We’re now finding out the damaging results of the mandated return to the office

https://fortune.com/2023/08/01/research-damaging-results-mandated-return-to-office-worse-than-we-thought-rto-remote-work-careers-leadership-gleb-tsipursky/

by rawgabbit • 3 years ago

31 20 3 years ago

fortune.com

canadaduane• 3 years ago

This article includes interesting stats at first but the self-promotion midway through just makes it feel like a formulaic Medium article, and I lose trust in the author from that moment on:

"At that point, the company called me to help as a hybrid work expert who the New York Times has called “the office whisperer.”"

bsder• 3 years ago

Unispace found that nearly half (42%) of companies with return-to-office mandates witnessed a higher level of employee attrition than they had anticipated. And almost a third (29%) of companies enforcing office returns are struggling with recruitment.

If you want to convince me, you also need to present the same numbers for companies that don't have return-to-office mandates.

itsanaccount• 3 years ago

no one needs to convince you. they'll just leave. they won't say a word.

ryanklee• 3 years ago

GP is talking about the strength of the argument.

FreshStart2• 3 years ago

But the five yes men in my office said yes. I can't replace them with a Alexa that's auto sycophanting chanting: <that's a great idea, by a great guy (addNameHere)> or can I?

sylens• 3 years ago

I’m curious if any company trying to get people back into the office has begun reverting it’s open floor plan to a more structured and divided one, allowing for more noise isolation and private work

karmajunkie• 3 years ago

yeah, this… the only reason my company can get me to come in at all is that they put me and another quiet guy in a somewhat isolated room with a door. it’s not perfect, especially when the office is relatively full, but it’s better than an open floor plan.

badrabbit• 3 years ago

This. Even for a couple of days a week, open working area has a severe impact on my headspace. I basically need a weekend not doing anything to reset from it.

midoridensha• 3 years ago

Why would they do this? Every good manager knows that having a noisy open office plan where you can hear every conversation in the office at once improves productivity exponentially because of collaboration.

fnordpiglet• 3 years ago

My perceptions is zero, based on a small sampling of megacorps that account for a significant percentage of tech employment.

Before the pandemic they were doing hotel seating and encouraging work from home and had reduced floor plans with smaller open seats that were not dedicated. They were internally discussing “BYOO,” or bring your own office and strangling corporate leased/owned space until it was only used for crucial in person meetings, interactions, and roles that had to be in the office for regulatory or practical purposes.

The pandemic forces that so suddenly that C suite folks freaked out and saw the way they came up ending. They saw an erosion of the culture and company they fostered and had a strong emotional response in the other direction.

During the pandemic no one accelerated real estate acquisition or reversed the BYOO squeeze policies. Now they are struggling seating people on the mandatory policies. Everything is the same - too few seats, hotel seating, smaller desk footprints, floor plans as open as the Montana sky. Morale is about zero. As compliance rates are around 30% at most large megacorps mandating in office N days a week management is increasingly becoming aggressive and oppressive. Attrition has been pretty low owing to the spring tech apocalypse, spurring increasing aggressiveness by management. But - hiring will pick up in 1Q2024 through 3Q24 as the mirage recession fails the materialize. Whether you believe in it or not funding is flowing for AI and that’ll further improve tech employment, especially as interest rates stabilize.

I was until recently a senior leader at one of the largest of the large megacorps with draconian RTOO policies. Myself I left a few weeks ago because they asked me to come in five days a week and joined a late stage startup being paid more, with more interesting work, and no mandatory in office.

If they value controlling my body over my contribution then they can have neither.

itsmartapuntocm• 3 years ago

Mine is doing the opposite. Moving us all to a new building that does away with offices in favor of an open floor plan.

archo• 3 years ago

https://archive.is/FgQsC

-- Related --

Damaging results of mandated return to the office: it’s worse than we thought : https://finance.yahoo.com/news/now-finding-damaging-results-...

Referred by fsflover - HN: Discussion - (201-comments - 2023-08-01) : https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=36956747

ianai• 3 years ago

I was expecting mention of increased transmission due to return to office policies. That certainly happened to me. Didn’t get Covid until some coworkers decided to come to work sick and I had no recourse but be at work with them. They said they just had allergies at the time and later admitted it was Covid. Infuriating.

Management was entirely WFH at that point so they had no visibility into who was showing up sick.

happymellon• 3 years ago

Although I haven't seen any transmission from RTO requirements where I'm at, I would assume that it would fall as a symptom of the overall lack of autonomy that the mandates create.

Management still have no visibility, because there isn't a field in the resignation form for "you create a terrible environment with your open plan office".

News-Dog• 3 years ago

Presenteeism or 'Working While Sick' : https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Presenteeism#Health_factors

Note! Edit to point too; 'Health Factors'

anonymouswacker• 3 years ago

How dare they breathe the air and spread their highly transmissible virus, like has happened for eons! Then again, why would you choose to breathe in their sickness? Were you not wearing 3 masks and keeping 3 meters distance? Did they make you come to work? Call the tribunal, we must get to the bottom of this, as soon as we've uncovered what causes rectal itch from the office chairs!

ChrisArchitect2• 3 years ago

[dupe]

ChrisArchitect2• 3 years ago

Lots of discussion earlier: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=36956747

BrainInAJar• 3 years ago

The only reason companies are mandating RTO is because C suite and investors are heavily leveraged in commercial real estate.

It doesn't matter that it's worse for the company it's better for their portfolio to force people in to go get disabled by covid

FreshStart2• 3 years ago

Real estates in cities will decrease in value anyway as supercell Flash floods increase?

We’re now finding out the damaging results of the mandated return to the office

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