3 ms·

Doesn't it make more sense for the rich portfolio holders if the companies just re-direct office lease payments to extra dividends? That would result in higher

Doesn't it make more sense for the rich portfolio holders if the companies just re-direct office lease payments to extra dividends? That would result in higher net returns than arbitrarily trying to keep an entire separate office industry afloat. Far more reasonable to me is the idea that management wants a communal atmosphere when working on team projects. You can disagree with this, and say it's unnecessary, but I am not sure why we need to generate conspiracy theories about Blackrock's real estate holdings. Silliness.

paulmd 3y ago
Anecdotally there have been several weird management pushes in my own employer “make sure everyone shows up for meeting X” that felt alarming at first. And when I asked a friend what was going on, the answer was that because they’d just leased this building pre-covid there was leadership push to use the space so it didn’t look like a mistake/waste. And it was just various wires getting crossed by ineptly delivered messages from middle management, not a hint to be sure to show up cause they were dropping layoff notices or something. And likely with the market right now you can’t exit a lease or sell a building without taking massive losses, cause nobody else wants commercial real estate either. So what I’m saying is, there’s often quite a lot of internal push at these companies to avoid realizing losses/making the COO look like an idiot/etc. It’s not just “blackrock wants them to”, although I’m sure that exists at the government levels etc. There is also broad corporate level resistance to the idea of realizing losses and taking blame for real-estate investments that are now underwater. Not that anyone in 2019 could have predicted that the nature of the workplace would fundamentally change 6 months later.

3 ms·

Doesn't it make more sense for the rich portfolio holders if the companies just re-direct office lease payments to extra dividends? That would result in higher

by missedthecue 3y ago

paulmd 3y ago
Anecdotally there have been several weird management pushes in my own employer “make sure everyone shows up for meeting X” that felt alarming at first. And when I asked a friend what was going on, the answer was that because they’d just leased this building pre-covid there was leadership push to use the space so it didn’t look like a mistake/waste. And it was just various wires getting crossed by ineptly delivered messages from middle management, not a hint to be sure to show up cause they were dropping layoff notices or something. And likely with the market right now you can’t exit a lease or sell a building without taking massive losses, cause nobody else wants commercial real estate either. So what I’m saying is, there’s often quite a lot of internal push at these companies to avoid realizing losses/making the COO look like an idiot/etc. It’s not just “blackrock wants them to”, although I’m sure that exists at the government levels etc. There is also broad corporate level resistance to the idea of realizing losses and taking blame for real-estate investments that are now underwater. Not that anyone in 2019 could have predicted that the nature of the workplace would fundamentally change 6 months later.