Construction costs are currently skyrocketing

Your comparison is flawed, work clothes or shoes are, in most cases, part of the work equipment or serve as occupational safety. Remote work is a different story; it is not needed for work.

I am only reporting what is the case in our small company, because it is not always just black or white!

I also do remote work as long as I have the opportunity. And of course, from my point of view, there is also a differentiation of the individual tasks, but from the perspective of those who simply cannot work remotely, it looks unfair. Because they imagine that the people working from home are basically sitting on the terrace all day doing nothing. A certain envy arises.

Sorry, you might not like to hear that, but then it is an organizational problem, which you would solve with your last sentence in the next post if remote work should no longer be available.

How you can interpret such nonsense into (my) post is a mystery to me...

Just to clarify, before someone here approaches the matter emotionally instead of rationally again: I myself work remotely and personally think it’s good. But it is by no means a matter of course and also awakens a feeling of disadvantage in some of the staff. That it is not like that in your company is nice. It looks quite different with us.

The comparison with work clothes is not flawed. Why do warehouse or production workers often even get them provided free of charge by the employer when employees could even claim them tax-deductible if they bought them themselves? I in the office have always had to buy my clothes myself and could not deduct them from taxes. When I still worked at the bank, that really cost a lot. Ten suits plus shirts plus ties plus shoes, which I could not wear in my free time at all, all bought completely on my own. No warehouse worker came to me and said: "It’s unfair that you have to pay for that yourself. I always get my work clothes for free from my employer. If you have to pay for it yourself, then I want to do that from now on too."

The solidarity you demand is therefore quite one-sided and based on zero reciprocity.

Our meetings are indeed an organizational problem, but among other reasons the following apply: We have no core working hours and can freely arrange our working time between 6 a.m. and 8 p.m. That suits us very well because we often have appointments with external consultants, suppliers, software manufacturers, etc., who also do not work 9 to 5. And exactly that is the next point:

It often brings me absolutely nothing to be in the office and then meet with others via Zoom from there. Our team is spread throughout Bavaria and the externals all over Germany. On-site meetings are therefore limited to a minimum due to costs.

The job market has changed in recent years from an employer’s market to an employee’s market. This development will gain more momentum with the oncoming retirement wave of the boomers. If you want to have good people as an employer, you have to offer them something. Besides monetary incentives, this can also be working conditions like remote work, flexitime, etc. If I do not have innovation pressure and accept for myself not to get the best people from the market, then I put a fruit basket in the kitchen once a week and try to carry on like the last 20 years.

Just to clarify, before someone approaches the matter emotionally instead of rationally again, I myself have HO and personally think it's good. But it's not a given and does awaken a feeling of disadvantage in some employees. That it is not the case in your company is nice. With us, it looks quite different.

I believe the misunderstanding or your argument is solely based on the fact that you have understanding for your employer and that the solution to the "problem" of envy might be the abolition of the home office. Oetti rather takes the view that this envy problem would not be solved but masked by that. We have similar debates within our corporation regarding company cars. There are some colleagues who really travel a lot but do not receive a company car because they are simply not in sales or not managers. Some colleagues feel quite disadvantaged because of that.

There are some colleagues who are really on the road a lot but do not get a company car because they are simply not in sales or not in a leadership position. Some colleagues feel quite disadvantaged because of that.

The private use of a company car is always part of the salary. I also had to negotiate that for myself. My boss drives a Daimler and I don’t feel disadvantaged because of that either. Also, not everyone has a private office like I do. We are not in socialism and status always comes with privileges.

The solidarity you demand is therefore quite one-sided and not based on reciprocity at all.

I don’t see it that way, because I can only look at it from the perspective of my workplace. We have no one in the warehouse who gets anything paid, since the tasks are neither difficult nor hazardous. And it’s not primarily about you or your workplace, as I said, I just wanted to show that not everything that glitters is gold.

It often brings me absolutely nothing when I’m in the office and then meet with the others via Zoom from there. Our team is spread all over Bavaria and the externals throughout Germany. On-site appointments are kept to a minimum because of the costs.

You also have very different conditions than we do, for example, we are a 45-person company, of whom 42 can work from home, 3 cannot because of their workplace. But it also happens, for example, that someone can do parts of their tasks at home and hands over the parts that must be done on site to the colleagues who are there anyway. I think it’s really great if it works for you like that.

The labor market has changed over the past years from an employer’s market to an employee’s market. This development will continue to gain momentum with the coming retirement wave of the boomers. If you as an employer want to have good people, you have to offer them something. Besides monetary incentives, these can also be working conditions like working from home, flexible hours, etc. If I have no pressure to innovate and accept that I won’t get the best people from the market, then I put a fruit basket in the kitchen once a week and try to carry on as for the last 20 years.

We have great benefits, the only thing that simply doesn’t run smoothly is the issue of working from home.

Our current managing director is retiring in June 2024; he agreed to working from home three years ago due to Corona. Since April, we have a second managing director who will replace the first one. He is 48 and wants to cancel the works agreement because he feels there is no control mechanism! Which I also find old-fashioned, by the way.

We had a meeting this morning and he said, “If people are as productive working from home as they claim, they would be saving time and should therefore reduce their weekly working hours as a reaction. People are paid for 39 hours and might only work 34 hours at home”… or he said, “Then I’d rather have them sitting here than have them hanging out laundry, showering, or loading the dishwasher at home.”

It’s a difficult topic, at least with us!

I believe the misunderstanding or your dispute is solely based on the fact that you have sympathy for your employer and the solution to the "problem" could be envy in the abolition of the home office. Oetti rather holds the view that the envy problem is not solved by this, but concealed.

Maybe, but unfortunately there doesn't seem to be the ultimate solution :)

We had a meeting this morning and he said, "If people in remote work are as productive as they claim, then they save time and should respond by reducing their weekly working hours. People are paid for 39 hours and then potentially only work 34 hours in remote work" .. or he said, "then I'd rather have them sit here than have them hang their laundry, shower, or load the dishwasher at home"..

He did say it, old-fashioned management. But the CEO will understand it eventually. Commuting distance etc. is not the employer's problem, but especially as a medium-sized company, finding good people is a problem again. And eventually, even the last one will realize that.