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I think there are three alternative hypotheses the article misses from its list: * Ego: senior people need to be seen and respected in person; being reduced to

by mft_ 1y ago

I think there are three alternative hypotheses the article misses from its list: * Ego: senior people need to be seen and respected in person; being reduced to equally-sized thumbnail videos on Teams doesn't feed this need. * Real estate: some companies have financial commitments (e.g. long-term leases, owned buildings) to large office buildings which need to be justified; selling or ending the lease early might reflect badly on leadership. * Extroverts: some people just prefer to be in an office, surrounded by and interacting with lots of people, rather than sitting at home in relative isolation. (I'm definitely not one of them, but I have good friends who are like this.)

majorbugger 1y ago
Do these extroverts have a job that requires any level of focus? I'm also pretty much an extrovert but if I need to get any work done, being in the office is actually counterproductive for me and for people who I interact with.
- disgruntledphd2 1y ago
  > Do these extroverts have a job that requires any level of focus? I'm also pretty much an extrovert but if I need to get any work done, being in the office is actually counterproductive for me and for people who I interact with. Yeah, me too. It's much harder for me to focus at the office, which is annoying as mentally it's great for me to get out of the house and see people who aren't my family (who are great, I just do better when i see and interact with more people).
- array_key_first 1y ago
  The not so secret secret is that office jobs are 50% work and 50% politics. And that's in a good company. In a dysfunctional company, it's more like 80% politics. They have work to do, but then buckling down and focuses is probably worse than what they're doing. Unfortunately.
swiftcoder 1y ago
> Ego We can give them bigger/more-prominent zoom portraits by seniority. Should make everyone happy. > Real estate Probably shouldn't still be gambling company finances on real estate, 5 years after a pandemic forced us all to go remote. > Extroverts Great! We can put all the extroverts back in the glass fishbowl, while the rest of us do actual work from home
- mft_ 1y ago
  > We can give them bigger/more-prominent zoom portraits by seniority. Should make everyone happy. This would be hilarious, from a malicious compliance sort of angle...
  - schmookeeg 1y ago
    From coveting the corner office, to coveting the corner 200x200px zoom square. What a time to be alive. :D
    - mft_ 1y ago
      Huh, it might be interesting if the size of each participant's image could be controlled programmatically, e.g. * The more you speak, the smaller your square gets * The square varies in size based on the emotion in your voice * Your square gets larger the longer you've had your hand up without being asked to speak * The squares change size to equalize the size of everyone's face on the screen, eliminating the effect of camera and distance (I wonder if Google Meet is hackable, as it's delivered in the browser rather than an app?)
      - swiftcoder 1y ago
        Google meet recently started auto-cropping to faces, which I guess is an attempt to solve your last point. It’s not without its challenges (have to hit the recrop button if you move your head), but it is an improvement
oytis 1y ago
I wonder if it can be a genuine attempt to save positions. E.g. the board might be asking why they keep remote employees in the US instead of letting them go and hiring in a cheaper location
DebtDeflation 1y ago
One additional reason: all the other CEOs are mandating it at their companies. Can't be the odd man out in the CEO group chat.
- dboreham 1y ago
  Also mating/dating and the less pleasant side of that exemplified by Harvey Weinstein et al.
nenenejej 1y ago
* Doing summin: Gotta be seen doing something to move a needle. Doesn't matter if the needle is a compass, odometer or voltmeter, as long as it swings up or to the right.
gruez 1y ago
>selling or ending the lease early might reflect badly on leadership. Why? If the lease was signed before the pandemic that gives a very easy "out". It's not like anyone could have predicted the pandemic and the associated shift to WFH. If for whatever reason they signed afterwards, that's just them being dumb.
- mft_ 1y ago
  For example, the last big company I worked for had invested in building out its campus with multiple new flagship bespoke buildings, including during (and not reconsidered due to) the pandemic. It would be quite difficult and/or a loss of corporate face to sell/lease them out. I'm not saying it's rational, but that doesn't mean it's not sometimes an influential factor.
xienze 1y ago
I think the bigger driver is that cities and states are pressuring companies to RTO because of the massive negative impact to local businesses and governments who no longer have thousands of people coming into a particular area on a daily basis.
- oytis 1y ago
  How are cities and states pressuring companies?
sublimefire 1y ago
The missing one is: “Poor managers - do not base the decisions on data, and are not qualified to deal with the remote/spread out/async processes”
doom2 1y ago
> Ego: senior people need to be seen and respected in person The funny thing is that the CEO of my current employer lives in Connecticut and rarely (ever?) comes into the office in Manhattan. When he does come in, they shut the office down for "leadership meetings" so all the New York based employees can't come in anyway!
thefz 1y ago
> * Extroverts: some people just prefer to be in an office, surrounded by and interacting with lots of people, rather than sitting at home in relative isolation. (I'm definitely not one of them, but I have good friends who are like this.) You know what, since the dawn of work - it's always been the extroverted way. Introverts suffered through. Now that the tide has changed, let the extroverts suffer too, it's their turn. We have done our part.
AnimalMuppet 1y ago
And extroverts are probably a high proportion of upper management.

by mft_ 1y ago

majorbugger 1y ago

Do these extroverts have a job that requires any level of focus? I'm also pretty much an extrovert but if I need to get any work done, being in the office is actually counterproductive for me and for people who I interact with.

disgruntledphd2 1y ago
> Do these extroverts have a job that requires any level of focus? I'm also pretty much an extrovert but if I need to get any work done, being in the office is actually counterproductive for me and for people who I interact with. Yeah, me too. It's much harder for me to focus at the office, which is annoying as mentally it's great for me to get out of the house and see people who aren't my family (who are great, I just do better when i see and interact with more people).
array_key_first 1y ago
The not so secret secret is that office jobs are 50% work and 50% politics. And that's in a good company. In a dysfunctional company, it's more like 80% politics. They have work to do, but then buckling down and focuses is probably worse than what they're doing. Unfortunately.

swiftcoder 1y ago

> Ego We can give them bigger/more-prominent zoom portraits by seniority. Should make everyone happy. > Real estate Probably shouldn't still be gambling company finances on real estate, 5 years after a pandemic forced us all to go remote. > Extroverts Great! We can put all the extroverts back in the glass fishbowl, while the rest of us do actual work from home

mft_ 1y ago
> We can give them bigger/more-prominent zoom portraits by seniority. Should make everyone happy. This would be hilarious, from a malicious compliance sort of angle...
- schmookeeg 1y ago
  From coveting the corner office, to coveting the corner 200x200px zoom square. What a time to be alive. :D
  - mft_ 1y ago
    Huh, it might be interesting if the size of each participant's image could be controlled programmatically, e.g. * The more you speak, the smaller your square gets * The square varies in size based on the emotion in your voice * Your square gets larger the longer you've had your hand up without being asked to speak * The squares change size to equalize the size of everyone's face on the screen, eliminating the effect of camera and distance (I wonder if Google Meet is hackable, as it's delivered in the browser rather than an app?)
    - swiftcoder 1y ago
      Google meet recently started auto-cropping to faces, which I guess is an attempt to solve your last point. It’s not without its challenges (have to hit the recrop button if you move your head), but it is an improvement

oytis 1y ago

I wonder if it can be a genuine attempt to save positions. E.g. the board might be asking why they keep remote employees in the US instead of letting them go and hiring in a cheaper location

DebtDeflation 1y ago

One additional reason: all the other CEOs are mandating it at their companies. Can't be the odd man out in the CEO group chat.

dboreham 1y ago
Also mating/dating and the less pleasant side of that exemplified by Harvey Weinstein et al.

nenenejej 1y ago

* Doing summin: Gotta be seen doing something to move a needle. Doesn't matter if the needle is a compass, odometer or voltmeter, as long as it swings up or to the right.

gruez 1y ago

>selling or ending the lease early might reflect badly on leadership. Why? If the lease was signed before the pandemic that gives a very easy "out". It's not like anyone could have predicted the pandemic and the associated shift to WFH. If for whatever reason they signed afterwards, that's just them being dumb.

mft_ 1y ago
For example, the last big company I worked for had invested in building out its campus with multiple new flagship bespoke buildings, including during (and not reconsidered due to) the pandemic. It would be quite difficult and/or a loss of corporate face to sell/lease them out. I'm not saying it's rational, but that doesn't mean it's not sometimes an influential factor.

xienze 1y ago

I think the bigger driver is that cities and states are pressuring companies to RTO because of the massive negative impact to local businesses and governments who no longer have thousands of people coming into a particular area on a daily basis.

oytis 1y ago
How are cities and states pressuring companies?

sublimefire 1y ago

The missing one is: “Poor managers - do not base the decisions on data, and are not qualified to deal with the remote/spread out/async processes”

doom2 1y ago

> Ego: senior people need to be seen and respected in person The funny thing is that the CEO of my current employer lives in Connecticut and rarely (ever?) comes into the office in Manhattan. When he does come in, they shut the office down for "leadership meetings" so all the New York based employees can't come in anyway!

thefz 1y ago

> * Extroverts: some people just prefer to be in an office, surrounded by and interacting with lots of people, rather than sitting at home in relative isolation. (I'm definitely not one of them, but I have good friends who are like this.) You know what, since the dawn of work - it's always been the extroverted way. Introverts suffered through. Now that the tide has changed, let the extroverts suffer too, it's their turn. We have done our part.

AnimalMuppet 1y ago

And extroverts are probably a high proportion of upper management.