CEOs are running companies from afar even as workers return to office

Anyone surprised by this? I remember my first programming job it was FREQUENT that the execs would fly to other offices ~12+ weeks a year. Of course our office was in Orlando so every exec would also magically have their family flown in as well to go to Disney World.

5 jobs later, its been the same at any company that isn't a startup. Execs have never been in the office, they have "offsite" meetings.

Rules for thee, but not for me.

Alas, how could we?

We specialize in strategy.

Not possible in a seat.

Gotta wonder how much of the compensation and investment portfolios of those CEOs is in commercial real estate.

A friend of mine is an attorney and during the pandemic as soon as in-office work was allowed again the entire firm was ordered to return immediately to their Manhattan office only to find that the managing partners were still calling in from their homes in Long Island or Connecticut.

I think it's more important for CEOs to be located in the same city as the company HQ than it is for any randomly selected employee to be. When VIPs visit the company, they expect the CEO to be present, not on Zoom. Plus, there used to be this thing where leadership had a more than tenuous connection to the legacy and culture of the businesses they ran, and even to the cities their companies were a part of. That's harder to pass off if you can't be bothered to go there. Imagine hearing a CEO say something like "I care about Company X" but they're saying it from a thousand miles away, over a Zoom call, while all their employees are on site and hating being there. That says something about work today.