Musk's Acquisition of Twitter Drags On

[AngelSpeaks]

I think it's easy to judge if WFH works. Some employees literally dump some of their job tasks to someone in the office and that poor soul doesn't have his responsibilities reduced for these. Another serious issue in the US are WFH employees who move to another state without permission or even notifying their supervisor. The employer now has serious issues to resolve, including asking the new state to abate penalties and interest for payroll related taxes and forms being late. Each state is different with NY and CA being the worst. If a state determines that the WFH employee indicates nexus in that state then the employer has to register as a foreign corporation and be subject to corporate state income taxes. A small company can't afford to have the staff to handle these responsibilities.

 

[SachAccess]

Certain jobs benefit from the quiet afforded by working at home but the benefit is minimized by the lack of interaction with one's peers. When I am working in the early stages of a large project with a team, it is far more productive for us to all be in the same room where we can spend a lot of time discussing requirements and potential implementation methods. Once the plan is in place and we know what we have to do, then it is nice to be able to sequester yourself behind a closed door or at home so people don't just pop in and break your concentration. Most companies don't recognize the need for different levels of interaction with team members at different states in the development cycle.

100% agree with you on this. Mostly the decision is (at least in my circle) taken at the top and everyone else have to follow it.
There are times when one needs to be physically present in the office.

 

[SachAccess]

I think it's easy to judge if WFH works. Some employees literally dump some of their job tasks to someone in the office and that poor soul doesn't have his responsibilities reduced for these. Another serious issue in the US are WFH employees who move to another state without permission or even notifying their supervisor. The employer now has serious issues to resolve, including asking the new state to abate penalties and interest for payroll related taxes and forms being late. Each state is different with NY and CA being the worst. If a state determines that the WFH employee indicates nexus in that state then the employer has to register as a foreign corporation and be subject to corporate state income taxes. A small company can't afford to have the staff to handle these responsibilities.

One more aspect of WFH + WFO is, however there are times when entire team is having a virtual meeting and some of the members are driving, doing shopping, in short not at the 'desk' and just attending for the sake of it and you can sense it. This creates a kind of rift between people who are working from the office V/s people who are at WFH. My personal opinion, I might be wrong too.

 

[Steve R.]

Tesla and Twitter are two separate companies. Musk, is a common element. Musk in his acquisition of Twitter came under a lot of criticism for his management style, demonization by critics, and even the possibility of not being able to effectively manage Tesla due to the Twitter "distraction". During that period, as shown in the graph below, the stock price of Tesla declined. Looked like there was no bottom. Since hitting a low on Jan. 3, 2023 at $108.10, the price of Tesla stock has risen today to $211.62 at the time of this post. An almost 100% increase.

Speculative correlation, as this post is, should always be questioned. Stocks also move up and down for a variety of reasons. Nevertheless, on the surface it would appear today that the criticism of Musk is proving to have been both baseless and deceptive. Since this is also only a temporal snapshot taken today, it remains to be seen, over time, if Musk will continue to prosper with Twitter, Tesla and his other endeavors.

 

[AccessBlaster]

And a few days later Tesla drop the price of its Model S. Maybe a stock recovery strategy?

Jan 13, 2023 · The Model S Plaid, which previously cost $135,990, will now set the consumer back $114,990 — a 15% reduction in the sticker price.

 

[JonXL]

One more aspect of WFH + WFO is, however there are times when entire team is having a virtual meeting and some of the members are driving, doing shopping, in short not at the 'desk' and just attending for the sake of it and you can sense it. This creates a kind of rift between people who are working from the office V/s people who are at WFH. My personal opinion, I might be wrong too.

How is that a problem?

Just can the folks who are screwing around when they're supposed to be working. The people left over will be the productive ones. And they'll be productive whether at home or in the office (some possibly more so at home).

 

[moke123]

And a few days later Tesla drop the price of its Model S. Maybe a stock recovery strategy?

No, Their trying to reclaim market share which has been dropping steadily as new less expensive EV's are coming on line.

 

[Isaac]

How is that a problem?

Just can the folks who are screwing around when they're supposed to be working. The people left over will be the productive ones. And they'll be productive whether at home or in the office (some possibly more so at home).

On that same line of thought, I have to say, though ... I've been marveling for years over how blind managers are to the "messing around" that goes on IN the office.

So I think of the office jobs I've had over the past decade or so - maybe at least 5 different major companies which involved at least some in-office stuff. Among any given block of 10 cubicles, there were several people (at least) who gathered at each other's desks to just chat. And chat, and chat, and chat. And come back later and chat some more. And come back later and chat some more.

People say "well they're building rapport, they're becoming better teammates". Bullsh*t. They're just enjoying each other's company, recreating, having a good time, talking about grandkids the weather and their vacation. It has absolutely no impact on their ability to do their jobs as a team.
Perhaps there is a tiny benefit along those lines, something that probably could have been reached with about 2 minutes of conversation, once a week.

My point is, so that has been totally accepted by all the jobs I've worked at, all my life, once I was no longer at lower-level "timed" stuff that I did when I was a kid. Totally accepted.

Then you work from home, and everyone is all going crazy if they message you and you don't respond for 10 minutes.
It's like........well if the ladies at the office can waste 45 minutes chatting several times a day, I guess I can go in the kitchen and eat a banana, take the dog for a little walk, or whatever else?

The expectation just makes no sense. It almost ended up that remote workers have a HIGHER level of expectation of availability. Whereas when I go in an office, if I pass by someone's cubicle and they're not there at the moment, nobody thinks anything of it. Come back in an hour, see if they're there then - if not, still don't think much of it. Yet work remote and watch someone trying to get ahold of you for 5minutes, they think you're just messing around all day.

At least, it was that way a few years ago - now it's so common people have kind of accepted it and things have equalized in my world

 

[SachAccess]

The expectation just makes no sense. It almost ended up that remote workers have a HIGHER level of expectation of availability. Whereas when I go in an office, if I pass by someone's cubicle and they're not there at the moment, nobody thinks anything of it. Come back in an hour, see if they're there then - if not, still don't think much of it. Yet work remote and watch someone trying to get ahold of you for 5minutes, they think you're just messing around all day.

Agree with all your points. It is very different when you work from home. For the same reason, I prefer working from office.
At home, you get a WhatsApp, a skype message, e-mail and a call for the same thing. Then you need to answer everywhere.
In office, I can switch-off my WhatsApp and do my work. Un-necessary lengthy team meetings when WFH is another issue.

One of my previous manager used to continuously talk, that time there was no WFH for us.
At times he could talk for one hour straight and if you try to work and ignore him, he used to get upset.
Same, team building rapport thing....