Salesforce's get-back-to-work strategy starts with 'Volunteer Vaccinated Cohorts' on designated floors
- Reference: 1618317133
- News link: https://www.theregister.co.uk/2021/04/13/salesforce_office_reopening_plan/
- Source link:
[1]According to the SaaSy CRM vendor , Volunteer Vaccinated Cohorts of protected employees will be able to join groups of 100 or fewer people to work on designated floors in certain offices, starting with San Francisco, Palo Alto, and Irvine from next month.
[2]
[3]In the US and [4]Europe , debate rages about vaccine passports or any means of restricting access to events or services according to an individual's vaccination status. New York State created its own digital pass while Florida and Texas attempted to outlaw them, for example.
Some on the right argue that they infringe individual liberty, while others on the left say they exacerbate inequality and unfairly hit people without access to healthcare or digital services. There are [5]even questions over whether vaccination will effectively stall transmission of the disease which has devastated global societies and economies since it first emerged from the Chinese city of Wuhan.
[6]
Salesforce has been reopening offices for some time, including those in Korea, Hong Kong, and China. Israel has just reopened and Sydney, for example, has been up and running since August 2020.
The company is careful not to discriminate against the unvaccinated, though. It is extending its work-from-home scheme, [7]first announced in February , until at least 31 December.
Whether the result will lead to subtle differences between those able to look their colleagues in the eye and those working from home remains to be seen.
Meanwhile, vaccine status is only one plank in Saleforce's reopening strategy. Although it has not set a timetable, the company expects Volunteer Vaccinated Cohorts to be followed by Staged Reopenings in which offices will gradually reopen from 20 per cent to 75 per cent capacity, according to local virus data and guidelines. It will see both vaccinated and non-vaccinated employees back in the office. This will be followed by a full reopening where vaccinations will still be encouraged and testing will be available where possible.
Brent Hyder, Saleforce president and chief people officer, took to his mind-mangling repository of corporate drivel, otherwise known as a company blog, to expound on the coronavirus reopening and the new normal into which hapless employees find themselves emerging.
"Thursday is the New Monday," he proclaimed. "The most popular day for employees to come to the office is Thursday. Employees prefer to start the week from home with only about half of collaboration space being used. By Wednesday and Thursday, that jumps up to 80 per cent."
[8]
We're guessing its either horrible hangovers or the sheer misery of another week spent soullessly tapdancing for the benefit of Marc Benioff's [9]Italian shoe collection which leaves employees unable to face each other IRL until most of the week has already gone. ®
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[1] https://www.salesforce.com/news/stories/global-return-to-the-office-the-salesforce-approach/
[2] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_offprem/saas&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=2&c=2YHXAGWiH5LlZOUl0LQRfWAAAAAI&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D2%26raptor%3Dcondor%26pos%3Dtop%26test%3D0
[3] https://abcnews.go.com/Health/covid-19-vaccine-passports-controversial/story?id=76928275
[4] https://abcnews.go.com/Health/covid-19-vaccine-passports-controversial/story?id=76928275
[5] https://www.bmj.com/content/373/bmj.n861/rr
[6] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_offprem/saas&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=3&c=33YHXAGWiH5LlZOUl0LQRfWAAAAAI&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D3%26raptor%3Deagle%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[7] https://www.theregister.com/2021/02/10/salesforce_wfh/
[8] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_offprem/saas&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=4&c=44YHXAGWiH5LlZOUl0LQRfWAAAAAI&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D4%26raptor%3Dfalcon%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[9] https://www.theregister.com/2020/04/22/salesforce_5m_sme_coronavirus_grant/
[10] https://whitepapers.theregister.com/
Re: Why
^^^^^^ This. I work for a company who has the emotional intelligence to understand that this should be a choice. And despite my part of the company being VERY in the office orientated, the lure of free (ggood) coffee and amazing lunches is not enough for many of my colleagues. We've shown that teamwork works incredibly well whilst WFH too. So, most of us will pop in once or twice a week, enjoying the extra time in bed and not being judged for wearing slippers the rest of the time
Plus: Our building management are complete sh1ts and don't allow animals in the building, unlike our other big office, so spending time with one's loved furballs is better than being on the tube.
"Offices will gradually reopen from 20 per cent to 75 per cent capacity"
It'll be interesting to see how that squares with Salesforce's Feb 11th announcement:
Salesforce has announced it will permanently allow most of its employees to work from home, even after the Covid-19 pandemic has ended.
https://www.thedrum.com/news/2021/02/11/salesforce-goes-all-remote-working
Re: "Offices will gradually reopen from 20 per cent to 75 per cent capacity"
Don't expect these companies to be consistent. Of course they had to promote 100% WFH when that was necessary to support their fearful employees, to hire people during the pandemic, and to prevent employees from seeking employment with more flexible employers.
Now that the pandemic is receding and vaccines are broadly available, these companies will turn on a dime because of their desire for control, and their belief that the office is a means to retention (through things like ping-pong tables, cafeterias, etc.).
It would be nice to have a choice
In a bid to same some money our office is being moved elsewhere in the building and without any real consultation all IT staff have been told there will be 50% capacity for hot desks. So if you wanted to go back into the office full time (or most of it), then tough. I'm not looking forward to having to re-adjust chairs, wipe down mice/keyboards/headsets (not for Covid, just general grime!) and you just know that someone would have left fingerprints all over the monitors...
I'm still 50/50 on the WFH thing. I find it useful at times, but against that some things are a lot easier in the office. Or were, given that I'm not going to have a desk for all my accumulated crap and most of my colleagues won't be there at the same time. On that point I think it'll get to the point where we'll have to ask other teams not to come in some that my team of 3 can all come in for a day at the same time every so often.
Why
WFH has many advantages for those who can do it. For most WFH employees they probably will need to pop into the office a few times a year; there are some things one can only do easily at the office. Upper managlement needs to understand there is more to life than sitting a cube farm listening to (and smelling) your neighbor's farts because control freak needs to see your face.