Return-to-office orders look like a way for rich, work-obsessed CEOs to grab power back from employees
Return-to-office orders look like a way for rich, work-obsessed CEOs to grab power back from employees
White-collar workers temporarily enjoyed unprecedented power during the pandemic to decide where and how they worked.
Return-to-office orders look like a way for rich, work-obsessed CEOs to grab power back from employees::White-collar workers temporarily enjoyed unprecedented power during the pandemic to decide where and how they worked.
My main take on the pandemic is that employers involuntarily gave their employees a huge benefit set by having to go remote. They had to give this benefit set not just to their buddies or a select few, but to people they consider undeserving or do not trust.
All of their moves since have reflected that they want to put the cat back in the bag.
It's not about productivity at all and never has been. The studies even called the bluff by comparing productivity and determined that productivity is higher with WFH. The reaction to that has been to ignore the data and lean back into gut feel, because high level management isn't really about productivity.
You can tell this simply by the fact that their natural environment is the office and very few things in an office environment are actually about productivity. The reason they want return to office is the same reason they wanted open offices: control. It's easier for them to hover behind you in an open office plan. It's easier for them to order you around when they don't have to call you first.
It's all about control, and likely always has been.
These elite CEOs probably work 100-plus hours a week and they're much more work-focused.
Oh ffs. I have nothing against Nick Bloom but this statement is so BS. Even if "elite CEOs" could work 24 hours per day, 7 days per week their salaries could not be justified by any means. There are just not enough hours in a day to actually do it.
The mandates symbolize the sharp disconnect right now between the way CEOs and employees think about work.
He's right about that though.
Do the bare minimum, send out as many resumes as it takes. Those of us with talent (enough) will be hired by forward thinking companies and these dinosaurs will be left with 2nd rate employees and the few who actually need the office structure (which are probably the same kids who did their homework Sunday night instead of on the bus home Friday afternoon).
I watched this unfold in real-time at the small firm I was at as a Systems Engineer (IT). The ONLY reason they forced me back in the office so I could be an Executive Ass Wiper. Literally zero reason for me to be in the same country, let alone the office other than that. Ancient rich white men who can't even be bothered to dial their own (noncellular) phones. They were fine over 2 years of Covid, what changed?
I also never got a full 24 Hours that I didn't have to think about the firm in 3 years unless it was my yearly vacation. I kept saying things about it for 2 full years and got platitudes and word salad. I had maybe 3 months total of pay cheques that were under 50+ hours in 4 years.
It left such a bad taste in my my mouth that after six months forced back I not only left the firm, I quit my career. I'll eat dirt before I willing allow anymore exploitation of my skills and person. I'll strike out on my own and see what's what.
Fck these ancient old men and their out of date thinking. Fck their naked aggressive greed and self-importance. Show zero allegiance. Be a mercenary about your pay and package. Your employer isn't your friend. When you die your position will be advertised before your obituary has posted.
Say it with me: I wasn't born to work. I wasn't born to produce. I certainly wasn't born to keep old rich people rich. I was born to figure out my own purpose, not have it dictated to me.
This is the best summary I could come up with:
"Because the labor market is looser and there's more talent to be hired, I think the employers think they'll be able to get their way," Dr Grace Lordan, associate professor in behavioral science at the London School of Economics told Insider.
A certain kind of CEO — noticeably skewing male and older, she said — is drawing from this "command and control" playbook as a way to rebuild an employee base that fits their idea of being productive and diligent.
"This belief of a certain cohort of people, and they are represented across all sectors, that presentee-ism is productivity, for them it's perfectly rational that if somebody doesn't want to come into the office then that basically means they're not somebody who wants to add value to the firm," Lordan added.
Elon Musk is consistently adamant about workers at his companies from X to Tesla being present in office, going as far as calling remote work "morally wrong."
A number of firms that benefited from a pandemic bump in business, particularly in tech, went on a hiring spree — triggering the "Great Resignation" as workers quit for ever-higher salaries and perks.
That attitude means certain types of employees will lose out — and return-to-office mandates will likely hurt diversity too if they are strictly enforced.
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It was never about productivity. It was always about control.
Oh my god, so much this! The only apparent reason I see for many of the “return to office” cases I know about is for middle managers to be able to hold court and lord over their subordinates. As for the actual work that needs to be done, I see little advantage (in fact, constant interruptions for management and colleagues make it quite worse).
These dingles are gonna flex like this just before another Covid surge, I guess?
Is FTFY
