Prepare yourselves… 2023 AEs
07-10-2023, 07:03 AM
#3561
seeing the large hubs...
Joined APC: Oct 2006
Position: 73N A
Posts: 3,759
Theyve been saying that the internet would end business travel, or greatly reduce it, for 25 years now. Some companies, having been forced to do it during Covid, will find or have found ways to make it work, others will realize how much easier or more effective their business is with more face to face interactions. I’m sure some will come back, others not so much.
Plus, some people like traveling to fun places on the company dime and eating in nice restaurants.
07-10-2023, 08:12 AM
#3563
Gets Weekends Off
Joined APC: Mar 2008
Posts: 3,907
Theyve been saying that the internet would end business travel, or greatly reduce it, for 25 years now. Some companies, having been forced to do it during Covid, will find or have found ways to make it work, others will realize how much easier or more effective their business is with more face to face interactions. I’m sure some will come back, others not so much.
In other ways, the recovery from the recovery has been a trainwreck. I'm familiar with a company who basically had to fire their entire back office staff. At first people were motivated, but people being people, slacked off. Maybe 40% of the work was getting done, then it all became "well, my kids have a thing, we have to take the dog to the vet", and a whole litany of things that people used to work around because of, well, work. When it looked like people would have to go back to the office, people squared off to protect their good deal. They wouldn't come in, they wouldn't do training for new people (afraid they'd get the can after training a replacement), they wouldn't do anything, really. And then the insidious stuff started happening, like not giving up system passwords or other administrative functions. Not really quiet quitting, more like quiet strike with a paycheck. Then the people who actually showed up for work were getting bitter because not only were they not getting the good deal, but they had to pick up the slack. No amount of cajoling, bonus offers, flexible schedules would fix the problem.
When deadlines started getting missed, customers started calling about stuff not done, demand lettings started coming in, they finally had to drastically retrench. They simply cancelled a bunch of contracts, refunded a bunch of money, terminated everyone that wouldn't return to the office, and rebuilt the whole back office function of business from scratch. They reduced hours for the production staff, but used some time to re-work those processes as well. Probably retrenched 40% from pre-covid in one of the best market for their services in generations.
Lots of people left the workforce. Others used that to their advantage, which, IMHO, is perfectly fine. Let the market work. And just to make sure the blame is spread evenly, businesses handed it poorly as well. It's been an employers market for so long, generations, perhaps, when a legitimate, no kidding shortage happened in the workforce, they had no idea how to deal with it when employees had actual leverage.
There was a lot of remote work pre-covid. In those areas where it worked, expanded, but like any business trend, people tried to drive a sqaure peg into a round hole, and found that it just doesn't work in a lot of cases.
The remote thing works fine until there's not a shortage of everything. When there is actual competition for business, its the people who actually show up that get the contracts. Once that happens 2 or 3 times, then the house of cards falls, and everyone gets called back. That's happening now as we move into the post-shortage of everything, and people who re-worked their life around it are facing some disappointment. The first real recession we run into, with no kidding unemployment, the hammer will drop, and that will be that.
07-10-2023, 08:20 AM
#3564
Can't abide NAI
Joined APC: Jun 2007
Position: Douglas Aerospace post production Flight Test & Work Around Engineering bulletin dissembler
Posts: 12,038
- We are social mammals that evolved, or were created, to live in groups. Today we think of it as "gross" but handshakes, hugs and smiles build our social groups. (science and religion agree on this point)
- We prefer to do business with people we like
- Nobody is going above "manager" in their career unless they make the trek to the office & make friends
- Want to be rich in your 40's or 50's, the trade is busting your ass in your 20's and 30's
I think Delta Network has this right. Business is coming back. Business wants to be safe, on time, and comfortable. They like being smiled at.
07-10-2023, 08:26 AM
#3565
Gets Weekends Off
Joined APC: Oct 2006
Position: Dismayed
Posts: 1,598
Yep and piling on with what NuGuy, big E757 and others wrote:
I think Delta Network has this right. Business is coming back. Business wants to be safe, on time, and comfortable. They like being smiled at.
- We are social mammals that evolved, or were created, to live in groups. Today we think of it as "gross" but handshakes, hugs and smiles build our social groups. (science and religion agree on this point)
- We prefer to do business with people we like
- Nobody is going above "manager" in their career unless they make the trek to the office & make friends
- Want to be rich in your 40's or 50's, the trade is busting your ass in your 20's and 30's
I think Delta Network has this right. Business is coming back. Business wants to be safe, on time, and comfortable. They like being smiled at.
I was reminded of a very old commercial that United had. It references faxes and doesn't mention zoom but I think it is still relevant today.
07-10-2023, 09:45 AM
#3566
Gets Weekends Off
Joined APC: Feb 2022
Posts: 633
Where’s that AE memo at? Was it the 10th or 12th?
07-10-2023, 10:21 AM
#3569
Gets Weekends Off
Joined APC: Nov 2013
Position: A320 Left seat
Posts: 2,591
In certain areas, remote work does ok, in others, not so much. It needs to be highly structured with clear goals, otherwise, people drift off. You still need face to face, and web meetings are the worst way to do business ever invented.
In other ways, the recovery from the recovery has been a trainwreck. I'm familiar with a company who basically had to fire their entire back office staff. At first people were motivated, but people being people, slacked off. Maybe 40% of the work was getting done, then it all became "well, my kids have a thing, we have to take the dog to the vet", and a whole litany of things that people used to work around because of, well, work. When it looked like people would have to go back to the office, people squared off to protect their good deal. They wouldn't come in, they wouldn't do training for new people (afraid they'd get the can after training a replacement), they wouldn't do anything, really. And then the insidious stuff started happening, like not giving up system passwords or other administrative functions. Not really quiet quitting, more like quiet strike with a paycheck. Then the people who actually showed up for work were getting bitter because not only were they not getting the good deal, but they had to pick up the slack. No amount of cajoling, bonus offers, flexible schedules would fix the problem.
When deadlines started getting missed, customers started calling about stuff not done, demand lettings started coming in, they finally had to drastically retrench. They simply cancelled a bunch of contracts, refunded a bunch of money, terminated everyone that wouldn't return to the office, and rebuilt the whole back office function of business from scratch. They reduced hours for the production staff, but used some time to re-work those processes as well. Probably retrenched 40% from pre-covid in one of the best market for their services in generations.
Lots of people left the workforce. Others used that to their advantage, which, IMHO, is perfectly fine. Let the market work. And just to make sure the blame is spread evenly, businesses handed it poorly as well. It's been an employers market for so long, generations, perhaps, when a legitimate, no kidding shortage happened in the workforce, they had no idea how to deal with it when employees had actual leverage.
There was a lot of remote work pre-covid. In those areas where it worked, expanded, but like any business trend, people tried to drive a sqaure peg into a round hole, and found that it just doesn't work in a lot of cases.
The remote thing works fine until there's not a shortage of everything. When there is actual competition for business, its the people who actually show up that get the contracts. Once that happens 2 or 3 times, then the house of cards falls, and everyone gets called back. That's happening now as we move into the post-shortage of everything, and people who re-worked their life around it are facing some disappointment. The first real recession we run into, with no kidding unemployment, the hammer will drop, and that will be that.
In other ways, the recovery from the recovery has been a trainwreck. I'm familiar with a company who basically had to fire their entire back office staff. At first people were motivated, but people being people, slacked off. Maybe 40% of the work was getting done, then it all became "well, my kids have a thing, we have to take the dog to the vet", and a whole litany of things that people used to work around because of, well, work. When it looked like people would have to go back to the office, people squared off to protect their good deal. They wouldn't come in, they wouldn't do training for new people (afraid they'd get the can after training a replacement), they wouldn't do anything, really. And then the insidious stuff started happening, like not giving up system passwords or other administrative functions. Not really quiet quitting, more like quiet strike with a paycheck. Then the people who actually showed up for work were getting bitter because not only were they not getting the good deal, but they had to pick up the slack. No amount of cajoling, bonus offers, flexible schedules would fix the problem.
When deadlines started getting missed, customers started calling about stuff not done, demand lettings started coming in, they finally had to drastically retrench. They simply cancelled a bunch of contracts, refunded a bunch of money, terminated everyone that wouldn't return to the office, and rebuilt the whole back office function of business from scratch. They reduced hours for the production staff, but used some time to re-work those processes as well. Probably retrenched 40% from pre-covid in one of the best market for their services in generations.
Lots of people left the workforce. Others used that to their advantage, which, IMHO, is perfectly fine. Let the market work. And just to make sure the blame is spread evenly, businesses handed it poorly as well. It's been an employers market for so long, generations, perhaps, when a legitimate, no kidding shortage happened in the workforce, they had no idea how to deal with it when employees had actual leverage.
There was a lot of remote work pre-covid. In those areas where it worked, expanded, but like any business trend, people tried to drive a sqaure peg into a round hole, and found that it just doesn't work in a lot of cases.
The remote thing works fine until there's not a shortage of everything. When there is actual competition for business, its the people who actually show up that get the contracts. Once that happens 2 or 3 times, then the house of cards falls, and everyone gets called back. That's happening now as we move into the post-shortage of everything, and people who re-worked their life around it are facing some disappointment. The first real recession we run into, with no kidding unemployment, the hammer will drop, and that will be that.
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