Three years after the coronavirus pandemic sent people to work from home in record numbers, U.S. employers are still struggling to get people back to the office.

Office mandates don’t help companies make more money, study finds::Three years after the coronavirus pandemic sent people to work from home in record numbers, U.S. employers are still struggling to get people back to the office.

  • bitwyze@lemmy.worldEnglish
    1·
    11 months ago

    Yes, but the costs of those things are mostly fixed. If, say, 20% of the workforce goes into the office because they enjoy working there, then you pay the full cost of cleaning, lights, toilet paper, paper cups, and heating and AC for the entire building, even though it’s not at capacity.

    Source: My company is hybrid, but a handful of people decide to go in every day, including three people from my team.

    • cabron_offsets@lemmy.worldEnglish
      1·
      11 months ago

      Even if you are correct, then at best, this bullshit “real estate” angle is cost neutral. If it’s cost neutral, how is it a factor in valuation?

      • bitwyze@lemmy.worldEnglish
        1·
        11 months ago

        It’s “cost neutral” in the sense that the company still pays the same $X to run the office regardless of how many people are in the office. But if it costs $1000/day to heat your office in the winter and only 50% of your employees are working in the office any given day, you’re wasting $500 worth of heating that day.

        Looking at it from an overhead perspective, let’s say I have 1000 employees and my heat costs $1000/day. When all my employees are in, it costs $1/employee/day to heat my office. If only half my employees are in, it costs me $2/employee/day. My overhead per employee just doubled.