What bullshit. From Richard Littlejohn:
My nephew recently applied for a vacancy at a City institution. He got the job, even though he was over-qualified, because he was the only applicant prepared to turn up at least three days a week.
Apparently, the new corporate sin is “presenteeism” — the insistence that employees actually go to the company office to do their job. Apparently, employees now have the “right” to tell the company when they’ll be most productive. What a load of crap.
Listen: I worked from home for over nine years (out of a working lifetime of over thirty) and even though I was as motivated as hell, I can tell you right now that I often goofed off. Oh, the excuses were good:
- the program I was running would take over two hours to run, so why not mow the lawn during that time?
- the meeting was being conducted online (by phone; we didn’t have Zoom or whatever back then), so I could get in the car and drive to the supermarket while listening in;
- I didn’t want to be disturbed while working on a project, and so working at home meant that people wouldn’t interrupt me by coming into my office;
- and so on.
The thing that’s common to all this nonsense is that people are conflating personal productivity with corporate productivity. In the first example above, sure: I could get something done that needed doing while waiting for the program to run — but what I should have been doing is other work-related stuff: responding to emails, planning the next project — you know, doing company business while on company time.
I don’t buy any of this WFH nonsense. If I were running a company, I would insist on 100% (5 days a week) office attendance, with work from home being allowed only on a case-by-case basis, and only at the employee’s manager’s discretion — his decision being final and absolute, not subject to appeal or revision.
“Oh but Kim, you’d never get anyone to work for you on that basis then.”
You know who would work for me under those conditions? Men and women of age greater than 55, with all the work experience (i.e. requiring little or no training) who all understand that work is work, and that work needs to be done in the appropriate environment. Not at home, where you can play video games while being on a Zoom call with a client.
I’d rather pay some old fart (or fartette) $45/hour and know that he’ll not only be there when and if I need him, but he’ll also understand the concept of loyalty and will stay with me for the next ten years; as opposed to paying some supercilious little twerp $35/hour for him to be goofing off 50% of the time at home, and who will quit in two months’ time because someone offered him $37.50, or his manager “offended” him.
And I don’t want to hear any protestations of innocence and indignation from Gen Z, either. I’ve been there and done that, I know how the game is played, and you won’t shame me by accusing me of “presenteeism” or some other spurious concocted offense.
Fuck you. You want the job, you work where and when your employer tells you to. Otherwise, feel free to pursue your precious career goals in the fast food industry, DoorDash, or as a “content creator” on your own website or OnlyFans. Get out of the way, and leave business to serious people.
