‘Don’t Mess With Us’: WebMD Parent Company Demands Return to Office in Bizarre Video

Submitted ⁨⁨9⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩ by ⁨L4s@lemmy.world [bot]⁩ to ⁨technology@lemmy.world⁩

https://www.vice.com/en/article/7kxqnx/dont-mess-with-us-webmd-parent-company-demands-return-to-office-in-bizarre-video

‘Don’t Mess With Us’: WebMD Parent Company Demands Return to Office in Bizarre Video::“I’ve seen better acting by hostages in direct to DVD movies,” one anonymous worker wrote about the video.

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Wermhatswormhat@lemmy.world ⁨9⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
I’m so tired of businesses claiming that the only way for a company to be successful is if everyone is in person for the dear dear meetings. We all know exactly what this is about. 1. It’s more dofficult to micromanage employees when a manger can’t constantly observe them, and 2. All the giant real estate investments companies have made is now coming due and they cant fill up their buildings fast enough to get those tax breaks. Why the hell else are they “tracking” people in the office. Meanwhile senior leadership can come and go whenever they see fit. It’s control. Plain and simple.

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- Wutangforemer@lemmy.world ⁨9⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
  WebMD is owned by Internet Brands, which is owned by KKR, an investment group with $64 billion in real estate assets. This has fuck all to do with productivity or middle management.
  
  www.kkrreit.com/our-company/about-us webmd.com/…/internet-brands-kkr-portfolio-company…
  
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  - Rascabin@lemmy.ml ⁨9⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
    Fuckin kkr. The ones who got Toys R Us to go bankrupt just to make a buck. They also purchased the company i worked for then sold it to another company which resulted in big layoffs some years back. They can eat shit and die.
    
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- DigitalTraveler42@lemmy.world ⁨9⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
  It’s really just “we need people so that our real estate investments don’t tank”, I’m rooting for their shit to tank, fuck the rich.
  
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- czardestructo@lemmy.world ⁨9⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
  My company had a badge in/badge out procedure, badge out was new after covid. No one actually badged out. They have since installed security guards at all exits and they will chase you out the door if you forget to badge out.
  
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  - laurelraven@lemmy.blahaj.zone ⁨9⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
    What’ll they do, tackle you and drag you back inside?
    
    This seems like a horrible reaction to me, which sounds about corp
    
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- trebuchet@lemmy.ml ⁨9⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
  
  All the giant real estate investments companies have made is now coming due and they cant fill up their buildings fast enough to get those tax breaks
  
  What are these tax breaks for filling up buildings?
  
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  - Telodzrum@lemmy.world ⁨9⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
    They don’t exist. This made up tale about commercial real estate driving RTO policies has been around since early 2021 when things started opening back up on larger scales. It’s a fiction that just won’t die.
    
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- b3an@lemmy.world ⁨9⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
  It’s time for a boycott WebMD campaign. Let’s see how well they handle THAT 👹
  
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  - Stretch2m@lemm.ee ⁨9⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
    Doing my part. I literally never visit that toxic site.
    
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- wooki@lemmynsfw.com ⁨9⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
  You have it backwards. Completely.
  
  I have no intentions of bringing my work home, work is a job, it has no place in my home impacting my family.
  
  I will not lose a part of my home to my jobs business. Its not their property, it is my home.i would rather the office be a bedroom so my children sont have to share a room.
  
  We evolved without video conferencing, it is natural and easier to meet with someone in person to convey emotion and understand people we meet with. It is too easy to dismiss someone over a screen, empathy is too easily lost. It is also harder to be ignored in person.
  
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  - Seleni@lemmy.world ⁨9⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
    I’d say it depends on the job and the person. If it’s the sort of job that can be done remotely, and the office culture is such that people are constantly getting interrupted by people ‘just passing by’ and ‘oh one more quick question’, and/or dragged into hours-long meetings that could easily have been a quick email thread, then it’s not a stretch at all to see that WFH has improved their productivity.
    
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ThePowerOfGeek@lemmy.world ⁨9⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
Yeah this is bullshit. Just middle and senior management trying to justify their jobs and all the expenses they’ve made on office real estate. I’ve worked 100% from home for 3 years now, and not only is my productivity much higher, but the team dynamic is better and the worker output overall is better too.

I get some people do better face to face with colleagues, and are happier and more productive. And to those people I say: Go for it! Go into the office and be at your best!

But companies should not force the rest of us to piss time and money away commuting for zero gain and just extra frustration and unhappiness.

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- _number8_@lemmy.world ⁨9⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
  it’s honestly blowing my mind learning recently how many people not only literally love their shitty jobs but also want to see millions of others subjugated to the grind for absolutely no net benefit
  
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- ChrislyBear@lemmy.world ⁨9⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
  
  to piss time and money away commuting
  
  So much this! Why is it OK for us to waste our most valuable resource, time?? If you waste company time or assets, you’ll be fired.
  
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- books@lemmy.world ⁨9⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
  That and layoffs without firing people.
  
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thesystemisdown@lemmy.world ⁨9⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
As a consumer, I will now forever remember that WebMD’s C Suite is most interested in “crushing their competition” and being heavy handed with their employees. I once thought that they were concerned about the betterment of societal health. This is how you lose your most performant employees.

I can’t believe they published this to a publically available platform like Vimeo. Did they already lose their Marketing executive?

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- avidamoeba@lemmy.ca ⁨9⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
  With Kagi, WebMD never showing up again is just two clicks away. Aaand done!
  
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  - noodlejetski@lemm.ee ⁨9⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
    and if for whatever reason you don’t want to pay for Kagi, you can use uBlacklist to achieve the same thing with a search engine of your choice addons.mozilla.org/en-GB/firefox/…/ublacklist/
    
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- Garbanzo@lemmy.world ⁨9⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
  Dude’s delusional thinking he’s going to crush Mayo Clinic while his employees pass COVID back and forth. Straight goofball thinking.
  
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- Wermhatswormhat@lemmy.world ⁨9⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
  Yeah, I’m with you. At least make the video private…
  
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- Fixbeat@lemmy.ml ⁨9⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
  I am not even sure what webmd does, but F them.
  
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  - bajabound@lemmy.world ⁨9⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
    They run a website that helps you self diagnose even the slightest illness as cancer.
    
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RainfallSonata@lemmy.world ⁨9⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
Fucking UNIONIZE.

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- Chetzemoka@startrek.website ⁨9⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
  Just did. Won our vote Wednesday night 💪
  
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  - ChunkMcHorkle@lemmy.world ⁨9⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
    Oh, that is righteous. Congratulations!
    
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- Mojojojo1993@lemmy.world ⁨9⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
  Louder
  
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IDontHavePantsOn@lemm.ee ⁨9⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
Web MD. The website. The website designed to make visitors feel a false sense of expertise about their health so that they don’t leave home to see a doctor about illness, is threatening their workers to leave their homes, to unnecessarily return to work, during a wave of life threatening and easily transmitable illness, that they will have to being home.

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Sekrayray@lemmy.world ⁨9⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
I’m so sick and god damned tired of corporations and governments making sweeping decisions with no evidence base to back them up. I work in a field where there is no option for remote work, but I think it’s pretty clear at this point that most non-service industries can be just as effective via remote options. All of this is just about control and it’s so stupid.

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- 01189998819991197253@infosec.pub ⁨9⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
  I slightly disagree on one aspect. I have read several studies (relatively short term, but still) about how WFH and Remote Work employees are measurably and significantly more effective and productive as their in-office counterparts. Evidence actually supports remote work.
  
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  - Powerpoint@lemmy.ca ⁨9⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
    Yup. WFH/Remote increases productivity. Any CEO who limits their companies productivity should be relieved of their job. In office is and should be a thing of the past for most day to day operations.
    
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  - Sekrayray@lemmy.world ⁨9⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
    Yeah, so the decision is actually counter to the evidence.
    
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- NocturnalEngineer@lemmy.world ⁨9⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
  They don’t care. It’s about control and real estate.
  
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  - IDriveWhileTired@lemmy.world ⁨9⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
    More about real estate than anything else, to be honest. You have far more control over remote work than in the office. I know how many minutes each member of my team spends on any and all websites, can log keyboards, to the point I don’t recommend to anyone working remotely to access bank accounts on their work computers.
    
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ChrislyBear@lemmy.world ⁨9⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
They ALL are on green screen. There isn’t anyone int his video present “in person”!

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- sunbeam60@lemmy.one ⁨9⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
  Totally this. There’s not a single person there who isn’t an SVP or an EVP. And I’m speaking as someone with an official title of EVP; unless you get the team to say “it’s awesome to be back in” on a video, this just comes across as so “because we say so”.
  
  Our team is already distributed across 8 time zones and 5 countries; why do we need to be in the office to sit in the same calls across our regions?
  
  There are some jobs that are much better done in person and then there are jobs that aren’t. For most roles, some tasks in that role is better in person, for some tasks it doesn’t make a difference and for some tasks it’s specifically better to be remote.
  
  A video like this needs to explain WHY - and with more than just “we are better together!”; ok, but why?
  
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- laurelraven@lemmy.blahaj.zone ⁨9⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
  And poorly executed at that … Each exec kept moving to completely different background scenes each time they showed up, one they botched so badly they made it look like he was standing in the counter… It’s like they didn’t even care enough to try
  
  And that was the weirdest “happy dance” the “employees” were doing at the end
  
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notannpc@lemmy.world ⁨9⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
Jesus. What fucking lunatics. That video never needed to exist. Just be like every other corp and send an email. At least that news story would have blended in with all the other RTO trash.

Now I’ll just forever remember that webMDs parent company is operated by unhinged boomers.

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foggy@lemmy.world ⁨9⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
Do you want more unions?

This is how you get more unions.

Fuck around and find out. I’m ok with more unions.

Make all of us mad and put us all in close proximity. Good idea. Not one of us will consider googling “how to form a union” with a few coworkers. It’s probably too hard to do anyways (it isn’t).

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- wanderingmagus@lemmy.world ⁨9⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
  
  Do you want more unions?
  
  Yes.
  
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popproxx@sh.itjust.works ⁨9⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
I remember WebMD was one of the most chaotic places I worked at. It was 2000-2001 and there was a president Marv Rich and a CEO Marty Wygod. They were both building duplicate ERP systems that basically did the same thing. One day, my boss Al was in a meeting, and they told him that he needed us to move the data center to the East Coast. The most valuable part was a bunch of big EMC Symmetrix arrays with all their data. He was freaking out because he got into an argument about loading all of them into one airplane, and he didn’t want to do it. He was telling them that if the airplane goes down, all of WebMD would be gone, and it needed to be loaded onto two airplanes. I don’t know why, but for some reason, that story always reminded me of my time at WebMD.

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- Nath@aussie.zone ⁨9⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
  The one time I moved a data center, we did it in two trucks for this very reason. Of course, it wouldn’t have been the whole organization lost, we had more than one data center. But yeah - the two planes part of this story makes complete sense to me.
  
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  - prole@sh.itjust.works ⁨9⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
    Yeah, I feel like the part about developing two different systems to apparently do the same thing, was much stupider.
    
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- MadBob@feddit.nl ⁨9⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
  
  Marty Wygod
  
  Or, as they called him down the pub, Wygod Y.
  
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  - laurelraven@lemmy.blahaj.zone ⁨9⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
    Nah, pretty sure they just called him Wangrod
    
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paddirn@lemmy.world ⁨9⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
WebMD? They realize we’re in the midst of a Covid resurgence, right? You’d think a company like that would be a bit more understanding of stuff like that, given that they’re supposed to be experts on medicine and all.

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- tastysnacks@programming.dev ⁨9⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
  I know a few people getting RSV. They’ve been out of work for like a month.
  
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  - IDontHavePantsOn@lemm.ee ⁨9⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
    Last year I was sick for 7 weeks with covid, RSV, the flu, and then covid again. I had to go to work while still sick with covid because I was out of sick time, even though their own policies should have prevented me from returning. I told all my coworkers to stay away from me and avoided them like I had the plague, because I essentially did. Had I actually not cared about other people’s health, I could have lied and destroyed the entire department for months of recurring illness.
    
    I had to have a meeting where I was being threatened with a PIP for attendance, while I was still sick and wearing a mask, for my job at a vaccine laboratory.
    
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- space@lemmy.dbzer0.com ⁨9⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
  Return to the office isn’t about medicine, it’s about entitled executives power tripping over the workers. At every medium/large company I worked for, upper management lived in its own bubble completely disconnected from the rest. I can give so many examples of poor decisions made by upper management that had a huge negative impact on the company and especially the workers. But regardless, they never gave a shit about our opinions and feedback. They didn’t even tell us why they made those decisions.
  
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  - foggy@lemmy.world ⁨9⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
    It’s about corporate real estate, profit margins, taxes, banks, interest rates, the economy, and more.
    
    WFH has completely changed the economic landscape, and virtually all industries are impacted.
    
    I embrace the change. Business men with shareholders do not. Banks with trillions of dollars in corporate mortgages and leases also do not. Etc.
    
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- cabron_offsets@lemmy.world ⁨9⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
  Lolbruh. Remember that their unitary purpose is dolla dolla bill.
  
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neclimdul@lemmy.world ⁨9⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
Are they in front of green screens? Did he not even bother to come into the office to record this?

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ook_the_librarian@lemmy.world ⁨9⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
I love response to the backlash. It’s basically “Sorry our video was cringy and tonedeaf. We have removed the cringe.”

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- sunbeam60@lemmy.one ⁨9⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
  Did they change the video? I was at least impressed that they acknowledged the interest in the video but didn’t realise they might also have made changes.
  
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  - Styxia@lemmy.world ⁨9⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
    They did, and I quote:
    
    As to comments/criticisms on the tone/style, Yeah, corporate videos are corporate videos!” the company then said, adding a shrug emoji.
    
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- laurelraven@lemmy.blahaj.zone ⁨9⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
  And with a shrug emoji, like they’re trying to see how insulting they can be
  
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frezik@midwest.social ⁨9⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
Is there a web site out there that can help me determine what kind of cancer that video gave me?

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- kelseybcool@lemmy.world ⁨9⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
  Yahoo! Answers is the best source for medical information.
  
  youtu.be/EShUeudtaFg
  
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  - theherk@lemmy.world ⁨9⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
    That’s terrifying.
    
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- 01189998819991197253@infosec.pub ⁨9⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
  I hear WebMD is good for that…
  
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MeekerThanBeaker@lemmy.world ⁨9⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
People who haven’t come in to the office yet do it for a reason. They like it. They are happier. Happier employees are better employees.

They get more sleep so they are more alert or more have more time for hobbies and recreation. They don’t have to spend as much on gas or childcare. They don’t use the office’s electricity, water, facilities, coffee/snacks.

Make it a choice. For the betterment of humanity and the planet.

When someone makes videos like this, you don’t get the best people to come work for your company, you get the most desperate.

But then again, maybe that’s what they want. Idiots.

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- dependencyinjection@discuss.tchncs.de ⁨9⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
  I am with you on almost all of that. Depending on the age of the child, I don’t think you should be tending to a child if you’re WFH.
  
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Gerula@lemmy.world ⁨9⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
Let the corporate whips crack! Let the slaves fall back in line! We want profits!

Because you’re awesome, important to us, we care about your well being. We are a big family after all!

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- Kbobabob@lemmy.world ⁨9⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
  Being in the office ≠ more profit
  
  It in fact takes away from the workers profit.
  
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  - laurelraven@lemmy.blahaj.zone ⁨9⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
    This is a feature, not a bug
    
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  - Gerula@lemmy.world ⁨9⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
    It doesen’t matter that much, corporate ghouls have justified their existance!
    
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YurkshireLad@lemmy.ca ⁨9⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
My wife is a business analyst and software tester (not for WebMD) and still gets awards and bonuses for excellence, even while she’s worked at home during Covid.

This guy needs to explain to me why she should be forced back into the office to improve her performance.

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Buttons@programming.dev ⁨9⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
They run a semi-reputable health website which people use for mostly static information that rarely changes. How many new ideas do they really need?

How does creating a web page take so many people?

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01189998819991197253@infosec.pub ⁨9⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
This has real Dunder Mifflin Local Ad vibes.

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alienanimals@lemmy.world ⁨9⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
Tech company executives who ignore data need to be held accountable for their actions by their employees. People need to stand up and stop being sheep.

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andros_rex@lemmy.world ⁨9⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
Why does the same company that owns WebMD also own Lawyers.com and a car website?

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cabron_offsets@lemmy.world ⁨9⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
Get fukt

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TransplantedSconie@lemm.ee ⁨9⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
Bullshit to the "We are more productive when together " line.

No, they are not. Commutes eat into productivity big time. It would take my wife sometimes 2+ hours to get into work in Boston. Now, she puts the kids onto the bus and logs in. Last year, they even said they were the most productive they’ve been in the companies history (200 plus years, mind you).

Now it’s “We need to be in person to be more productive” bullshit. These assholes sunk too much money into corporate real estate.

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CptInsane0@lemmy.world ⁨9⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
Lol I used to work for a company that has been bought and renamed several times and now is under the WebMD umbrella. They were trying that “remote work is bad” be a decade ago, and it’s funny that now they are part of a larger company that still isn’t with the times.

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MaxPow3r11@lemmy.world ⁨9⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
This is is some Black Mirror shit.

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Snapz@lemmy.world ⁨9⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
Seriously… This is just far past a breaking point for even reasonable people… We need to organize and remind these people of the size of both sides of this conversation. What the fuck…

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vividspecter@lemm.ee ⁨9⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
Have a read/watch of this other asshole CEO going on an unhinged rant about return to office earlier last year.

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Emerald@lemmy.world ⁨9⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
I watched the video and I didn’t hear any facts or reasoning, it’s just hype video.

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Iwasondigg@lemmy.one ⁨9⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
I’m honestly more stunned that this is an internet company. They didn’t think this was a bad idea to post to Vimeo?

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Someonelemmy@lemmynsfw.com ⁨9⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
"Internet Brands did not respond to a request for comment, except to say that people were busy with meetings. "

Well there’s your problem… Probably having meetings about how they need more meetings.

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