this post was submitted on 15 Aug 2023
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80% of bosses say they regret earlier return-to-office plans: ‘A lot of executives have egg on their faces’::As some business leaders accept hybrid work as a permanent reality, others are backtracking on earlier pledges to let employees work from home.

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[–] [email protected] 101 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (1 children)

Those assholes should have never pushed the shit in the first place. Giving people the freedom to work from home and still live their life at the same time, then trying to snatch it away and force a return to the office, is clearly going to cause some serious push back. But these fucks were more worried about justifying their expensive office leases, than actually listening to and respecting their employees. A lot of those shit companies got what they deserved, empty offices, weakened workforce, and less overall productivity. Good job assholes.

[–] [email protected] 70 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (2 children)

"We believe that a structured hybrid approach — meaning employees that live near an office need to be onsite two days a week to interact with their teams — is most effective for Zoom"

If only there was some kind of chat/video conferencing software you could use to collaborate with your team anytime you wanted...

[–] [email protected] 26 points 1 year ago (2 children)

employees that live near an office need to be onsite

Sigh, why are you punishing people based on where they live?

That's a great way to ruin moral. Create 2 classes of workers.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Brb moving to another state

[–] Corkyskog 2 points 1 year ago

There is this farmhouse that is going on the market in the middle of nowhere soon. If my work had that policy I would already be getting ready to list my current house.

[–] [email protected] 0 points 1 year ago

Divide et impera? it's not always about morale.

I've had a department head who thrived on low morale. People mostly unhappy, yet the she always got what she wanted, be it overtime or information on the state of things 'under the table'. Also very good at misdirection, since she always had a mad dog under her command that people could freely hate. If you were good at what you did, you got it a bit better than the 'plebs' but it was a very high stress work environment that took quite a toll on my mental health. Getting a raise was the best thing ever.

Being privy to how the 'plebs' were considered and participating in meetings where you'd basically reallocate people to projects like pieces of meat was a very interesting experience. Cultivation of individuality and 'fuck you, got mine' attitude.

It's an... interesting... management style. Not for the faint-hearted but for sure a good experience to have at least as a baseline.

[–] [email protected] 7 points 1 year ago

Someone should create it, they would be millionaires, think of all the money these guys are missing out on. Some of these bosses should bring their teams into the office and get right to it.

[–] [email protected] 46 points 1 year ago (1 children)

80% of bosses regret their initial return-to-office decisions and say they would have approached their plans differently if they had a better understanding of employees’ office attendance, their usage of office amenities and other related factors

In other words, if they'd tried, even just a little, to actually do their jobs.

Bunch of clowns.

[–] [email protected] 7 points 1 year ago

If they had even tried to talk to people, gather data, think about it...

[–] splix 38 points 1 year ago

Regret how they went about implementing back to work.

[–] [email protected] 32 points 1 year ago (1 children)

In response, EY announced a fund in February 2022 to reimburse up to $800 per year for commuting, pet care and dependent care costs for each of its 55,000-plus U.S. employees.

Sorry... a < .5% raise isn't enough to get me back in an office.

[–] [email protected] 26 points 1 year ago (2 children)

800 per year? My god what are these execs paying their nannies that they think this is anything substantial for such a massive sacrifice of time and energy to be in an office.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Yeah $800 would maybe cover my train tickets. Probably not quite. Pet care expenses? I don’t even really know what that means.

But dependent care???? They must be high.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago

Pet care... Dog walking, cat feeding. I assume.

$800 wouldn't cover childcare for 1 child for 1 month.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Knowing an exec who has a nanny, they’re paying them around $7,000 a year and trying to make them feel like they never do enough

Their nanny works around 75 hours a week

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago

Jesus Christ that's cruel.

[–] [email protected] 23 points 1 year ago (5 children)

I've never really accepted the theory that return to office pushes are driven by office maintenance costs, or whatever. Hell, those expenses go UP when everyone is back. Working from home takes away electrical usage, and mitigates janitorial demand. If productivity is up or equal, and building maintenance costs are down, then wtf is it really about?

[–] [email protected] 28 points 1 year ago (3 children)

A lot of companies are stuck in long term leases so they're paying rent whether the buildings are being used or not. When out of touch upper management sees cubicles laying fallow they get pissed

[–] [email protected] 15 points 1 year ago

Yup, classic sunk cost. We're paying for this, why aren't we using it?

This should get interesting in the next few years when those leases come up due and companies decide they can shrink their office substantially.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago

Imagine what would happen if a bunch of huge fully-remote companies with no office space were told by the government that they now had to buy a building for workers to work in.

Imagine how fast their opinion would switch.

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

That's still weird though. You could still generate more savings from the utilities costs if you don't have your people return to work. The company I worked for actually reduced office space because of the savings.

[–] [email protected] 12 points 1 year ago (1 children)

The boss has to feel like he's doing stuff.

It's for the bad boss' ego. Or the boss lives in fear that he adds no value to the organization and wants to hide that from his boss.

[–] [email protected] 0 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

Hehe, how is he going to self-promote if there is nobody to see him boss people around?

[–] [email protected] 11 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (1 children)

I'm surprised people aren't aware of the real estate mob. It's the oligarchy who are pushing for return to offices. They have valuable investments in both big companies and the real estate, and they don't want to see the values of their assets going down.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago

Don't worry, they will divest now while it's propped up. When they are divested and it's suckers holding the bag, they will be fine with wfh.

The dam is broken, there is no going back. It will be different by company and industry but it's not going away.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

I just don't get it. That money has already been spent or guaranteed for the current leases. It's a sunk cost either way. If they end up not needing it that office space then, once those leases are up, that become a cost saving and improve the bottom line of corporate profits right?

Only thing I can think of is that a a considerable percentage of upper management are getting kick backs by property owners who can see what WFH policies mean to their business model, or there are a lot of managers that don't know how to evaluate employee performance based on their deliverables.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

It's about ego. The boss doesn't know how to make the company perform better, they're all out of ideas. They have to change something to make it look like they're doing something, so RTO is the low hanging fruit.

There's really no more justification needed than that. Looking at practical benefits to explain RTO pushes won't get you answers because the practical benefits are so slim and conditional relative to the strain it creates.

It's all about ego. They self-identity as the hardcore alpha boss that deserves high pay because they "earn" it. So to massage that ego, they go into the office even though they dont need to, and are meeting with nobody there. It's pointless but it feeds their ego.

So they feel alone at the office...and in that worldview they are hardworking (an assumed condition), and nobody else is there, therefore everyone else is not hardworking (regardless of how much work they're actually doing).

[–] [email protected] 20 points 1 year ago (2 children)

Glad the bosses are seeing this.

[–] icepuncher69 6 points 1 year ago

Yes but since in their minds they can never be wrong they are not gonna learn anything nor admit defeat.

[–] icepuncher69 2 points 1 year ago

Yes but since in their minds they can never be wrong they are not gonna learn anything nor admit defeat.

[–] [email protected] 14 points 1 year ago (2 children)

I have never heard the expression and am now wondering if the executives faces are covered in raw egg? Is it scrambled? Sunny side up? The German doesn't know.

[–] [email protected] 19 points 1 year ago (2 children)

dont over think it. visualize someone with a raw uncooked yoke broken over their face...they look stupid.

its an older meme from before the internet but, it still clears port authority on occasion.

[–] [email protected] 12 points 1 year ago

Yes this "meme" predates the Internet by just a tad.

With egg on one’s face means means appearing ridiculous or foolish because of one’s actions. The phrase with egg on one’s face is an American idiom, though the origins are murky. One possible source goes back to popular theater during the 1800s and early 1900s.

[–] Kecessa 8 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

don't over think it

If German engineers are anything to go by, you're asking the wrong person to not over think!

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 year ago

I misread "sunny" as "scummy" at first