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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?

#21

Post by lopkeny12ko »

SpicyLemonZest wrote: post #9

I think most executives are pretty straightforward that their concern isn’t about the things most studies measure. Jassy sees the benefits as being: > we’ve observed that it’s easier for our teammates to learn, model, practice, and strengthen our culture; collaborating, brainstorming, and inventing are simpler and more effective; teaching and learning from one another are more seamless; and, teams tend to be better c…

Exactly, and it's been proven time and time again that such in-person collaboration leads to improved job satisfaction, retention, and overall employee happiness.

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

#22

Post by nine_zeros »

sharkweek wrote: post #11

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 th…

The C-Suite is so highly paid and lives such a comfortable life that they can't even fathom how much productivity is lost by the average individual commuting for an hour and having to bounce for kids/family/home/medical issues.

They truly don't understand why people may want to leave work, be at home when they themselves have ZERO chores to deal with.

And they also don't understand why people are not as passionate as themselves about the work - when they make millions every quarter but the average person just gets by.

Empathy is not what C-Suite operates on because they have lost those empathy brain cells by virtue of living a life SO PRIVILEGED that even a basic middle class life with no help, appointments, kids, schools, rent, is unimaginable to them.

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

#23

Post by jncfhnb »

sharkweek wrote: post #11

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 th…

For me the problem is that the culture story just feels like a lie

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

#24

Post by l33t7332273 »

i_am_jl wrote: post #3

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

The research in this area has been hazy at best. It’s very difficult to quantify all of the factors.

It’s a disservice to pretend that WFH > RTO is “settled science”

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

#25

Post by otikik »

lopkeny12ko wrote: post #21
SpicyLemonZest wrote: post #9

I think most executives are pretty straightforward that their concern isn’t about the things most studies measure. Jassy sees the benefits as being: > we’ve observed that it’s easier for our teammates to learn, model, practice, and strengthen our culture; collaborating, brainstorming, and inventing are simpler and more effective; teaching and learning from one another are more seamless; and, teams tend to be better c…

Exactly, and it's been proven time and time again that such in-person collaboration leads to improved job satisfaction, retention, and overall employee happiness.

By what studies?

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

#27

Post by dingnuts »

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.

I don't need a study to know it's good. I like it and it positively affects my life.

My employer pays for an amount of work, and gets it. I negotiated my salary under remote conditions.

If my employer believes I'm more productive in the office they're welcome to renegotiate my salary on that basis.

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

#28

Post by sharkweek »

jncfhnb wrote: post #23
sharkweek wrote: post #11

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 th…

For me the problem is that the culture story just feels like a lie

Yeah I’m pretty sure it is.

If I had the guts (no way) I’d ask “is this a planned forced attrition to get people to quit to avoid having to conduct layoffs?” But I’m at a point in my career where I kinda just keep my head down.

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

#29

Post by 7bit »

jncfhnb wrote: post #23
sharkweek wrote: post #11

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 th…

For me the problem is that the culture story just feels like a lie

Why? That was a very honest Statement, that die especially bot hide behind some nebulous studies of productivity, but the emotion to have people in the office. What do you find dishonest about that Statement?

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

#30

Post by Mountain_Skies »

My experience has been a bit weird since it is backwards of what most have experienced. For the five years leading up to the pandemic, our senior leadership had been pushing WFH heavily as we were shedding real estate and saving lots from it. Being in a legacy business with lots of aging physical infrastructure, there were lots of opportunities for downsizing infrastructure and our office downsizing just sort of piggybacked on that. The savings were a major part of the CEO's message to the Board each quarter, which seemed to make them and the investors happy.

Our division head however hated not being able to come into the office and see "my guys". We were mostly clustered in two metro areas with a few team members in random locations, but the division head was in our metro so we sometimes would meet up for dinner. Each time he'd start talking about having us RTO, even though our last office had been completely subleased to someone else. According to coworkers who were there longer than me, when we did have an office, the division head was only there one or two days a week. He liked parachuting in, doing the rounds, and then head back to his house in the mountains where he did much of his work (90% meetings) remotely. Eventually he was pushed out of the company though I don't know if his pushes on the CEO to do RTO was part of that or not but I assume their visions for the company simply were mismatched.

I have since left the company but they did well during the pandemic because the company was already on a remote first path. Wouldn't surprise me if they were able to take advantage of the situation and dump some more leases though I'd guess subleases probably are difficult to arrange now.

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