Latest / Black Box Theory Podcast / BBT #13 Snippet | They're Calling You Back to the Office
Transcript
- Thomas: It's very cooked and you know what's even crazier with all this is the fact that returning to office is still mandatory for a lot of people, but I think it also, it applies differently, right? I mean, this kind of connects. like I know people that they have to go in five days a week. ⁓ However, it's like, it's not work where you're working across time zones. ⁓ For example, like you can go in at 6 a.m. be done with your day by two o'clock. because it's just a matter of you doing your job and going home, which I think that's great. If I could go in five days a week or had to go in five days or work at 980 where I work five days one week and then, or no, five days one week, four days the next week, but you're doing nine hours a day, especially if it's a situation where they're not like clocking you being physically in office, but it's just you have to go into office and then you have to have worked for nine hours. Man, people like, I'm not going to say you shouldn't complain because obviously everyone's job is different, but that sure beats having to go in office. and then having meetings at umpteen o'clock in the morning and umpteen o'clock at night because you're working across time zones where there is no cutoff time. ⁓ But yeah, no, RTO, man, meetings, hours. I can say I had a meeting recently where everybody, when I say everyone in the meeting, literally everyone in the meeting, in my building, on my floor, were all in office that day or in office at some point, right? And know, RTO, everyone's saying, ⁓ go back in, go back in, go back in. It's gonna be so good for productivity. Still, I want somebody to attach some data. Please somebody send us an email with some data supporting that. ⁓ And also, because I've actually heard of studies where it's the opposite. It's not good, the way the offices are laid, these open office spaces. But I'm not a psychologist. And I think other people should realize they're not as well. ⁓ And in that meeting, out of ⁓ I'm not going to sit here and count. I want to say it was like seven or eight people in the meeting. ⁓ Everyone was there. Only two of us actually met in person, right? And I talked to somebody else about this. They're like, well, I can't scroll my phone or I can't do other work while I'm in there. And I'm like, are we not supposed to like be in the meeting actually present? And the meeting was useless too. Like it somebody was like holding it up, actually not trying to get things done. It was a very focused meeting, but one person didn't pre-read. People don't pre-read. People don't. Prepare for meetings. If you send a message longer than one sentence, it's too much reading. So it's like, what are we doing? Obviously, I don't know. It's different everywhere. people don't even want to meet in person because they want to do other things and not pay attention. And when they get called on in the meeting, they're like, hon, can you repeat that? It's like, what are we doing? And it's in person. Everyone's in office. Malcolm: you Crazy times, man. Thomas: I know these are like luxury complaints, right? Like I'm sure somebody working at the 7-Eleven will say, hey, I would love to have this problem, right? There's pros and cons about everything, man. There's pros and cons about everything. Malcolm: I mean, I don't say that. There are people that would be blessed to be in a position. I don't think that takes away your right to have your fair share of complaints and reservations about a situation. I hate when people say that. like, you shouldn't complain because so-and-so would rep. No matter what situation you're in, there's always going be a worse situation. I feel like that shouldn't take away... Obviously, as long as you're grateful and you're appreciative of being in the situation. Thomas: Yeah, for sure. Malcolm: I can't have my own reservations about it. It's my life at the end of the day, right? it's like, hey, you know what saying? So, nah, man, I definitely empathize with you, bro, because I hear it over and over again, bro, just how kind of pointless it is just going in to do the exact same thing I do at home, which is join meetings virtually and listen in meetings virtually and work independently. So, yeah. Thomas: virtual meetings, be in the same room. I've literally been in the same room with someone having a virtual one-on-one. You get what I'm saying? So for all my people who are like, I need to be in office because I struggle at home and I can't focus and I need in-person interaction, go pick up a hobby, man. Go find something, because I guarantee you, even if you are in office, and yes, this is a, I'm not discrediting your concern here, it's a valuable concern. You might thrive better with people-to-people interaction. Malcolm: That's nasty. Thomas: I promise you, depending on who you work for, who you work with, you being in office is going to make it even worse because you feel isolated at home. Imagine how it feels being around other people who don't talk to each other. It's like isolation on top of being ignored, unless like just having people coughing or loudly laughing or spitting or doing whatever they're doing, stinking it up. You know what mean? Like, if those things help you, sure, fine, go do that. But I think people like we need to realize like life is short. Bro, when we spend so much time working and at work, you blink and then your time is gone. Like, I don't know, maybe my generation is the first to realize the scam of all of this work. Because everything, there's more possible now than ever before. But that just means that the big dogs are able to just take advantage of you more because they're gonna be the first to get to it. And they're actively killing off everyone's passions. You wanna be a designer? AI. ⁓ make music AI, you wanna do art AI. Like this stuff is being stripped from you in real time. Malcolm: Yeah