14 Dec Will the billionaire investors demand RTO? 🤔
So… that escalated.
Are we at a point in this tug-of-war where the billionaire investors will simply demand RTO and thereby take the blame for destroying a lot of WFH situations? Or is this some kind of weird double-cross maneuver, i.e., we really want people back butt-in-seat, so we’ll ask the investors to demand it and then shrug our shoulders as if to say, ‘Sorry about it. They had us over a barrel, so we had to bring y’all back.” ? I wonder. We already know these fat cats are full of the “rules for thee, not for me” mentality. Remember that mess where Malcolm Gladwell slammed WFH but yet he works from home? (https://www.marketwatch.com/story/malcolm-gladwells-work-from-home-comments-spark-backlash-accusations-of-hypocrisy-11659981091) 😒 He may as well just say it: It’s OK for me because I am soooooo disciplined and I can handle it. But you peons & plebs cannot.
Yesterday, I published 😆 WHAT SPIN!, which covered the changing narrative from hybrid is the hell of half measures and is a total nightmare to hybrid workers are the most loyal and have the best of both worlds. *rolls eyes all the way back into head like Tony Stark*
“If you’re a frequent reader or frequent podcast listener then you already know what I always say: IMO, if you wait to be “officially” told something, you’ve waited too late. I’ve predicted for quite some time that I think hybrid will be used as a temporary stop-gap. In other words: we’ll do this hell of half measures for a little while to get people used to being back in the office. Like the frog in the pot getting slowly boiled. But eventually, we’ll rip the band-aid off. 2 days in office will be 3, then 4, and then finally 5.” –https://causeyconsultingllc.com/2022/12/13/%f0%9f%98%86-what-spin/
A possible strategy could very well be: you gotta come on back or we’ll lose our investors and go broke.
“Sir James Dyson has slammed the UK’s plans to extend employees’ rights to work from home. Writing in The Times, the billionaire said the policy shift is ‘economically illiterate and staggeringly self-defeating.’ Without control over where employees work, companies like Dyson will hesitate to invest in the UK, he said.” -from MSN, emphasis mine
At least they’re being honest and using the magic word: control. Cuz that’s what all of this boils down to, IMO. Control. Obedience. Compliance. Fealty.
“‘We have seen from our own experience at Dyson during periods of government-enforced working from home how deeply inefficient it is,’ Dyson wrote. ‘It prevents the collaboration and in-person training that we need to develop new technology and maintain competitiveness against global rivals.'” -from MSN
Ahh yes. Another great corporate buzzword that’s fairly meaningless: COLLABORATION! As I’ve said before, I worked in offices for years and I never once, not one single time, saw a Eureka! moment around the coffee pot or the water cooler where colleagues solved a major problem and high fived each other. I think so much of this nonsense is some CEO’s fantasy and not reality for the average employee.
“The billionaire also took a swipe at the legislators who were in favor of the reform, writing that the policy was ‘aided by the many civil servants who enjoyed working from home, despite the shockingly bad public service they often provide and their terrible track record of delivery.’ Dyson, who’s currently worth an estimated $15.4 billion, is not the first business leader to rally against flexible work arrangements for employees. In August, JPMorgan CEO Jamie Dimon pushed back against remote work, saying that it ‘slows down honesty and decision making.’ In November, just two weeks after taking over the company, Elon Musk sent a 2:30 a.m. email to Twitter staff, requesting them to return to the office for ‘a minimum of 40 hours per week.’ Dyson did not immediately respond to Insider’s request for comment.” -from MSN
Oh, I’m sure he didn’t LOL. I still think so many of these CEOs and managers would love to pull the Lord Elon – send out a 2:30am edict and command RTO. For years, government employees have been ragged on for service. I can’t tell you how many times I’d go to the post office and there would be one beleaguered clerk working and the line seemed to move at a glacial pace. These complaints are nothing new and do not have anything to do with WFH. To me, this is like rehashing old statistics in an attempt to blame men for the so-called labor shortage. They’re grasping at straws and doing anything they can to further their own agenda.
If you’ve built your domestic infrastructure around WFH and you like it, guess what – the CEOs and investors and corporate fat cats do not care. If you are still looking around and hoping that some sudden Hail Mary pass will save the economy and turn things around… good luck with that. If you’ve organized your childcare, eldercare, pet care, etc., around being fully remote and you don’t have the resources to make other arrangements, umm, that’s not gonna stop these folks from demanding whatever the hell they want.
In “3 Consequences of a Lack of Empathy in Leadership,” Peter Sear, PhD writes that miscommunications, poor relationships, and toxic climates result from management that lacks empathy. (https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/empathic-minds/202103/3-consequences-lack-empathy-in-leadership) A bit ironic considering that screaming about collaboration and relationships is a big part of these fat cats crowing for everyone to RTO.
“The fear of the unknown works both ways. A leader becomes paranoid about how they are perceived, and this breeds insecurity. An insecure leader will be more likely to focus on their own needs. Hence, a lack of empathy in a climate brings a lack of care.” -Peter Sear, emphasis mine
Yeppppppppp. We need ya to c’mon back to the office so we can surveil you and monitor you and assuage our own insecurities and paranoia. God forbid you take a bathroom break that’s too long and your light goes yellow on one of the various surveillance platforms we’ve insisted you use for tracking purposes. Just go ahead and get back in the cube already! 😖 Are they focused on their own egos and their own needs? You better friggin’ believe it!
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