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> The RTO/WFH struggle is clearly about money (what else could it be about in a corporate world?) Oh, it's definitely not only about money, any more than the o

> The RTO/WFH struggle is clearly about money (what else could it be about in a corporate world?) Oh, it's definitely not only about money, any more than the other "treat your employees well and you will provably make more money" things are. It's about power, ego, and classism. It's about an entire category of management that has no actual ability to manage people beyond eyeballing whether their butts are in seats. It's about execs who can only feel good about that corner office when there's a whole floor of people in a cube farm to see that they have the corner office. It's about avoiding ever having to question the assumption that the only reason regular plebeians ever actually do work is because they have the boss breathing down their necks every 5 seconds (and, of course, the ever-present threat of being fired and left destitute), because if people did start questioning it, they might realize it also disproves the assumptions underlying the most common objections to things like UBI. Which would shatter the upper class's power over the lower classes for good. This is not to say that it's not about money, of course. The commercial real estate angle is a real one, for sure. But an awful lot of the assumptions that lead to calling for RTO have much less to do with money, and much more to do with maintaining a neofeudal power dynamic between bosses and workers.

btbuildem 3y ago
I agree - it's much more nuanced than my initial take. I guess I oversimplify it, in the spirit of "money is power", but you're right, we could say "money is proxy for power" and acknowledge all the other power plays that are as old as humanity.
khazhoux 3y ago
> It's about power, ego, and classism. It's about an entire category of management that has no actual ability to manage people beyond eyeballing whether their butts are in seats. It's about execs who can only feel good about that corner office when there's a whole floor of people in a cube farm to see that they have the corner office. I take it you're not a manager. Reducing people to "power", ego, corner offices... that's all very simplistic and (sorry that this offends) naive. I've been fortunate to work in places where management is involved, technical, and impactful. It sets direction, identifies bad plans and wastes of time where work should be cut, identifies places where work can be combined, it resolves (and asks) difficult queries, and it works to grow the individual team members and make the workplace a good environment. The cartoonish Clueless Idiot Manager Villain has just not been my experience. Sure, I've seen bad managers, but also bad individual-contributors.

btbuildem 3y ago

I agree - it's much more nuanced than my initial take. I guess I oversimplify it, in the spirit of "money is power", but you're right, we could say "money is proxy for power" and acknowledge all the other power plays that are as old as humanity.

khazhoux 3y ago

> It's about power, ego, and classism. It's about an entire category of management that has no actual ability to manage people beyond eyeballing whether their butts are in seats. It's about execs who can only feel good about that corner office when there's a whole floor of people in a cube farm to see that they have the corner office. I take it you're not a manager. Reducing people to "power", ego, corner offices... that's all very simplistic and (sorry that this offends) naive. I've been fortunate to work in places where management is involved, technical, and impactful. It sets direction, identifies bad plans and wastes of time where work should be cut, identifies places where work can be combined, it resolves (and asks) difficult queries, and it works to grow the individual team members and make the workplace a good environment. The cartoonish Clueless Idiot Manager Villain has just not been my experience. Sure, I've seen bad managers, but also bad individual-contributors.