Submitted by [deleted] t3_11af737 in Futurology
BoysenberryLanky6112 t1_j9u9026 wrote
This is just wrong. Yes the government would like more people in the office spending more money in the city rather than the suburbs so they have more tax revenue. Yes they are specifically lobbying for government employees to have to come in for that exact reason. But you're claiming that "treasury" (note you don't indicate the actual position of the requester) is asking private businesses to come into the office more? And CEOs are just like "yeah sure it'll cost me employee retention and productivity and I'll have to continue to pay for office space but I'm ok losing money just to make you, Mr. or Mrs. Treasury, happy"? Like no that's not wtf happens. Unless the government is providing subsidies to companies that bring people back to the office, there's no way CEOs give a shit what the government has to say about remote work. And any such subsidy would not be secret it would be legislation or written into the tax code either of which would be publicly available to all of us. I note you didn't reference any.
The real answer is just Occam's razor. CEOs tend to be on the older side and want to micro manage too much. That's difficult in a remote setting and instead of being good leaders who measure long-term output, they prefer to measure "hard work" so stories of employees doing things like laundry and household chores rather than coffee gossip breaks make them think people who wfh don't work. But there are plenty of CEOs who aren't that way, and I happen to work for one. I joined post-covid but pre-covid there was already a strong "work from home, work whatever hours you want, as long as you get shit done we won't have a problem" culture. Post-covid they even sold their office and now they provide funding for people to work in coworking spaces if they want with that savings. I usually go in a few times per month because I do like seeing people and being able to meet face to face occasionally.
Saidear t1_j9ve3wq wrote
Honestly, my logic is simple on why they want it:
"We have a lease on this property for the next 5-10 years, and the agency won't let us get out from under it. So if we're going to be stuck paying for it, let's use it."
BoysenberryLanky6112 t1_j9vefn4 wrote
That's a perfect example of a sunk cost fallacy. Also paying for electricity/janitorial staff/equipment replacement is not free.
OwlBeneficial2743 t1_j9v28z5 wrote
Your post is a lot less fun than a global conspiracy between governments and companies to keep fat cats rich and workers poor or some such cliche’d nonsense. I’d also add that it’s harder for traditional managers to measure the performance of their people unless they’re in something like sales or piecework where there are objective and visible metrics. And all the talk and hype around quiet quitting (which may not exist or have changed) doesn’t help.
BoysenberryLanky6112 t1_j9v554x wrote
Meh I'm a data scientist, my work is very non quantifiable it's basically "hey look at all these mountains of data we have and come up with things that can make us money". But still every year I have a performance review where I write up all the things I've done and ways I've helped the company, and they ask some of the people I've done projects for to rate how I did with their requests and requirements and customer service. And that's what they use to measure our performance, not how hard we work or whether we work long hours. And then on top of that I have a weekly check-in with my manager where I discuss all the things I'm working on, my progress, anything I need from them, and any feedback they have for me or I have for them (obviously the former is more important since they can fire me I can't fire them, but good managers will ask for feedback from their reports so they can improve as well). If a manager can't use all of those tools and instead relies on how many hours someone is in a physical office (the online equivalent would be checking if their slack status is away or something), they're just plain a shit manager.
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