By Steven Symes 
The beginning of September also marked the beginning of Ford employees working in the office instead of remotely. That has had a significant impact as thousands now commute to Dearborn daily after sitting back in their pajamas at home ever since the covid shutdowns.
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All salaried employees of the Blue Oval have had to return to the office for four days out of the week since September 1. While many other employers have done the same thing, Ford has been one of the holdouts who has only required some groups of workers to come into the office on certain days.
For example, GM mandated in-office work for salaried employees back in January 2024 for Tuesdays through Thursdays. Stellantis did something similar back in March.
The reason for calling people back into the office is primarily for workplace effectiveness. While some can handle working from home, let’s be honest: a lot of employees use mouse shakers and other schemes to make it look like they’re nose to the grindstone when in fact they’ve just slacking off.
But there have been changes to how the Dearborn headquarters is run these days. Instead of assigned desks like what you get in a traditional office, the automaker has made much of the workspaces “hotel-style.”
In other words, the spots are first come, first served. That encourages employees to come in early so they can get a preferred desk. But we can imagine it creates a lot of problems, too.
What do people do when they want to talk to a co-worker face-to-face? After all, some conversations are better the old fashioned way, instead of over Slack. We guess they can message the person to ask where they’re sitting that day, or go on a long hunt, but it seems ridiculous.
When Detroit-area reporter Breana Noble asked one Ford employee how he’s been handling the change to in-office work four days out of the week, he replied, “It’s challenging, but we’re getting through it.”
Others anonymously said they’re not enjoying being “micromanaged.” Some say the office has too many distractions, making them less productive. And of course there are complaints about the time it takes to commute to and from.
We’ve worked remotely for a long time, but we also understand it’s not a tenable arrangement for most people. After all, taking a nap, playing video games, going fishing, or other temptations can call them away from work on the daily.
Image via Ford