Why the downvotes?

Question

Employee will not come into the office and managers will not enforce it

I am getting a lot of downvotes on this question. I would like to get some feedback on what can I improve to change that.

Answer 1

Your question wasn't "How should I handle this situation?" or "What should I do differently next time?"

You went straight to "Where in the USA do people value rules?", which implies that people (including 3 managing directors) don't value rules unless they enforce those rules exactly how you want them to be enforced. You're not open to the possibility that you might be the one in the wrong.

Answer 2

I downvoted because I don't like the premise or tone of the question. Premise-wise, it's basically asking us to validate and encourage obsessive, rigid thinking and behavior. Tone-wise, it's effectively a rant in disguise.

Answer 3

While this site has a rule of assuming good faith, it's fair to assume some of the downvoters thought you were not asking in good faith and were simply trolling.

Answer 4

I didn't downvote, and I tried to set up an answer as clear and neutral as possible. That being said, think about the following points :

1. Everyone seem to disagree with you
2. Most people (including me) seem to think your behaviour is extremely agressive
3. Instead of answering the commenter's points, you open another thread to complain that everyone is downvoting you

That's typically the behaviour of someone not used to meet opposition. I've got bad news for you : corporate life is full of opportunities when things don't happen as we want. It happens to me all the time, as well, not to have things as I want at work. I do adapt.

You have to adapt and adjust as well. When things obviously are not unfolding as you imagined, then the most likely reason is that your expectations were unrealistic. At my own workplace, my own expectations were unrealistic more than once. I did adjust. It's time for you to learn to do the same, instead of blaming the entire world for not fitting your expectations.

Answer 5

Personally I downvoted for several reasons and I am guessing these also applied to others.

1. You posted that it was your job to check that people returned yet you seem to think that it is your job to force people to return
2. You seem to think it is your job to determine if a reason for working from home is valid or not.
3. You seem to think that it is your job to determine who can and can't work from home.
4. You seem to to think that you have the authority to overrule managing directors who have approved work from home
5. You seem to think that you have the authority to fire people who are working from home if you don't approve of it.

Overall it seems that you seem to think that you are above managing directors and in control of what everyone can and can't do in the company.

As a side note you should hope that no one from your employer finds out about either of these threads as they will not look kindly upon you taking this internal issue public.

Answer 6

I would like to get some feedback on what can I improve to change that.

Let's avoid being personal about you, instead see the instance of HR that you represent. That means ignore if you have fun doing that or you realize you got the unfortunate job and have no choice.
However your name and facts you give suggest you really are too far from rational behavior, as well as the rules you are checking are... but let us only see the situation.

Summarizing the post you refer to, someone works from home because of an injury - instead sick leave.
This person gets crutches suggested, with all trouble it brings to commute every day.
All managers are activated and the employee is threatened with termination although their manager is fine with that.
That's a situation completely out of every sanity.

There may be rules - made by someone far from reality and sense. But nobody likes that.
Hence, perhaps the downvotes come because you keep digging deeper and deeper.

Answer 7

You need to give it up for your own mental health. You have lost. Stop trying to extend the dispute by finding new people to pester, because everybody will say the same thing. You are wrong. Posting here will achieve nothing. Do not do it.

Instead, ask yourself why everybody is disagreeing with you. Consider whether you are wrong, and whether this is something you should devote any more energy to. Sometimes you just have to give up and move on. Ideally, you will be able to see other people's points of view, but if not, just put it behind you and do the rest of your job. Maybe take a vacation.

People reading this will be aware that there are strange people who become obsessed with something that everybody else knows is untrue: some of them believe in aliens or weird cultish religions, that science is a lie, the earth is flat, space travel a hoax, or the universe is only explicable by visualising time as a cube. Others believe more mundane things that are almost certainly incorrect and definitely nothing they can influence. These strange people spend the rest of their lives doing things like printing pamphlets and self-publishing books and handing them out on the street, running purple-texted websites, or in extreme cases they do much worse things to try and attract attention or take revenge. It is in our interest and your interest that you stop and think what you are doing and where it will take you.

Answer 8

As I told you in a comment, I think you clearly lack HR job training.

Sadly there is no such thing as HR education, HR apprenticeship or HR college classes. Which is a shame, given that your "workers" probably all would not have been employed if they did not have a multi year education in their respective professions.

I have not downvoted your question personally, but "lacks basic job training" could be seen as "no prior research" when asking why something basic on the job does not work as expected.