I have posted this on Reddit (askeconomics) a while back but got no good replies. Copying it here because I don’t want to send traffic to Reddit.
What do you think?
I see a big push to take employees back to the office. I personally don’t mind either working remote or in the office, but I think big companies tend to think rationally in terms of cost/benefit and I haven’t seen a convincing explanation yet of why they are so keen to have everyone back.
If remote work was just as productive as in-person, a remote-only company could use it to be more efficient than their work-in-office competitors, so I assume there’s no conclusive evidence that this is the case. But I haven’t seen conclusive evidence of the contrary either, and I think employers would have good reason to trumpet any findings at least internally to their employees (“we’ve seen KPI so-and-so drop with everyone working from home” or “project X was severely delayed by lack of in-person coordination” wouldn’t make everyone happy to return in presence, but at least it would make a good argument for a manager to explain to their team)
Instead, all I keep hearing is inspirational wish-wash like “we value the power of working together”. Which is fine, but why are we valuing it more than the cost of office space?
On the side of employees, I often see arguments like “these companies made a big investment in offices and now they don’t want to look stupid by leaving them empty”. But all these large companies have spent billions to acquire smaller companies/products and dropped them without a second thought. I can’t believe the same companies would now be so sentimentally attached to office buildings if it made any economic sense to close them.
The real answer is that people are more productive in the office with more oversight and build relationships with their coworkers that help them to do their jobs better. Companies invest thousands of dollars in “teambuilding” events that benefit the company and employees in no way other than to foster these environments. It costs their employees more time and money for transportation, which means they have to pay them more. They are not stupid. They are not trying to upset their employees just to cost themselves more money.
There is no other rational explanation. Any other explanation is illogical, as it costs the company more money to have and maintain an office building. It’s just based on people angry about the fact that they have to leave home.
Found the Blackstone bot.
Not true for all types of employees. There are job functions that work great or even better remote. Your scenario also depends on if the employer has a good office environment and truth be told a lot don’t (many embraced the “open-concept” which does increase communication but also the noise-to-signal ratio).
The war on remote work likely has nothing to do with productivity but all about preserving the commercial real-estate market (and the auxillary businesses) and stop them from crashing. A lot of influential people invested in that industry.
Also research over COVID showed productivity didn’t decline at all, and in many cases increased while working remote. Turns out a lot of people work better when they aren’t wasting half their day getting in a small box, trekking to a dofferent small box inside a bigger box for absolutely no reason.
If you’re spending half your day doing that, it’s no surprise that you’d be less productive. Most people aren’t doing that. You’re projecting.
Is it actually that bad at your company? I must be pretty lucky then.
Also I don’t want to work in the same room I sleep in and I also don’t want to have my family around all day
Remote work doesn’t work for everyone and that’s always been the case. But it’s nowhere near the boogeyman that the media is currently making it out to be.
I mean…maybe if you work for a real estate company?
That’s not the only real-estate game in the business… Think owners and landlords of the building who used to make a killing leasing these commercial spaces out. If remote work continues, there is no incentive for companies / tenants to renew their lease, meaning less income for landlords and increasing risk that they will default on their loans. A lot of people are invested in that space and would love to see the gravy train continue, or at least not crash and burn. Hence the propaganda push about how crappy remote work is, an attempt to drive people back.
So…real estate companies? You realize there are other businesses with employees right?
Yes? I’m not understanding your point. What I’m saying is the anti-remote work push is likely due to the influence of the investors in said properties and companies.
My point is the overwhelming majority of businesses in existence are not in the business of real estate so why would they give a shit if it’s impacted?
You wildly overestimate the influence of these companies.
What does the absolute number of businesses in an industry have to do with anything? Most companies in the world are not tech or even oil and gas either and you can’t deny the impact of these industries.
What matters is the amount of money and influence in the industry, and in the case of commercial real estate in the US, the market size is in the trillions.
And like another poster said it’s not just real estate either. Sectors like retail, services, transportation are also impacted by remote work culture, not to mention government revenue streams like property taxes.
No but those industries directly impact a wide variety of other industries. You don’t see employers demanding their employees drive around in circles to burn more gas because oil prices dip.
What other poster?
WTF is “remote work culture”? Why does Amazon give a shit about what Target is doing?
Why would Facebook give a shit about how much money the government makes from property taxes?
It really just seems like you’re chalking all this up to some giant inter-corporate-government conspiracy, rather than the Occam’s Razor simple explanation of employees are just more productive in the workplace…