Seems like the consensus is that you can do just fine (if not better) if your employees are remote. So why are some companies still trying to force workers back to the office knowing many would rather quit?
Ask HN: Why are some companies still trying to force return to office?
1–10 of 33 posts
Re: Ask HN: Why are some companies still trying to force return to office?
#2commercial real estate obligations. "culture"
Re: Ask HN: Why are some companies still trying to force return to office?
#3Because the banks and local govt bet a lot on commercial leases.
Banks says they are solvent because they have "hard" assets to borrow against. Govts promises the paradise with future taxes.
Got to the office? Pay toll
Got a coffee? Pay taxes
Consume more petrol/gas for your car? Pay taxes.
More electricity? pay taxes.
You can't expect they let you out so easy right?
Re: Ask HN: Why are some companies still trying to force return to office?
#4Some of it is culture. I worked for a large F50 company pre-pandemic that was remote friendly (at least in our org) and all communication was async, all serious discussion happened on mailing lists and the internal github, ad-hoc meetings were generally discouraged.
I have joined a FAANG recently and by comparison their culture is painful for remote, despite them having 2 years to refine during the pandemic. It is slowly getting better this last year, but culturally they are still years away from being effective at remote.
For those who say Real Estate is the reason, that math doesn't add up there. Apple doesn't give a shit about 5 billion dollars in real estate that is wasted if they think it will make employees less productive. That's a rounding error on most of their products. They genuinely believe it's at worst neutral to demand RTO.
Re: Ask HN: Why are some companies still trying to force return to office?
#5Some of it is culture. I worked for a large F50 company pre-pandemic that was remote friendly (at least in our org) and all communication was async, all serious discussion happened on mailing lists and the internal github, ad-hoc meetings were generally discouraged. I have joined a FAANG recently and by comparison their culture is painful for remote, despite them having 2 years to refine during the pandemic. It is sl…
Do you think it's important for a companies culture to evolve as the environment changes? With your FAANG example I have to wonder what else may be stuck that's blocking the organization from doing more. Are they bad at evolving in general or is there something unique about RTO?
Re: Ask HN: Why are some companies still trying to force return to office?
#6Because the banks and local govt bet a lot on commercial leases. Banks says they are solvent because they have "hard" assets to borrow against. Govts promises the paradise with future taxes. Got to the office? Pay toll Got a coffee? Pay taxes Consume more petrol/gas for your car? Pay taxes. More electricity? pay taxes. You can't expect they let you out so easy right?
Yeah, but why would the startup I work for care about that?
Re: Ask HN: Why are some companies still trying to force return to office?
#7Don't underestimate the paranoia of useless middle management who cannot justify their existence by Teams meetings alone and cannot easily brown-nose from home.
Re: Ask HN: Why are some companies still trying to force return to office?
#8Don't underestimate the paranoia of useless middle management who cannot justify their existence by Teams meetings alone and cannot easily brown-nose from home.
Wouldn’t it easier for management of this kind to hide? You can’t see that they are not actually doing anything if they are working from home. In the office they have to justify themselves because otherwise they’re just sitting there.
Re: Ask HN: Why are some companies still trying to force return to office?
#9Because the banks and local govt bet a lot on commercial leases. Banks says they are solvent because they have "hard" assets to borrow against. Govts promises the paradise with future taxes. Got to the office? Pay toll Got a coffee? Pay taxes Consume more petrol/gas for your car? Pay taxes. More electricity? pay taxes. You can't expect they let you out so easy right?
Yeah, but why would the startup I work for care about that?
Becase the fund that invest on your startup does.
because the board members have leases nearby.
because someone that is invested want you to go there, spend money or create expenses (consume food from cafeteria,etc.)
If the student does not go in person to a university how valuable is the commercial lease at the university?
Re: Ask HN: Why are some companies still trying to force return to office?
#10Not only can you do fine, but you can save a ton of money on office operations. The economics will win out in the end, I don't doubt it. A lot of executives and managers are simply in denial.