‘Hold them captive’: Australian billionaire boss aims to end staff going out for coffee
‘Hold them captive’: Australian billionaire boss aims to end staff going out for coffee
Chris Ellison, of Perth-based mining firm Mineral Resources, has already banned working from home
Damn, the amount of people here that love how the owner class manipulates and sucks them dry is shocking.
Banning wfh should be illegal, period. Of course everyone is different and has different needs but keeping people in the building has multiple benefits for his bottom line, not the employees:
- no room to talk to other companies’ employees and compare
- no room to think about company policy without being influenced
- potential to be overheard talking potential union business
While it is great for highly sought after software engineers to be pampered like this, the majority of people arent this and the reason companies do this only for the highly paid is because they are actually valued and might be able to hurt the company if they are unhappy. Opposed to the many people who are less qualified.
This comment section is a harsh example of privileged people being completely out of touch with the reality of their fellow humans.
I‘d be ashamed.
Have a friend who got his PhD in Australia, in neuroscience. He's got enormous personal debt, his department is chonically underfunded, he has two grad students to his name, and he's got to spend every semester writing these long winded grant proposals to maintain any kind of budget.
Then six months ago, a recruiter from Fudan University reaches out to him. Flies him out to Shanghai, wines him and dines him, shows him around the campus, offers him a $1.5M housing allowance plus $500k salary with another $6M in budget and three other PhDs on his team.
He's moving there in March.
Yeah, even if I was offered that I wouldn't touch that shit with a 10 foot pole especially if we're talking about being held captive.
That's the "alternative" to captivity. And it's going to lead to businesses that treat talent like this losing their talent to China. Speaking as someone who has also been contacted by numerous (sketchier than the above referenced) Chinese interests.
People being held captive is in relation to the Perth-based mining company that the article talks about. The person you're replying to is talking about a Shanghai-based university. There's no captivity involved there, afaik.
This is all about building your personal life around work, this guy knows that current WFH initiatives are giving people better flexibility for work to fit around their personal lives.
The things he's offering to basically hold his employees captive for the day, are quite decent. I just don't see them being attractive to people long term.
I’m quite lucky to work for a company that measures performance based on results, rather than hours spent in the office.
However, work does offer a heap of incentives to head into the office (similar to this, we have an on-site cafe, restaurants, convenience store, gym, daycare facilities and school holiday activities); as sometimes heading in to collaborate with a team in person is a lot more convenient overall.
What this man is trying to offer is similar, except that by forcing attendance he will never be able to match that culture.
History has shown overworked, burned-out, desperate-to-hold-the-job people make the BEST employees!
Go hardcore or go home! No, wait, not home...
What you lack in individual performance you can make up in volume. The only thing that really matters is the margins.
80% on a bunch of burnouts yield higher returns than 20% on a superstar. That's how a Walmart scale business makes money
I say we give him a taste of his own advice.
this is the guy in a souls game that shouts out to ask you a favor but when you return after completing it he's dead and there is a bundle of souls and a piece of armour or weapon waiting
“I want to hold them captive all day long,” Ellison said during a financial presentation on Thursday. “I don’t want them leaving the building … I don’t want them walking down the road for a cup of coffee. We kind of figured out a few years ago how much that cost.”
One, fuck you with a burning stick.
Two, people who are off the clock can go wherever the fuck they want.
Three, you'd better be in that fucking office yourself at least forty hours a week.
Four, put the stick out with a jar of honey and then fuck your own peehole with it.
Ugh my director at work has been enforcing a strict RTO mandate while working fully remote from fucking Florida
Honey is too kind. I was thinking more along the lines of putting the fire out using a jar of Carolina Reapers, and then he can go to town on his urethra with that
Jesus, I'm not a monster.
“So another reason for them to come and enjoy work: drop the little tykes off next door. We’ve got doctors on board and nurses, we’re going to feed them, but mum and dad will be working in our office.”
The fact that you needed to explicitly SAY that is a little disturbing. What was your original plan? To store the kids in a fridge?
And then some minion had to tell you, "sir, children need food water and air to stay alive."
I assume that means food is included, so you don't need to pack a lunch the night before.
I think he got a bad read and people aren't aware of context.
It was a finance meeting. think about how you'd justify why you're spending money on creches doctors and nurses when you're a mining company. It doesnt make sense right surely you'd want explosives and dump truck drivers . So you go to explain it.
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OK so what were trying to do is make work attractive to be here in our offices because we believe that people on-site are more productive
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we have parents who want to work with us but they have commitments outside of work so we realised that we could maybe take away some of the need to service those commitments
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parents have kids and need childcare, so we solved that problem for them by providing a creche
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our staff need to go see doctors or nurses, so we solved that problem for them by providing a clinic
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our staff like to socialise over food and coffee, so we set up restaurants and cafes in the building
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all these things cost money but you know what, it balances out because they're on-site and being productive as a group
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why do we need them on-site - because we believe people to be more productive when they work together. We've said we want you in all day every day, we're trying to make it possible for this to happen.
I know it's about as human as a thrown axe but people are resources. Companies exist because of their people. I actually respect that he's open about this and I can tell you, this approach would appeal to a lot of young families in Perth. It's hard to get childcare and hard to see doctors.
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Maybe the guy said it a bit awkward, but are we really complaining that his company is offering a variety of amenities to make it easier for people to work in the office?
A lot of these sound similar to what my company offers except we have no childcare but do have free EV charging. Those are all good things ….. maybe it’s just how they were presented, plus we’re only being asked to be in the office 2 days/week
Let’s see how that goes in a market starved of high level workers and full of employers happy to let their staff work from home.
In any office job I've worked, I would have been able to accomplish jack shit for the second half of the day without a break with some food and good coffee.
Also, breaks in which you can do whatever you want are enforced by law around here, and I'd be surprised if it isn't the same in Australia.
That man is both a dick, and a fool.
I feel like I'm a minority, but I HATE lunch breaks or any other unpaid break. I much prefer to work through them and leave an hour earlier. I don't care if I can go out to eat or leave the office, an hour is not enough time to enjoy that. I still feel like I'm "at work".
If I have to work 8 hours a day, then I want to be at work for 8 hours. Not 8 hours +an extra hour that you can say you're "on break" but really your mind keeps thinking over any related problems you might be working on or planning for what you're going to do when you get back from "break".
I used to do the same thing. Come in, work for 8 hours, munching on something at my desk if hungry, and then leave. If I needed to think or was stuck, I'd get up and walk around the office (inside or out depending upon the weather) which typically helped get me un-stuck.
I think people should have that as an option if they wanted (I think it's technically illegal here in Japan because employers would withhold the legally required break time until the end of the shift which is not how most people work).
I consider the question of free coffee to be a litmus test for any company. If you're not offering it, you are unequivocally a loser not worthy of running a company:
- It costs next to nothing
- Caffeine makes the workers more productive
- Your best outcome is workers who drink a healthy amount of coffee every day
The expected return of offering free unlimited coffee for any work place is positive - and the inverse of not offering free coffee is hence negative.
Pretty much any office I've been in had free coffee. Good free coffee, now that's few and far between.
Where I live, they can only enforce that you stay on site during breaks if they pay you for your breaks, and lord knows they don't want to do that
It is. I think fair work should have a word with old mate.
At least he doesn't chain the employees to their desks
Yet
I so love the idea of giving billionaires a plaque when they hit one billion, then take away 95% of their wealth and having them start again. A forced prestige system.
I'd love to start over with 50 million, too
I'd love to stack away a whole million in my life, that way, 50 generations down, one of my great grand children can try the game too!
Absolutely a mask off "let them eat cake" level quote.
She didn't actually say that, historically, but yes.
let them eat cake that they buy from the company restaurant
I don't even know who this guy is, but I want to kick his ass.
The guy is an out of touch jerk. Sometimes the hilight of your day ia that mental break grabbing a coffee at a cafe and enjoying fresh air. And i get way more work done with WFH, because people need an actual reason to interrupt your work flow
He doesn't want people to have daily highlights. He wants them completely broken and demoralized so they'll accept whatever shit stick this guy hands them.
To be honest this isn't a massive departure from the various other non remuneration incentives offered by companies wanting you to be there in person. Silicon Valley has offered this forever. Gyms, cafes, holiday programs for kids etc.
People have different motivators. I don't mind being in the office frequently. I work my hours then clock off. I find it easier to switch off from work when I leave work.
Some people will value it. If you're not one of those people, don't worry, you don't have to work there. It's pretty simple.
“I want to hold them captive all day long,” Ellison said during a financial presentation on Thursday. “I don’t want them leaving the building … I don’t want them walking down the road for a cup of coffee. We kind of figured out a few years ago how much that cost.”
Taking a quick break and going down to the gas station down the road to get coffee and maybe a pastry was one of the only things that made my last job bearable.
Maybe it’s all colored by our experiences. I appreciate being able to take a quick break and walk down the hall to grab a coffee. Or I can walk down to the cafeteria for more choices plus a variety of snacks. I don’t have to pay anything nor get in my car and I still have that convenience regardless of weather
But wouldn’t both options be preferable? We bar people from going somewhere on their break? Sometimes you need to get out to clear your head.
Because he's gonna open little free cafes in all his offices right?... right guys??...
Its great to see TBH. His employees will read this when they google and share it around the office if they are not already talking about it. They will be demoralised by it, productivity will drop. The high valued talent will move in a heartbeat and he will be left with those that cant get a better deal elsewhere.
But all that wont matter as its a long term problem.
Thats a problem for the next CEO.
Notice the problem here? Accountability!
Even worse, talented candidates always check out companies before applying.
I have had a few head hunters chat with me, first question I ask is “will you put 100% WFH in writing?”
Check out our compensation package! Nah.
What's the exact law when it comes to advocating murder?
I'm pretty sure sharing step-by-step plans to make a guillotine don't count.
Remember, jury nullification is a thing. If someone murders a billionaire and you're on the jury, you can just say Not Guilty and there's nothing they can do to you.
As long as you kill them very slowly by draining their life energy over a contracted period of about 40 years its entirely legal, you may even get a tax cut for creating opportunities.
In the US threats to a person are assault.
So first they force people back into the office because CBD businesses are suffering.
Then they want to ban people from going for a coffee?
Make up your fucking minds!
Shit like this is why I became a contractor. Sick of control freaks with no idea what the job entails telling everyone what to do.
I want to hold them captive all day long.
...another reason for them to come and enjoy work: drop the little tykes off next door. We’ve got doctors on board and nurses, we’re going to feed them, but mum and dad will be working in our office.