3 ms·
Noticed the same with some media publishing anti-work-from-home articles recently. "We need the plebs to want to mock people who work from home, to reduce the
by BLKNSLVR 2mo ago
Noticed the same with some media publishing anti-work-from-home articles recently.
"We need the plebs to want to mock people who work from home, to reduce the reticence in coming back to work in the office"
"We need our commercial property values to go back up"
Edited to add:
"Our managers need to _feel_ as if they're actually managing people"
- matchbok3 2mo agoIt's 2026, the conspiracy theory that business people wanted RTO for office space value has been debunked 100 times. Such a silly, nonsense idea.
- walrus01 2mo agoYou think that the size of investment firms that own something like, a good sized chunk of midtown Manhattan class A and B commercial real estate aren't capable of deploying social and tradtional-media influence tools to push an agenda to repopulate their office space? That would be a very inaccurate assessment of how large and motivated they are.
- matchbok3 2mo agoIf you are willing to believe a nonsense conspiracy like that then there is no way we could have a productive conversation.
- walrus01 2mo agoYou actually don't think that the world's largest REITs hire lobbyists at the municipal, state and federal levels? That's an extremely naive and uninformed position.
- samplatt 2mo agoThat'd be a lot easier to believe if you provided a source, which you should do if you care enough to comment in the first place, I think? A cursory google suggests that the return-to-office movement is primarily driven by management's desire for voluntary turnover, avoiding the bad press of mass layoffs. But certainly doesn't show that it's 'been debunked 100 times'. In my own experience, it's been 50/50 a desire for voluntary turnover, and also a control tactic. Employees are easier to strong-arm when they're immersed in the idea that company culture actually matters.
- BLKNSLVR 2mo agoDidn't mean to imply that was the only reason, so I've added another reason to my comment. I haven't come across much of the debunking of the commercial property issue. I would say it's undeniably factor, but we can argue about the scale. A total of $800 billion—in real terms—of value is at stake by 2030, and, on average, the total value of office space is expected to decline by 26 percent from 2019 to 2030. https://www.mckinsey.com/industries/real-estate/our-insights/the-state-of-demand-for-commercial-real-estate https://www.mckinsey.com/industries/real-estate/our-insights...
- matchbok3 2mo agoYou think XYZ Company is going to listen to some consultant telling them in a press release that they should go back into the office because some REIT needs more money in it? Why would the CEO of a tech company care at all what the value of their leased office building is? Do you understand how leases and real estate works?
- BLKNSLVR 2mo agoI understand there's significant motivation behind the potential of losing $800 billion in value. I think those kinds of numbers can have more fundamental implications.
- swed420 2mo agoThe entire back-to-normal narrative was and still is a total mindfuck: https://www.thegauntlet.news/p/how-the-press-manufactured-consent https://www.thegauntlet.news/p/how-the-press-manufactured-co... The threat from COVID (and more importantly, long COVID) never went away, but they sure convinced the average person that it did. Today you can see an N95 in the wild once in awhile, so some people are paying attention, but they are less than 1%. Many others are suffering brain damage, unexplained heart issues, taxed immune systems, etc and have no idea why (nor does their doctor).