‘Don’t Mess With Us’: WebMD Parent Company Demands Return to Office in Bizarre Video::“I’ve seen better acting by hostages in direct to DVD movies,” one anonymous worker wrote about the video.

    • @[email protected]
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      62 years ago

      Interesting. I hadn’t seen that. Dude looked like he was on some kind of upper but the supercut didn’t do him any favors.

  • @[email protected]
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    2 years ago

    People who haven’t come in to the office yet do it for a reason. They like it. They are happier. Happier employees are better employees.

    They get more sleep so they are more alert or have more time for hobbies and recreation. They don’t have to spend as much on gas or childcare. They don’t use the office’s electricity, water, facilities, coffee/snacks.

    Make it a choice. For the betterment of humanity and the planet.

    When someone makes videos like this, you don’t get the best people to come work for your company, you get the most desperate.

    But then again, maybe that’s what they want. Idiots.

    • @[email protected]
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      122 years ago

      I am with you on almost all of that. Depending on the age of the child, I don’t think you should be tending to a child if you’re WFH.

  • @[email protected]
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    972 years ago

    As a consumer, I will now forever remember that WebMD’s C Suite is most interested in “crushing their competition” and being heavy handed with their employees. I once thought that they were concerned about the betterment of societal health. This is how you lose your most performant employees.

    I can’t believe they published this to a publically available platform like Vimeo. Did they already lose their Marketing executive?

  • @[email protected]
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    112 years ago

    All of their tech job openings are in India or Vietnam. I’d have assumed a major US health data handler would be developing onshore!

  • Eww
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    112 years ago

    It’s great how all the executives recorded their videos not in the actual office.

    • @[email protected]
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      162 years ago

      Not really. This is typical boomer behavior. They’re old stupid brains can’t wrap their heads around the idea that offices are outdated unneeded concepts in the new digital age. They actually think remote work is somehow losing money for them because workers aren’t getting dressed up and commuting to the office. That somehow by not coming to the office workers are being lazy and not working hard enough for them. And their dumb boomer brains refuse to acknowledge the mountain of evidence that shows that remote workers are actually tremendously more productive than in-office workers

      • @[email protected]
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        2 years ago

        This is typical boomer behavior.

        “Boomer”? I don’t know if any of the people in that video was old enough to be a boomer. Heck, most of the execs were definitely under 50.

        I don’t think ageism is the answer to the problem. here.

        There’s ample evidence this is “stupid corporate culture” shit.

        • @[email protected]
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          12 years ago

          The people in the video are either actors or peons, the person who made the policy is the boomer and he is definitely old enough.

      • @[email protected]
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        22 years ago

        Add in a nice side of paranoia over how much of their 401k is tied to office real estate in some way.

  • @[email protected]
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    2 years ago

    “We’re not asking we’re informing” lollll

    Having said that… People working from home has been the biggest frustration in my work for the past three years. I specifically picked a company where people like to come in, and are required to for at least three days. I want to work with people, not anonymous voices with cameras switched off not responding to calls and messages (I’m sure they’re all hard at work lmao)

    • @[email protected]
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      612 years ago

      Incidentally you’re one of the reasons the majority of workers don’t want to return to the office.

        • @[email protected]
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          22 years ago

          Oh and they will. And when you’re company loses the best and brightest in the field because no one enjoys spending time and money going to the office. If it’s that important, why doesn’t your company pay for everyone to drive to and from work (covering gas, car repairs, and allowing employees to clock in when they start their commute.)Also, pay for everyone’s lunch since they have to be there.

    • @[email protected]
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      302 years ago

      I’ll say this. What works for you doesn’t always work for everyone else, and I feel like that’s kind of the point. The CEO/CFO cares more about bringing people back to the office than they do about their employees. I hear you, it’s healthy to interact with people, and If that’s what you need awesome. But a lot of other people don’t feel that same way. I think it’s going to take tolerance on both sides for this paradigm shift to be a success.

      • @[email protected]
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        12 years ago

        It depends on the kind of work you do. My work is very collaborative, and despite trying I’ve not found online collaboration as effective.

        It doesn’t help that the people working from home seem to have very different priorities.

        • @[email protected]
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          72 years ago

          It sounds like your working environment is a bit shit and I’d wager that it’s not because there are remote workers.

          I have to be arbitrarily in the office 1-2 days a week. Its absolutely collaborative work and I have 3-4 different “stand up” meetings a day for various teams. Well, when I’m in the office thise happen with everyone sat at their own desk on Zoom because the team is not all in one location. Being in the office feels completely pointless and there’s literally not one task I do that can’t be performed from home.

          • @[email protected]
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            22 years ago

            Dude, I’m in that same boat. So much of my team is remote that when I do come into the office all my meetings are still on zoom. I like how you put it, “I’m arbitrarily in the office”

    • @[email protected]
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      162 years ago

      This is entirely a cultural problem if that’s what you experience with remote employees.

      My company is remote-first with WeWorks for those who want them. Every meeting 90% of people have their cameras on, and the other 10% are either attending to something more important than the meeting or just not feeling it that day. No one questions them or gets onto them because we’re not children.

      If many people regularly have their cameras off in meetings then maybe your meeting isn’t worth their full attention, and they’re working on something else. Not every meeting needs everyone to be there. I’d wager part of the reason my company doesn’t have this problem is we have an extremely low meeting culture. Impromptu meetings/discussions are encouraged and we often Slack huddle for 5-10 minutes when needed which cuts out a lot of the bullshit.

      At my prior job we accounted for 2 hours a day of meetings when planning and it was a fucking drag. Now I have 3 1/2 hours of recurring meetings per week, with a sync for new projects/initiatives every few weeks. I get so much more done every day because I’m not listening to an endless stream of information which should have been an email.

  • @[email protected]
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    132 years ago

    "Internet Brands did not respond to a request for comment, except to say that people were busy with meetings. "

    Well there’s your problem… Probably having meetings about how they need more meetings.

  • @[email protected]
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    1702 years ago

    I’m so tired of businesses claiming that the only way for a company to be successful is if everyone is in person for the dear dear meetings. We all know exactly what this is about. 1. It’s more dofficult to micromanage employees when a manger can’t constantly observe them, and 2. All the giant real estate investments companies have made is now coming due and they cant fill up their buildings fast enough to get those tax breaks. Why the hell else are they “tracking” people in the office. Meanwhile senior leadership can come and go whenever they see fit. It’s control. Plain and simple.

      • @[email protected]
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        412 years ago

        Fuckin kkr. The ones who got Toys R Us to go bankrupt just to make a buck. They also purchased the company i worked for then sold it to another company which resulted in big layoffs some years back. They can eat shit and die.

        • @[email protected]
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          112 years ago

          There are company’s where their whole business strategy is to get their employees on the board of a struggling company with the plan to enact policies that seem like they will help but just dig the hole deeper. Until they can start selling off assets, move to bankruptcy, then sail away with golden parachutes to do it all again.

    • @[email protected]
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      92 years ago

      All the giant real estate investments companies have made is now coming due and they cant fill up their buildings fast enough to get those tax breaks

      What are these tax breaks for filling up buildings?

    • bean
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      42 years ago

      It’s time for a boycott WebMD campaign. Let’s see how well they handle THAT 👹

    • @[email protected]
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      2 years ago

      You have it backwards. Completely.

      1. I have no intentions of bringing my work home, work is a job, it has no place in my home impacting my family.
      2. I will not lose a part of my home to my jobs business. Its not their property, it is my home.i would rather the office be a bedroom so my children dont have to share a room.
      3. We evolved without video conferencing, it is natural and easier to meet with someone in person to convey emotion and understand people we meet with. It is too easy to dismiss someone over a screen, empathy is too easily lost. It is also harder to be ignored in person.
      4. I can see when my ataff are struggling off meeting or when talking to others and help them. This is a bit micro-managey however I value the insight especially for staff that struggle to communicate.

      The only thing I loath about working in another building is: the commute and distractions. The commute is expensive and a huge waste of time. I try and minimise the time waste with audio books but its forced waste of money. The distractions can be minimised with headphones.

      • @[email protected]
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        42 years ago

        I’d say it depends on the job and the person. If it’s the sort of job that can be done remotely, and the office culture is such that people are constantly getting interrupted by people ‘just passing by’ and ‘oh one more quick question’, and/or dragged into hours-long meetings that could easily have been a quick email thread, then it’s not a stretch at all to see that WFH has improved their productivity.

        • @[email protected]
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          12 years ago

          The realestate claim is just plain backwards. It does depend on the person, but making the claim that people in general are happy to donate part of their home to their employer and impact their families with work from home is just wrong. Emails instead of meetings should be common sense for status meetings and has no impact on the choice to work from home. Meetings that have agendas should be in person, especially if its on sensitive topics. All reasons I have listed above.

          Some people sure do benefit working from home. I liked no commute, it saved a lot of money and wasted time but it made home worse.

          We work to live. Work should have no place in our home.

          • @[email protected]
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            72 years ago

            What I was describing was something many people who are happy to work from home have said about their jobs. Others cite their terrible commute as the reason they love not having to go into the office.

            If you don’t want to give up a part of your home to your job that’s totally fine. But don’t go around saying that everyone should do things your way. Many people are quite happy working from home, and cite having more time for their family and hobbies, and never having to deal with annoying meetings or commutes.

            You can see many examples in the comments on this very post, as well as the sheer number of people quitting when their jobs tried to force them back into the office.

    • @[email protected]
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      242 years ago

      My company had a badge in/badge out procedure, badge out was new after covid. No one actually badged out. They have since installed security guards at all exits and they will chase you out the door if you forget to badge out.

      • Laurel Raven
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        22 years ago

        What’ll they do, tackle you and drag you back inside?

        This seems like a horrible reaction to me, which sounds about corp

    • DigitalTraveler42
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      302 years ago

      It’s really just “we need people so that our real estate investments don’t tank”, I’m rooting for their shit to tank, fuck the rich.

    • @[email protected]B
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      92 years ago

      Here’s the summary for the wikipedia article you mentioned in your comment:

      The No Pants Subway Ride (or No Trousers on the Tube Ride in the UK) is an annual event where people ride rapid transit or subway while they are not wearing pants. Beginning in New York in 2002, the event spread to as many as sixty cities as of 2013.

      to opt out, pm me ‘optout’. article | about

  • @[email protected]
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    192 years ago

    Lol I used to work for a company that has been bought and renamed several times and now is under the WebMD umbrella. They were trying that “remote work is bad” be a decade ago, and it’s funny that now they are part of a larger company that still isn’t with the times.

  • @[email protected]
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    462 years ago

    WebMD? They realize we’re in the midst of a Covid resurgence, right? You’d think a company like that would be a bit more understanding of stuff like that, given that they’re supposed to be experts on medicine and all.

    • @[email protected]
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      82 years ago

      Return to the office isn’t about medicine, it’s about entitled executives power tripping over the workers. At every medium/large company I worked for, upper management lived in its own bubble completely disconnected from the rest. I can give so many examples of poor decisions made by upper management that had a huge negative impact on the company and especially the workers. But regardless, they never gave a shit about our opinions and feedback. They didn’t even tell us why they made those decisions.

      • @[email protected]
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        72 years ago

        It’s about corporate real estate, profit margins, taxes, banks, interest rates, the economy, and more.

        WFH has completely changed the economic landscape, and virtually all industries are impacted.

        I embrace the change. Business men with shareholders do not. Banks with trillions of dollars in corporate mortgages and leases also do not. Etc.

      • @[email protected]
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        2 years ago

        Last year I was sick for 7 weeks with covid, RSV, the flu, and then covid again. I had to go to work while still sick with covid because I was out of sick time, even though their own policies should have prevented me from returning. I told all my coworkers to stay away from me and avoided them like I had the plague, because I essentially did. Had I actually not cared about other people’s health, I could have lied and destroyed the entire department for months with recurring spreading illness.

        I had to have a meeting where I was being threatened with a PIP for attendance, while I was still sick and wearing a mask, for my job at a vaccine laboratory.

        • @[email protected]
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          42 years ago

          Unbelievable!

          Thank You for sharing Your story! 😊 We need to all really stand up for our rights. When everyone is getting hustled all the time; enough is enough.