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Any new shops in Canada doing good work?
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What field is everyone here working in?
Hmm. I’m attracted to engineers..
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I think the average employee needs the office environment to be the most productive. Less distractions from kids, spouse, other things at home. Not to mention the conversations that are missed out on by not being near your coworkers at the office.
Employers know they get the most from the average employee if they are present at the office and have been wanting employees back since Covid.
Thanks for sharing
Many companies are using the RTO as an indirect encouragement to leave the company. It is less expensive if employees voluntarily resign. Do some research, and you will notice a high level of layoffs shortly after an RTO is issued.
Another issue is that some companies have never learned how to properly manage remote teams and might not have put proper processes in place. So, the easy fix (psychologically) is to require an RTO.
CEOs are under pressure from Wall Street. Publicly declaring RTOs suggests that they are doing something to increase shareholder value. In this case, the RTO implicitly blames employees for decreased value instead of poor CEO leadership (or other market factors).
Another speculation is that commercial real estate tanked during the WFH craze, and downtown economies lost business. The CEO and other executives often socialize with these tycoons and may have a personal stake in these real estate deals. Also, there is political influence in the background from mayors and other business hobknobbers putting pressure on the CEOs to revitalize their districts. So, the company executives are doing their part for their cronies by issuing RTOs.
Then we have those managers who are visually oriented and power hungry to climb the corporate ladder. They enjoy practicing MBWA (Management By Walking Around). They also enjoy having conference room meetings and drawing on whiteboards, which gives the appearance of them "leading a team" of high performers when higher-level management walks by, ultimately leading to their promotions.
A certain percentage of employees (and management) are socialites. These are usually (except for extenuating circumstances) the least productive employees. They are primarily interested in obtaining their social jollies by interrupting other people's productive cognitive efforts. And, they enjoy having an authority figure force everyone into a cubicle farm to satisfy their social dopamine hits.
Keep in mind that there is no valid scientific evidence that RTOs increase productivity. These mandates are all seat-of-the-pants. To the contrary, there is plenty of evidence that flexible working environments and remote work increase productivity, provided the work is properly managed.
Read this book published by Harvard Business Review Press:
"The World Is Your Office: How Work from Anywhere Boosts Talent, Productivity, and Innovation," by Prithwiraj Choudhury.
Super helpful
I’m sure there’s a lot to it. My guess is to overall increase productivity and for financial reasons. I know some people probably did their best work ever while being remote, but that doesn’t mean it's the case for everyone.
Thanks for sharing