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Antiwork

Challenging work from home

Many years ago I used to work a low level job in human resources. It was a paper pusher type job but I learned a lot of things. My experience in HR gave me some perspective. I understand why a lot of people that are challenging work from home are so successful, it costs a lot of money to recruit a person, bring them up to speed on specific job knowledge and then retain them to get the work. HR wants you to think that they are in control but often the job market is really in control. I have a friend (let's call him Bob) who's doing an experiment. A little over a year ago he started a remote job with a one-year in office training period due to the complex industry specific knowledge needed. At the time of hiring he was told that he was free to move…


Many years ago I used to work a low level job in human resources. It was a paper pusher type job but I learned a lot of things.
My experience in HR gave me some perspective. I understand why a lot of people that are challenging work from home are so successful, it costs a lot of money to recruit a person, bring them up to speed on specific job knowledge and then retain them to get the work. HR wants you to think that they are in control but often the job market is really in control.

I have a friend (let's call him Bob) who's doing an experiment. A little over a year ago he started a remote job with a one-year in office training period due to the complex industry specific knowledge needed. At the time of hiring he was told that he was free to move to any state at the conclusion of the year. Bob had plans to move closer to his elderly parents. As one year approached Bob reminded his supervisor that he would soon be moving out of state. His supervisor said “that would not be possible”. The next week Bob didn't show up at the office, the supervisor called to let him know it was mandatory and Bob said “that would not be possible”, currently Bob continues to be a productive member of the team and is awaiting his, coaching, performance plan, and eventual termination.

It will be interesting to see whether this company decides to replace Bob, who took a year to become fully up to speed in this complex industry. (There's computer programming and there is the inherent knowledge of a specific industry and its terminology, concepts and nomenclature. That is what takes time to develop)
If they replace Bob they may very well be in the same situation a year from now.

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