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Employers push for staff to return to the office after working from home as commercial property values plunge (www.abc.net.au)

submitted 9 months ago by Nonameuser678@aussie.zone to c/australia@aussie.zone

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[-] morry040@kbin.social 35 points 9 months ago

If you have management that tries to push for a return, give them this article from Microsoft and request a discussion of its many points.
https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/worklab/work-trend-index/hybrid-work-is-just-work

WFH, particularly in 2020-2021, was the opportunity for managers to learn how to effectively manage remotely, using metrics and good planning practices. Those who failed to do so should be the ones questioned as to why they should remain as managers.

[-] Endorkend@kbin.social 20 points 9 months ago* (last edited 9 months ago)

There's two reasons for a push to return to office work.

1: as the title of the thread, real estate prices. A lot of companies have long ass leases they can't get out for sometimes decades. Or they outright own the properties and said property is virtually worthless if no needs to come to work on location.

2: antisocial and narcissistic personality disorders and tendencies in that direction fill a very high percentage of management, especially higher management. These people need people to physically lord over to feel powerful and stroke their fragile egos.

They don't give a flying shit what the numbers say. They don't care work from home is better for workers or productivity, as they don't give a shit about workers or productivity to begin with.

[-] Zagorath@aussie.zone 9 points 9 months ago

Issue 1 is, for the vast majority of companies that lease their offices, an entirely invalid reason. It’s the sunk cost fallacy in its most pure form. You’ve already paid for that lease. If paying but not using it ends up being better, that’s what you should do—and even better, plan your downsizing next time your lease is up for renewal. Paying for something but not using it isn’t an issue for a rational business decision-maker.

But issue 2 is very much a problem that’s difficult to overcome.

[-] cosmicrookie@lemmy.world 17 points 9 months ago

Their problem is not that they can't manage remote work. It's that remote work is so effective that they don't need the buildings that they have invested too much money in.

[-] ajsadauskas@aus.social 14 points 9 months ago

@cosmicrookie @morry040 It's also telling how many of these same managers have never had any problems with outsourcing their manufacturing roles overseas.

Or outsourcing contact centres to India.

Or outsourcing business processes to Manila.

Or outsourcing IT work to a Silicon Valley cloud platform provider.

You can't get too much more remote than being in another country.