Principal Financial-Remote work

Playing around on Principal's job site right now, it appears that the 30 mile radius might primarily (or only) apply to more entry-level/lower-level jobs. Anything with a title like "Director" or salary in the six figures offers, at least in the posting, a lot of potential flexibility.

All that to say, **** those peons. Can't trust 'em anyway.

Stupid. Oddly enough my company is transitioning to having its equivalent of C suite employees come in 2 times per week soon. Us peons are still 1 day. But like I said, I expect them to make us do 2 days next year. But at least the higher ups are going in more than me.
 
You might be surprised. Employers are striking back at employee compensation, benefits, care, and whatever, and they're winning. There aren't as many options as people like to say there are.
I think it depends on the industry. In my industry, plenty of smaller companies and startups are reaping the benefits of not having to pay for office rent and having a vastly larger talent pool to draw from. Tons of opportunities, but if you're in a centralized area and want to work for one of the giants, you might have a lot more pressure to come into the office.

As for compensation, WFH is probably saving me more than $10k a year between gas, parking, coffee, lunch. And then there's the three full work weeks a year spend just getting to and from the office (and that's with a 30 minute commute each way). If I had a choice between Job A that was in-office and Job B that paid 15% less but was wfh, I'd probably take Job B.
 
  • Like
Reactions: khardbored
Stupid. Oddly enough my company is transitioning to having its equivalent of C suite employees come in 2 times per week soon. Us peons are still 1 day. But like I said, I expect them to make us do 2 days next year. But at least the higher ups are going in more than me.

Just so you know, I am totally pretending that you called me stupid.
 
Go talk to HR about their current job postings, then. They do not entirely indicate what you say is going on.
It's addressed in the FAQ. The email was sent today, those openings were posted prior to today. Don't believe me I don't care, I'm just telling you what I know from someone that has worked there for 20 ******* years. If you live within 30 miles of Des Moines you are ******* working in the office a minimum of 3 days a week unless someone really high up says differently.
 
Also banking companies are trying to lead by example from the top. C suite employees have to be in office 4 days a week, all regular employees even director level are 3 days a week.
 
I listened to a podcast last week that covered some of the changing research around remote work. Some of the recent research does point to significant decreases in productivity for fully remote work. Even in a field like software engineering, where it seems like proximity to coworkers shouldn't matter much, there's a study that found that coders got significantly less feedback from colleagues when they were simply not working in the same space, and during the pandemic and fully remote work feedback decreased further.


That's not to say that you can't be successful working on a remote team. In my small working group, I work in the office, but others work remotely enough that I might as well be remote. We still produce good work while being primarily remote. But I can also tell that when we do have several of us in the office, in-person conversations tend to pack in a lot more information and it's easier to see additional ideas flowing from one conversation to the next.
I'll have to check that out, seems interesting. It definitely matches my own experience. During my company's fully remote period, we did get things done in a certain respect. We maintained pace and productivity on "business as usual" types of tasks, but weren't successful on implementing new things. When we shifted to a hybrid environment a year ago (Tues-Thurs mandatory in office for all), after an adjustment period of a few months, suddenly two years worth of process improvement and efficiency initiatives were being proposed all at once and we've struggled to keep up. So my anecdotal evidence/opinion is that WFH is good for treading water, but difficult to excel with. At least for a larger organization like mine.

I also think that these discussions are skewed online. The types of people who tend to be the most introverted or maybe the most "aggressively introverted" and who have jobs that might be the most suitable to remote work (IT) are over represented on places like CF or Reddit. In my office, I think most people like the balance of hybrid - maybe they'd tweak things here or there but everyone seems to be getting along well with it. I would consider myself an introvert, but full time remote was not enjoyable for me. I want to have some interaction with people, and it's much easier if I don't have to be the one who arranges it intentionally haha.
 
Typical Corp bait and switch.

I know 2 people who took a new job with a high profile WDM company in the last couple months. That company touted their "Flex Time Off" all during the hiring process. Well once they started they found out it's not truly Flex Time and in fact there is a very low limit on the time they can take off. Both have started interviewing again.
 
Typical Corp bait and switch.

I know 2 people who took a new job with a high profile WDM company in the last couple months. That company touted their "Flex Time Off" all during the hiring process. Well once they started they found out it's not truly Flex Time and in fact there is a very low limit on the time they can take off. Both have started interviewing again.

Sadly, I imagine that's a common occurrence right now. Interview/start a new role based on certain criteria/benefits, only to have them change months into the new role.
 
Typical Corp bait and switch.

I know 2 people who took a new job with a high profile WDM company in the last couple months. That company touted their "Flex Time Off" all during the hiring process. Well once they started they found out it's not truly Flex Time and in fact there is a very low limit on the time they can take off. Both have started interviewing again.
Definitely beware of any "unlimited PTO" jobs - usually ends up being way less than just a normal stated amount of 20 days or whatever. I am sure it works for some companies but seems like I have heard almost entirely negative things about unlimited PTO.
 
Definitely beware of any "unlimited PTO" jobs - usually ends up being way less than just a normal stated amount of 20 days or whatever. I am sure it works for some companies but seems like I have heard almost entirely negative things about unlimited PTO.
Studies have shown that most people take less time off when given "unlimited" PTO as they don't want to be seen as abusing the system. Meanwhile people who get use it or lose it vacation time generally use that time. So while some people will definitely abuse unlimited PTO most will not and the company gets to sell it as this great benefit while also benefitting from most people taking less time off.
 
Definitely beware of any "unlimited PTO" jobs - usually ends up being way less than just a normal stated amount of 20 days or whatever. I am sure it works for some companies but seems like I have heard almost entirely negative things about unlimited PTO.

We've had unlimited PTO for almost six years and it's been great!
 
  • Agree
Reactions: Cyclones01
Typical Corp bait and switch.

I know 2 people who took a new job with a high profile WDM company in the last couple months. That company touted their "Flex Time Off" all during the hiring process. Well once they started they found out it's not truly Flex Time and in fact there is a very low limit on the time they can take off. Both have started interviewing again.

A company here had been vocal about not going back to the office. "Committed to remote". People moved further away, sold cars, rearranged childcare based on that. Within a year they announced a change to 50% office time effective within 45 days. Announced about this time last year. So people with childcare/school arrangements were already locked in. Good friend quit within a month because they had moved further away but still within the new 50 mile radius. I feel awful for people hired specifically as remote employees getting this **** pulled on them.
 
Last edited:
It's because they had a team look at badge swipes and realized that people were only going to the door, swiping in and swiping out. People just need to not abuse everything


Goes back to my point of figure out what you are trying to gain from a RTO and figure out the change management - which ideally is then motivating people to share in that vision. Blame is on the company there, not the employees.
 
We've had unlimited PTO for almost six years and it's been great!
I am sure it comes down to the manager/culture - I just know I have heard bad reviews from people where its unlimited but in reality you will get shamed and/or held back from promotions if you actually take more than a few days of PTO.

In a perfect world unlimited PTO would be perfect - the workhorses could take 5 days and the people who want to spend time with family and travel could take 35.
 
  • Winner
Reactions: isufbcurt
It's because they had a team look at badge swipes and realized that people were only going to the door, swiping in and swiping out. People just need to not abuse everything

Easy fix. Fire those people.

I don’t understand why everybody needs to have benefits removed because the likely worst employees behave poorly. Fire them and take a chance on somebody else.
 
Also, the City of Des Moines is begging these companies to bring people back to Downton. Certain businesses are really struggling since many of the companies went remote. There's a direct correlation to down town DSM going to sh!t and when these companies went remote.
Palmers down town went down hill fast
 

Help Support Us

Become a patron