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Return-to-office orders look like a way for rich, work-obsessed CEOs to grab power back from employees
(www.businessinsider.com)
this post was submitted on 24 Aug 2023
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My main take on the pandemic is that employers involuntarily gave their employees a huge benefit set by having to go remote. They had to give this benefit set not just to their buddies or a select few, but to people they consider undeserving or do not trust.
All of their moves since have reflected that they want to put the cat back in the bag.
It's not about productivity at all and never has been. The studies even called the bluff by comparing productivity and determined that productivity is higher with WFH. The reaction to that has been to ignore the data and lean back into gut feel, because high level management isn't really about productivity.
You can tell this simply by the fact that their natural environment is the office and very few things in an office environment are actually about productivity. The reason they want return to office is the same reason they wanted open offices: control. It's easier for them to hover behind you in an open office plan. It's easier for them to order you around when they don't have to call you first.
It's all about control, and likely always has been.
As a manager, I can confirm that productivity drops in the office (even my own). I've got team members that choose to go to the office (moreso than me). I encourage them to work however they prefer, and want. You can work anywhere around the world however you wish, including at some nice beach, as long as it doesn't affect the project.
You sound like a not-dickhead ;-)
A lot of that control is about perceived obedience and perceived productivity.
In many areas you’ll find that ACTUAL productivity matters far less than perceived productivity.
And it’s easier to perceived productivity when you can walk a floor and see people work as you walk by.
This is 100% true and I had to learn it the hard way; perception matters just as much, if not more than getting the job done.
"When you look annoyed all the time, people think that you're busy."
I've lived by this advice my whole career and it's never failed me.
High level management is about preserving your position as a high level manager and securing the maximum compensation for it.
As a manager who WFH, if managers are ineffective at their job, it's either that they suck, or their org structure causes them to suck.
If upper management wants a manager to manage 30 people, of course they will suck.
Keep the team to 8 max so the manager can actually do some hands on technical work as well.
Someone has to suck someone's dick.