The time is always right if your employers are tyrants
It was about overall IT layoffs, which did not only affect the US. Plus, Activision-Blizzard does have plenty of activities going on inside of Europe, ignoring this would be odd.
Well good for you for being productive. But the truth is not everyone can be trusted to properly work from home. Especially in a bigger company where theres far more people to supervise.
I have met countless people wich already clearly said they do as little as possible at work. If you give these people working at home with their pet, netflix and games then they will do even less.
And congrats for not having to fight for a seat on public transport. But like i said before. Public transport is a you-issue, not the companies. You choose to take a job that far from your home without moving closer to your job or choosing a job closer near your home.
I tried to keep it short and sweet about your antiquated, conservative mindset but OK, actually, Iâll bite.
âSupervisionâ, interesting word. In my job I have a project or a number of tasks and deadlines. I execute said tasks, sort out new tasks as they arise in an orderly manner. Thatâs part of being a grown up doing a grown up job. What else do you want to do? Check their bum is on their seat at all times? That theyâre never doing something else on your time? You know human productivity doesnât work like that. Personally I work in bursts.
This is your anecdotal and selective evidence of what you say? As I say previously, if people are not fulfilling their job role then do something about it. This doesnât vary whether they are working remotely or in an office. Or is there something else you âwantâ to control like how they allocate their time or dress or behave because you have a control thing going on? If we actually look at studies we see that your anecdotal evidence doesnât stack up:
Something from LSE:
Or others:
I think youâll find putting unnecessary strain on transport infrastructure and, ultimately the environment is very much an everyone problem, actually. And it is âcompanyâsââŚitâs a possessive, not a plural.
Curious how you manage to play WoW from the 1950sâŚ
Itâs a you issue that you are surrounded with lazy workers. My colleagues are highly motivated and we are working from home 
Just to swing this around to Blizzard Entertainment again, then the inside scoops are starting:
And if you follow various Blizzard developers on twitter, then the opinions areâŚwell, there. 
Blizzard donât need round 2 of upset developers and organizational meltdown. But that may be where itâs headed again. 
1 Like
Did you ever consider that working from home is worse for the environment:
Instead of warming one building you have 100s of people warming their individual homes.
What about lunch, how much carbon does each individual generate in their homes.
As for public transport, thatâs going to be running whatever the case.
Working from home doesnât benefit from economies of scale so you probably contribute more carbon from being at home.
Got proof? No? All of your words are wasted if you just stating some personal opinions and theories
I could say less cars needed using less fuel too. Or that peopleâs houses need to still be heated, or heated back up at the end of the day. And that people still make lunch, whether at home or packed lunch or canteen. Thereâs nothing to suggest the energy requirements are different. Or that the reduced amount of offices required offsets the increased domestic power need, even before coming to transportation. Also makes commuting for those who have to physically be in a place of work much easier. Rather than everybody spending hours trying to travel and being very stressed. Quality of life.
No my friend, youâre grasping at straws with no backup. Itâs the same crap I hear all the time from the back to office crowd, no substance and just based on a fear of change and losing control.
You offer no proof either.
Besides, not everyone takes the car into work. If you work in a city itâs very unlikely youâd travel in a car due to parking.
You wouldnât fully heat a house if you were not in it, thatâs an environmental no, no itself. More people in their own home would on balance would suggest that efficiencies would be greater. Heating a small office of five people would probably be around the same as one home but if you have those five people at home itâs bound to be more damaging.
Iâve worked in an office, and worked from home.
Iâve managed teams working in an office, and teams working from home.
All in software development, though not with as many specialties as WoW needs.
You canât generalise.
It depends on the tasks, on the team, on how much and what kind of interaction is needed. Above all, in my experience, it depends on the individuals, and perhaps their living arrangements (I never did get a good handle on that bit.)
Iâve found that some people thrive on working from home, and some people just come adrift, lose the plot, lose their motivation and their direction.
Overall, with no special circumstances, I believe that working together in an office is the safer and more reliable choice - there is less chance of really bad outcomes. But there is definitely a place for some people to pursue some projects from home. Knowing which is which can be learned only from experience with the specific people.
4 Likes
This. After close on 40 years working in an office with the odd day here and there WFH, the mandatory WFH, during covid, took me a while to get used to. Itâs now part and parcel of daily work. I have an adjustable table top desk unit that enables me to mimic the standing desk I have at work.
Currently I try to get into the office a couple of times a week, but only do that if I know other members of the team are going to be there.
My manager is happy whatever we, as a team, do. As long as the jobs get done.
3 Likes
Both cars and public transport are used depending on the area and how good the connections are for the person, the shifts that are worked, etc. You seem to be picking on this point. Both are still an unnecessary waste of resources of there is less demand for them and will need to scale down.
Also my point at home is that if they are cooler during the day, then energy has to be expended to bring them back up to temperature so isnât necessarily as low as you think. And less offices will be required over time so less energy required there. My point here is youâre saying it isnât more efficient in terms of energy. My point is that your oversimplifying and couldnât possibly know. What we do know is that the lives of those who need to commute will be far easier, thereâll be less traffic and more efficient journeys. That much we know. The balance of heating offices vs heating homes, who knows? Eventually youâd have less office buildings so youâd need to do the calculations.
My take on this is very simple.
I donât care if they work from home or from the office.
My only issue is that whenever they try to argue for any of this is that they keep throwing around that âwe had record breaking profits while working from homeâ meanwhile EU CS was fired and we can barely get ticket responses.
Thing is though that Blizz have spent all this effort trying to turn things around, pull their staffing levels up to a sensible level and now this - a good way to destroy the goodwill you had with your staff and push turnover through the roof. You can see the beancounters always get their way in the end
Friend of mine works in IT, they have to go to the work only on Monday and Friday to discuss work and progress in person. Other three days they donât have to show up,but they can if they prefer.
Of course, if something unplanned occurs then they have to show up.
Game Developer said:
According to our sources, Ybarra responded to a question that argued this return-to-office policy would cause the company to lose talent at an inopportune time. The questioner asked what leadership intended to do to prevent such departures.
Ybarra reportedly did not provide any clear action plans to retain talent, though it was apparently shared elsewhere that Blizzard would open offices in new (unnamed) locations to act as central hubs.
He did however, reportedly say the following: âAt the end of the day we want people to be happy, and if decisions about about being happy donât align with where weâre going, and you wonât be happy, then youâll have to do what will make [you] happy.â
After publication, Blizzard reached out to add additional comment on this topic. âWe understand some people may not find this model ideal, and that change is hard, but weâre one of 90% of companies returning to the office this year and weâre committed to supporting teams in making the transition,â they stated. They also reaffirmed that the company is continuing to honor the status of all-remote workers, and exceptions on the return-to-office plan will be made for âmedical or religious reasons.â
Honestly it all sounds fine.
It seems those that were hired as remote workers are still gonna be working from home.
They seem to open smaller offices in other areas so employees dont have to travel all the way to the headquarters.
And exceptions to the new policy is also possible.
And it is still 2 day per week were they get to work from home if they want.
It seems like a good balance for what both the company and employees needs.
âAt the end of the day we want people to be happy, and if decisions about about being happy donât align with where weâre going, and you wonât be happy, then youâll have to do what will make [you] happy.â
This doesnât sound like a boss I want to work with 
It makes sense though.
They need to do what is best for the company because if they donât there wonât be a company for the employee to work at in the end.
You canât expect them to do what is worse for the company and lose money because the employee donât want to go to work.
Should they have to go down to 6 hours per workday as well while still paying the same amount per month because employees want more free time?
Obviously great for the employees but now the company is losing out on 25% of production time.
So they lose money and the customer get less as well.
There is nothing wrong with his comment. It is just reality.
I worked in customer service the past year and I donât like to talk over the phone.
I do great with chat and email though.
So when things changed and I was moved over to phone because there was no more open spots for email and chat due to changes I quit.
I am not gonna try to force them to push more email and chats when they needed more people on the phone because that is what the customers wanted.
1 Like
I donât consider or guess. I read statistics and so far it has positive implications on the productivity of a company. My company is offering 100% WFH since corona and even now our figures look great. People are happy and productive.
Only toxic companies force their employees into the office. If your company is not toxic, your people will come to the office on their own. Itâs that simple.
Maybe Blizz is still as rotten as ot was before the law suit 
Forcing people in is a major red flag.
where does this number come from? Did you just made it up?
1 Like