Large tech businesses are forcing employees into a huge hidden pay cut.
They call it “return to the office.” They’re demanding that all people who have worked from home during the pandemic return to their cubes or be fired.
Let’s look at that a moment. (Buy the book.)
If you’re an hour from work, it takes 2 hours a day to commute. Add in gas, wear on the car. Add in an hour to get ready. Add in the cost of work clothes. Add in lunch. Maybe add in drinks after work.
Now let’s look at it from the employer’s perspective. Add in rent. Add in utilities. Or society’s perspective. Add in wear on roads and other infrastructure costs. Add in fuel.
Finally, let’s talk about hidden costs. When a tech company demands tech workers do their work in offices, what they’re saying is that all the promises they made about tech 5 years ago, that it would improve productivity by letting people work from where they are, were bullshit.
Not everyone can work from home. If you’re working on a big machine, in a factory, in a hospital, on the street, you need to be there. But if you’re managing assets, if your job involves monitoring or adding to the software stack, you can do that anywhere. You can write a story like this from anywhere. I’ve been doing it for 40 years. You can program computers from anywhere.
You can do it at home. You can do it at the office. You can do it in a coffee shop. You can do it in an Uber or on a plane. You can do it where the assets you manage are, going to the factory, the warehouse, the supplier, the customer. Office or home isn’t a binary choice.
You do want to get together sometimes. Mentoring requires close contact. Teambuilding requires the same. But if you’re going to demand office attendance, make it worth their while. You buy lunch. You schedule those days, doing things that can only be done by people in proximity to each other. And why can’t mentoring be done where the mentor is, or the mentee?
In the end, “return to the office” is a control exercise. Employers are saying they own you, that they control you, and that you will do what say or go hungry. Workers can fight back because jobs are plentiful. That’s why the business press is harping on the idea of unemployment skyrocketing. We’re acting as a tool of the employers, breaking the strike.
I don’t know how the war of the cubes will end, but I know there will be losers. The companies making these demands without thought are losers. Those acting strategically, paying people to come in and only demanding they come in when needed, they will be winners. Workers who feel forced into the office won’t see improved productivity.
It’s just the latest mess brought on by ignorance.
