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Executives and Research Disagree About Hybrid Work. Why?

nytimes.com

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Re: Executives and Research Disagree About Hybrid Work. Why?

#11

Post by sharkweek »

Company I work for implemented more RTO recently and when someone asked in an all hands for data showing that the first RTO decision was leading to an improvement in productivity or some other key metric and the CTO responded saying (paraphrasing) “this isn’t a data based decision leadership is making. It’s because we want to build a culture where people are working next to each other more frequently. We FEEL that the company benefits because of this.”

People got bristly that we’re all routinely forced to prove any decision we as employees want to make with data. But was a fascinating moment of transparency, even if a lot of people hated the decision.

Re: Executives and Research Disagree About Hybrid Work. Why?

#14

Post by kelsey98765431 »

shams93 wrote: post #4

Its really hard to force employees into sexual relationships with the "big boss" when everyone is working hundreds or thousands of miles away.

the amount of times i have been asked to turn on my camera is ridiculous, i do not owe some old man a smile and i will gladly allow myself to be let go over it every time. the nerve of some people is astounding.

Re: Executives and Research Disagree About Hybrid Work. Why?

#15

Post by zeroonetwothree »

It think it’s obvious CEOs have biases that make them want in person, since it allows them to feel more power and control.

On the other hand these studies are very weak and probably don’t actually mean very much. Productivity of individual employees is essentially impossible to measure correctly, and then how do to measure interaction costs like slower communication or lost opportunities in chance meetings and conversations?

So I don’t think we really can say one way or another how good it is for the company. Obviously employees do prefer remote work but the goal of a CEO isn’t just to make employees happy so it’s not like we should expect them to.

Re: Executives and Research Disagree About Hybrid Work. Why?

#16

Post by maybelsyrup »

shams93 wrote: post #4

Its really hard to force employees into sexual relationships with the "big boss" when everyone is working hundreds or thousands of miles away.

You don’t deserve the downvotes here. Whether or not you’re kidding, I think you’re probably right.

Re: Executives and Research Disagree About Hybrid Work. Why?

#17

Post by lovich »

paulcole wrote: post #6

I do love that HN commenters painstakingly refute and poke holes in any and all research except that which confirms that remote work is good.

When leaders only give empty platitudes as their reason for the RTO and don’t even fund enough office space[1] for their workers why would anyone not?

Maybe they have a good reason but we have no reason to believe so if they won’t explain

[1]I, and multiple other engineers I know at different companies, don’t even have desks now. We have hot desking and whatever random locker with 1 cubic ft of storage that you can find, which get cleared out every several days. I rewatched office space with my boomer father recently and he could not believe me when I said I would take their office environment in a heart beat. “All Hands” meetings in the office also mean “please direct your team to only have 50% of them come in as we do not have enough desks for everyone”

Re: Executives and Research Disagree About Hybrid Work. Why?

#18

Post by i_am_jl »

gryfft wrote: post #7
i_am_jl wrote: post #3

People trust their feelings and experience over research, more at 11.

> “Leadership is a lot less fulfilling and a lot less fun when you’re doing it remotely,” Bock said. There's also this, which makes a great deal of sense to me even as it angers me from the other end of the power gradient. Management likes to do things that feel good to management.

I dunno. I feel like if executives believed they were hamstringing their teams with RTO edicts they wouldn't see them as so fulfilling or fun.

Maybe I'm giving executives too much credit but I believe that, for the most part, they believe they're better managers when their employees are in the office. I think that's true in a lot of cases, but it also ignores that employees can be better workers when they're hybrid or remote.

Re: Executives and Research Disagree About Hybrid Work. Why?

#20

Post by ctoth »

kelsey98765431 wrote: post #14
shams93 wrote: post #4

Its really hard to force employees into sexual relationships with the "big boss" when everyone is working hundreds or thousands of miles away.

the amount of times i have been asked to turn on my camera is ridiculous, i do not owe some old man a smile and i will gladly allow myself to be let go over it every time. the nerve of some people is astounding.

I am totally blind. My response to the camera request in meetings is that I will be happy to let you see me once I can see you.
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