Three and a half years after the start of the pandemic, employers are getting serious about increasing the amount of time workers spend in the office and trying new strategies to overcome resistance.

  • holiday@lemmy.world
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    11
    ·
    1 year ago

    I’m surprised share holders of a lot of big companies aren’t demanding WFH. Office space is one of the larger chunks of overhead for a company (not just the space but utilities, supplies, maintenance/cleaning).

    My guess is as leases are coming to an end that companies will definitely think twice before signing when WFH is an option.

    My current job has us in the office a few days every 6-8 weeks and if it went to anymore than that the majority of the team I’m on would quit. It’s pretty easy to find work right now with unemployment below 4%

    • escapesamsara@discuss.online
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      11
      ·
      1 year ago

      Because office space ‘overhead’ was solved for decades ago. The same shareholders of a company own shares in at least a dozen commercial real estate companies. Their bottom line goes up when a company rents or owns commercial property. It doesn’t matter if ProductionCo loses 10% revenue a year, RealEstateCo gets at least that much plus all more if they own the surrounding buildings all the restaurants are in that support the office.

      Capitalism, contrary to popular belief, does not optimize for economic efficiency, just profit; and as it turns out profit has little to do with efficiency if you zoom out of any one particular company.

      • Xhieron@lemmy.world
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        1
        ·
        1 year ago

        This. The office, the restaurants, the gym, the local stores? They’re all owned by the same capitalists, and they want you spending your paycheck there. This is about converting the limited hours of your life into wealth for the rent-seeking bourgeousie: it’s still the same company store. It just has a different name.

        No war but the class war.

    • HubertManne@kbin.social
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      3
      ·
      1 year ago

      We got bought out by a holding corp and none of their holdings are real estate. All tech. We have been 100% wfh and a bit back they closed down the smaller offices but now they are dropping most all of them. Even the main office is being shuttered but they said with that one they are looking for a smaller space but at least for awhile I believe we will have no US offices.