Work from home permanently or $30K raise?

[Luckyforward]

I've been working at home as a mental health therapist seeing people by telehealth for the past year and it has gone well.  Before the pandemic insurance companies would not pay for telehealth; I'm hoping that they will not change as things start going back to normal.  My clients are so used to not having to come in to the office I am fearful many will drop out of therapy if they have to return.  

We'll see . . .

[gregintenn]

I can’t build a bridge from the house, so I guess I’d opt for the 30k.

A lot of folks are finding they can work from home, however, and I think that’ll increase as time goes on.

I’d sure hate to be invested heavily in commercial real estate right now. I’m not sure how that’ll work out.

[MacGyver]

25 minutes ago, gregintenn said:

I’d sure hate to be invested heavily in commercial real estate right now. I’m not sure how that’ll work out.

Mark my words.  We’ve not seen the fallout from that yet.

But we’re going to.  And I’ll bet real money it’s going to be me and you bailing out a bunch of billionaire real estate investors from their paper losses that somehow threaten to tank the entire economy. 

[E4 No More]

I'd take the $30k. That would more than offset the hour drive to work and eating out.

[mikegideon]

2 minutes ago, MacGyver said:

Mark my words.  We’ve not seen the fallout from that yet.

But we’re going to.  And I’ll bet real money it’s going to be me and you bailing out a bunch of billionaire real estate investors from their paper losses that somehow threaten to tank the entire economy. 

Let's see how the new normal pans out long term. All those big savings probably aren't gonna be best for some companies.  They are reimagining policing right now too. A lot of it isn't going to work.

Of course, the crisis/fleecing model always seems to work. Maybe they can jam it through before the long term shakes out.

[deerslayer]

I don't doubt working from home will become much more prevalent, but I have already experienced a couple downsides.  Susan is now working from home and has limited access to things that used to be right outside her door.  I call Susan (who is across town or in another city) and ask her if she can put her hands on XYZ item.  Now she works from home, so she calls Johnny, who is not in our department and really has no idea WTH Susan is talking about and doesn't really have time for her, but he is on location.  Johnny may or may not give Susan accurate info.  Plus, Susan's home internet is not as good as it was at work.  After a while, I learn who Johnny is and why there is a delay and sometimes just bypass Susan.  She cannot do some of the odds and ends that she used to do and is a little less valuable.  

If I worked from home, the fact that someone in India or the Philippines can possibly also do my job from home would be in the back of my mind.  

Edited May 14, 2021 by deerslayer

[peejman]

Having never had the option to work remotely, I'd take the money.  $30k is more than the total change in my paycheck in the last 15 years. 

[OldIronFan]

38 minutes ago, deerslayer said:

If I worked from home, the fact that someone in India or the Philippines can possibly do my job from home would be in the back of my mind.

 While I am sure there are job functions where this is the case, it is not actually a significant issue in the broad sense. 

In fact offshore work for things like IT development actually creates some remote work opportunities in the US. The last role my wife had was project management for database development that was being done in India. The nuts and bolts code work was done in India but the users/clients are still in the US and want the projects directed or managed "locally". They want a US trained and English speaking team getting and documenting the user requirements that they can communicate to the Indian developers. That also applies to the eventual deployment, most companies want local contact for rollout. 

I work in manufacturing so I have to be where the product/parts are being made. That does not mean I have to be there 100% of the time in my role though. Much of my work is done out of the plant at supplier locations, another portion can be done from any place I have email and a phone line available. Honestly I could do my job and only be in my actual employers plant maybe 1 day a week to get my hands on physical parts for inspection. In my last role it was easier to work from home and odd hours because my suppliers were either in Europe, China, or Korea. I could take an early call from home with Germany or a call after dinner with Asia and not be stuck in the office at odd hours to do it. In my current role my suppliers are primarily US based so my odd hour work has been reduced.

Edited May 14, 2021 by OldIronFan

[btq96r]

1 hour ago, gregintenn said:

I’d sure hate to be invested heavily in commercial real estate right now. I’m not sure how that’ll work out.

 

59 minutes ago, MacGyver said:

Mark my words.  We’ve not seen the fallout from that yet.

But we’re going to.  And I’ll bet real money it’s going to be me and you bailing out a bunch of billionaire real estate investors from their paper losses that somehow threaten to tank the entire economy. 

I think some creative thinking will be needed.  A lot of office spaces could be refurbished or simply torn down to build up residential apartments.  An area like Brentwood already has the capacity to absorb the population flow since it would simply be converting them from daily commuters to work into residents.

Not saying it's a complete solution, but the losses could be mitigated over time.

[pop pop]

If your are blue collar, with family, it is all about the money.  

[RC3]

9 hours ago, Chucktshoes said:

I suspect that many middle managers (rightly) perceive that shifting to a WFH model will cause not only the buildings to be surplussed. 

I have never left a job. I have left terrible management. I dont quit places, I quit people. 

[Chucktshoes]

30 minutes ago, RC3 said:

I have never left a job. I have left terrible management. I dont quit places, I quit people. 

That’s not what I meant. I was referring to middle managers being surplus as superfluous outside of the in office dynamic. That massive of a re-organization of how business is done will lead to the discovery that some positions just aren’t that valuable.

[gregintenn]

1 hour ago, Chucktshoes said:

That’s not what I meant. I was referring to middle managers being surplus as superfluous outside of the in office dynamic. That massive of a re-organization of how business is done will lead to the discovery that some positions just aren’t that valuable.

That would be a pro and not a con.

[RC3]

1 hour ago, Chucktshoes said:

That’s not what I meant. I was referring to middle managers being surplus as superfluous outside of the in office dynamic. That massive of a re-organization of how business is done will lead to the discovery that some positions just aren’t that valuable.

One of the reasons was ####ty middle managers. People who actually didnt contribute much to anything except trying to look like they are worth something. Lots of places have middle managers that actually bring in nothing. It is just a place holder position.

[Ronald_55]

I have been in more than one job where I did most of my manager's work for him...

 

My wife's workplace say some people fail upward until they are high enough they don't have to do work anyway. 

[RC3]

1 hour ago, Ronald_55 said:

I have been in more than one job where I did most of my manager's work for him...

 

My wife's workplace say some people fail upward until they are high enough they don't have to do work anyway. 

Literally worked for a place that it was three of us running the shop. We responded to accounting, the owner and the bean counter. One of the partners decided we had "too much freedom" and gave a management position to a friend from church. Dude made more than all us, constantly had some of the worst ideas imaginable (save for a replacement bin rack, he was a good engineer, garbage supervisor) and tried to run the shop in a way that constantly failed (we did things like he wanted, they just didnt work due to the type of business and scheduling we ran). We all quit after a while and he was fired a month after we all left. 

 

Sadly, this wasnt the first time I left a place because someone unqualified was put in a position of power.

[No_0ne]

5 hours ago, RC3 said:

One of the reasons was ####ty middle managers. People who actually didnt contribute much to anything except trying to look like they are worth something. Lots of places have middle managers that actually bring in nothing. It is just a place holder position.

Any thoughts on where I can find one of those middle manager jobs with no work and little responsibility?  Hopefully one where I can just hide out all day ...

2 hours ago, Ronald_55 said:

I have been in more than one job where I did most of my manager's work for him...

 

My wife's workplace say some people fail upward until they are high enough they don't have to do work anyway. 

The Peter Principle applies to many scenarios in the workplace ...

[10-Ring]

6 hours ago, No_0ne said:

Any thoughts on where I can find one of those middle manager jobs with no work and little responsibility?  Hopefully one where I can just hide out all day ...

The Peter Principle applies to many scenarios in the workplace ...

The state of Tennessee has a ton of listings, I've never seen a middle manager do less. 

[gregintenn]

22 minutes ago, 10-Ring said:

The state of Tennessee has a ton of listings, I've never seen a middle manager do less. 

You beat me to it.

[Erik88]

3 hours ago, 10-Ring said:

The state of Tennessee has a ton of listings, I've never seen a middle manager do less. 

Anyone I've ever known that has worked for city, state or federal government describes a job with a lot of downtime. I watched 6 city of Knoxville employees plant a tiny tree on my street. 4 stood there while two worked. They took multiple breaks over the course of a few hours to plant it.

I have a friend that works for the City of Knoxville. She sayd she actually works only a few hours a day and watches Netflix the remainder. 

Another friend works at ORNL as a "laborer". They intentionally sandbag during the week so that they have work left over for overtime on Saturday. The supervisors encourage this. If they don't spend that money, it's not in the budget next year.

[RED333]

5 hours ago, Erik88 said:

They intentionally sandbag during the week so that they have work left over for overtime on Saturday. The supervisors encourage this. If they don't spend that money, it's not in the budget next year.

I pray for the day when we can tell .gov to go to the devils domain and we get our country back.

[peejman]

18 hours ago, Ronald_55 said:

I have been in more than one job where I did most of my manager's work for him...

 

My wife's workplace say some people fail upward until they are high enough they don't have to do work anyway. 

Yes, the  incompetent get promoted to where they can do less harm. The valuable have to remain worker bees, because someone has to actually do the work. 

My current frustration is immediate management who've never worked anywhere else and either can't seem to grasp that they don't have to contine doing the same stupid things, or don't have the stones to do it differently. Resource allocation is poor at best and while they're ok at project management, they're terrible people managers. 

[gregintenn]

On 5/15/2021 at 10:33 AM, Erik88 said:

Anyone I've ever known that has worked for city, state or federal government describes a job with a lot of downtime. I watched 6 city of Knoxville employees plant a tiny tree on my street. 4 stood there while two worked. They took multiple breaks over the course of a few hours to plant it.

I have a friend that works for the City of Knoxville. She sayd she actually works only a few hours a day and watches Netflix the remainder. 

Another friend works at ORNL as a "laborer". They intentionally sandbag during the week so that they have work left over for overtime on Saturday. The supervisors encourage this. If they don't spend that money, it's not in the budget next year.

Turns out I ended up with one of the few gov jobs where I work my azz off. Good thing is I’m leaving it in September. There are a lot of slackers in gov.