I have just been requested to commute three days a week 135 miles away each way from my home (I have not moved) to an office I was never required to attend before the pandemic starting end of September.
If anyone needs remote product/infrastructure/platform engineering or backend developer who has 15 years cloud deployment experience and data center to cloud migration experience, email me on spotter@referentiallabs.com.
I forgot to also mention the other tags relevant to my expertise:
I have been working full-time remotely from home since 2012 and part-time since 2006.
I wrote about how I separate work and home lives almost three years ago deep in the pandemic days when people were asking me about it here:
https://www.susanpotter.net/software/work-from-home-work-and-home-separation-tips/
@SusanPotter do you stray outside AWS much? Because my company is hiring Systems Engineers and we’re completely distributed: https://automattic.com/work-with-us/job/systems-engineering
Let me know if you’ve got any questions and I can see what answers I can dig up.
We’re looking for a few great systems engineers. Automattic is looking for the world’s absolute best systems engineers. Is this you? Motivated by impact. A perennial learner and sharer. Excited by the idea of developing, building, and maintaining a leading global infrastructure. Dedicated to conti…
@SusanPotter oh dear god we do, but you'd probably expect to be paid as well.
big hugs
The logic is that a bunch of wealthy CEO's decided the flex their power by forcing everyone back to the office for no reason.
Most have no justification. It's just an order. Others say people are more productive in the office, when all data show the exact opposite.
Tell them what a great idea it is and how forward thinking they are for allowing workers to have those "water cooler moments" where workers can talk amongst themselves and discuss forming unions...
@SusanPotter @griff Ahh, FFS.
That is so much bullshit for you.
Water cooler moments do happen, and, for some people in some job roles, really important.
I worked remotely for more than a decade and flew 1,000 miles every two or three weeks for two or three days at my choice (with my management's total support) so that I could get them - but I was in a very different role to yours.
There were threads that I pulled together on those trips that avoided bad hires, bad contracts being signed, or switched directions that saved projects running over time and budget.
Not every time, but often enough, that like a gambling win, it made the grind of travel seem worth it.
Someone I employed in 2004 who was fully remote since 2006 (at a similar distance to you, in a more similar technology role) has been told they need to be in the office two days a week (and that, realistically means overnight accommodation at their own expense).
Corporate management are idiots.
Best wishes.
@SusanPotter So sorry to hear about your new commute. My company is hiring in our infrastructure group - there are 3 remote possible jobs open on our site, but I can't tell which is in that team! We do Clojure and Spark (but we try to NOT have to touch Scala!)
Take a look at one of the positions - https://amperity.com/careers/5264826?gh_jid=5264826
@SusanPotter - Absurd. Asking a valuable resource to commute what? 12 hours a week? How much added business value from being in the office would be required to make up for that lost time--if they weren't planning to take it out of your hide instead?
I wish we were hiring - I could use another good terraform hand. Best of luck in the search!
It does seem like a material change to your working conditions. I assume you weren't part of a union like prospect or such because why would you be.
Might be worthwhile investing in an employment lawyer.
Even in the UK after 2 years you gain some rights and this does seem designed to force you out.
@Homebrewandhacking @martin_piper @SusanPotter In the UK this would be considered Constructive Unfair Dismissal; it might be worth your time looking into your local laws if not UK based and seeking legal council.
Although admittedly that costs either time, money or both.
https://workingfamilies.org.uk/articles/constructive-dismissal/
@carbontwelve @Homebrewandhacking @martin_piper @SusanPotter This will depend on your contract, but in my case (although I work from home now) work are allowed to move my office location up to thirty miles from its present location and maintain contract terms.
Beyond thirty miles you are not obliged to travel or quit, they must offer redundancy (or better terms). May be worth checking your contract too.
@syllopsium @carbontwelve @martin_piper @SusanPotter
Seems like a strange thing to have in your contract if there's no legal basis to it. Companies don't just offer things unless there's a compulsion to.
@Homebrewandhacking in my case UK law dictates the thirty miles limit before workplace relocation can be considered grounds for constructive dismissal.
A previous employer went to great lengths to ensure the office relocation was below 30 miles for the majority of employees with those at or over the limit offered a significant payrise with those refusing offered redundancy.
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