Return to office is a massive sink cost fallacy and effort for executives to save face after strangling their companies profitability by signing long unnecessary leases. Rather than shrugging at what COVID wrought and going “meh, act of god, this unused office space is a write-off” fart huffing executives want to bend reality to their will by declaring work from home a huge problem and return to office the only way to save their companies.
In doing so, they replace an understandable situation in which the were blindsided by an extremely low probability act of god, with an intentional hoisting upon their own petards. It’s incredible to me how many people have OPENLY cited how much they’re paying for office space as a reason for their return to office policies.
The US government accountability office framed unused office space as an environmental and financial problem. Not the office space itself but the fact it was unused is clearly the problem. So of course the solution is to have your workers burn a whack of oil during an oil shortage, burning through their own money, to “save” the environment and government finances by making them commute to these offices so they can’t be say converted to residential housing or something useful. The true costs of such idiocy are hidden by shoving a large portion of the costs onto the workforce who are expected to ask for no additional compensation for the extra unpaid work and uncompensated expenses they’re taking on.
This doesn’t actually work because workers actually vote with their feet. Or they simply don’t comply with policy knowing that nobody is either paying attention or has the guts/inclination to actually fire them. How much do you really expect people to do this performative labour for executives that COSTS them money when non-compliance or finding a different job can make such a difference in their financial well being and quality of life?
In doing so, they replace an understandable situation in which the were blindsided by an extremely low probability act of god, with an intentional hoisting upon their own petards. It’s incredible to me how many people have OPENLY cited how much they’re paying for office space as a reason for their return to office policies.
The US government accountability office framed unused office space as an environmental and financial problem. Not the office space itself but the fact it was unused is clearly the problem. So of course the solution is to have your workers burn a whack of oil during an oil shortage, burning through their own money, to “save” the environment and government finances by making them commute to these offices so they can’t be say converted to residential housing or something useful. The true costs of such idiocy are hidden by shoving a large portion of the costs onto the workforce who are expected to ask for no additional compensation for the extra unpaid work and uncompensated expenses they’re taking on.
This doesn’t actually work because workers actually vote with their feet. Or they simply don’t comply with policy knowing that nobody is either paying attention or has the guts/inclination to actually fire them. How much do you really expect people to do this performative labour for executives that COSTS them money when non-compliance or finding a different job can make such a difference in their financial well being and quality of life?