"Deregulating" our workplace standards are good in theory, but end up causing misery for workers
Tech companies have been pushing the envelope on changing the nature of work – remote work, "work from anywhere," unlimited vacation days, and now "kill the 9-to-5!" – COVID just accelerated all of it.
All this stuff seems to come with caveats, though? "Unlimited vacation days" – 10 years or so after the tech world really sunk its teeth into this idea – actually means "everyone takes fewer vacation days," and "you don't get paid out for your vacation time if you leave." Great for the company, sucks for us.
"Remote work," and "work from anywhere," have turned into "use the time you used to commute to work!" and "your devices make you available on vacation!" It's like fantasy in the 90s of having a laptop and being able to "fax from the beach." Why would I want to send a fax while I'm on vacation???
There was a post a couple days ago here about how the 9-to-5 must die. "Let's be more flexible!" Sounds great at first, until we're expected to be "flexible" and available 24 hours a day?
These workplace norms are in place for a reason. Maybe we need to be thinking more about how these new ideas can be exploited before we throw away our old standards?
I can't imagine this will be popular here, but I helped start a union at a startup for this very reason. We wanted vague promises put into a contract.
On an individual level, employees have a lot of power now so we should be saying no or negotiating when companies try to offer vague stuff like "unlimited vacation." Or don't offer comp time for working off hours/on call. My father was a tech CEO and offered the latter back in the 90s and I'm appalled to learn that some people now don't get it. Know your worth.
Yes to unions! Yes to leaders supporting unions! :D
"Unlimited vacation days" really is a scam. Friends at Netflix says what it truly means is that the company expects you to work everyday. You actually have to mark off on calendar that you are taking the day (sat/sun) off on weekly basis.
Also, not sure why this was attractive in the first place. Back in the days, I am always full on my accrual vac hours...
Remote works give you the flexibility. But again, it's actually pretty hard as I'd be working all the time. I once had to work remotely for 8 months due to office renovation and other reasons, end up working 16hrs a day...
UPDATED:
If we dive deeper on why management have these regulations... it's mostly because management are incompetent and have no idea what they are doing. If the work is meaningful and interesting, well-balanced workload that cares employees' overall well-being, no regulations would be needed.
So true...I do think, in general, greater flexibility is what most workers want (and what I want), but it's important for the line between "work" and "private life" to remain clear. And I think, one thing that can help is an emphasis away from greater "flexibility" towards greater "autonomy." Ultimately, what workers want is to have more control over how, when, where, and what they work on; this doesn't mean greater flexibility for employers to contact workers whenever they want, wherever they are...
Totally agree! I actually recently came across this article that made this very same point:
https://hbr.org/2021/10/forget-flexibility-your-employees-want-autonomy
"Flexibility now dominates the way we speak about the future of work. And while a new hybrid working survey shows that employees do indeed want flexibility, it also shows that this flexibility is conditional upon their autonomy to exercise it in whichever way is best for them."