Forcing employees to return to the office - your thoughts?

Most larger companies have acquired their buildings and office leases at discounted rates based on the promises that their employee foot traffic contributes to the wellbeing of the local economy.

Politicians are driving this by persuading companies to do this or risk losing their incentives. Don’t blame Elon. Most of his decisions with Twitter are because someone’s twisting his arm. He’s gotten tremendous benefits from government stimulus and subsidies. He has to pay that back somehow.

The last few years I lived in NYC. During the pandemic, midtown Manhattan was like a dead zone. Many businesses closed not just because of the shutdowns, but also because of the remote work.

When I was “going to the office” I would grab coffee and lunch with colleagues. I would take taxis. Dinner and drinks after work. Now multiply that by millions - it greatly impacts the local economy.

I'd like to also add that it's an incredible privilege to be able to work remotely. I've personally been working remotely since 2014, though I briefly went to an office in 2019. It's easy to focus on the micro of companies and whether it's about productivity or micro managing employees, but on the macro level this shift impacts so many people's lives. We can work remote, but so many people cannot. And the ones that cannot are mostly struggling to earn a living and will likely lose their work due to our drive for remote work.

I agree that remote work is better in general for software/tech, it's definitely the way forward. And companies who can't do it, if not driven by political forces, will likely fail or get beaten by competitors who can do it.

Boss here.

My team still works remotely. We're a relatively small group, and it's easy to keep track of whether or not people are getting their work done. They have done, they do, so I'm happy with the current arrangement.

Companies that are forcing their employees back into the office are probably doing so because they fear that there will be a long tail effect of reduced productivity. They would probably argue that they're 'getting ahead' of the problem.

If I had 1000 employees instead of ~10, would I resort to such measures? I don't know. But at least for small teams, I don't see why it should be necessary, especially if you do a good job hiring.

This seems cruel to me.

Then you better get started and get your startup/side project to ramen profitability.

No point bitching here.

I have mixed feelings about it. I love working remotely and feel I am much more productive in doing so. Our whole team is remote first and by the business success, I think this is the right fit for us.

I am all against micro-managing, but I think there is a really thin margin when remote work can produce inefficient results. Why?

• No matter how many random Slack channels your team has, nothing can replace live interaction to build company culture.
• Meetings take more time and are less efficient.
• When people get unmotivated or start lying about work, it is hard to track.
• Not optimal environment for interns and juniors that would benefit from some help on site.

I think companies that force their employees back into the office are going to get worse talent going forward. The best people know their worth and won't put up with strong arm tactics. I would never agree to go back to the office unless it was very part-time, for occasional important meetings and whatnot.

I used to be a big Elon Musk fan, but I have to say that he suddenly seems less than innovative. 🙄