As you can read above in other messages, PlanSource is pushing to 2 days a week. Let me elaborate on here why this so problematic, made me update my resume, and has me desperately looking for another job.
As you can read in the responses to other messages, “last enrollment was the best ever”. In fact, the company has been on an upwards trend over the last 3 years. We’ve also been fully remote the last three years. COVID is still very much a thing, being in the office means that all commutable illnesses can spread, the company loses the ability to hire anybody that lives too far away from the offices, employees have been more productive working from home (because people can work late if necessary at home, but staying late in the office means walking alone at night in downtown Orlando with a laptop strapped to your arm), costs increase for both the company and the employees by coming in office, etc.
So why the push to come in office? We are told that our job requires collaboration, and for that reason, in office is mandatory. That is the only explanation given, while completely ignoring the above.
I will only speak for myself here, but the aggressiveness and lack of awareness behind this move makes me horribly uncomfortable. If the company pushed for five days a week in office company wide and had justifiable reason for the push, that would be perfectly fine. If the company had said, “Last year, performance was down considerably and every metric shows that remote work is to blame. I know that (address concerns above) are to be considered, but another year like 2023 can make us all unemployed. We tried remote work; it failed…” and it would be hard to argue with that decision. The response we got was more, “We are doing this, if you don’t like it, there’s the door”.
Additionally, I have seen responses that say, “I would love to speak to you in person about your concerns,” but the way this was rolled out while ignoring all concerns with the rollout, the fact that this move appears to be all downsides with the only “positive” being that “we can collaborate better in person” (meaning that we had, according to Tom Signorello’s LinkedIn profile, 18% YoY growth while working remote, not been collaborating up to this point) along with the aggressiveness behind the move (will be covered in “Advice for Management” portion) makes me believe that talking openly about my concerns in a non-anonymous format would lead to my dismissal.
This was a great place to work, but I challenge PlanSource to send out employee surveys now. I would be very curious to see how this change has changed people’s opinions.
