Principal Financial-Remote work

[3GenClone]

Principal has a LOT of real estate downtown. At least 4 buildings (not counting 801 Grand) that can hold probably 5k+ people

I worked for the AV integrator and I helped build the demo conference room that was used as the template for Principal's Des Moines renovations that started around 9-10 years ago. Even at that time, Principal was fully invested in having every conference room support hybrid conferencing and they even moved the entire phone system to MS Teams and only Exec level would have a physical telephone (not sure if they were able to follow through with this - I laughed at the idea of telling people to get rid of physical phones, but now I use Cisco software for my work phone). I left the integrator shortly after installing that demo room but Principal saw the need for hybrid workforce way back then - yet another sign that they didn't know how to effectively manage a remote workforce.

 

[NATEizKING]

It's an immediate no from me for any job opportunity if not 100% remote; I'm never going back. I have a meeting from 9:15-9:30 every day that usually runs short and that's it. Been wonderful being able to take a break from work and go see my kids or do some laundry.

 

[SCNCY]

On this topic I get a chuckle out of people who take the approach:

My Company is entirely remote, so there must be something wrong with management at companies that choose to have employees on-site.

All businesses are different. And even within a business certain roles lend themselves to remote work more than other roles. Heck even within a role, some people have the discipline to work remotely and other workers don't.

For me personally, I don't think everyone can be a remote employee. I think there are roles that need to be in the office, but many of them do not. For example, my company manufactures some items for the military, obviously those people can't work from home; but someone like myself and others, we don't need to take up office space that could be reallocated to a revenue producing action, like production. Cut the cubes down by 50%-75%, and leave some for when people do come in.

 

[isucy86]

Also, the City of Des Moines is begging these companies to bring people back to Downton. Certain businesses are really struggling since many of the companies went remote. There's a direct correlation to down town DSM going to sh!t and when these companies went remote.

This is a big issue for cities. Especially when they have spent the last couple decades giving out tax incentives to lure companies back into downtown area .

I live in an eastern Iowa downtown area and it's shocking the difference in people traffic today vs. before the pandemic. It takes a toll on businesses that rely on that foot traffic.

Should cities pivot? Will they have to focus on residential development vs. commercial.

 

[KnappShack]

Just had dinner with someone last night who's company did the math on how much money is wasted on mundane acronym filled meetings and they decided to cut them out of the regular schedule. I think if people really need to meet, they figure out a time to do it.

We've also taken 60 minute meetings to 45. Even client facing meetings.

Have an agenda.
Have a point.
Be prepared.
End the ******.

 

[BillBrasky4Cy]

If someone doesn't want to do their job making them come into the office isn't going to change that. People can **** around and be unproductive in the office too. I've seen it plenty.

It's not because of productivity. Principal already had flexibility prior to Covid so WFH wasn't exactly foreign. Also, they moved away from traditional PTO and basically gave all employees bottomless time off. This is all about downtown dying and Principal trying to help.

 

[BillBrasky4Cy]

In my experience during 'business as usual' wfh is fine, it is more like when **** hits the fan and people need to be on site to react, they still stay home. Also a lot of leaders who should be on site more are not coming in at all.

Also stop skateboarding on my sidewalk.....

Why do they need to be on site to react?

 

[dmclone]

On this topic I get a chuckle out of people who take the approach:

My Company is entirely remote, so there must be something wrong with management at companies that choose to have employees on-site.

All businesses are different. And even within a business certain roles lend themselves to remote work more than other roles. Heck even within a role, some people have the discipline to work remotely and other workers don't.

So then the response is, if a worker gets all their work done who cares!

Some truth to that. But I have never been in a job or worked with others whose job had a finite amount of work. So I think managers feel they have a better idea who can handle more when people are on-site.

I worked remotely for a couple years and I feel it is tougher to create a cohesive corporate culture when the majority of workers are remote. I think it is natural to take a more individualistic/selfish approach when working remotely.

And there are people who abuse remote work. I won't ever be convinced someone can "multi-task" and watch TV while doing their job. Or someone can be entirely engaged in a meeting while shopping at Target.

This is all lovely but it's kind of hard to justify when you hire so many remote workers outside of the Des Moines area. So what's the expectation there "Well we expect you to be worse since you're working remote"?

 

[BillBrasky4Cy]

There are other cities (I think NYC is one) where the push to get people back in the office is explicitly to help adjacent businesses such as hospitality.

Yeah I get that but a lot of other cities have tourism etc to offset things. Downtown DSM is in sad sad shape.

 

[carvers4math]

Several of my sons started new jobs during Covid. A couple of them had to get security clearances so they were going to be doing their onboarding remotely watching videos anyway. Three of them are at workplaces that don’t have enough space so they rotate days people go in for when work space is available. One of them works in a location where housing is tight and recognizing that people have to commute a ways, those in his group all only go in two days a week on a schedule where they all have some in-person contact with their supervisor. And none of my sons have to go in during bad weather as all five of them have remote equipment.

 

[BryceC]

A lot of the time, I think these are just passive aggressive layoffs.

Bingo

 

[SCNCY]

Yeah I get that but a lot of other cities have tourism etc to offset things. Downtown DSM is in sad sad shape.

When I did my internship in Des Moines in 2008, I remember someone telling me back then how downtown used to be a ghost town. Definition of a commuter city. But he was really talking up how in the last couple of years how some new housing went up to increase the full time downtown population. I assume it's gotten better, but probably not where it needs to be to support a lot of other social amenities.

 

[BillBrasky4Cy]

I've been able to mentor my new employees and we're all remote. A huge benefit to hiring 100% remote positions is the much larger talent pool you can draw from. I interviewed candidates from all over the world a few months ago for an open position and had to turn down several amazing candidates.

Also prior to Covid many companies didn't have the needed resources to support remote efforts. Covid forced that investment and Execs and company leaders that still push the need to be in the office are absolutely tone deaf. The thesis has already been proven yet they continue to buck the proven results.

 

[cycloneG]

On this topic I get a chuckle out of people who take the approach:

My Company is entirely remote, so there must be something wrong with management at companies that choose to have employees on-site.

All businesses are different. And even within a business certain roles lend themselves to remote work more than other roles. Heck even within a role, some people have the discipline to work remotely and other workers don't.

So then the response is, if a worker gets all their work done who cares!

Some truth to that. But I have never been in a job or worked with others whose job had a finite amount of work. So I think managers feel they have a better idea who can handle more when people are on-site.

I worked remotely for a couple years and I feel it is tougher to create a cohesive corporate culture when the majority of workers are remote. I think it is natural to take a more individualistic/selfish approach when working remotely.

And there are people who abuse remote work. I won't ever be convinced someone can "multi-task" and watch TV while doing their job. Or someone can be entirely engaged in a meeting while shopping at Target.

Some managers can manage remote workers and some can't. It takes a slightly different skill set and mindset. Companies need to have managers that can leverage remote work. Remote work opens companies to better candidates for positions that can make the company better in the long run.

 

[NoCreativity]

Offices suck. I don't miss the choking on perfume or cologne sitting at my desk.

Us non-smokers got two 15 minute breaks per day also while the smokers got 15 minutes every hour on the hour.

Or how about the wasting another hour of your day sitting in traffic burning gas while you don't get compensated.

 

[Cloneon]

100% remote and I'm managing other employees that are 100% remote on both coasts. As long as they meet their project goals on time, I'm happy.

You, my fellow compadre, are what management is supposed to be. You understand what your employees do and accordingly can manage the proper expectations. BUT, you are the exception to the rule as EVERY manager I ever had, had no understanding what my job entailed. BUT, the very best managers I had, gave me the latitude to do it right and, best of all, understood their role in the total scope. And that was 'funding' my projects.

 

[JM4CY]

Offices suck. I don't miss the choking on perfume or cologne sitting at my desk.

Us non-smokers got two 15 minute breaks per day also while the smokers got 15 minutes every hour on the hour.

Or how about the wasting another hour of your day sitting in traffic burning gas while you don't get compensated.

Not to mentioned the sick bastards that microwave fish. Those people should be fired on the spot.

 

[cowgirl836]

I think my favorite is when you have an RTO but employees pick which day they are in the office. My spouse's is like this. I get it from a flexibility POV, but again, because it's poorly thought out and not structured, days he goes in, he's generally the only person from his team there. They did free lunch for a while and he said that was typically the only person he talked to IRL. So much for that in-person collaboration they said they needed the RTO for!

 

[mj4cy]

I think its really comes down to the type of business and the culture. I have worked for an engineering company that does not have a home office. We've all worked from home and I've been doing it when I signed on in 2016. At first people advised me not to do it because it wasn't sustainable but it was quite ideal when covid hit. I know for myself, I keep motivated because of a commission structure in place. That doesn't mean everyone is wired that way. Some people are perfecntly fine getting their work done on their own unsupervised and others need to be pushed/managed more. I will say it's tough to train new engineers not being face to face. We usually go and rent out a hotel conference room for a couple days to have in person training.

I do think working from home does make it a bit harder to have in person networking and have those instances where you cross paths with more people out and about...however again just depends on the industry.

 

[mramseyISU]

My team has 1 day a week when they want us in the office. Any more than that is more or less optional unless there is some sort of lock-in to hash out big challenges. Personally I’m going into the office 2-3 days a week. I have an 8 minute commute so it’s not a big deal for me one way or the other. My home office setup is just as good as my cube other than I don’t have a standup desk.