
Charter engineer quits over “reckless” rules against work-from-home - neuland
https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2020/03/charter-faces-blowback-after-banning-work-from-home-during-pandemic/
======
CiPHPerCoder
> Charter CEO Tom Rutledge last week told employees in a memo to keep coming
> to the office even if their jobs can be performed from home, because people
> "are more effective from the office."

1\. Bullshit. Show us the data to substantiate your claim.

2\. Even if we assume that Rutledge is correct: Is the delta in observable
effectiveness worth the cost to employees' lives and their families?

I'm on the side of the engineer who resigned. The CEO's policy is stupid,
irresponsible, and/or callous.

~~~
joshuamorton
Given my experience the past few weeks 1 is absolutely true.

But 2 absolutely outweighs the productivity loss.

~~~
bearcobra
Obviously WFH doesn't work for everyone, but there seems to be evidence that
it isn't true. E.g. A Stanford study found that it increased productivity for
call center workers by 13%
[https://nbloom.people.stanford.edu/sites/g/files/sbiybj4746/...](https://nbloom.people.stanford.edu/sites/g/files/sbiybj4746/f/wfh.pdf)

~~~
joshuamorton
Sure, for non-knowledge (or communication) bound work wfh is probably
reasonable. But if a major blocker for the job is communication between
employees, wfh is less efficient.

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milkytron
I used to work at this office as a consultant for Charter.

When our contract began, we (the consultants) all did our work remotely, we
were highly productive, and making real changes in their organization.

Then we were required to come in once a week... fine. The commute is brutal
but we're getting paid. The thing was though... we didn't typically interact
with anyone there. We had a few consultants that did, but they were in that
office anyway. Then they wanted us there every day. No empty seats, WFH
discouraged. I quit. They wanted engineers literally to fill extra seats they
had to make the office "look busy" for when execs came to town. Productivity
dropped, turnover increased (it was already bad), and now this happens.

I hope the companies that enforce these rules face hard challenges ahead with
acquiring a solid workforce. Employees are not the enemy, they are the
company, let them work as they work best.

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AnIdiotOnTheNet
I feel his pain. The company I work for, while remarkably practical in many
ways, and already possessing systems designed such that every corporate
employee can work remotely, still insists on butts-in-seats even while the
state we're located in has banned gatherings over 10. It's fucking ridiculous.

~~~
mullingitover
They'll likely feel differently when their lawyers figure out the ever-growing
odds of an infected person coming to work, exposing everyone, and forcing
_everyone in the office_ into unplanned self-quarantine.

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Jedd
May be a function of the way the story is structured, but it sounds like Tom
Rutledge started out claiming the kinds of thing you'd expect (but not like):

'people are more effective from the office'

and then later morphed this claim into something with a bit more of a
solidarity feel:

'we believe our approach to supporting front-line employees is the right way
...'

Still a crazy position to adopt - unless you think 80,000 of your employees
will be sufficiently pissed off that 15,000 of your employees are reducing the
spread of COVID-19 to impact your revenue stream.

~~~
paul7986
He sounds like he's from another day and time! His stubbornness to evolve to
current times is putting his employees and their families in danger.

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ethanwillis
No job is worth risking your health, or your family's health for. Fullstop.

Companies that don't act swiftly to protect their employees health are going
to have a rude awakening.

~~~
ogre_codes
This is the US. Where for many _not_ having a job is risking your health and
your families health so it's a catch-22. Damned if you do, damned if you
don't.

~~~
baq
I’ve no idea how generations of politicians managed to convince so many people
that rules of the game are in their favor when in fact they’re rigged mostly
against them.

~~~
paxunix
That's how you win elections. You tell (convince) people what to be afraid of,
and who's to blame for it.

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jeffrallen
I'd hire him. I'd like him as a coworker.

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jb775
I don't think companies are afraid of losing productivity, I think they are
afraid of losing their grip of power over the employees.

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taylodl
I'd alert the local health authorities to the situation. They need to be aware
of companies blatantly disregarding the health of their workers and their
community. Perhaps there's nothing they can do about it - yet. But they can
use the data to perhaps escalate the issue over the coming weeks as the
situation gets more dire.

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sumoboy
CEO's like this only care about themselves and bottom line, people are
expendable. That Wheeler guy will never have any regrets and hopefully will
find a better employer.

Coronavirus is really going to define what employers think about there people,
especially major corporations telling people to take unpaid leave for extended
periods of time.

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S_A_P
I reckon that things would change _only_ if a mass refusal to come to work
happened. Other threads have echoed similar sentiments but this is a time
where people and businesses need to be a "good citizen" and not think about
business as usual/the bottom line.

~~~
jerf
Where Charter is really rolling the dice is that _will_ happen. If the virus
gets "close enough", people will leave.

One of the basic rules of leadership they don't teach you in normal schools
is: "Never give an order that won't be obeyed." There's a few things that will
erode your authority faster, but it's a short list. Charter leadership is
putting themselves in an entirely forseeably dangerous position, legally,
morally, and with their authority.

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igrekel
I'm trying to figure out what Charter is. Can anyone hep with this? It seems
charter.com redirects to spectrum.com, is this the same company?

~~~
wanderingstan
"Charter Communications is America’s fastest growing TV, internet and voice
company."

[https://www.spectrum.com/about](https://www.spectrum.com/about)

Basically like ComCast.

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GuiA
What’s the point in quitting in that case? Wouldn’t it be more effective to
say “I’m working from home whether you like it or not, you can do what you
want” and then let them fire you if they want to? You are merely exercising
your right to refuse to work in a hazardous environment.

~~~
viraptor
That would assume you can actually do any work from home right now. Which may
not be possible for technical reasons (internal tools, no communication access
from outside, etc.)

Also getting fired would not give you the same reference.

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luord
More than a little ironic that it's an ISP doing this.

Makes you wonder how reliable the CEO thinks the service is if he doesn't
trust it enough to allow his employees to work remotely.

(This is no indictment of the engineers, who I'm sure are doing the best job
they can/are allowed to).

------
eu
Charter - loved by clients and employees.

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Joof
We had a mostly remote team at Charter.

