman-remote-work-mistake-return-to-office/
Misuse Case@ashedryden Also these rich people can afford to live within walking distance of the office. Most of us can’t. They basically want control over our time, not just in the hours they pay us for but in the time we commute that they don’t pay us for.
catch@MisuseCase @ashedryden also quite a lot of them turn out to be commercial landlords, like Alan Sugar.
Grinning Cat 
🚫👑Cory Doctorow on the higher “time tax” #poor people pay:
“The richer you are, the more your time is your own – not only are many systems arranged with your convenience in mind, but you also command the social power to do something about systems that abuse your time.
For example: if you live in most American cities, public transit is slow, infrequent and overcrowded. Without a car, you lose hours every day to a commute spent standing on a lurching bus. And while a private car can substantially shorten that commute, people who can afford taxis or Ubers get even more time every day.
There’s a thick anthropological literature on the ways that cash-poverty translates into #TimePoverty. […]”
MUCH more at the link, including unsurprising suggestions for making things better: https://pluralistic.net/2023/02/10/my-time/
@grinningcat @ashedryden also when you are really poor, like “needing public benefits” poor, lots of people and institutions make it a point to disrespect your time IMO.
Lauren Herda“… employees might be secretly working multiple jobs” & “freeing up time by using A.I. tools like OpenAI’s ChatGPT and GPT-4”
I think it kinda boils down to CEOs not liking the idea that we might actually be exploiting them instead of the other way around.
Gen X-Wing@lauren @ashedryden Bingo. They don’t care if we do the job or not, they care about us being subservient. They care about us only making *them* money.
dingodog@ashedryden also, they are all managers, usually high level. If they can't see the people working they get nervous that they aren't.
The real message is "it's harder to successfully manage remote workers."
Suck it up, buttercups. That's why you make the big bucks.
Tim Trautmann 📷@ashedryden @donmelton “experiment” — okay double popped polo shirt dude.
Uncle 6 🌁@ashedryden @Thapsyrensays well if anyone should be an expert on failed experiments Altman ought to be
Nicole Parsons"We billionaires would really appreciate it if workers participated in keeping our over-leveraged house of cards in operation.
We're indifferent to your health if you contract covid.
We're indifferent if the gun violence we incite causes your murder.
We're indifferent to the massive public infrastructure funded by the taxpayer to get our workers to the office. We don't pay taxes.
We are indifferent to the frying planet caused by our ...
1/2
2/2
... commuter policies.
Our expensive, but useless, office lease matters more to us.
Our VC funding from Blackstone & the Saudis matter more to us.
Our ability to easily extract unpaid overtime through intimidation matters more to us.
We just want to keep getting richer off your backs.
Please cooperate."
snott@ashedryden HARD AGREE
eyrea 🇨🇦@ashedryden I think it's even simpler than that. The people at the top are the people who thrived under the old status quo. They were the ones *freaking out* over the lockdowns, and they were the ones *amazed* when it turned out people were getting as much or more done at home.
Sure they want a return to a situation where they're at their most comfortable and powerful.
The pandemic showed that their way wasn't the only way to succeed.
@ashedryden One thing I really noticed during lockdown is that in a remote-only space, charisma and charm don't work as well for some reason. All of a sudden your actual work matters much more.
That upends a *lot* of office politics, and left a lot of people feeling exposed.
Christopher@ashedryden Weirdly enough, they're also almost always of the ownership class, who derive their wealth from squeezing as much value as possible out of employee's time while paying them a flat rate. And those people, almost to a one, seem to believe that the rest of us are trying to fuck them over, and will fake work if we're not in their panopticon.
You know, because they're trying to fuck us over, and believe we're all just like them, except that they see us in the weaker position.
You know, because they're trying to fuck us over, and believe we're all just like them, except that they see us in the weaker position.
StephenC@ashedryden they also invest in city office buildings.
Goblincore Katie@ashedryden If you're insecure and founded a company because bossing people around makes you feel better, does it really count if you can't see them?
mnemonicoverload@ashedryden
Rich, white, cishet, abled men are the least likely to be able to fully understand how little society will care for you if you become disabled from repeated covid infections (or for any other reason) and/or most likely to view disability as a personal moral failure. Probably not a coincidence.
Rich, white, cishet, abled men are the least likely to be able to fully understand how little society will care for you if you become disabled from repeated covid infections (or for any other reason) and/or most likely to view disability as a personal moral failure. Probably not a coincidence.
Wikked Storm (DJ Drewcifer)@ashedryden hell my workplace just dropped their vaccine mandate, citing lowering rates of infection.... that in my mind is like saying, hey, syphilis rates are low, let's start raw dogging prostitutes...
Matt Brown@ashedryden @ianbetteridge yes, but frequently the voices from of junior employees who can most benefit from in-person interactions get drowned out be senior ICs (mostly cishet, abled men) who are more productive when they don’t have the “distraction” of in-person interactions.
Elizabeth@ashedryden also they can steal other peoples work more easily
Victor Volle@ashedryden could it be that the kind of work _they_ are doing, is better done in-person? Could it be that people in higher positions are more likely to be extroverts, who do not thrive when working alone?
I really missed not working together in-person, not having coffee breaks in-person.
I am white, cishet, probably ’abled’ and old-er. I recognize that what I prefer is not everyone’s best way.
The question for me rather is: Do we need a default? And who should decide?
Frances_Larina 🏳️⚧️Weird how it's the CEO's who are saying it, the same ones who made their new fancy campuses a hallmark of successful leadership just prior to the pandemic.