This is retarded.

1. It isn't for profit healthcare that is the problem, it's THIRD PARTY PAY.
2. I don't use third party pay, ever, for healthcare. I've been insured nonstop for over 30 years, and NEVER ONCE has my insurer paid my doctor.
3. Even when I've had emergencies, I still called around, negotiated a fair cash up front rate, paid cash up front, and billed it to my insurer. My cash up front rate was sometimes below any co-pay negotiated with my insurer, lol.

I just recently had some elective surgery that would have cost me about $2000 on my annual deductible, but I was able to cash pay a negotiated rate of $400 including a follow-up "free". I submitted the $400 to my insurer and they reimbursed me.

Third party insurance exists because YOU VOTERS demanded the HMO Act of the 1970s, which tied health care to employment, and then employers outsourced it to third parties.

Health care is remarkably cheap in the US (cash pay, negotiated) and I don't have to wait months to see a doctor when I call and say I am cash pay. They bump me up fast.

Lean on your keyboard for long enough and you'll have a valid Perl program. You won't know what it does of course, but then how does that differ from any other Perl program?

How will you enforce this short of installing spyware on PCs which companies are doing in increasing numbers ...the ones using that to justify RTO. Remember people can use mouse jugglers and just use their USB ports like the ones caught at Wells Fargo.

Also, real estate values. Many renewals have butts in seats requirements as the landlords feel left out not collecting at the deli in the basement and parking lots. So it's 5 days a week to make the one landlord richer

Class 1 and 2 e-bikes limit assist to 20 mph, not 15. You can ride them faster than that, but you have to provide the power. 20 mph is well above what most recreational cyclists can maintain on a flat course, so if these classes arenâ(TM)t fast enough to be safe, neither is a regular bike. The performance is well within what is possible for a fit cyclist for short times , so their performance envelope is suitable for sharing bike and mixed use infrastructure like rail trails.

Class 3 bikes can assist riders to 28 mph. This is elite rider territory. There is no regulatory requirement ti equip the bike to handle those speeds safely, eg hydraulic brakes with adequate size rotors. E-bikes in this class are far more likely to pose injury risks to others. I think it makes a lot of sense to treat them as mopeds, requiring a drivers license for example.

I could see if I were a CEO or leadership and saw this over a large sample set I would freak out and implement a RTO. I would realize it is true that clocking in and clocking out may work great on an assembly line a century ago in a factory and people clocking in 15 minutes would hit numbers FAST, however I can't have people logging in only 4 to 5 hours a day.

We have spyware at my employer in which I HATE so my boss let me know when he caught me tired using my phone to log into teams and it was 8am and not 7am that one day. But the other option is he sends me into the office 5 days a week.

But how do you measure productivity? This things are hard. Is it projects? How do you determine the correct labor hours for a project? A previous employer had this drop and they got rid of hybrid work and it is one of the reasons I left.

I like to think we are all adults but I do admit I goofed one day and so has everyone else every now or then. I also have a friend at a bank and he said RTO fixed IT issues like a bank manager needing to get a block removed for a new credit card for a customer. No one would answer in Teams and it was hours later. After RTO instant contact. So return to office was a success and leaders agreed remote work is just not effective and we debated this.

Internal data and other sources such as the Bureau of Labor Statistics showed workers averaged 2.6 hours less than their in office counterparts. AAA touted WFH as the great savior of new talent until their spyware revealed people logged in less than 4 hours a day. Now it is BUTS IN SEATS after the CEO saw this.

Microsoft said they would continue their WFH and hybrid policy unless there was a drop in productivity. I guess part of their new collaboration aka PHB term for micro managing people to track attandance, potty time, and phone use, is now all the rage.

Part of me is so angry. A few bad apples blew it! I work in IT like many ./'ers and met people who worked multiple jobs in secret and weren't available in Teams until like after 11am.

The data now vs 2020 is polar opposite and people took advantage of it. Now I have to commute and waste 30 hours a month driving and tearing up my expensive car so I can be watched at work like I am 12 because people lack accountability and self discipline. I am also dissapointed as I thought society would evolve in a new era as the office was an outdated 19th/20th century concept. Oh well.

Would treating them as mopeds be so bad?

What weâ(TM)re looking at is exactly what happened when gasoline cars started to become popular and created problems with deaths, injuries, and property damage. The answer to managing those problems and providing accountability was to make the vehicles display registration plates, require licensing of drivers, and enforcing minimum safety standards on cars. Iâ(TM)m not necessarily suggesting all these things should be done to e-bikes, but I donâ(TM)t see why they shouldnâ(TM)t be on the table.

I am a lifelong cyclist , over fifty years now, and in general I welcome e-bikes getting more people into light two wheel vehicles. But I see serious danger to both e-bike riders and the people around them. There are regulatory classes which limit the performance envelope of the vehicle, but class 3, allowing assist up to 28 mph, is far too powerful for a novice cyclist. Only the most athletic cyclists, like professional tour racers, can sustain speeds like that, but they have advanced bike handling skills and theyâ(TM)re doing it on bikes that weigh 1/5 of what complete novice novice e-bike riders are on. Plus the pros are on the best bikes money can buy. If you pay $1500 for an e-bike, youâ(TM)re getting about $1200 of battery and motor bolted onto $300 of bike.

Whatâ(TM)s worse, many e-bikes which have e-bike class stickers can be configured to ignore class performance restrictions, and you can have someone with no bike handling skills riding what in effect is an electric motorcycle with terrible brakes.

E-bike classification notwithstanding, thereâ(TM)s a continuum from electrified bicycles with performance roughly what is achievable by a casi recreational rider on one end, running all the way up to electric motorcycles. If there were only such a thing as a class 1 e-bike thereâ(TM)d be little need to build a regulatory system with registration and operator licensing. But you canâ(TM)t tell by glancing at a two wheel electric vehicle exactly where on the bike to motorcycle spectrum it falls; that depends on the motor specification and software settings. So as these things become more popular, I donâ(TM)t see any alternative to having a registration and inspection system for all of them, with regulatory categories and restrictions based on the weight and hardware performance limitations of the vehicle. Otherwise youâ(TM)ll have more of the worst case weâ(TM)re already seeing: preteen kids riding what are essentially electric motorcycles that weigh as much as they do because the parents think those things are âoebikesâ and therefore appropriate toys.

Because for music, we're in a post-scarcity future. The world is not short of new music, and the tools for producing it get better and better and better. There's no shortage of people wanting to write, you can reasonably easily self-publish (and on a completely unrelated note...check out my two albums and my singles...)...there's no scarcity here.

The problem isn't availability. The problem is gaining an audience.

You're forgetting the big one: that the system is designed to fail and create an uneducated unskilled worker class for the wealthy elite.

The irony of your sarcasm is it actually *is* horrible.

Water is good - necessary even - but too much water will kill you. Choice is the exact same way - it's entirely possible to have too much of it, as much as that contradicts an ethos buried deeply in the American id.

We have hybrid now yes but I knew one colleague who worked a 2nd job in secret and got caught and over employed was huge on Reddit so you are right.

IT did have remote roles pre COVID but these mandates hit them too as no one is allowed to work anymore at home for a lot of these companies. We waste so much on gas and time just to take calls an hour a way each day

If everyone and their brother is RTO now. Target and Klarna also justed all all WFH this week as well then there is a good reason.

I really do think login hours and reports like I described is why and theory X not Theory Y management is the main factor. If every employee works 2 hours a day that is 40 hours of lost productivity a month assuming a 20 day work week in the eyes of management every month

How is Linux, kubernetes, and other open source advancing without an actual office ... You know for collaboration?

Collaboration is code for micro managing as they don't trust their employees to work independently.

If there is a deadline I don't want my employees leaving at 3pm to beat the 2 hour commute with traffic and pick up a kid. I don't want my employees to have stress from their marriage but forcing them to come home late so I can watch them work.

In such an event working late at home together gets it done more efficiently

They don't exist anymore. It's all in office now or hybrid if you are very lucky. It's so frustrating

I don't buy it. That might have worked for Twitter and Amazon back in 2022 when there was places still remote to jump but not today.

Name one employer that is remote? Salesforce RTO, Amazon RTO, Oracle RTO, Meta RTO, etc. Target and Klarna joined the return to office bandwagon too.

Literally that and Musk forcing the government to RTO destroyed the phenomenon and it's all pre COVID. Bosses don't trust people to work at home anymore is why