X [Doubt]
CEOs, admit they used feelings over logic and everyone had to just pretend it made sense?
The only feelings were probably that they thought the productivity loss would be less than the losses in commercial real estate, and now they’ve either minimized the real estate losses, or realized them, and they feel the equation has flipped
It has nothing to do with real estate. This is often echoed on social media but is baseless.
Companies typically chase quarterly growth over all else. Working from home benefits that while trying to fix real estate values is a long term thing, only offering a payout if they sell the building, which most companies aren’t worried about. Companies tend to be very hesitant to hurt quarterly growth in favor of long term, iffy investments.
Even if they did care about real estate value, they’d rather all other companies return to office, boosting those values, while they could then remain remote and take advantage of both the higher real estate values and also the numerous advantages of remote work.
Boosting real estate values in this way is a collective action problem where most companies would need to work together for the greater good (as they see it). But if you hold this world view, that CEOs will screw over their employees for their bottom line, why wouldn’t they also screw over other companies? They would. They would want other companies to work together to fix the real estate values while also benefitting from remote work. So it would all fall apart.
Here are more likely scenarios:
- SHAREHOLDERS. Shareholders don’t like unused assets. “Use it or lose it”. So, CEOs force return to office because they think it’ll help the stock price. Shareholders are also likely to blame as evidenced by publicly traded companies being more likely to mandate a return to office.
- Personal preference. CEOs, and other executives who make this decision, simply prefer to work in the office and they prefer a full office to an empty one. Either cause: they have a very extroverted personality (likely how they got the job in the first place), they feel more powerful with all their underlings around, or they have a harder time working from home and can’t fathom anyone being different.
It’s even better when my CEO slipped up and admitted in front of the entire company that the return to office policy was based solely on a feeling.
I thought the point was to get people to resign so they didn’t have to pay severance?
My company had that same attitude when they announced full RTO. They were then faced with extremely high turnover for a sustained period. They had trouble hiring people to fulfill the constant merry-go-round of job openings and that negatively impacted productivity. So they backed off from full RTO and moved to a hybrid model instead.
Hybrid model is such a stupid fucking compromise. Come in when a scrum or meeting is needed. Leave everyone else the fuck alone if they’re hitting targets.
It also limits hiring/job pools because you still need to live close enough to come in to the office. May as well be a full office job then. Hybrid is not a compromise to remote.
I agree. I would prefer full remote.
Maybe enough people resigned.
I sincerely thought this headline was from the onion. I don’t think a lot of CEOs have the humility to admit fault.
It’s impossible to hide the productivity losses from shareholders.
When has easily identified objective reality ever discouraged CEOs?
The data showed the same thing on a smaller scale BEFORE the pandemic and they still almost universally demanded that people needlessly commute to perform location-agnostic tasks.
That they haven’t learned any lessons is par for the course.
It wasn’t ever about productivity, it was about control.
It’s not about control, it’s about trying to protect the economy from uncertainty.
Edit: to clarify: the part of the economy that serves large business owners (business real estate stocks, the shares of their company and the stock market in general). I really don’t think the majority of managers care that much about control.
It’s absolutely about control. Example. I did a short spell at a hedge fund earlier this year and they were hyper-focussed about staff being onsite. Didn’t even have seating in the kitchen or a dining area. Just bank after bank of fixed desks with people yelling at each other on video calls to other people in the same office. Control, control, control.
Maybe I’m lucky to not work in such a horrible environment. Thanks for sharing. Why do people put up with it… I mean I know it’s not always easy to find work elsewhere.
In this particular case, a combination of factors:
- The company must ensure that all work-related communications for the traders (the people directing billions for the organisation and its customers) are recorded, not just recording all phone calls and emails, literally everything. They like to have these people work onsite for this because of course nobody can ever be trusted and nobody ever goes to lunch…
- Management is all boomers - literally can’t get their heads around remote work. They think that if you aren’t in the office suffering then you are skiving. It’s literally about an identity and conformity.
- Management is completely focussed on traders - ‘if they all have to be here then so must everyone else’
- They pay exceptionally well. Absolutely a horrible environment but if you move the needle at a hedge fund then they will pay you more than any other type of employer.
I see. Really weird to hear about these old school boomers’ mentality. I thought they were the minority because “why would I work for you if you say shit like that?” In the tech industry where I work this wouldn’t fly. Or companies push for rto just to push people out. But I can now imagine how it can be in other industries.
Because if you don’t put up with it, you die.
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Hey, you had the opportunity to let the boomer remover do its thing, but y’all had to go and get everybody vaccinated.
Just to clarify I’m not saying the productivity argument to force everyone back is valid. I think I’m just lucky to be working with reasonable people who value the flexibility of a balance of WFH and RTO. Managers and other staff alike.
There is no flexibility when you have mandated WFH and RTO. Can you come and go on your own accord, going to an office only when you feel you would better accomplish your tasks there? That’s flexibility. We work from home Monday Tuesday, and at the office Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday? That’s not flexibility.
Ah I see. Basically yes we have proper flexibility. There’s encouragement to go in more but no “stick” (yet). Some are fully remote and doing well for example.
Sounds pretty rad! Hope the sticks stay in the closet, where they belong.
If by economy you mean business owners, business real estate, and the stock market, yes. The RTO mandates certainly aren’t about protecting the workers or productivity though.
Remember, the workers, buying power, and productivity are part of “the economy” too, it’s not just what the stock market is doing. RTO mandates are harming that for jobs that can be done remotely.
Yes I meant what you said, exactly. The part of the economy that serves business owners.
I think you got misunderstood. People thought you meant protecting that part of the economy was a good thing. We’re over here wanting “trickle down” economics to come to an end before any of us ever give a shit about businesses. Give us our fair share, or at least a living wage, or burn.
Yes I realise I’ll have to make it clearer next time. Thank you.
Don’t worry too much, I’m just glad you aren’t a bootlicker 🤣
Hope you have a good New Year’s, and a good coming year.
Cheers. All the best to you and your loved ones for 2024!
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Alternate headline: CEOs still out of touch with rank and file employees, continue to set policy based on enormous egos and to assuage shareholders
Additional descriptor: Because McKinsey and the other big 3 PM’s are pushing the same narrative with every client.
CEOs will admit nothing.
Shareholders like to hear that employees are having to come to the office, being fired, or pissing in bottles. It means more money for the shareholders.
“Every hour we’ll beat our lowest performing employee with a pool ball in a sock.”
The line goes up.
Why are shareholders happy to hear that businesses are spending unnecessary money on renting office spaces?
Because most shareholders are boomers.
Just let people work remote. It is the best way for me to be productive and not have to spend extra money on travel.
“You want something that doesn’t affect our bottom line and improves your life? Fuck you! I pulled myself up by the bootstraps… They were golden and provided by my daddy, but I pulled myself up all the same!”
–Billionaires, probably
Anybody with a job that isn’t in a warehouse will tell you productivity went up with work from home, not down. Fuck the media for always sleeping through reality.
Also didn’t help teachers at all. But ya, for all office workers who aren’t social and especially for those of us who had a long commute, wfh was a godsend.
Not to mention, you aren’t as aware of down time when you’re there in person. You’re at the office, so most tasks you do still feel like work. If you’re a knowledge worker you might spend 4 hours getting actual work done, and you can see that way more easily at home. I think that’s why people have been more productive, because they think they’re falling behind when they really aren’t.
Plus, being in a familiar environment and not needing to wake up early for commutes is massive.
Guess what I’m doing for 45-60 minutes each day while NOT driving to/from an office…
Watching anime waiting for 9:00 to roll around
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CEOs will never admit shit until they’re paid to do so.
Absolutely this. All the metrics already tell us that productivity does not decline from allowing employees to work from home. Why would additional data suddenly cause CEOs to admit what’s already known?
But they helped their buddies with empty real estate downtown so it’s all good.
Again with this claim. Do you really think executives that get paid bonuses based on how well the company performs are going to make poor business decisions to help out their friends?
Depends on where their investment assets are
You can just invest in something else instead.
Are you being purposefully obtuse, or do really not understand?
Why the fuck would they invest in something else when they think they have the power to manipulate their position into inflated value? If there is a rush to return to the office then demand for the best places would exceed supply and those stocks would skyrocket. They’d make out like bandits.
Of course, it’s not really panning out that way; the cat’s out of the bag on remote work, Pandora’s box is open. So some of that gung-ho for RTO will die out. Sure there will still be some, as some people just want employees under stricter observation and control (mostly for pretty unjustifiable reasons) but there really isn’t much of a financial incentive from an office prestige or from a productivity standpoint anymore. Shareholders are going to wonder why the companies who insist on RTO are taking on the extra cost and liability, when that money could be going toward dividends.
You’re really getting into tinfoil hat territory with this, to be honest.
I think this is because the reason to get people to get back into office was to protect commercial real estate values.
Now that the third tallest tower in LA sold for 45% its previous selling price, the dominoes have started to fall.
Now, it will be about getting people to work from home and trying to get out of these buildings as they are a failed investment.
So we are going to start seeing companies “offer” to let people work from home. They may even ask you to take a pay cut or something for the privilege.
This is just my prediction and I’m not an expert in these fields. So take this with a grain of salt.
If you are working in an office by force and they offer to let you work from home with a pay cut, I’d hold out a few months as they may start forcing people to work from home at full pay.
So here is some real-world anecdata from this current month: I have been interviewing in UK with smaller companies and one of the first questions has been what compensation I am seeking. I have been upfront about my preference (remote first) and travel costs, which I calculate as approximately the equivalent of £10k/year gross salary for each scheduled day/week on site from my location to nearest major city. I have said that I can do up to 2 x regular day/week onsite.
- Nobody has disputed my reckoning or reasoning
- Startup company advertised ‘hybrid’. I gave a comp ask saying ‘with 1 day/week on site’. They came back to suggest a 10k lesser figure full remote. I withdrew because I accepted another offer but this would have been acceptable.
- Scale-up company- again advertised ‘hybrid’, suggesting 1 day/fortnight onsite. I gave same salary/travel calculation. They came back with offer of my basic figure for remote with quarterly visits at company expense instead, i.e. travel, accommodation etc. I accepted this.
This is a conspiracy theory. For this hypothesis to be true, it would take all companies and and real estate companies to cooperate. This is something people are likely to believe because it is an us vs them theory. But in practice they are incapable of doing it.
The problem is that real estate companies and lending companies have competing interests. Real estate companies want people to go back to office, obviously. But other companies would save loads of money by going full remote. The current lease is irrelevant, because the money is already lost, and it won’t be recovered if people go back to office. The sunk cost fallacy is not a fallacy any decent company will fall for. People though will easily believe they do, especially when they are not protecting themselves from it.
My hypothesis is that management and direction are controle freaks who cannot trust their employees. They are also aroogant. This leads to a situation where they will attribute any productivity benefit during remote work to their skills and decisions, and they will attribute any decrease to employee lazyness when they’re not closely monitored. They want to correct this by bringing people back to office to appease their mind. There is reaction to change too, obviously, but I suppose it simply takes the shape I described, the shape of distrust of employees.
For this hypothesis to be true, it would take all companies and and real estate companies to cooperate.
Not all, just a lot of them. That is not hard to imagine, since the same companies who are the biggest investors in real estate (commercial or residential for that matter) are also the biggest institutional owners of the stock of public companies. The point is, the ownership of all this converges at Wall Street, and that’s where this goes one way or another.
No, because then one company would exploit this. And it would still be a big loss for the companies not owning the real estate.
They all collaborated on coordinated layoffs, which was blamed on blind by potential insiders in vanguard pressuring CEOs and I don’t think any tech company skipped the order.
Some companies continued WFH, some were full remote even before the pandemic. They are shown to be very competitive in their markets. OTOH, many RTO companies have been shown to be hurt b their RTO policies, but leadership didn’t care. Insiders usually point to commercial real estate investments as the reason, where the owners decided they themselves will lose less money if their companies tank a bit, but their other investments don’t take a dive.
It’s not even a conspiracy at this point. Sure, there are weird middle manager types and people who hate being at home and all that, but the main driving force behind institutional change at megacorps is not Joe the team lead with 6 rungs above him and one below on the corporate ladder.
Exploit higher costs and lower productivity paying for office space?
I think this is because the reason to get people to get back into office was to protect commercial real estate values.
I keep seeing people make this claim, but I never see any evidence to back it up. Large businesses usually lease their office space, so why should they care how much it is worth? And the ones that do own their buildings, probably aren’t planning to sell any time soon, so why should they care?
The whole thing just sounds like nonsense to me.
This won’t happen because no one is measuring productivity. If they had any way to measure productivity or even cared about it, there wouldn’t be bullshit jobs. CEOs will never admit this, because it was never the point.
If there weren’t bullshit jobs, capitalism would collapse. There wouldn’t be enough jobs to feed the workers, so they’d revolt and overthrow the system. People don’t revolt and overthrow the system very often, but when two thirds of the population is starving, they do.
These are not mutually exclusive.
When did we stop using the Oracle of Delphi and switch to future of work experts for our predictions?
When the god of money took the place of Zeus during the 18th century.
Is being a future of work expert a good-paying career?
Idk but they have job stability until society collapses so they have that going. I can’t imagine a future without work
It’ll be like Groundhog Day except it’s when we see Mark Zuckerberg withdraw into his bunker. We’ll know there’s no more work to be done!
No but it will be.
Return to office mandates were never about productivity. They are about fulfilling obligations to municipalities that gave them tax breaks on real-estate in exchange for hiring a certain number of local employees.
