My company (o&g) just announced a phased approach starting in may, half in the office monday and Tuesday and half Wednesday and Thursday. I thought this was what we were doing now lol. Anyways, in the office full time starting in august

O&G Major here and we are letting folks that want to go back to the office go in April...probably do the 50/50 split in late May or early June, no clue when back to 100%

My company has definitely leaned towards the more aggressive side of all this. We were one of the first back in the office at all, and have hardly had any time where no one was in the office. Anyone with an office has pretty much never left.

My wife works at one of the other majors downtown. They haven't even hinted at coming back to the office yet. She also works on a trade floor with no cubicles, etc. between employees so they would have to wear masks all day. Little bit of a different situation there.

Any of y'all's companies offering flexible work schedules going forward? Being able to work from home 2-3 days a week would be a really nice option.

Wife was told they're returning May 1. No WFH options as "it doesn't work well" despite a solid year of evidence. No idea on vax requirements or masking.

She's also interviewing with a different company Friday. That company is also100% in office only. Its sad that employees prefer some sort of WFH option, but employers are refusing.

My employer has yet to say what our return-to-office will look like.

Irish 2.0 said:

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AlaskanAg99 said:

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Wife was told they're returning May 1. No WFH options as "it doesn't work well" despite a solid year of evidence. No idea on vax requirements or masking.

She's also interviewing with a different company Friday. That company is also100% in office only. Its sad that employees prefer some sort of WFH option, but employers are refusing.

My employer has yet to say what our return-to-office will look like.

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I think this will begin to be ushered out over the next 5-10yrs where WFH options are much more prevalent. Think as we get the last of the baby boomers out of their management postions and the "if they're not here, they're not working" mindset goes by the wayside

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Probably. Not sitting in traffic has been so crazy nice. At first I wasn't a big fan, but now that people are accustom to WFH and the tech has improved, it's doable. I still want to go into the office 2 days a week, but it's not my call. I've told my boss what my preferences are and he agrees. But there's been zero indication what's going to happen.

The other factor will be retention, as new hires come on board, we've already seen and lost potential employees who've gone somewhere else because of better/more flexibility. This was pre-pandemic so it's already on upper managements radar, hopefully this accelerates it. I do not know anyone who's had any sort of HR reprimand over work habits. And I've told my coworkers: "Do not **** this up."

There is only one thing i really miss about having an office for... the big empty whiteboard to brainstorm ideas/designs on.... I have yet to find anything that can digitally replicate the experience of a group of people, each with a marker, throwing up their different ideas on how to solve a problem.

these things are happening constantly with you or just one-off events for the most part?

I have about 6-10 webex/teams/zoom meetings a day and you get tech issues every once in a while, but it's pretty efficient for the most part. It gets a bit draining when they're stacked up on top of each other, but hard to argue it's not more efficient than in-person meetings (most of the time).

I would say it's somewhere in the middle. Not constant, but enough that it's annoying and not rare.

Foamcows said:

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There is only one thing i really miss about having an office for... the big empty whiteboard to brainstorm ideas/designs on.... I have yet to find anything that can digitally replicate the experience of a group of people, each with a marker, throwing up their different ideas on how to solve a problem.

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Microsoft Whiteboard. Free and does what you are asking about. I've found it really useful for being able to toss up tons of info and have different people edit it.

Foamcows said:

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There is only one thing i really miss about having an office for... the big empty whiteboard to brainstorm ideas/designs on.... I have yet to find anything that can digitally replicate the experience of a group of people, each with a marker, throwing up their different ideas on how to solve a problem.

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Have you looked into Miro?

wessimo said:

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Any of y'all's companies offering flexible work schedules going forward? Being able to work from home 2-3 days a week would be a really nice option.

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It's being talked about at my company. Not sure how that's going to work logistically since most of us have desktop computers. I'd imagine they give us all laptops, which would be a pretty hefty expense. I'm sure that expense pales in comparison to the rent they'd be saving.

BowSowy said:

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wessimo said:

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Any of y'all's companies offering flexible work schedules going forward? Being able to work from home 2-3 days a week would be a really nice option.

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It's being talked about at my company. Not sure how that's going to work logistically since most of us have desktop computers. I'd imagine they give us all laptops, which would be a pretty hefty expense. I'm sure that expense pales in comparison to the rent they'd be saving.

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My team all has workstations at the office. We just remote into them, but the hardware at home is on your dime. I was able to get a work microPC and 2 monitors from my desk so I'm using their equipment. With my laptop right next to it so I can do whatever else (this).

Plus, I really like wearing shorts year round. Not getting dressed up for work has been really nice, let alone sitting in traffic. But I do miss interacting with my coworkers. We don't have kids so WFH hasn't been all that tough.

Some City of Houston sports leagues start back up today. Was pretty surprised by that but guess Parks and Recs wants some money rolling back in.

Those of you with these flex schedules - do you have a dedicated office at work? I believe our work is planning to get rid of office space by having people share offices and rotate when they're in office

Ramrod said:

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wessimo said:

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Any of y'all's companies offering flexible work schedules going forward? Being able to work from home 2-3 days a week would be a really nice option.

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Yep. We're doing away with our 9/80 and going to a flexible schedule with a target of working 60% of your time in office and 40% out of the office, depending on what exactly you do.

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As a regular office dweller, that is what I would see as ideal for me and my teams.

My company started it's phase in today but is letting people who are "uncomfortable" to continue to work remote. I'm not a 2 comma person, so I'm not in the current phase.

One plus that did come of this is they're shutting the office down each Friday and having everyone work remote going forward (after all are back), so that's a win. I'm hopeful we'll be able to have a good split of in office/WFH going forward and it be left up to the individual Directors how they want their teams to work.

Harris County still code red? Has there been anything from our fearless leaders lately?

T Durden said:

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Harris County still code red? Has there been anything from our fearless leaders lately?

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Nope. Just Dora using the official Harris Co. Judge Twitter to denounce Georgia

Can we drop the damn theater? You know every damn person up there with her has been vaccinated and there's no need to wear a bloody face diaper.

third coast.. said:

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Lina always wears the biggest ****ing stupidest mask known to man.

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Repurposed over the shoulder boulder holders

Watching the Astros game and UNICEF just had a commercial. The tag line was "none of us are safe until we're all safe". So that where we're going with this now???

Love my 9/80. Not sure I would want give that up considering I already work longer days at home than in the office.

Idiots... They're wearing them wrong