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80% of bosses say they regret earlier return-to-office plans

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Re: 80% of bosses say they regret earlier return-to-office plans

#51

Post by faeriechangling »

Return to office is a massive sink cost fallacy and effort for executives to save face after strangling their companies profitability by signing long unnecessary leases. Rather than shrugging at what COVID wrought and going “meh, act of god, this unused office space is a write-off” fart huffing executives want to bend reality to their will by declaring work from home a huge problem and return to office the only way to save their companies.

In doing so, they replace an understandable situation in which the were blindsided by an extremely low probability act of god, with an intentional hoisting upon their own petards. It’s incredible to me how many people have OPENLY cited how much they’re paying for office space as a reason for their return to office policies.

The US government accountability office framed unused office space as an environmental and financial problem. Not the office space itself but the fact it was unused is clearly the problem. So of course the solution is to have your workers burn a whack of oil during an oil shortage, burning through their own money, to “save” the environment and government finances by making them commute to these offices so they can’t be say converted to residential housing or something useful. The true costs of such idiocy are hidden by shoving a large portion of the costs onto the workforce who are expected to ask for no additional compensation for the extra unpaid work and uncompensated expenses they’re taking on.

This doesn’t actually work because workers actually vote with their feet. Or they simply don’t comply with policy knowing that nobody is either paying attention or has the guts/inclination to actually fire them. How much do you really expect people to do this performative labour for executives that COSTS them money when non-compliance or finding a different job can make such a difference in their financial well being and quality of life?

Re: 80% of bosses say they regret earlier return-to-office plans

#52

Post by mkl95 »

atleastoptimal wrote: post #15

I understand the merits of WFH and in-person work. One thing that is however funny is the guilt tripping used by employers who have this straw-man version of a lazy WFH employee, and more so, employers who have a delusion that their workplace is important enough that people need to sacrifice a large portion of their lives just for the opportunity to be there in person. 90% of jobs aren't people's "passions" and have…

> Lots of employers like to delude themselves that their company is some big important, cutting-edge enterprise that's making a real impact in the world.

Pretty much. The only time I've considered going back to in-person work since the pandemic was for a FAANG. If you think your employees want to go back to the office, you are either a big tech company or you are deluded

Re: 80% of bosses say they regret earlier return-to-office plans

#53

Post by agumonkey »

WWLink wrote: post #11
ren_engineer wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I knew from the start that this was a major reason so many companies want RTO, no executive wants to look like a fool in front of their board for wasting millions or more on office space. Even more so when you have bigger companies that have billions invested in real estate across major cities

That's an unfortunate thing with how businesses operate. They shouldn't have to look like a fool in front of their board. Executives are not psychics. I get that their job is to foresee things like that, but sometimes you just.. can't. Having everyone work in the office all the time was an accepted norm that everyone was ok with. Nobody (really) saw this coming and if they did, everyone would've thought they were nut…

It was not a norm, until ubiquitous high speed networking and computing there was no choice but to be in the same place to work together.

Re: 80% of bosses say they regret earlier return-to-office plans

#54

Post by sharts »

wildrhythms wrote: post #36
kzrdude wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In that situation we would use a meeting room. The dynamic would make the manager feel like they are the outsider in that case, though.

You seem to think these managers have even a shred of self-awareness...

Rule #1 for effective management from any reputable ivy league executive MBA program is to have less self-awareness than any of your subordinates.

Re: 80% of bosses say they regret earlier return-to-office plans

#55

Post by tester756 »

ChuckMcM wrote: post #39

I had lunch, not too long ago, with a senior executive of a silicon valley tech company that was moaning about how much of a pain it was to get people to come into the office and how it felt like things would never return to the way they were. And I told them I actually knew of a way to get 100% of their employees to return to the office happily. When they asked what this magic bullet was I said, "Go back to offices,…

So, you found simple solution for very complicated dynamic and you actually believe you solved this problem?

I don't care about offices with doors.

Sure, they're better, but still it doesn't solve my issues - I care about commute - time and money, especially time.

I've been commuting like 3h / day before WFH and I don't want to go back unless you pay me at least 2.5x

Re: 80% of bosses say they regret earlier return-to-office plans

#56

Post by ecshafer »

atleastoptimal wrote: post #15

I understand the merits of WFH and in-person work. One thing that is however funny is the guilt tripping used by employers who have this straw-man version of a lazy WFH employee, and more so, employers who have a delusion that their workplace is important enough that people need to sacrifice a large portion of their lives just for the opportunity to be there in person. 90% of jobs aren't people's "passions" and have…

"Hybrid" is just in office work with a fancy name. A company I worked for pushed heavy for RTO and said "Its part time Hybrid". But we already had 1+ days (at managers discretion) WFH a week before covid hit. Hybrid was In office Tuesday through Thursday with remote Monday and Friday. This was actually less flexible than 1 or maybe more as you need it WFH that we had it prior.

Re: 80% of bosses say they regret earlier return-to-office plans

#57

Post by macintux »

ChuckMcM wrote: post #39

I had lunch, not too long ago, with a senior executive of a silicon valley tech company that was moaning about how much of a pain it was to get people to come into the office and how it felt like things would never return to the way they were. And I told them I actually knew of a way to get 100% of their employees to return to the office happily. When they asked what this magic bullet was I said, "Go back to offices,…

I haven’t had an office with a door in 20 years, but you’re absolutely right. Somehow a white noise generator isn’t quite the same.

Re: 80% of bosses say they regret earlier return-to-office plans

#58

Post by mkl95 »

troupe wrote: post #48
atleastoptimal wrote: post #15

I understand the merits of WFH and in-person work. One thing that is however funny is the guilt tripping used by employers who have this straw-man version of a lazy WFH employee, and more so, employers who have a delusion that their workplace is important enough that people need to sacrifice a large portion of their lives just for the opportunity to be there in person. 90% of jobs aren't people's "passions" and have…

I find it funny that when people were required to be home, employers talked about what great productivity they were getting with people at home. Then when it isn't required anymore, they want everyone back in the office for...productivity. My guess is that most employers really have no way to measure if an employee is being productive or not so managers are just reporting what makes them look good...and now we are ba…

> My guess is that most employers really have no way to measure if an employee is being productive or not so managers are just reporting what makes them look good...and now we are back to where managers will look better with lots of people running around the office.

My guess is that CEOs and VCs have some obscure reason to force people back into the office. Perhaps related to real estate, especially considering how hard to sell it is and how much higher the interest rates are. Middle management will typically eat up whatever narrative C-level feeds them.

Re: 80% of bosses say they regret earlier return-to-office plans

#59

Post by [deleted] »

itronitron wrote: post #14

>> The sunk cost of unused office space has been a major factor in companies’ decisions to change their RTO approach, says Kacher. I'm not sure that the author, or the company executives, know what a sunk cost is. Just to clarify, since there is a younger generation on HN now, 'sunk cost' is something you have spent money on that you can't get back. The 'sunk cost fallacy' is the mistaken belief that you have to use…

[deleted]

Re: 80% of bosses say they regret earlier return-to-office plans

#60

Post by throwaway892238 »

I decided I will never again work in an office, for the rest of my life. It's a lifestyle choice. I refuse to put up with the B.S. anymore. I'm lucky that I've had a long career and my skills are very much in demand, so I will always be able to find a remote job somewhere.

People doing jobs with more qualified candidates in the pool will probably have a harder time, and that sucks. For them, I hope they can band together as a union and force companies to hire them remote. There is no excuse anymore about it not working, because the whole planet did it through a friggin' pandemic, and work actually improved. We just have to stick to our guns, because the suits will continue to try to ruin our lives as long as it benefits them.

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