cross-posted from: https://lemmy.world/post/10481867
Billionaire CEOs were quick to sing the praises of working from home at the start of the pandemic, calling it the way of the future — but over the last three years, they’ve slowly changed their tune.
Late last year, Forbes reported that 90% of companies will return to the office in 2024, with 28% threatening to fire workers who don’t comply.
But it turns out that the motivations for calling workers back to the office may have less to do with employee productivity or profit margins and everything to do with catering to the egos of controlling managers who want their workers back, according to a recent study published by researchers at the University of Pittsburgh.
Mark Ma, an associate professor of business administration from Pitt’s Katz Graduate School of Business, who led the study, told BI he started the research hoping to understand why some S&P 500 firms want employees to return to the office while other firms avoid calling them back.
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“One of the most common arguments management suggests is that they want to return to office because employee productivity is low at home, and they believe returns to office would help firms improve performance and ultimately improve the firm’s value,” Ma told BI. “That’s the reason they give — but our results actually do not support these arguments.”
I’m sure this is true for some businesses, but there are also tons of businesses that have no vested interest in commercial real estate. It doesn’t explain all of it.
Honestly I think a much better explanation is that on average, bosses like being in the office and they don’t understand why everyone isn’t like them. Top leadership tends to be extroverted and they got where they are by lots of networking. They don’t have enough appreciation that for a lot of other types of people and types of jobs, being in the office just makes things harder.
It’s not a singular issue. You both have valid points.
It’s also about local economies losing the market share they had pre 2020. Every business in between your house and your job loses revenue. And all of that encompasses local tax revenue.
In other words it’s completely changed the commuting economy in it’s entirety. From the top down and those who have vested interests want that back.
Those are actual logical reasons. I personally think it’s more emotional.
For most of the last 100 years the corner office with a view and all sorts of luxuries has been a “reward” for middle to upper management.
Now nobody gives a shit about those offices. It hurts their feelers that nobody gives a shit about their perks anymore.
Absolutely, it’s a huge cultural shift. And it happened quick too, which humans aren’t really good at reacting to.
I think every reason you can imagine plays a role in it. But yeah the cultural norms are a huge part of it, we’ve been conditioned to view those things as success.
This. What’s the point of finally getting that corner office if there’s no one to feel superior over?
You also have items in the article noting that managers who saw drops in performance during the pandemic were the ones most likely to pull people into the office. So it seems like some managers saw issues with group performance and going back to the office was seen as a way to resolve the issue.