Dana Blankenhorn

War of the Cubes

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.

The Other Arms Race

We talk a lot about guns in the US, without doing anything about them.

But there’s another, even more dangerous arms race, going on.

It involves cars.

It’s not just that there are too many of them. They’re too damned big. Spending $60,000 for a pick-up that will never see a trailer hitch, or an SUV higher than an elephant’s eye, is stupid. Especially since these cars are sitting, unused, 90% of the time.

People buy giant cars for the same reason they buy guns. They make you feel safe. They buy as much car as they can afford, like these things are houses.