penguin

@penguin@sh.itjust.works

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨[deleted]⁩ ⁨⁨11⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  It has nothing to do with real estate. This is often echoed on social media but is baseless.

  Even if they did care about real estate value, they’d rather all other companies return to office, boosting those values, while they could then remain remote and take advantage of both the higher real estate values and also the numerous advantages of remote work.

  Boosting real estate values in this way is a collective action problem where most companies would need to work together for the greater good (as they see it). But if you hold this world view, that CEOs will screw over their employees for their bottom line, why wouldn’t they also screw over other companies? They would. They would want other companies to work together to fix the real estate values while also benefitting from remote work. So it would all fall apart.

  Here are more likely scenarios:

  • SHAREHOLDERS. Shareholders don’t like unused assets. “Use it or lose it”. So, CEOs force return to office because they think it’ll help the stock price. Shareholders are also likely to blame as evidenced by publicly traded companies being more likely to mandate a return to office.
  • Personal preference. CEOs, and other executives who make this decision, simply prefer to work in the office and they prefer a full office to an empty one. Either cause: they have a very extroverted personality (likely how they got the job in the first place), they feel more powerful with all their underlings around, or they have a harder time working from home and can’t fathom anyone being different.
• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Return-to-office orders look like a way for elite, work-obsessed CEOs to grab power back from employees⁩ ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago⁩:

  No this isn’t right. It’s cheaper to have an empty building than a full one so companies who own their buildings would still make more money letting their employees work from home.

  Also, even if it was true, no company is going to try to solve a problem like that. Companies are selfish. They’d rather everyone else go back to work to boost the value of commercial real estate while they continue to work from home to increase their profits everywhere.

  The only reason companies are forcing people back is because upper management simply prefers that work environment. They like to sit in their corner office, surrounded by their peons. A sense of power.

  Or, they have the kind of personality where they thrive surrounded by people and can’t understand how anyone could be productive at home, data be damned.

  It has nothing to do with real estate.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Coming to you soon...⁩ ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago⁩:

  I was trying to agree with you overall in my first comment. That no matter what they try to do, there will be a way around it. Even if it’s as extreme as using a camera to make the copy.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Coming to you soon...⁩ ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago⁩:

  It’s fundamentally impossible to grant read access without copy. And you can always do whatever you want to your copy.

  Otherwise, piracy wouldn’t be a thing.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨The Elite's War on Remote Work Has Nothing to Do with Productivity⁩ ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago⁩:

  Very true. I also believe though that CEOs essentially never do anything for the common good of other companies or even the entire planet. If they can earn 0.00001% more revenue by firing a bunch of people, or polluting, they won’t think twice about it.

  So if they could earn more by leasing their office space to another company, they would do the same thing (if they were acting equally logically/pragmatically) but I believe it’s different in this case because of my personal opinion that it’s simply the preference of the upper management types for various reasons.

  But not every CEO has forced people back. Many have embraced how it’s the future of office work.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨The Elite's War on Remote Work Has Nothing to Do with Productivity⁩ ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago⁩:

  They have no power to make companies tell their employees to go back to the office though.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨The Elite's War on Remote Work Has Nothing to Do with Productivity⁩ ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago⁩:

  Investors don’t care one way or the other about where employees work and I imagine most are content to leave that as a decision made by the CEO.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨The Elite's War on Remote Work Has Nothing to Do with Productivity⁩ ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago⁩:

  Sure. I should’ve added that nuance to my argument that it only applies to the companies that are forcing people back.

  Many CEOs out there have embraced WFH regardless of their personal preference.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨The Elite's War on Remote Work Has Nothing to Do with Productivity⁩ ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago⁩:

  I still think WFH is more profitable in that sense. You could try to lease out the space, for example. Or just sit on the space while it’s empty. Less electricity, water, coffee, toilet paper, etc etc.

  Forcing your employees back to an office doesn’t get you any more money unless it’s some very strange situation.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨The Elite's War on Remote Work Has Nothing to Do with Productivity⁩ ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago⁩:

  Excellent point, yes.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨The Elite's War on Remote Work Has Nothing to Do with Productivity⁩ ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago⁩:

  I disagree. It has nothing to do with real estate. CEOs simply prefer working in an office with all their underlings around.

  It’s cheaper to run a company if you need less office space. Even if you already have a ton of office space and it’s going unused, it’s cheaper to have an empty office than a full one.

  Following the money leads to embracing a WFH-first mentality. So if it was just money, then these companies wouldn’t be forcing people back.

  But besides money, people also enjoy power and they feel more powerful in a full office than working from home. So that’s what they pursue even if it costs more.

  Just like how rich people will spend money on big houses and nice cars, not everything they do is to save more. They send money on things they like.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨I don't get it⁩ ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago⁩:

  That was definitely the turning point in his general PR

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨I don't get it⁩ ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago⁩:

  Isn’t it focused on negative news about musk? Which I enjoy, not gonna lie.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨looking forward to the comments⁩ ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago⁩:

  That’s my point. If everyone pronounces a word a certain way, THAT is its correct pronunciation. The first person to say a thing doesn’t get to tell everyone else they’re wrong.

  Everyone started using the word “literally” to mean figuratively, so the official definition changed to mean either or.

  Everyone says GIF similar to gift, then that’s the proper pronunciation. Creator has no say.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨looking forward to the comments⁩ ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago⁩:

  Find me a closer English word than “Gift” that uses a J sound for the G

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨looking forward to the comments⁩ ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago⁩:

  He made the format, not English.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨what's a reasonable sort for lemmy?⁩ ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago⁩:

  Yeah, I’ve had the best experience with top 6 hours for all. Blocked a couple communities but not as many as I would’ve thought.