When the lockdown happened and we got our first taste of WFH ever it was interesting. Then they tried bringing us back a few years ago with the start of 2 days and wanted to go to 3. By this point people were pissed to be there. What didnt help was we got so used to just doing teams meetings from our desks that even though we were now all in the same building we still just did those meetings at our desk. We screamed to ourselves why are we even here! Thankfully our company downsized and let a building go and consolidated and realized there wasnt enough room for everyone so a lot of the non essential on site departments like mine got sent back home and now I have only been to work like twice in over a year.
They let that particular box open and they aren’t going to be able to close it.
When did they start bothering to defend it?
People mandating return to office are climate criminals, all. They should be sentenced to picking up litter and other community service for the rest of their lives.
They were already pretty hard to defend.
two of our offices have 5 day return to office policies. we’ve been told that those coworkers will have less availability and productivity by management. they also are clearly stressed by taking calls in traffic and commuting generally. and not just gas, but vehicle repair, maintenance, and, as a coworker experienced recently, regular replacement means RTO is a pay decrease. i mean, i’m privileged to ride a bike, but i still need to do maintenance and would have to do more if i was in the office every day.
and when i say “two of our offices”, i mean across time zones, so their day as well as mine involves most meetings being over a video call, for which they are more often late or have to be accounted for.
anyone who thinks this is about productivity gains or employee wellbeing has the kind of job where they’re not really expected to produce anything.
They are completely indefensible!
I still get a giggle at the idea of a bunch of wealthy CEOs gathering in a boardroom and one of them going ‘the staff are happier and healthier by working from home, and the company is doing better as a result… how do we stop it?!’
That’s not how the conversation goes though.
Right now the conversation is mostly like “we need to cut costs to hit increased shareholder returns so I (the CEO) get my full bonus (which yours is similarly tied to), what are our options to not pay out severance?” Which the CHRO comes back with “RTO policies are great at cutting XX% and we will only have to hire back X% of roles and pay less for those roles and pay less for severance. We can also announce this is due to AI efficiencies and not poor revenue growth and get a bump to the shares we’ve already gotten from past compensation and make the board happy instead of seeing the typical drop in valuation associated with layoffs.”
It’s that simple.
Then there’s a handful of cases like my boss where they are enraged by WFH policies because he is incompetent (has been fired from past middle manager role for being inflexible and ineffective) and highly conservative. His measurement of performance is if your ass is in a chair or not, which doesn’t do much for a team’s performance which is why he has a job. He has been crusading to end remote work policies for all other fully remote departments to limited effect but has succeeded in getting a 1 day per week from his boss’ other teams.
also “we are spending 50k/month on this building downtown, we could downsize and spend 50k to move all the equipment to a building that meets our needs better for in office staff, but that might make us look weak because we don’t have a big impressive building. better bring everyone back to the office instead.”
Harder to defend is assuming the company you work for is interested in defending it instead of using it as a form of punishment.
Or constructive dismissal.
“We’ll make all those expensive whiners quit, and then they won’t get unemployment benefits. Don’t worry, we’ll replace their positions with AI. It’ll totally work. Honk honk.”
Cyclists are gonna be minted.
I literally haven’t bought gas in a month.
My wife and I both work from home, and we have a PHEV. Of course gas prices will trickle down into transportation costs which raises the cost of non-local goods, and that affects us, but it’s nice not to feel the first-order effects of Trump’s imbecility.
I got a HEV back in 2024. So far, I go about 3 weeks without filling up on gas on average.
Now that I’m out of a job, I haven’t had to worry about driving to an office.
CONGRATU… lations. Sorry about the job, mate. I hope that turns around for you.
HEV?
Hybrid Electric Vehicle
The motorcycle business is booming too. I’m trying to get a minor repair done and the shop is beyond slammed.
Good.
