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80% of bosses say they regret earlier return-to-office plans

80% of bosses say they regret earlier return-to-office plans: ‘A lot of executives have egg on their faces’

https://www.cnbc.com/2023/08/11/80percent-of-bosses-say-they-regret-earlier-return-to-office-plans.html

As some business leaders accept hybrid work as a permanent reality, others are backtracking on earlier pledges to let employees work from home.

80% of bosses say they regret earlier return-to-office plans: ‘A lot of executives have egg on their faces’

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.zip/post/1343437

Archived version: https://archive.ph/hK7Z7
Archived version: https://web.archive.org/web/20230811205213/https://www.cnbc.com/2023/08/11/80percent-of-bosses-say-they-regret-earlier-return-to-office-plans.html

42 comments

dingus

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“Many companies are realizing they could have been a lot more measured in their approach, rather than making big, bold, very controversial decisions based on executives’ opinions rather than employee data,”

Same as it ever was. They're sad that people are telling them they're the dumbfucks they are, but it won't change how the operate. Period.

They like having little feifdoms where they have complete control, and the only reason they're upset with the Return-to-Office foibles is because they didn't realize they didn't actually own their employees, and their employees are totally able to fuck off to greener pastures. It's not about the employees, as usual. It's about losing employees who didn't put up with their bullying antics for the first time in fifty fucking years. They don't like it when people have options and can't be under their thumb. That's why these chucklefucks have sad faces.

Fucking sociopaths, every one.

Madison_rogue

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A whopping 80% of bosses regret their initial return-to-office decisions and say they would have approached their plans differently if they had a better understanding of what their employees wanted, according to new research from Envoy.

See, it's never their fault. Look how they're trying to deflect it back to the employees. I would say employees definitely made their wishes known in regards to returning to work. These bosses and executives can fuck off.

squaresinger

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If there only was an easy way of understanding what employees wanted... But alas, since there isn't, forcing people to do something and then measuring how many of them resign seems to be the best way to figure it out.

Jimmycrackcrack

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"if only we'd had a better understanding of what employees wanted"

"I want to work from home"

"It's difficult to make decisions about real estate arrangements when we're not sure how our employees will feel in a month's time"

"I want to work from home"

"We need more data about employees needs"

"I could submit this in writing if it helps, I want to work from home"

"WE NEED MORE DATA! GET THE FUCK BACK TO YOUR DESK"

jecxjo

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They knew. They say that because they don't actually want to fulfill their employees needs.

We want to WFH because we dont want a 2hr unpayed commute. The way that ks fixed is for employees to consider the commute part of their 9-5 but that means we are really only doing 10-4 with an hour from lunch.

We want WFH because our lunch breaks don't easily get taken over by meetings because we arent sitting at our desk of the break room. The hour is an actual hour you can't contact me so more "lost time".

With WFH its harder to keep people around after hours as they can quickly mark their chat so to afk. That means no more 4:30 pop ins saying we need to stay late.

Turns out that when your employees can force their work time no one givea away free time. When you end WFH and try to squeeze out more time you're going to piss off a lot of people.

p03locke

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The way that ks fixed is for employees to consider the commute part of their 9-5 but that means we are really only doing 10-4 with an hour from lunch.

Who the fuck works from 9 to 5? Dolly Parton?

jecxjo

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The devs that still work at the place I started at 20 years ago. They actually have a start time of 8 and are expected to stay until 5. Earliest meeting scheduling times are at 8:30 and latest starts at 4:30. Oh and they pay horrible. But its difficult to get fired there.

p03locke

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But, that's not 9 to 5. That's 8 to 5.

chilicheeselies

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Yeah because they wont be abke to fill the position. Thats terrible. Who works under those conditions?

jecxjo

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Its the middle of no where. To find a similar job i had to move out of state 300+ miles away.

Most of the people who work there half the household income (i was yhe only income in our house) and they all were 40+ and didnt have expectations of doing more in their lives. They all had pensions (mine got cut at a stupid low number before it ended). It was only younger people leaving who were drowning.

bluemellophone

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[raises hand]

LaunchesKayaks

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I worked 9-5 at my last job. It fuckin sucked.

gornar

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What a way to make a living

MonkderZweite

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Not you. 👅

SlopppyEngineer

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Yeah, they're just sad it didn't work as expected and it makes them look bad.

mrbubblesort

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Oh no! It's the consequences of my own actions! If only someone had told me I had to listen to what every single one of my employees had been telling me literally every chance they got.

dingus

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Yep, they didn't care to listen. They're only "sad" now because they can't bully people.

Jimmycrackcrack

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Yeh I loved that. "Oh if only we'd known!!" Lol.

SupraMario

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ROFL pretty sure there was like 10% of employees who wanted to return to work...most were middle management which realized their jobs relied on making sure people were at work.

nickhammes

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I (mostly) returned to working in the office as soon as I could. For a few months it was great; almost zero traffic, relatively few distractions while I worked, with all of the upsides and few downsides. And I'd see people once in a while, and catch up. It was great. Now with people being expected to come in more, traffic and distractions are way up, fueled in large part by people who would rather be working more from home.

ikidd

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A better understanding of what level of bullshit their employees were willing to take from them

FTFT

RaoulDook

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Nailed it

Showroom7561

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and say they would have approached their plans differently if they had a better understanding of what their employees wanted...

😂😂😂😂 Yeah, because they really care about what employees wanted. /s

More like productivity went up when people WFH, and having them back in the office dropped productivity back to where they were before the pandemic.

Lower productivity means lower profits. These bosses suck at their job 😂

kucing

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Yeah they should really consider replacing themselves with AI.

ipkpjersi

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More like productivity went up when people WFH, and having them back in the office dropped productivity back to where they were before the pandemic.

Lower productivity means lower profits. These bosses suck at their job 😂

Not to mention the most talented employees left their in-office jobs for different fully remote ones.

notabird

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These are the questions Media won't ask or talk about

Is RTO office necessary? Is there data to support forcing employees into office?
What do employees want?

Every other article is either around painting WFH as bad or about how to make sure RTO succeed.

Snapz

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Billionaires...

don't live next to normal people
don't work next to normal people
don't commute/travel next to normal people
don't eat next to normal people
don't shop next to normal people
don't sweat next to normal people

They could not be further removed from the reality of their kingdoms below, unless they were on Mars.

Duamerthrax

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Billionaires are more then different enough to simplify classify them as an ethnicity of their own, but that would only validate their persecution complex.

Kyrgizion

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Subspecies of subhumans.

_s10e

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Most bosses aren't billionaires, though.

Dagwood222

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"It isn't the big Hitler in Berlin that makes life a pain, it's the million little Hitlers in France that make life stink."

It's not the billionaires who make your life hell, it's the bosses who are doing everything to become billionaires.

Snapz

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You spend your life mad at the missiles and not the person pushing the button?

Dagwood222

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Think about it. The billionaires and the wannabes are all part of the same system.

Just because someone is angry with the symptoms doesn't mean they don't undertand the underlying disease.

Snapz

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Missles are inanimate, directionless and while they have the capacity for harm, they won't act autonomously without the structure that propels them at victims.

Ubermeisters

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Read as: selfish executives forced return to work and now are realizing that some other companies aren't and those companies are the ones getting all of the productive talent..

PenguinJuice

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Its time for CEOs to return to the position of listening to the actual value producers instead of whatever hairbrained scheme these idiots come up with.

These guys are legit destroying our economy and their own companies.

dingus

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It's time for CEOs to return to the position of listening to their workers and giving them a living wage, because for generations that was the agreement that kept the mob of workers from beating the CEO to death in front of their family and hanging their corpse on the front lawn as a fucking warning.

corsicanguppy

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Even six months ago, companies were willing to eat these costs in a tight labor market to recruit and retain talent. But now, "Some companies are getting impatient, and want to recoup these large investments," Kacher explains.

In New York City, office space costs, on average, about $16,000 a year per employee, the New York Times reports.

But, and here's my big issue with that, that $16,000 a year per employee is the same cost whether the employee is there or not. You're not saving money by demanding the employee occupy your already-leased dead space in the daytime. You're not even preventing the loss of money. It's the same cost (minus a bit for heating etc) whether a given employee is at the office, at home, commuting, sleeping, or attending an interview at a job where people know this.

Suggesting the location of someone's ass is somehow related to rent you already have to pay ... is just stupid.

hikaru755

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No no no, you see, if the employee isn't there, they could rent out that space instead, but they don't. By getting the employee back into the office, they're eliminating those opportunity costs! /s

On a more serious note, saving costs could be a reasonable argument if the company were compensating the employee for their increased cost of living when working from home - electricity, heating, water, internet etc. at home also have to be paid somehow. However, I kind of doubt that a significant number of the companies we're talking about here actually does that in the first place.

kitonthenet

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cat's out of the bag now guys! can't boil this frog anymore you already scared it

altima_neo

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Doubt they actually do

BrikoX

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They probably do as it hurts their bottom line and productivity, but they will repeat the same mistake over and over again because it's just not in their nature to listen to workers.