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80% of bosses say they regret earlier return-to-office plans: ‘A lot of executives have egg on their faces’ (www.cnbc.com)
submitted 3 years ago by [M, B] to c/technology@lemmy.world
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80% of bosses say they regret earlier return-to-office plans: ‘A lot of executives have egg on their faces’::As some business leaders accept hybrid work as a permanent reality, others are backtracking on earlier pledges to let employees work from home.

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[–] 22 points 3 years ago (5 children)

I've never really accepted the theory that return to office pushes are driven by office maintenance costs, or whatever. Hell, those expenses go UP when everyone is back. Working from home takes away electrical usage, and mitigates janitorial demand. If productivity is up or equal, and building maintenance costs are down, then wtf is it really about?

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  • [–] 26 points 3 years ago (3 children)

    A lot of companies are stuck in long term leases so they're paying rent whether the buildings are being used or not. When out of touch upper management sees cubicles laying fallow they get pissed

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  • [–] 15 points 3 years ago

    Yup, classic sunk cost. We're paying for this, why aren't we using it?

    This should get interesting in the next few years when those leases come up due and companies decide they can shrink their office substantially.

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  • [–] 2 points 3 years ago

    Imagine what would happen if a bunch of huge fully-remote companies with no office space were told by the government that they now had to buy a building for workers to work in.

    Imagine how fast their opinion would switch.

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  • [–] 1 point 3 years ago

    That's still weird though. You could still generate more savings from the utilities costs if you don't have your people return to work. The company I worked for actually reduced office space because of the savings.

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  • [–] 11 points 3 years ago* (1 child)

    I'm surprised people in this comments section aren't aware of the real estate mob. It's the oligarchy who are pushing for return to offices. They have valuable investments in both big companies and the real estate, and they don't want to see the values of their assets going down.

    Somebody posted about this on lemmy a week or so ago. I'll see if I can find it.

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  • [–] 2 points 3 years ago

    Don't worry, they will divest now while it's propped up. When they are divested and it's suckers holding the bag, they will be fine with wfh.

    The dam is broken, there is no going back. It will be different by company and industry but it's not going away.

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  • [–] 4 points 3 years ago* (last edited 3 years ago)

    I just don't get it. That money has already been spent or guaranteed for the current leases. It's a sunk cost either way. If they end up not needing it that office space then, once those leases are up, that become a cost saving and improve the bottom line of corporate profits right?

    Only thing I can think of is that a a considerable percentage of upper management are getting kick backs by property owners who can see what WFH policies mean to their business model, or there are a lot of managers that don't know how to evaluate employee performance based on their deliverables.

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  • [–] 3 points 3 years ago*

    It's about ego. The boss doesn't know how to make the company perform better, they're all out of ideas. They have to change something to make it look like they're doing something, so RTO is the low hanging fruit.

    There's really no more justification needed than that. Looking at practical benefits to explain RTO pushes won't get you answers because the practical benefits are so slim and conditional relative to the strain it creates.

    It's all about ego. They self-identity as the hardcore alpha boss that deserves high pay because they "earn" it. So to massage that ego, they go into the office even though they dont need to, and are meeting with nobody there. It's pointless but it feeds their ego.

    So they feel alone at the office...and in that worldview they are hardworking (an assumed condition), and nobody else is there, therefore everyone else is not hardworking (regardless of how much work they're actually doing).

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