Managing will be harder with work-from-home. Difficult to spin yarns to justify your wages if it’s clear that employees don’t need perpetual supervision.
Going into the office is also important to justify the existence of middle management. How else can someone demonstrate that they streamlined workflows and synergised team dynamics without having daily sandpit huddles followed by breakout sessions.
Boomers think you’re not working unless you’re chained to your desk. They completely overlook the fact that I wasn’t work when I was chained to my desk either.
Return to work is to justify MASSIVE pre-paid rent contracts + the obsolete jobs of ‘office managers’.
basically work-from-home means these office paper pushers are just a money drain with no financial benefit to any business whatsoever, but they’ll fight to the end.
Its like when cars were introduced, but blacksmiths tried to stop them by getting laws where someone had to walk in front of the car, waving a red flag shouting “pedestrians beware!”
I just got back from my company’s corporate HQ. Gorgeous building, beautiful offices and conference rooms. Break rooms with free snacks, espresso machines, free soft drinks and sparkling water. Fully equipped gyms, steam room and jogging paths around ponds. About ten people actually come into the office on a regular basis. We were there for meetings, but if you walked around the building, it was empty. I asked someone who works there what the deal was and they said they are too scared to ask people to come back to the office because they’ll quit. Heh.
Still better than the blatant explanation for not allowing remote learning in my uni. The city wouldn’t have it because all houses would be left unrented (it’s a college city) and it would be bad for transportation and buissness overall
The real reason is that unqualified middle managers don’t know how to judge whether someone is doing an appropriate among work unless they’re sitting right in front of them.
What I don’t understand is… they could be saving all that money on rent and whatever else goes into maintaining the building. Don’t need to pay janitors if your whole company works from home. Shouldn’t these big corps like the WFH situation?
Listening to them come up with reasons people need to go back to the office is laughable.
“uh…team building or something. Meetings are more productive? Yeah…umm I like the vibez and stuff. Please work.”
It’s so pathetic. Meanwhile everyone is seething behind their fake smiles trying to tell leadership how bad their commutes are, and how it makes them less productive.
That and wanting to reassert control. Our dept at my job had been trying to get WFH days for quite awhile before Covid hit. We got our direct manager to agree to it for a trial period (one day a month), but after a month we had to stop because one of our dept manager’s managers got wind of it and quashed it. Managers have to feel like they’re controlling people and I’m sure the thought of workers staying home all day, doing potentially anything they want while on the clock was horrifying. I’m surprised they’ve even let us keep the one day a week WFH day we still have, but I guess we got more than we were originally shooting for, so that’s one benefit of Covid.
Maybe they can turn some of these office buildings into affordable housing. My coworkers’ favorite thing about work from home days is not dealing with traffic. They have to deal with traffic because there’s nowhere decently priced for them to live near the office. I think more people would be willing to come into the office if the commute wasn’t so long.
My former company did this – $1.2B building in Cambridge, MA. It opened in November of 2019. We were there for 4 months, and it was AMAZING.
Covid hits, and they did the right thing: they leased out several floors, closed many satellite offices to let people work from home, and have the building open for those that can/choose to come in, but no one enforces anything.
My company called it right. When COVID started we realized things wouldn’t go back to normal for at least a year and it was cheaper to break our lease, so we just went fully remote instead.
My work always had events on Wednesdays… they stopped during covid, but started back up like 6months ago.. shocking, but no one really showed up… they got mad so they now require everyone to be in person on Wednesdays…
I gave up my company office and saved $30,000 per year, all while making the exact same money. I don’t know of any other company owners (of small to medium sized companies) that actually want to return to the office for financial reasons.
The dev team manage was more effective in the office. But the difference isn’t worth losing them over so I keep that little fact to myself when talking to upper management. I don’t want to go back to the office either.
I’m not so sure OP doesn’t work with me. I’m not naming names, but we split from our parent company during the pandemic, we got a new office space that’s super modern, then they made us come back to work, almost full time… And for no more reason than “well, we’ve got this new office, blah blah blah”
This is 100% literally what is happening to my wife’s work.
In fact, even worse they renovated the offices to entice people to come back.
The company was doing great during COVID but lost a big client this year and now had to lay off a bunch of people.
But they are still trying to get folks to come back because look at the shiny office we built for “you”. When really it’s so the narcissistic image obsessed CEO can have her doting subordinate minions back, as she is the type to just monopolize and take over everyone’s time. I remember at one point my wife was boxing up olive oil samplers (not her job) to send to the CEOs friends and family for one of her side business.
And then really the owner of the building is the CEOs husband and so call me a bit cynical here, looks like they invested into a real estate property they owned to create their idyllic little fiefdom, instead I dunno maybe keeping their workers through the lean times or something
I’ve seen it at a few companies where management wanted people to come back to the offices. They had, let’s say for the sake of simplicity, 100 employees.
Management: “We need everyone back in the office like before COVID.”
12 People quit.
Management: “We need people in the office 3 days a week.”
8 People quit.
Management: “Flexible days. But ideally 2 days per week.”
14 People quit.
Management: “We support working from home 100%! And we’re adjusting salaries to the cost of living of your area.”
18 People quit.
Management: “…”
Company dies. Like, it’s still around, but culturally it’s dead.
Repurpose the offices as living spaces, instill your company branding on them, offer decent rental rates, reap the benefits of not having to cover office expenses and gain rental income, profit.
Everyone at my job had to go back to the office….except for my team who never had offices since we were hired during the pandemic….
This seems spot on lol.
Not paying rent for nothing, you will sit in your 4x4ft cubicle!
Managing will be harder with work-from-home. Difficult to spin yarns to justify your wages if it’s clear that employees don’t need perpetual supervision.
I’m convinced this is at least 70% of it. Example: Covid exposed what a ridiculous bubble NYC office space had become.
This is my company to a tee. The only exception was IT bc so many peaced out when they tried to make us come back.
Going into the office is also important to justify the existence of middle management. How else can someone demonstrate that they streamlined workflows and synergised team dynamics without having daily sandpit huddles followed by breakout sessions.
Boomers think you’re not working unless you’re chained to your desk. They completely overlook the fact that I wasn’t work when I was chained to my desk either.
Edit: spelling
Return to work is to justify MASSIVE pre-paid rent contracts + the obsolete jobs of ‘office managers’.
basically work-from-home means these office paper pushers are just a money drain with no financial benefit to any business whatsoever, but they’ll fight to the end.
Its like when cars were introduced, but blacksmiths tried to stop them by getting laws where someone had to walk in front of the car, waving a red flag shouting “pedestrians beware!”
Overpriced office space going unused, not collecting rent….
Leveraged owner not able to cover mortgage…..
Bank with sudden cash flow issue near insolvency….
Phase 2 of plan to create a recession is now active..
I just got back from my company’s corporate HQ. Gorgeous building, beautiful offices and conference rooms. Break rooms with free snacks, espresso machines, free soft drinks and sparkling water. Fully equipped gyms, steam room and jogging paths around ponds. About ten people actually come into the office on a regular basis. We were there for meetings, but if you walked around the building, it was empty. I asked someone who works there what the deal was and they said they are too scared to ask people to come back to the office because they’ll quit. Heh.
Still better than the blatant explanation for not allowing remote learning in my uni. The city wouldn’t have it because all houses would be left unrented (it’s a college city) and it would be bad for transportation and buissness overall
It’s hard to power trip around the office asserting your leadership dominance when you WFH
The real reason is that unqualified middle managers don’t know how to judge whether someone is doing an appropriate among work unless they’re sitting right in front of them.
What I don’t understand is… they could be saving all that money on rent and whatever else goes into maintaining the building. Don’t need to pay janitors if your whole company works from home. Shouldn’t these big corps like the WFH situation?
“Guys we need to be back in office for collaboration”
*proceeds to keep office doors closed all day*
Listening to them come up with reasons people need to go back to the office is laughable.
“uh…team building or something. Meetings are more productive? Yeah…umm I like the vibez and stuff. Please work.”
It’s so pathetic. Meanwhile everyone is seething behind their fake smiles trying to tell leadership how bad their commutes are, and how it makes them less productive.
My current team leader: “We need to work in office for the in-person engagement”
Also my current team leader: “Do you really need to do your psych appointment in person? Can’t you just do it over the phone?”
That and wanting to reassert control. Our dept at my job had been trying to get WFH days for quite awhile before Covid hit. We got our direct manager to agree to it for a trial period (one day a month), but after a month we had to stop because one of our dept manager’s managers got wind of it and quashed it. Managers have to feel like they’re controlling people and I’m sure the thought of workers staying home all day, doing potentially anything they want while on the clock was horrifying. I’m surprised they’ve even let us keep the one day a week WFH day we still have, but I guess we got more than we were originally shooting for, so that’s one benefit of Covid.
Maybe they can turn some of these office buildings into affordable housing. My coworkers’ favorite thing about work from home days is not dealing with traffic. They have to deal with traffic because there’s nowhere decently priced for them to live near the office. I think more people would be willing to come into the office if the commute wasn’t so long.
My former company did this – $1.2B building in Cambridge, MA. It opened in November of 2019. We were there for 4 months, and it was AMAZING.
Covid hits, and they did the right thing: they leased out several floors, closed many satellite offices to let people work from home, and have the building open for those that can/choose to come in, but no one enforces anything.
It’s there if you want it, free to use.
My company called it right. When COVID started we realized things wouldn’t go back to normal for at least a year and it was cheaper to break our lease, so we just went fully remote instead.
My work always had events on Wednesdays… they stopped during covid, but started back up like 6months ago.. shocking, but no one really showed up… they got mad so they now require everyone to be in person on Wednesdays…
It’s not just that. It’s also about control.
I gave up my company office and saved $30,000 per year, all while making the exact same money. I don’t know of any other company owners (of small to medium sized companies) that actually want to return to the office for financial reasons.
​
TMYK!
The dev team manage was more effective in the office. But the difference isn’t worth losing them over so I keep that little fact to myself when talking to upper management. I don’t want to go back to the office either.
I’m not so sure OP doesn’t work with me. I’m not naming names, but we split from our parent company during the pandemic, we got a new office space that’s super modern, then they made us come back to work, almost full time… And for no more reason than “well, we’ve got this new office, blah blah blah”
This is 100% literally what is happening to my wife’s work.
In fact, even worse they renovated the offices to entice people to come back.
The company was doing great during COVID but lost a big client this year and now had to lay off a bunch of people.
But they are still trying to get folks to come back because look at the shiny office we built for “you”. When really it’s so the narcissistic image obsessed CEO can have her doting subordinate minions back, as she is the type to just monopolize and take over everyone’s time. I remember at one point my wife was boxing up olive oil samplers (not her job) to send to the CEOs friends and family for one of her side business.
And then really the owner of the building is the CEOs husband and so call me a bit cynical here, looks like they invested into a real estate property they owned to create their idyllic little fiefdom, instead I dunno maybe keeping their workers through the lean times or something
“Look, I know you can work from home now but I really need you all to waste money on gas and work clothes, and waste your time on commute.”
“We all just learned how to email a few years ago and don’t know how to manage without seeing butts in seats”
It doesn’t have anything to do with that. It’s 100% because they like to intimidate their workers and it’s much easier to do in person.
Not to mention all of the middle managers whose jobs depend on looking like they actually manage people which is hard when WFH teams manage themselves
“Is the work getting done? Yes. But I don’t feel like a big important person anymore and I don’t like that.”
It’s not about the facilities, it’s about mid management. WFH has really shown how unnecessary most of them are.
In person collaboration is so important… Which is why I have to take all of my webex meetings from the office instead of my house.
What’s the typical commercial office lease, 5-7 years? Watch the fire sale of commercial real estate come ~2025.
The thing I never hear anyone bring up is how further divided low paying non-WFH jobs are compared to the higher paying WFH jobs.
The commute, meals, being able to do stuff. Non-WFH people are losing a least 1 hour per day on top of being paid less.
I’ve seen it at a few companies where management wanted people to come back to the offices. They had, let’s say for the sake of simplicity, 100 employees.
Management: “We need everyone back in the office like before COVID.”
12 People quit.
Management: “We need people in the office 3 days a week.”
8 People quit.
Management: “Flexible days. But ideally 2 days per week.”
14 People quit.
Management: “We support working from home 100%! And we’re adjusting salaries to the cost of living of your area.”
18 People quit.
Management: “…”
Company dies. Like, it’s still around, but culturally it’s dead.
We never even left our offices. We were considered essential because they didn’t want to let us work from home.
Repurpose the offices as living spaces, instill your company branding on them, offer decent rental rates, reap the benefits of not having to cover office expenses and gain rental income, profit.
“How will I know you’re working and not interviewing elsewhere”