Work from home ?

[Five Seasons]

On 7/15/2022 at 2:57 PM, phade said:

I don't know how you do American. We're Delta or I'm walking. Dulles, Philly...horrid. Charlotte at least tolerable.

Used American for the first year or so and switched and was mad I spent a year with American.

I'm so Delta now, I'll pay a premium to fly them on personal travel when I have to. 

I'm delta gold. I will add time to my trip for that better experience. United has mostly done me right too. I'm 1 trip away from United Premier or whatever it is. I have flown american maybe 3 times in the last 2 years out of shear lack of any other option lol.

[Judoka95]

I can see how some might think WFH is just sitting around doing nothing, but I can say as someone who travels for work that I spent a year and a half on a project in NC. I would fly out every Monday, pick up a rental car, drive to our office, and spend 90% of my time behind a computer monitor. On Thursday afternoon I would fly back and arrive home around 8pm. Friday I would drive to an empty office in Syr. and sit behind the computer again. Never made much sense but that's what the customer wanted.

I see offices now where everyone comes in, sits behind their computer with headphones on, and never speaks to anyone during the day. Why would you need to waste the time and gas to do that in an "office" when you could do that from almost anywhere with an internet connection?

I have a dedicated workspace for when I am at home and not traveling, a separate building actually. It saves time, money, and office space and my family loves that I'm here. (Nothing better than afternoon hugs from the kids). It also helps me set parameters for myself and separate my work time from my home time.

If you think about it from a business standpoint, most of the big brick and mortar stores are struggling because of the cost to build and maintain such a large facility against the availability of online shopping. Many businesses are in the same boat, why spend all the money to have a huge office building filled with desks and a parking area that needs to be maintained, plus pay all of the utilities associated with that if 75+% of your employees could do their job from home. it's all about Cap Ex & Op Ex.

[phade]

6 hours ago, Belo said:

I'm delta gold. I will add time to my trip for that better experience. United has mostly done me right too. I'm 1 trip away from United Premier or whatever it is. I have flown american maybe 3 times in the last 2 years out of shear lack of any other option lol.

United has been way worse than American for me. They've been absolutely miserable to fly with on the last 4 trips I've had with them dating back 4 years now. Consistently bad. Had to take them to EWR in June only because there were no other airlines with evening arrivals into NYC that day. Got through security, and they canceled my flight. Sat around for three more hours, finally got into Koreatown around 12:30AM and cost me way too much in Uber due to the time of evening. 

They're also holding $1K of my money on credit for a flight that needs to be used by December. Have to use it all at once, with extra funds going bye-bye. United makes American look like Delta. 

And SW sucks due to their boarding process. Pure nightmare. Delta has been at least a bright spot. Flying them next week for personal travel to STT and a bit nervous based on the challenges airlines have had with that route the past month or two. Delays, cancellations, and diversions due to fuel storage levels on STT. Hoping we at least get there on time. I can deal with a delay coming back, lol.

[phade]

5 hours ago, Judoka95 said:

I can see how some might think WFH is just sitting around doing nothing, but I can say as someone who travels for work that I spent a year and a half on a project in NC. I would fly out every Monday, pick up a rental car, drive to our office, and spend 90% of my time behind a computer monitor. On Thursday afternoon I would fly back and arrive home around 8pm. Friday I would drive to an empty office in Syr. and sit behind the computer again. Never made much sense but that's what the customer wanted.

I see offices now where everyone comes in, sits behind their computer with headphones on, and never speaks to anyone during the day. Why would you need to waste the time and gas to do that in an "office" when you could do that from almost anywhere with an internet connection?

I have a dedicated workspace for when I am at home and not traveling, a separate building actually. It saves time, money, and office space and my family loves that I'm here. (Nothing better than afternoon hugs from the kids). It also helps me set parameters for myself and separate my work time from my home time.

If you think about it from a business standpoint, most of the big brick and mortar stores are struggling because of the cost to build and maintain such a large facility against the availability of online shopping. Many businesses are in the same boat, why spend all the money to have a huge office building filled with desks and a parking area that needs to be maintained, plus pay all of the utilities associated with that if 75+% of your employees could do their job from home. it's all about Cap Ex & Op Ex.

I think alot of it has to do with the general reduction in talent level for those seeking employment. Having those people new and starting out to be in office appears to lead to improved speed to competency compared to full remote onboarding/early career. It's just my personal observation. I think the average bar for employees getting hired has been very low requiring increased ramp up and corresponding strategy.

I'd go as far to say that an employee hired in 2019 or even 2020 was 1.5-2x more effective/skilled out of the gate than the average counterpart in 2021-2022. Only very recently have I seen it get a bit better. Time will tell.

Execs are fighting that money vs culture battle right now. Reducing fixed liabilities is a major win, but the disconnect of working remote challenges the best of companies. Even leading edge tech ones - see Tesla, Apple, etc.

[Five Seasons]

17 hours ago, phade said:

I think alot of it has to do with the general reduction in talent level for those seeking employment. Having those people new and starting out to be in office appears to lead to improved speed to competency compared to full remote onboarding/early career. It's just my personal observation. I think the average bar for employees getting hired has been very low requiring increased ramp up and corresponding strategy.

I'd go as far to say that an employee hired in 2019 or even 2020 was 1.5-2x more effective/skilled out of the gate than the average counterpart in 2021-2022. Only very recently have I seen it get a bit better. Time will tell.

Execs are fighting that money vs culture battle right now. Reducing fixed liabilities is a major win, but the disconnect of working remote challenges the best of companies. Even leading edge tech ones - see Tesla, Apple, etc.

One of the big fears, which might bite a lot of companies that went all in during the pandemic as that we hit a recession and all these wage hikes and perks given during desperate labor shortages will result in some companies being way under water during hard times to come.

Time will tell, but I agree that the quality of what we've hired lately is way lower than what we hired even a few years ago, let alone when I was just starting out.  Some of our new college grads are asking for 70's. Not that long ago, new college grads were just happy to get a job. Recently though we've seen some circle back around and take far less after realizing that not many would pay them 70's. Not sure if it's colleges or the media giving these delusions, but a communications major does not command the same as an engineer. Sorry, but it doesn't. 

[phade]

1 hour ago, Belo said:

One of the big fears, which might bite a lot of companies that went all in during the pandemic as that we hit a recession and all these wage hikes and perks given during desperate labor shortages will result in some companies being way under water during hard times to come.

Time will tell, but I agree that the quality of what we've hired lately is way lower than what we hired even a few years ago, let alone when I was just starting out.  Some of our new college grads are asking for 70's. Not that long ago, new college grads were just happy to get a job. Recently though we've seen some circle back around and take far less after realizing that not many would pay them 70's. Not sure if it's colleges or the media giving these delusions, but a communications major does not command the same as an engineer. Sorry, but it doesn't. 

All cannon fodder for why a recession is looming. Almost none of this is built into Wall St. expectations. Not sure why the street thinks that earnings will continue to fly sky high against this type of across the board headwind. Any company leadership that even hints at it, gets their shares hammered. It's contributing to this run-up that will have us in recession into 2023 at least, once the dam fully breaks, which I think times with student loan repayments restarting or shortly thereafter. Housing isn't going to cool in the way we need and doesn't do so, super fast without the interest rate hikes.

About the only fun thing here is thinking the potential to buy stock low for a rebound 18-24 mos out.

[Five Seasons]

34 minutes ago, phade said:

All cannon fodder for why a recession is looming. Almost none of this is built into Wall St. expectations. Not sure why the street thinks that earnings will continue to fly sky high against this type of across the board headwind. Any company leadership that even hints at it, gets their shares hammered. It's contributing to this run-up that will have us in recession into 2023 at least, once the dam fully breaks, which I think times with student loan repayments restarting or shortly thereafter. Housing isn't going to cool in the way we need and doesn't do so, super fast without the interest rate hikes.

About the only fun thing here is thinking the potential to buy stock low for a rebound 18-24 mos out.

honestly i think because the street has enjoyed a solid 10 years or so of easy money. They're in denial and hoping it doesn't happen. I wish too that I could essentially just gamble to make money, so I get it. God forbid actually contributing to society. 

[BizCT]

We won’t be back to ATH’s until at least 2025 book it.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Pro

[phade]

13 minutes ago, lethouel said:

I don't see the point in being in the office because I'm doing tasks that don't require special hardware or software. But my boss thinks the office makes employees more competitive. It seems that he hasn't yet understood that I don't care about the performance of my colleagues, I only care about my personal percentage of sales. If this continues, I'll be ready to move to work from home side jobs.

Weird bot flex.

[Caveman]

On 7/7/2022 at 3:58 PM, moog5050 said:

Funny story on rates.  I had a matter that after many years of litigation finally appeared to be heading to US Supreme Court - I was sure it would get there.  My client loved me and wanted me to stay working on it, but also wanted a US Supreme Court specialist after we got past the Second Circuit Court of Appeals.   Enter Paul Clement - he is the man if you are arguing before SCOTUS.  You all might know him from the recent 2nd amendment case that he won - https://www.cnn.com/2022/06/23/politics/supreme-court-guns-second-amendment-new-york-bruen/index.html

Anyways, as I am talking to Paul about co-counseling the case with me, he says his rate is $2000/hr.  Even I was a bit shocked at that.  I was thinking $1000 maybe $1300.  We agreed to a flat fee through the petition for cert.  Good guy by the way and he left Kirkland Ellis due to the fallout from his win on the 2nd amendment case.  But yes, rates continue to rise.  And all us hourly lawyers are simply hourly workers - so we can't work 2 hour days.  Then again, we are worth every penny!  lol

It's funny, Moog.  Judge D'Agostino in NDNY is also skeptical of Mr. Clement's rates.  In 2015, she rejected his fee application of $1,100/hr and awarded him $300/hr, noting that "The non-prevailing party should not be required to pay for a limousine when a sedan could have done the job."  Osterweil v. Bartlett, 92 F.Supp.3d 14, 26-28 (NDNY 2015).

 

I always wondered how Mr. Clement took that one.   

[Danny]

I work from home since 3/2020 still get all my projects done and can spend 6 months upstate at the house if wanted 

it's nice