Until the company pivots and forces you to come back in, with no justification why. Can't wait to get in a car accident driving to work to scan a badge and go back home
The unspoken reason is generally rent. They are paying all this money for a space that isn’t being used, and a lot of these companies pay for multi year leases.
Not my job to subsidize my company's bad investments (they buy the real estate as additional rev streams). They're not buying my lunch, paying for mileage, or even paying for parking. 100% of the cost is put on employees, all so we can be less productive at work but sit in the right chair
It’s a sunk cost though. Making people come in changes nothing from an accounting perspective.
I suspect that at least in tech it’s a ploy to get more expensive senior people to resign so they can hire eager/desperate fresh grads or people recently laid off, for less comp.
It's not just about rent though. I think people are putting too much weight into that reason.
The other reason is layoffs. Layoffs look really bad to shareholders, so another way to do it is a mandatory RTO, which would force some people to quit.
Work is forcing us back into the office full time and blocking shift trades between the two offices, I think they are trying to get people to quit without paying severance
In one anecdotal case in Crystal City, VA, Amazon was getting into hot water because they had promised the city via contracts that their new office buildings would bring people into the city, boosting local businesses. That wasn’t happening, so the company was going to lose tax breaks iirc
Could absolutely see Amazon doing that. Again though, it's the company getting what they need at the expense of their employees. I'd also be curious if those were corporate jobs or warehouse/delivery jobs. Some jobs require a physical presence
Yeah, soft layoffs are a huge reason why companies do it. I know it's a sunk cost, but they also have to justify that cost somehow. They don't love explaining to shareholders that they hold all of this real estate full of expensive tech, yet offices sit empty
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Is shitty, but it is what it is.
I suspect that at least in tech it’s a ploy to get more expensive senior people to resign so they can hire eager/desperate fresh grads or people recently laid off, for less comp.
The other reason is layoffs. Layoffs look really bad to shareholders, so another way to do it is a mandatory RTO, which would force some people to quit.
At least I can use the office gym!