The return-to-office wars are over
The return-to-office wars are over
Just 6 out of 158 U.S. CEOs said they'll prioritize bringing workers back to the office full-time in 2024, according to a new survey released by the Conference Board.
Why it matters: Executives are increasingly resigned to a world where employees don't come in every day, as hybrid work arrangements — mixing work from home and in-office — become the norm for knowledge workers.
Zoom in: "Maintain hybrid work," was cited as a priority by 27% of the U.S. CEOs who responded to the survey, conducted in October and November.
- A separate survey of chief financial officers by Deloitte, conducted in November, found that 65% of CFOs expect their company to offer a hybrid arrangement this year.
State of play: "Remote work appears likely to be the most persistent economic legacy of the pandemic," write Goldman Sachs economists in a recent note.
- About 20%-25% of workers in the U.S. work from home at least part of the week, according to data Goldman cites.
- That's below a peak of 47% during the pandemic but well above its prior average of around 3%.
I haven't been to my desk in over two years. I heard they turned it into a shrine to my spiritual presence.
I'm not kidding.
I worked for a company over two years and never set foot in the door. And they contracted me out to other companies that I also never set foot in. Then I got laid off and now work... for a company I've never been to, subcontracted to another company I've never been to for a government agency I've never set foot in.
I haven't seen a coworkers face in person since 2020. I almost did once when I was working from a rental in Orlando while my family had a month long vacation at the same time my boss was there for his kid's baseball tournament, but we didn't wind up meeting up.
I haven't even had a desk in ten years, and I haven't met 90% of the people I work with.
I just got a job that's with a company based in another province. I have no desk, I have not met anyone from the company in-person, and I may well never meet anyone from it in-person.
Good luck. People would rather quit and find another job than come back to the office.
I quit my job nearly a year ago, but RTO was the symptom of a larger micromanaging-asshat problem that appeared after a short coup in management.
Still, moved to a new job with familiar peers from an old job where the toxic asshattery self-corrected during the pandemic: micromanaging dicks couldn't cope with mandated WFH and got themselves new jobs, so the only ones left were actually good managers. WFH was just the symptom of good management, and the canary in the coal mine.
This shop kept 1% desks as 'hotel' spots, and a rotating stuckee to receive packages, but the rest of the space was given back; and it's now hiring from across the country to get the best talent.
I remember reading about a Seattle based company that had like tripled the size of their staff during the pandemic by poaching engineers from other companies simply by offering them remote/hybrid options. The CEO said that it was the easiest time they ever had filling positions and expanding their business.
To put this another way.
If your employee is capable of working from home, and an employee has to be home, would you rather them work or take the day off?
Saying full time in office sounds nice. But employers are going to choose to have a working associate over a non-working associate.
It's a funny situation when it comes to government work, because technically the job doesn't actually produce anything. There are no shareholders and no profits. If an asshat micromanager wants to see a bunch of people keeping their office seats warm, they don't give a shit about productivity.
My office would genuinely rather I take the day off, and that mindset is never going to change. Luckily, I get a decent amount of remote time, but there is literally no reason that it couldn't just be 100% remote.
I worked for a government contractor for about 4 years. About half the year there was nothing to do, but retraining and retaining talent was so difficult, that it was just more cost effective to have people sit around and do nothing. And since the boss was really the government paying the bills, nobody really cared most of the time.
I hear they went remote 100% after I left.
My company just finished a multi-million dollar office buildout and we all worked from home for 6 months while it happened. Now we're back in the office the only people really into it are the managers... Who have private offices. With doors. The rest of us get "hotelling" without cubicle walls.
But they did it for us, they say. Because, ya know, we were all begging for a louder, more distracting work environment and a fancy kitchen with 140" ultra wide displays and not enough cabinets for personal storage
Open plan is the worst. I don't need all my co-workers to see me scratching myself.
It would be a real shame if productivity were to fall off a cliff due to all the distractions. A real shame.
Right before the pandemic my company moved to a new office. It was an hour-long commute from my house (the previous office was a 15 minute walk), located downtown next to a homeless shelter and an abandoned casino, with an open-office concept (the previous office had many enclosed rooms, though we did share them), and the kitchen had a commissary where we could buy snacks. The executive was very proud of the new digs and spent a fortune on the decor.
I considered it a huge downgrade. The millions of deaths and long-Covid cases aside, Covid-19 was pretty awesome.
I would think once we get past the commercial property owners bitching about losing their shirts that the actual business owners would realize that the savings from renting much less office space would drive work from home. It is massively expensive to maintain office space for people.
The commercial property owners and the business owners are the same people.
Somehow they manage to bitch about RTO while saving a fortune downsizing on office space.
laughs in factory worker
Stilll helps factory workers have better commutes. Everyone who wants to work from home should be able to, because it helps the people who want to go in or have to.
I hope, as commuting becomes mostly a thing only for people who can't work from home, the people who do work from home start moving out of the housing near those jobs so people who have to be on the floor can move in.
Just imagine, small town America might be saved!
cries in public service worker
sobs in retail worker
Just take the work home. Lazy people I swear. /s
It is inherently unfair, but not all work can be done remotely.
Unless I can take my blood samples home with me, it appears I'll be left behind in that trend
Can they not fax you the blood?
I know right, but apparently it's "too unsanitary" and "nobody wants blood all over their documents". Honestly, what has this world come to
I'm pretty convinced that RTO was another way to do layoffs without severance or "bad" press. What I would like to see now are more job roles finding freedom in working times. I think many jobs have strict scheduling for a reason, but I suspect more jobs don't require you to be physically present all the time to get it done.
I'm sure there were sneaky C suite jerks who tried to use return to office to filter out some headcount, but I'm not sure it would actually be wise from a practical standpoint.
If office workers can get their work done at home, there almost certainly also doing extra work, 15 more minutes here, 30 more minutes there, because they're already at home. Spending a few more minutes isn't going to get them stuck in worse traffic. It's not going to mean their 7 year old is home alone. They won't be late for dinner.
The only people who lose in a remote work paradigm are the people who spent their time wandering around "working" by dropping in on their direct reports. Surprise, it turns out we don't actually need that!
We were doomed, by the nature of our business, to return to F2F, but it doesn’t help when upper management is compromised of rabid traditionalists.
At least we carved out one day a week to WFH.
I wish i had the privilege of working from home. Maybe one day.
I'd rather be homeless than work in an office. I'm remote all the way!