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Unfortunately the “leaders in tech” are MBA brains that have no idea what they are doing long-term and when the going gets tough they turn to the age old strate

Unfortunately the “leaders in tech” are MBA brains that have no idea what they are doing long-term and when the going gets tough they turn to the age old strategy of making life miserable for their employees. This is true in the United States, anyway, where we have very little in the way of labor protection.

jibe 3y ago
CEO of Grindr is not an MBA, just a nice liberal arts guy from Middlebury. CFO isn’t either.
0xcde4c3db 3y ago
I don't think the problem is "MBA brain", at least not directly. MBA types may have earned a reputation of being distinctly out of touch with the "factory floor" and the end user, but their actions are often rational if viewed through sufficiently Excel-tinted glasses. To me, the RTO push does not seem rational in that way. I fully admit that this is a half-baked hypothesis based mostly on vibes, but I suspect that a lot of execs operate more than they'd admit on "ape brain" concerns of social dominance, and feel threatened by the prospect of not having underlings in a contiguous physical territory. Part of what makes the cubicle (never mind the open layout) such a cultural touchstone for corporate soullessness is that the physical space you inhabit distinctly belongs to the company; it is not "your" space. Conversely, WFH takes that space from the company and gives it to the worker, at least metaphorically. Perhaps this is even the post-postmodern, meta-ironic, lazy-teenager version of "seizing the means of production", although I'll leave that argument to people who have actually studied the likes of Gramsci, Adorno and Deleuze.
- paxys 3y ago
  I agree. If a company asked its team of MBAs to figure out the ideal work situation, they'd run the numbers and conclude that saving on expensive office space, expanding the talent pool, being able to hire in cheaper regions, keeping employees happier and reducing attrition etc. made remote work the more favorable option. The problem is instead power tripping execs who ignore this advice and go nah, what we really need is to go back to the good old days where I could boss people around.
  - johnnyanmac 3y ago
    you're forgetting the sunk cost of renting some office in town. If the numbers are big enough, and especially when you want to downsize anyway, it may make more sense to enforce RTO to kill two birds with one stone. RTO works on the gamble that you keep enough of your staff afterwards to be fine. IDK if 50% means they lost that gamble, but it sounds higher than expected. I wouldn't have place it higher than 20-25% for a company Grindr's size.

jibe 3y ago

CEO of Grindr is not an MBA, just a nice liberal arts guy from Middlebury. CFO isn’t either.

0xcde4c3db 3y ago

I don't think the problem is "MBA brain", at least not directly. MBA types may have earned a reputation of being distinctly out of touch with the "factory floor" and the end user, but their actions are often rational if viewed through sufficiently Excel-tinted glasses. To me, the RTO push does not seem rational in that way. I fully admit that this is a half-baked hypothesis based mostly on vibes, but I suspect that a lot of execs operate more than they'd admit on "ape brain" concerns of social dominance, and feel threatened by the prospect of not having underlings in a contiguous physical territory. Part of what makes the cubicle (never mind the open layout) such a cultural touchstone for corporate soullessness is that the physical space you inhabit distinctly belongs to the company; it is not "your" space. Conversely, WFH takes that space from the company and gives it to the worker, at least metaphorically. Perhaps this is even the post-postmodern, meta-ironic, lazy-teenager version of "seizing the means of production", although I'll leave that argument to people who have actually studied the likes of Gramsci, Adorno and Deleuze.

paxys 3y ago
I agree. If a company asked its team of MBAs to figure out the ideal work situation, they'd run the numbers and conclude that saving on expensive office space, expanding the talent pool, being able to hire in cheaper regions, keeping employees happier and reducing attrition etc. made remote work the more favorable option. The problem is instead power tripping execs who ignore this advice and go nah, what we really need is to go back to the good old days where I could boss people around.
- johnnyanmac 3y ago
  you're forgetting the sunk cost of renting some office in town. If the numbers are big enough, and especially when you want to downsize anyway, it may make more sense to enforce RTO to kill two birds with one stone. RTO works on the gamble that you keep enough of your staff afterwards to be fine. IDK if 50% means they lost that gamble, but it sounds higher than expected. I wouldn't have place it higher than 20-25% for a company Grindr's size.