The absurdity of the return-to-office movement
The absurdity of the return-to-office movement
The return-to-office demands make little sense from an overall economic perspective, while working parents, in particular, benefit from not having to waste time commuting to an office, writes Peter Bergen.
This is the best summary I could come up with:
We have met in person only twice in the year that the production has been up and running, and we have put out dozens of highly produced episodes, often featuring multiple guests, which go through many rounds of edits.
Banks like Goldman Sachs and JPMorgan Chase and tech giants like Meta are demanding that their staff be back at the office several days a week.
Those return-to-office demands are often couched in non-falsifiable claims about the necessity of having chance encounters at the office where folks bounce creative, productive ideas off of each other.
The return-to-office demands also make little sense from an overall economic perspective at a time when a third of Americans who can do their job remotely now only work from home, up from only 7% before Covid, according to the Pew Research Center, yet the economy is very strong in terms of low unemployment and GDP growth.
This arrangement gives me a lot more time to spend with my kids, and if there is any kind of unforeseen emergency, I can be there for them in a way that, during the era of the office, I couldn’t be.
In fact, I have written several hundred of these columns over the past dozen years and I have never met most of the editors I work with, and yet I still have a warm, productive relationship with them.
The original article contains 820 words, the summary contains 219 words. Saved 73%. I'm a bot and I'm open source!
Neither I'm a retired, actually disabled, steelworker.
Let's see if I understand this right. Some people of the younger more entitled generation feel that their employers that made adjustments so employees may work from home during the covid pandemic, feel that since the pandemic has ended employers are now obligated to allow those entitled brats to remain working from home? Sounds reasonable 🤣
I'll bite, what's the reason you think people have to go into the office if they get their work done more efficiently not doing so?
Do the employees somehow owe their free time to the employers? Should we kiss their boots while we're at it?
Did you skip over the part where I said the adjustments were made so the employees could continue to work during the covid pandemic. They were TEMPORARY. Are you one of the entitled who think they don't have to listen and do what they are told by an employer (as long as it isn't illegal or dangerous).
It's actually some people from the older more entitled generation feel that their employees that had schedules adjusted to allow work from home during covid, feel that since the pandemic has ended employees must come back to office and work under direct supervision in their pretty fiefdom, AND be entitled to their employees' unpaid time commuting even though WFH is more efficient and better for most employees. Sounds reasonable 🤣
One of the reasons companies are pushing for return to office is simply because WFH scares middle managers because they can't keep constant watch over everyone and see the faces of subordinates at all times. It puts them in a very precarious position to learn that most people are still productive even without their constant breathing down everyone's necks. They want to return to a worse past because it was a setup they were just personally more comfortable with even though it comes at the expense of workers' well-being both mental and physical.
Also, consider the commercial real estate market! If people work from home then just think of how all those property investment portfolios will suffer; the absolute horror of it all!
Congratulations on joining several thousand years worth of old farts whining about the entitled young folk. What a devastatingly original take.