cross-posted from: https://lemmy.world/post/10481867
Billionaire CEOs were quick to sing the praises of working from home at the start of the pandemic, calling it the way of the future — but over the last three years, they’ve slowly changed their tune.
Late last year, Forbes reported that 90% of companies will return to the office in 2024, with 28% threatening to fire workers who don’t comply.
But it turns out that the motivations for calling workers back to the office may have less to do with employee productivity or profit margins and everything to do with catering to the egos of controlling managers who want their workers back, according to a recent study published by researchers at the University of Pittsburgh.
Mark Ma, an associate professor of business administration from Pitt’s Katz Graduate School of Business, who led the study, told BI he started the research hoping to understand why some S&P 500 firms want employees to return to the office while other firms avoid calling them back.
…
“One of the most common arguments management suggests is that they want to return to office because employee productivity is low at home, and they believe returns to office would help firms improve performance and ultimately improve the firm’s value,” Ma told BI. “That’s the reason they give — but our results actually do not support these arguments.”
What is that article picture? A bunch of 4:3 monitors, people sitting on unpadded wooden chairs, shoulder to shoulder? What kind of office hellpit is that?
Open seating facilitating C o l l a b o r a t i o n, my friend. It’s the newest in a long line of corporate circle-jerk KPIs.
Quarterly losses got the shareholders on your back?
Mandate more collaborations!
Employees realizing their worth got the shareholders on your back?
Mandate more collaborations!
Feeling insecure about your authority got the shareholders on your back?
Mandate more collaborations!
The high mount of time spent collaborating on Teams/Slack got the shareholders on your back?
Mandate more collaborations!
Some other company’s Exec bragging about their greater number of collaborations got the shareholders on your back?
Mandate more collaborations!
What’s the easiest most effortless method to generate more collaborations without having to use any brain power whatsoever?
Copy what other CEOs who’ve failed have done and change nothing because you’re a lazy hack but tell yourself it’ll work perfectly because you’re a snowflake and smarter than everyone else! 🌹🌹Return to Office! 🌹🌹
When it doesn’t work, what do you do?
Blame the workers for not collaborating right! YAAAAAAAAAY!!!
It’s a picture of an open office floor from 15 years ago based on the monitors, clothing, and magazine
Sheesh, I sat in an open plan office in 2008, and we had ergonomic chairs and wide desks and widescreen monitors even then. IT privilege, I suppose.
After examining the magazine being passed and discovering a (frankly super creepy) website documenting, among other things, every magazine cover featuring Angelina Jolie, that is most likely a November 2008 variety office hellpit.