this post was submitted on 13 Jan 2024
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‘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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[–] [email protected] 177 points 10 months ago (14 children)

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.

[–] [email protected] 120 points 10 months ago* (last edited 10 months ago) (1 children)

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.

https://www.kkrreit.com/our-company/about-us

https://www.webmd.com/corporate/press/20170915/internet-brands-kkr-portfolio-company-successfully-completes

[–] [email protected] 46 points 10 months ago (2 children)

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.

[–] [email protected] 24 points 10 months ago (2 children)
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[–] [email protected] 32 points 10 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.

[–] [email protected] 26 points 10 months ago (1 children)

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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[–] [email protected] 102 points 10 months ago (3 children)

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.

[–] [email protected] 34 points 10 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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[–] [email protected] 98 points 10 months ago (8 children)

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?

[–] [email protected] 26 points 10 months ago* (last edited 10 months ago) (1 children)

With Kagi, WebMD never showing up again is just two clicks away:

Aaand done!

[–] [email protected] 18 points 10 months ago (2 children)

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 https://addons.mozilla.org/en-GB/firefox/addon/ublacklist/

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[–] [email protected] 15 points 10 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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[–] [email protected] 85 points 10 months ago (2 children)
[–] [email protected] 42 points 10 months ago (1 children)

Just did. Won our vote Wednesday night 💪

[–] [email protected] 17 points 10 months ago

Oh, that is righteous. Congratulations!

[–] [email protected] 33 points 10 months ago
[–] [email protected] 76 points 10 months ago (2 children)

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.

[–] [email protected] 27 points 10 months ago* (last edited 10 months ago) (3 children)

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 than their in-office counterparts. Evidence actually supports remote work.

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[–] [email protected] 25 points 10 months ago (4 children)

They don't care. It's about control and real estate.

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[–] [email protected] 76 points 10 months ago* (last edited 10 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 bring home.

[–] [email protected] 74 points 10 months ago (2 children)

They ALL are on green screen. There isn't anyone int his video present "in person"!

[–] [email protected] 24 points 10 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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[–] [email protected] 60 points 10 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.

[–] [email protected] 54 points 10 months ago (3 children)

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.

[–] [email protected] 17 points 10 months ago (2 children)

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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[–] [email protected] 54 points 10 months ago (1 children)

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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[–] [email protected] 50 points 10 months ago (4 children)

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.

[–] [email protected] 15 points 10 months ago (1 children)

I know a few people getting RSV. They've been out of work for like a month.

[–] [email protected] 43 points 10 months ago* (last edited 10 months ago) (1 children)

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 with recurring spreading 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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[–] [email protected] 47 points 10 months ago

Are they in front of green screens? Did he not even bother to come into the office to record this?

[–] [email protected] 37 points 10 months ago (6 children)

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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[–] [email protected] 34 points 10 months ago (4 children)

Is there a web site out there that can help me determine what kind of cancer that video gave me?

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[–] [email protected] 32 points 10 months ago* (last edited 10 months ago) (1 children)

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 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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[–] [email protected] 32 points 10 months ago (1 children)

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!

[–] [email protected] 17 points 10 months ago (2 children)

Being in the office ≠ more profit

It in fact takes away from the workers profit.

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[–] [email protected] 30 points 10 months ago (1 children)

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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[–] [email protected] 26 points 10 months ago

This has real Dunder Mifflin Local Ad vibes.

[–] [email protected] 25 points 10 months ago (1 children)

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?

[–] [email protected] 15 points 10 months ago

Creating the website is more or less a solved problem, but they have to keep coming up with new ways to exploit the website's visitors for profit. The demand for infinite growth is never satiated.

[–] [email protected] 23 points 10 months ago (2 children)

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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[–] [email protected] 22 points 10 months ago (2 children)

Why does the same company that owns WebMD also own Lawyers.com and a car website?

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[–] [email protected] 21 points 10 months ago
[–] [email protected] 19 points 10 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.

[–] [email protected] 19 points 10 months ago (1 children)

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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[–] [email protected] 17 points 10 months ago (5 children)

This is is some Black Mirror shit.

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[–] [email protected] 17 points 10 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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