Ideal Millenial Entrepreneur Podcast

133: The Great Office Return: Navigating Work Changes as a Millennial

• Amir Estimo • Season 6 • Episode 133

Share episode

Send us a text

Millennial entrepreneurs face ongoing challenges as corporations push for a full return to the office, disrupting the work-life balance many have established during the pandemic years. This transition affects not just our professional development but our personal well-being, family dynamics, and entrepreneurial aspirations.

• Pre-pandemic office culture required five-day office attendance for most employees
• During COVID, companies implemented remote work for approximately two years
• Post-pandemic hybrid schedules (3 days office/2 days home) became common
• Major financial companies now requiring five-day office attendance
• DFW traffic makes commuting increasingly difficult and time-consuming
• Working from home provides flexibility for family responsibilities
• Current economic conditions with rising costs of essentials puts pressure on employees
• Companies leverage economic uncertainty when implementing unpopular policies
• Developing income streams outside primary employment provides security
• LinkedIn shows fewer work-from-home opportunities available
• Mental breaks are essential for sustainable productivity and health
• Some companies offer sabbaticals after extended employment
• Don't sacrifice health and well-being for job advancement
• Remember that companies will quickly replace employees regardless of dedication

Take some time for yourself. If you have sick days or personal days, use them. Don't burn yourself out for a job that will post your position the day after you're gone.


This podcast is sponsored by Starvelle Talent Group. Our goal is to help the culture build Wealth Assets Prosperity. We appreciate you taking the time to listen to this episode and share the content if you find value.

Speaker 1:

Bienvenidos a Ideal Millennial Entrepreneur Podcast the podcast for millennial entrepreneurs, where each week I share financial tips on how to improve your finance, increase your income and your mindset as a millennial entrepreneur. Thanks for joining me in today's episode, empecemos.

Speaker 2:

Welcome to the Ideal Millennial Entrepreneur Podcast. I am your host, amir Estimo. Thank you for tuning in in today's podcast episode, but guess what? You could be doing anything in this world, but the fact that you are listening to this podcast episode, it is much appreciated. So, first off, I would just like to tell you guys I am a little under the weather today, so bear with me, because I've just been battling a cold the last couple of days. So if you hear my voice a little raspy then you know that's what it is. So if you enjoy this content, please rate and review this podcast episode, because you know, share with someone who will find this useful. So hopefully this podcast brings value to you. So let's jump right into it. So we're going to talk today about the whole work from home situation and how do people feel, how are you navigating work from home or returning back to the office? So mostly we're going to talk more so about returning back to the office.

Speaker 2:

I don't know if any of you guys work for a company. Well, obviously, pre-covid, uh, most, most people were in the office, uh, five days a week. I was one who was in the office for about that amount of time, five days a week. But, um, the company I worked for, we, actually we were allocated a certain amount of hours that we can use. Now, this is not, this was not for the whole organization. Uh, there is, if you were on a team or you work for a team, organized organization, so there's different organizations within that business and if you work for that organization, depending on the level of security of the data, of the data, you may be required to come and work in the office five days a week versus, you know, being allocated a certain amount of hours that you can work. But for me, I was allowed a certain amount of hours. Then, obviously, post-covid, there was a period of time, about two years, that we were allowed to work from home, and then it was extended, they did a trial and then obviously there was another outbreak and then again we were allowed to work from home for almost another year. So most people didn't really get to return back to the office to about, I would say, early 2023 and then so on and so on. A lot of the rules got laxed and then all suddenly people were coming back. So by the end of 2023, most everybody was back to the office, but they went to most of a hybrid schedule, which was you work three days on the office, two days at home, and it's been like that for a while. But I'm in the financial industry, so now you're starting to see a lot of these companies like JPMorgan Chase, goldman Sachs. These companies are now requiring everybody to come back to the office five days a week. So I'm praying and hoping that the company I work for don't follow suit and require everybody to work five days a week at the office. Because if anybody, if you know the DFW traffic, it has gotten progressively worse throughout the years I would say ever since after COVID we had influx of people moving to the Dallas DFW market. So now traffic is horrible. And not only just that.

Speaker 2:

The work from home hybrid for us became a way of life because when I'm from home, when I'm at the office, I admit when I'm at the office I work harder than when I'm home, not to say I don't work when I'm home, but I get brunt work of my job done at the office. And here's the reason why. The reason why is because when I'm at home I have kids, and especially having kids that you know, they got school activities, doctor's appointments, that they got school activities, doctor's appointments, and then my wife is not really able she's not as flexible as I am, so she can't really just take as much time as needed Whereas for me I can literally get my work done in the morning and in the afternoon be freed up to take my kids, go to awards ceremonies at schools and then also take them to the doctor's appointment, all that stuff. So that actually becomes very helpful for us as a family, because I can only imagine if I had to be in the office five days a week. It would be actually really tough to be able to get there, to be able to do things that need to be done with when we have kids and you got appointments and all that stuff. A lot of that stuff is during the week, especially if it's follow-ups with doctor's appointment, dentist appointment, all this other stuff, and it just wouldn't really be advantageous for us as a family.

Speaker 2:

So let me ask you, how is it working for you If you're a nine to five employee? How are you able to navigate still being a nine to five employee? How are you able to navigate still being nine to five employee? And also, let's say, if you have a side hustle, and that side hustle. Is that side hustle? Is it a situation where you're working from eight to five and then from six to 10, or whatever you're doing your side hustle? Or how are you able to able to put that in, balance out the side hustle and your family life? And if you have one, if you have a family, this is not directly just revolving family matters, but if you're able to do your, your side hustle, your job and all this, like, how are you able to keep up with all this?

Speaker 2:

And sometimes for us as humans, we need a mental break. And even for me, like I said, lately I've been battling a cold and that's between working. My wife earlier or last month she had surgery, so I basically had to be mom, dad, so anything that's going with the kids at school, dropping the kids to school. Also, also my daughter she has a. I have an 18 year old who has a job, so taking her to work and all that, and I think it just finally caught up to me. And on top of that, I was studying, studying for certification.

Speaker 2:

And when I tell you, I still have my nine to five, and I always tell people this, I share my story with people. I was in the retail industry for 10 years and pretty much longer than that. But I was with a company for 10 years and I was a manager. I moved up. I started as a low-level employee, then I moved up and then I got into a shift manager, then assistant manager, then I became a store manager, or I was a training manager, then a store manager and then after that I just did manager. I was a store manager for almost six years.

Speaker 2:

And one thing I tell people I always share my story is a lot of times you have to deal with a lot of the stress or a lot of that when you try to change careers. Because when I got to year seven working for this company, I was burnt out from it but I was staying, staying like I was burnt out from it but I was staying, staying like I was staying around my okay, you know, let's see if things were cause the next step before me was to move up into the corporate structure and then and then I come to find out later I don't think that's what I wanted to do. So for me it was more so of dealing with that career change Cause there was a point I took a whole year off when I switched careers and when for me was the late night studying the, taking the test and then going to job interviews getting rejected. All that came back full circle, meaning that now the company I work for is very flexible. It's mostly get your job done. There's nobody breathing down your neck, there's nobody telling you hey, you know, you got to get these numbers up and all that. I think I'm getting to that point where it's time to switch roles again. I think I'm a year a little too long now, but I would say probably about the end of this year it is time to find another role.

Speaker 2:

Good thing is, when you get into a big company you can be able to move around and navigate. So not only you just sitting at one position. You don't want to just do that, you want to be able to move around as much as you can. And if you don't, some of the moves could be linear, meaning that it could be side moves. So some of the moves it can move you up to different levels, different within the company. But for me, navigating all that, the career change and when I did this I was so thankful I did what I did made that career change for five years before COVID, because I can only imagine if I was working at that same company during COVID how much stress it would have been, and to even get this opportunity and to be able to be able to get stuff done and have a job where it's not like breathing down your throat to get things done is very appreciative. So I'm thankful for that, because I've recorded a couple of episodes and I talked about appreciate your position, why you plot your promotion and right now that is a phase that I am. And even if this company was to say, hey, it's time to go full, it's time to go five days a week, I want to be on that forefront, not to say not to say that it wouldn't, it would not have be, it would not be easy. Um, it just would be very difficult.

Speaker 2:

Because now, relating to your side hustle, because you're living in a time right now, especially in the US, maybe worldwide, where it is tough Price of eggs is up, gas is up, groceries is up, jobs are very scarce these days. That's why when these jobs they switch and they know that and when they switch to these, well, we're going to work five days a week home. They take advantage of that because people have to capitulate, because people have to. They need their jobs and you know you got to take care of your family and all that et cetera. That's why it is important to grow something outside of your nine to five so you don't if you ever get into the situation where you like let's say you're working a hybrid or you're working from home and then your company comes to say, hey, we're expecting you now to do a hybrid schedule, or if you're a hybrid now, respecting you to come to the office five days a week, you're not panicking because as long as you can grow your hustle outside and eventually your hustle can replace your income and even if it replaces your income, maybe a one X, two X more than your income.

Speaker 2:

So these are things you have to think about, because you know, with these hybrid schedules, they're not going to remain there. They're, you know, companies depending on the company. They really care about the people. You know they're going to, they're going to expect you to be in this office and because they know, hey, you need this job and they know how the market is, because they do lobby market studies. If you go check LinkedIn right now, there's barely any work from home jobs anymore and the fact that is is very scarce and there's a lot of ghost posting now on LinkedIn. There is a lot of companies are bringing in people and really not hiring, only for them to do internal hires anyways. If they do hire you, you're mostly on a contract schedule and then you're you're mostly a contractor. My bad, so we have to you.

Speaker 2:

All these changes that's going on is that requires you to have a mental break. I was talking to a lady about a few months ago and she she quit her company after working for eight years, I think eight years or so she was with this company. She quit because she couldn't do it and she couldn't do the fact that the culture there and now I have to follow up with her and see how things go but they gave her a severance package. She quit and to see that you were you put in eight years for a company, only for them to give you a severance package, and the severance package was West for like a couple of months, I think. And that goes to tell you is, if you don't really have something else going outside of your nine to five and you're relying on that one income, you're playing with fire for the most part because these companies right now they know that, they know that, ok, you know, I can fire you and I can bring in someone. Actually, that's someone. They can come into office five days a week and you know, and they can bring in a contractor to do your job, depending on what sector you're in, um me who, being an information technology sector, you get that a lot.

Speaker 2:

So my question now is for you is having this navigation, having this, all this going on inside your, outside of your life, your job, your nine to five, and then all this you're dealing with that work from home, the mental aspect how are you dealing with that? How are you taking, are you taking mental breaks? Because a lot of people I find it funny is that they don't take mental breaks. They keep going and going. It's like the Energizer Bunny they keep going and going and going. But you have to realize a nine to five job is temporarily. You are, you are and meaning that they can come from, fire you at any moment and not give to care and in you who never take these time off. It's not good, it is really not good. So you have to be able to take some time for yourself. Take some time for your family, if you have any, even if you're single. If you're single, maybe take some time, take a day, take a day. Take a day If you have sick days, personal days. Use those things. Don't just let them sit on the bench and then you just giving it all, giving it all. Giving it all Because, with this work from home and then hybrid and now going back to the office five days a week, it's bringing a lot of stress to people.

Speaker 2:

And I can tell you right now, even for me and my wife, we've had discussions like oh man, you know what, if you have to go to office five days a week, you know, and that is two more days now I'm spending driving to the office, and good for me is I have a hybrid car, but even then you know the amount of gas you're spending. It just becomes a disadvantage for you as a family. So that's why, for me, you know, if you have any time to yourself, take it. You know, if you need one day to rest, you need one day to just recharge yourself and in between that, depending on how much vacation time you have, take some time away. Take two or three days away and just get away from all the madness. Don't burn yourself out for a job that they say they care about you.

Speaker 2:

But how do you really? How do you know? How do you know? I mean, they can put things in place, programs in place. And then I know the company I work for if you've been there 10 years, I think it is, or I want to say 10 or 15 years, something to that nature. They they do what you call a sabbatical, so you could take six weeks off, you can use your sabbatical, and that's besides your personal time. So for us we get 240 hours between personal sick days and vacation days and all that stuff. So if you have a sabbatical, you get six weeks on top of that. So literally, you could probably work maybe three, eight, nine months throughout the year, maybe three, eight, nine months throughout the year. So you see where you see.

Speaker 2:

And if you have all this going on and all you're doing is working, working, working, working, how's that helping you and your family? How's that helping you and your family? How's that helping you as a human being? And if they come to you and let's say you're working from home, now hey, we need you to come into the office three days, three days a week, two days home. Oh, by the way, hold on.

Speaker 2:

Literally five months later, guess what? We're making another change. You're coming to the office five days a week. You need time to yourself. Don't just sit there and burn yourself out. Don't do that. And I think that's what a lot of people get themselves into.

Speaker 2:

And then then they find out um, I, there was a company, the company I worked for, they, there was this guy. He, um, he was working over a hundred hours a week. He was into stock trading. He was not stock, he was a stockbroker, broker, something to that nature within that sector. And then he was working 100 hours a week. So he was trying to find another job because he just needed to think about, he was starting to think about his health, his way of life. You know, you only have 168 hours a week and 100 hours of that cannot be dedicated to a job. It just can't be Guess what. Literally, a month or two after that he drops dead and dies. Yeah, the company's going to send condolences and all this other stuff, but at the end of the day they're just going to post his job and find someone else to do his job.

Speaker 2:

So that always makes me realize one have income outside of your nine to five to take some time off. Even with all these changes, you need a break, physically, mentally, you need a break. So I thought I'll share that with you guys. Hopefully this is a value for you guys. This was kind of off the dome, I mean, I was just thinking of this. I didn't really prepare, I just came and just wanted to share this some service message with you guys. Take some time for yourself. Don't just sit there and capitulate to this job and keep doing, and doing, and doing and thinking. Even if you're trying to get promoted, doing in spurts, do what you can, because at the end of the day, so the company you work for, if you die today, they're just going to post your job the next day. So take some time for yourself. Peace, much love.