More Return-to-Office Crackdowns, with 61.7% of Employees Now in Office Full-Time (msn.com)
- Reference: 0179198716
- News link: https://it.slashdot.org/story/25/09/13/040256/more-return-to-office-crackdowns-with-617-of-employees-now-in-office-full-time
- Source link: https://www.msn.com/en-us/money/human-resources/another-wave-of-return-to-office-crackdowns-is-coming/ar-AA1Mlfhp
> NBCUniversal sent a memo to its employees telling them to return to the office four days a week starting in January [with the option to work remotely on Fridays]. Last week, Paramount told employees to return five days a week, with the first group starting in January. Both Paramount and NBCUniversal said they would offer severance packages to eligible employees who are unwilling or unable to make the switch... Companies have been cracking down on flexible work for the past several years, with Goldman Sachs being one of the first to implement a five-day office policy. Since then, others have joined in including Amazon, AT&T, JPMorgan Chase and the federal government...
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> Overall, the number of people working full time in office hasn't changed much over the past couple of years. About 61.7 percent of salaried employees worked from an office full time in August, according to data from university researchers Jose Maria Barrero, Nicholas Bloom and Steven J. Davis, who are studying the matter. That is down one percentage point from August 2024, their research shows. During the same period, the amount of people working remotely dropped two percentage points and those working hybrid schedules increased three points.
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> While most of the big office pushes are coming from some of the largest employers in the nation, the majority of companies in the United States aren't requiring full-time office work, said Brian Elliott [publisher of the Flex Index, which tracks flexible policies, and CEO]. And about half of U.S. workers are employed by smaller companies, he added. Some companies are capitalizing on the mandates, using flexible policies as a way to poach talent from their competitors, he said....
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> Some employers are using office mandates to purposely shed workers. An August report from the Federal Reserve Bank shows that "multiple districts reported reducing headcounts through attrition — encouraged, at times, by return-to-office policies and facilitated, at times, by greater automation, including new AI tools." Still, with fewer job openings in the market, some employees will have to comply with office mandates.
Announcing their return-to-office mandates, employers gave the following reasons:
"In-person collaboration is absolutely vital to building and strengthening our culture and driving the success of our business. Being together helps us innovate, solve problems, share ideas, create, challenge one another, and build the relationships that will make this company great."
-- Paramount CEO David Ellison (in a memo to staff)
"It has become increasingly clear that we are better when we are together. As we have all experienced, in-person work and collaboration spark innovation, promote creativity, and build stronger connections."
-- Adam Miller, NBCUniversal chief operating officer (in a memo to staff)
[1] https://it.slashdot.org/story/25/09/09/177221/microsoft-forces-workers-back-to-the-office
[2] https://www.msn.com/en-us/money/human-resources/another-wave-of-return-to-office-crackdowns-is-coming/ar-AA1Mlfhp
I don't understand (Score:1)
I'm a huge fan of WFH and don't have much good to say about RTO.
But what I don't understand is this whole business about ignoring work attendance policies and simply not being fired, just like what would happen if you if flat out defied other major employer policies, and expecting to get away with it, or allowing employees to get away with flat out defiance.
Fire the motherfuckers. What's the hold up? If all the big employers had any balls and stuck to their guns, people would fall in line rather quickly. Su
Re: (Score:2)
Most managers do not like firing people, both for personal reasons, because firings can be demoralizing to a team, and because the cost to train a new employee can be large. Its both the policy at most companies and generally good practice to find a way to fix problems, not just fire people.
Re: I don't understand (Score:2)
How will you enforce this short of installing spyware on PCs which companies are doing in increasing numbers ...the ones using that to justify RTO. Remember people can use mouse jugglers and just use their USB ports like the ones caught at Wells Fargo.
Also, real estate values. Many renewals have butts in seats requirements as the landlords feel left out not collecting at the deli in the basement and parking lots. So it's 5 days a week to make the one landlord richer
Re: (Score:2)
I'd enforce it fundamentally with things like:
1). Are you reachable when you are supposed to be?
2). Are you fulfilling your work commitments?
2.5). Is your output similar to employees with similar assignments?
3). Are you attending required meetings?
4). Are you constantly giving excuses about *WHATEVER*?
5). Are your peers complaining about you?
6). Are you simultaneously employed elsewhere?
These are not hard things to monitor.
Other than point 5, and maybe point 6, I don't think they are particularly controvers
Huge productivity increase next quarter (Score:2)
I mean if we don't see some kind of positive benefit to the return to work mandates, why should businesses bother with them?
Study shows Narcissistic bosses drive RTO (Score:1)
Narcissistic Personality Disorder, or even the Dark Tetrad, is at play (see Dilbert or do a search for “narcissistic bosses rto”) [1]https://www.techspot.com/news/... [techspot.com]
[1] https://www.techspot.com/news/101468-new-research-suggests-narcissistic-controlling-bosses-drive-return.html
Why even write (Score:2)
> "In-person collaboration is absolutely vital to building and strengthening our culture and driving the success of our business. Being together helps us innovate, solve problems, share ideas, create, challenge one another, and build the relationships that will make this company great."
They've been fine working from home since COVID, for years, and now somehow it's absolutely vital?
If you're going to use such transparent lies, you're better off using ChatGPT. The output will be more coherent.
Studies show people work less hours WFH (Score:5, Funny)
Internal data and other sources such as the [1]Bureau of Labor Statistics showed workers averaged 2.6 hours less [fortune.com] than their in office counterparts. AAA touted WFH as the great savior of new talent until their spyware revealed people logged in less than 4 hours a day. Now it is BUTS IN SEATS after the CEO saw this.
Microsoft said they would continue their WFH and hybrid policy unless there was a drop in productivity. I guess part of their new collaboration aka PHB term for micro managing people to track attandance, potty time, and phone use, is now all the rage.
Part of me is so angry. A few bad apples blew it! I work in IT like many ./'ers and met people who worked multiple jobs in secret and weren't available in Teams until like after 11am.
The data now vs 2020 is polar opposite and people took advantage of it. Now I have to commute and waste 30 hours a month driving and tearing up my expensive car so I can be watched at work like I am 12 because people lack accountability and self discipline. I am also dissapointed as I thought society would evolve in a new era as the office was an outdated 19th/20th century concept. Oh well.
[1] https://fortune.com/2025/07/03/remote-workers-men-work-less-hours-from-home-productivity-fake-work/
Re:Studies show people work less hours WFH (Score:5, Insightful)
Apples and oranges.
These studies measured time in-office as 100% work. Anybody who has worked in-office knows that the percent of actual work time is far less than the amount of time you are present in the office. THAT is the number that should be compared to people's WFH hours. I'm pretty sure that actual in-office work hours are about 2.6 hours less than the time they are present in the office.
Also, if you're a manager of a remote team, and you can't tell who's working, you aren't paying attention. (For that matter, if you're in office, and you can't tell who's working, you aren't paying attention.)
Re: (Score:2)
Yep and there are plenty of studies to back up that work from home increases actual productivity.
Never mind the raw productivity increases from not spending 2 hours a day driving back and forth from the office.
Re: (Score:2)
Productivity isn't the goal. Productivity matters in cutthroat industries where price is the only differentiator.
For most companies, the goal of effective middle management is to get promoted, and backstab your coworkers. You do that by making your underlings less efficient so you can hire more of them.
Re: (Score:2)
If only there was any method to measure productivity other than using a stopwatch for attendance.
Don't get me wrong, I myself have not "worked from home" ever unless when forced to, and I do see advantages of people working together in one place. But arguing with statistics on mere time spent on the job is ridiculous, especially when it is so obvious like now that these "return to office" mandates are just meant to get rid of headcount.
The honest thing to do would be evaluating people by results delivere
Re: (Score:2)
I could see if I were a CEO or leadership and saw this over a large sample set I would freak out and implement a RTO. I would realize it is true that clocking in and clocking out may work great on an assembly line a century ago in a factory and people clocking in 15 minutes would hit numbers FAST, however I can't have people logging in only 4 to 5 hours a day.
We have spyware at my employer in which I HATE so my boss let me know when he caught me tired using my phone to log into teams and it was 8am and not
Re: (Score:1)
I don't understand how you allow people to not be available on teams or have their camera on for meetings. I mean, WTF IS THAT?
Comply or be fired. It ain't hard.
Re: (Score:1)
yeah, as if any work had ever been done on meetings.
Re: (Score:1)
More like management blew it. They're complete failures at managing anyone anywhere at anytime so hardly a shock that WFH had problems. RTO won't be any better, but it doesn't matter, what matters is they can say they did something, though it's just stacking failure on top of failure.