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The elite's war on remote work has nothing to do with productivity

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Re: The elite's war on remote work has nothing to do with productivity

#181

Post by flappyeagle »

manuelabeledo wrote: post #137
warning26 wrote: post #133

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I feel like often article-writers miss the fact of people like your boss: some people just legitimately like being in an office and there's no conspiracy to speak of. As someone who likes being in an office, I personally feel that everyone becoming permanent WFH basement gremlins is a bad thing overall. Human contact is a good thing , and my observations of people who are 100% WFH is that they almost never interact w…

> As someone who likes being in an office, I personally feel that everyone becoming permanent WFH basement gremlins is a bad thing overall Good thing that there are these things called friends , which usually aren’t forced on people like work colleagues are.

I like my colleagues. Many of them are my friends. Work is fun because I get to make projects with some of my friends and we get paid for it.

Re: The elite's war on remote work has nothing to do with productivity

#182

Post by longbrass »

freitzkriesler2 wrote: post #119
skwirl wrote: post #24

How are "the elite" forcing companies that do not own real estate and who rent their office space to mandate RTO? How are they forcing these companies to renew their leases when they expire?

It's sunk cost. They have CRE leases they can't back out of and want to leverage their expensive real estate. In the future as the leases expire we may see shrinking and a slow return to more remote work as companies reduce the square footage of the leases. Smart managers know that eliminating rent from balance sheets improves the bottom line.

Many creative companies don’t own real estate and are looking foward to sunsetting their existing leases to go with something much smaller and easier to manage. In addition to the rental square footage NNN leases and increasing energy and insurance will dove that the RTW push is short-lived as it financially makes little sense.

Re: The elite's war on remote work has nothing to do with productivity

#183

Post by nforgerit »

Should make one suspicious if the narrative directly or indirectly accuses some kind of "global world elite" playing puppetmaster since this used to be part of Goebbels playbook.

Not accusing the author, but maybe better think twice before making those kinds of assumptions if the easier explanation is: Stupidity. And as we all know, there's plenty of that in management rows.

Re: The elite's war on remote work has nothing to do with productivity

#184

Post by jandrewrogers »

shrimpx wrote: post #146
skwirl wrote: post #24

How are "the elite" forcing companies that do not own real estate and who rent their office space to mandate RTO? How are they forcing these companies to renew their leases when they expire?

Companies who own city real estate are getting screwed. This includes all the big tech companies. That real estate is no longer an appreciating asset, and cannot be converted to residential, when the prospect is the collapse of downtowns due to people migrating out to smaller places.

It isn't just companies. For example, one of the most central parts of downtown Seattle is owned by the University of Washington[0], a government institution. Some of their leases are structured as revenue share on the real estate. This is both an asset they borrow against and a source of income.

[0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Metropolitan_Tract_(Seattle)

Re: The elite's war on remote work has nothing to do with productivity

#185

Post by generic92034 »

wredue wrote: post #90
kristjansson wrote: post #58

This seems needlessly class-war-monegring. People slack off at home, people slack off in the office. Everyone’s situation is not your situation. Everyone’s work does not look like your work. Some people like/want/need office space to work, some people don’t. Some people find themselves in different camps on different days. In any case, companies driving RTO are acting in their own perceived best interests, not their…

The elites are actively engaging in class war with you. I don’t understand why so many people are so quick to be little foot soldiers for the people that despise their existence.

https://www.goodreads.com/quotes/123058-there-s-class-warfar...

The denial is strong in some people.

Re: The elite's war on remote work has nothing to do with productivity

#186

Post by Ekaros »

constantcrying wrote: post #168

>It’s about real estate. That's it. I don't think that is it. Most companies would be glad to cut down on office space. Certainly some companies have a direct interest in having office space, but most clearly do not. To me it seems to be more about controlling your employees, which is easiest to do by proximity.

Also there is probably some level of fear that they aren't working as hard as they could. Even if productivity is likely same, as in office they would be physically present, but likely do about same amount of actual work.

Butts in seats, not the output is what feels right and is at least somewhat measurable.

Re: The elite's war on remote work has nothing to do with productivity

#187

Post by kolbe »

supertofu wrote: post #148
warning26 wrote: post #133

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I feel like often article-writers miss the fact of people like your boss: some people just legitimately like being in an office and there's no conspiracy to speak of. As someone who likes being in an office, I personally feel that everyone becoming permanent WFH basement gremlins is a bad thing overall. Human contact is a good thing , and my observations of people who are 100% WFH is that they almost never interact w…

You do realize that people who WFH have friends and communities outside of work, right?

You do realize companies function better when employees are friends, right?

I'm not saying forced daily association is the way to make them friends, but you can see the logic behind trying to encourage it.

Re: The elite's war on remote work has nothing to do with productivity

#188

Post by stefan_ »

skwirl wrote: post #24

How are "the elite" forcing companies that do not own real estate and who rent their office space to mandate RTO? How are they forcing these companies to renew their leases when they expire?

A conspiracy to bring people back into the office? Sounds like a conspiracy to lay people off because of a "recession" that never happens!

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2023-03-30/wall-stre...

> “All of our corporate leaders need to get in the room and say, let’s come up with a minimum,” Adams said in an interview with Bloomberg on Thursday, referring to how many days a week employees should be in the office. “If it’s four days a week, it’s four days a week.”

You must not have been long on this world if you don't realize by now that of course most CEOs make decisions based on the same cargo cult nonsense you follow to pick the ultimate in SPA build systems.

Re: The elite's war on remote work has nothing to do with productivity

#189

Post by Ekaros »

adamnemecek wrote: post #108
bperki8 wrote: post #87

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not sure how your comment makes it any less strange to call these people "elite".

Elites are fundamentally people who have power over you. Your boss has power over you.

Your average line manager is no more elite than you the worker are. Depending on the depth of structure, to get to elites you need to go one or two levels up.

Re: The elite's war on remote work has nothing to do with productivity

#190

Post by constantcrying »

Ekaros wrote: post #186
constantcrying wrote: post #168

>It’s about real estate. That's it. I don't think that is it. Most companies would be glad to cut down on office space. Certainly some companies have a direct interest in having office space, but most clearly do not. To me it seems to be more about controlling your employees, which is easiest to do by proximity.

Also there is probably some level of fear that they aren't working as hard as they could. Even if productivity is likely same, as in office they would be physically present, but likely do about same amount of actual work. Butts in seats, not the output is what feels right and is at least somewhat measurable.

Yes, exactly. I think it is mostly about the feeling of management. If the employee is present they "know" that he is actually working, if he is at home they are relatively powerless.
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