this post was submitted on 23 Aug 2023
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Leaked Zoom all-hands: CEO says employees must return to offices because they can't be as innovative or get to know each other on Zoom::Zoom CEO Eric Yuan discussed the benefits of in-person work in a leaked meeting.

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[–] [email protected] 90 points 1 year ago (7 children)

I don't get corporate blokes.

They spend their whole working hours finding ways to increase profits by reducing costs everywhere, to the detriment of the company even. Then we finally give them an easy way to reduce costs that make the employees happy, by removing the need for real estate. And they do a complete 180° to not do so?

Even if they have a lease of multiple years, not having to heat/cool the building nor pay the electricity is still cheaper.

Is it really about micromanagement?

[–] [email protected] 46 points 1 year ago

At this point i'm convinced it's more about the fact these higher ups have skin in the real estate game. They either know the people who lease their properties, or are heavily invested in the property itself. So they can't get past the mental block that is the sunk cost fallacy to just ditch it, or lose "good boy points" with their rich peers by saying they don't need the property anymore.

I guess it's also harder to brag to your rich friends how big your company is when you have less physical locations too, but at this point i'm just grasping. The amount of money these companies could save it massive, but they just absolutely refuse to do it for whatever reason.

[–] [email protected] 19 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

an easy way to reduce costs that make the employees happy

That's the problem, right there.

[–] Ironfist 19 points 1 year ago

Right? They are also losing the opportunity to hire top talent from remote locations. I guess we found something that is more important to them than profits: their ego.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago

I think the issue is that they fear giving workers too much freedom. With that newfound freedom, they may start realizing that they can demand more

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago

They can't just reduce their costs, because they're locked into contracts and/or the corp real estate market is in the trash can

I'd be willing to bet sunk cost fallacy does play a big part, as a result, but I also think senior leadership there just struggles to manage remotely and thus they assume others do too.

[–] [email protected] -3 points 1 year ago (3 children)

CEOs and Corporate blokes are still technically working class. They have bosses to answer to. Their bosses have a large stake in real estate, manufacturing, oil, etc. Happy at home employees buy less and drive less. This is bad for their bosses. It goes way beyond the company's bottom line.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 1 year ago (1 children)

I assure you that the CEO of a large corporation like that has a very different relationship to the means of production than your average working class person. Especially in regard to how their income is generated.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 year ago

They own enough property that they are not, in fact, working class. They don't have to work for a living (any more), they choose to.

Bosses like locating in expensive cities because they have the income to buy property in those expensive cities, and rake in the capital gains that come from others locating in those expensive cities. They all stand to lose a lot if people move out of those expensive cities because the housing pyramid that supports the imaginary value of their property collapses.