[Yes, I'm subtweeting Amazon]
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[Yes, I'm subtweeting Amazon]
It is incredible to me how poorly Big Tech is mismanaging the so-called "return to office." In every team I've worked on, pre-covid, the metric was "Did you get your work done?" and nobody measured how often you were in the office, because how often you're in the office (in software development) is an unimportant metric.
Post-Covid (don't @ me) we now see companies pouring all their attention and focus on putting butts back in office chairs. I'm willing to believe that tech companies have secret metrics showing that in fact people are slacking off when not in the office and everyone is less productive (although it sure is mysterious that nobody SHARES those metrics). But then the solution to that is to set concrete productivity targets that are based on what you're trying to produce, not "we want to increase our measurements of butts in chairs."
You get what you measure. If your priority is having more butts in chairs, you will get more butts in chairs, and will get zero productivity improvements along with it. If what you need is more worker productivity, decide how you're measuring it and then set those targets directly, instead.
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Dave Rahardja (he/him)replied to peterb last edited by
@peterb I continue to believe that #RTO is primarily based on these factors:
1. Executives (not managers—they don’t care) wanting more *control* over workers’ days. They want to imprison underlings in buildings so they have no choice but to attend to their commands. It strokes their ego and makes them look important. Bonus points if the executive works remotely most of the time.
2. Preserving commercial real estate values. Companies that have huge campuses and other investments in CRE are most eager to have people return to buildings. A famous fruit company would look like a fool for spending $5B on a space donut if it weren’t filled with people.
3. Municipalities are renegotiating tax breaks they offered based on employment targets. No foot traffic downtown = no tax incentives for companies.
4. It’s a hidden layoff. RTO is meant to be a hardship, so people quit. It doesn’t matter that the people who quit first are the most wealthy and in-demand workers. Numbers are numbers.