16 Apr YOU SUPPORT THE FIRM

Photo by Marco Bianchetti on Unsplash

“We’re very focused on having our team in at the same time,” Neil Barr, chair and managing partner at Davis Polk, told the Wall Street Journal. “The expectation is that you come to the office and you support the culture of the firm by being here in person.”

–https://www.businessinsider.nl/return-to-the-office-or-see-a-pay-cut-more-and-more-companies-are-forcing-remote-workers-to-choose/

THE FIRM

One of the themes we see in both John Grisham’s The Firm and Andrew Neiderman’s The Devil’s Advocate is the idea of a company that traps its employees and has the power to strip them of anything and everything if they think of escape. Quite frankly, in the same way that Teldar Paper is a microcosm of Corpo America, these novels present us with example companies that mirror not only Corpo America but the entire system itself. If you think you’re gonna leave, boy oh boy, do you have a surprise comin’!

“The era of widespread remote work might be coming to a close economy-wide, as firms tighten their belts and try to get their workers back in. A report from the Bureau of Labor Statistics found that, as of September 2022, 72.5% of establishments surveyed offered little to no telework. That’s a huge surge from the 60.1% of establishments who had little to no telework in 2021. As mass layoffs sweep some sectors that embraced remote work — like tech — companies that are letting workers go are increasingly asking for their remaining workforce to come back in…

One way or another, it seems, working remotely could mean lower pay for many workers. That’s because even companies that have chosen to embrace remote work may be doing so in part because it allows them to pay workers less. Nearly half of surveyed US remote workers said they’d be willing to take up to a 5% pay cut to continue working remotely at least part-time, according to the State of Remote Work survey that Owl Labs and Global Workplace Analytics conducted last September.”-Business Insider, Ibid.

It seems that there’s two potentials bubbling up:

• WFH but accept a pay cut to do so
• RTO and go back to butt-in-seat at the Cube Farm

 

TBH, I feel like the first option will eventually bleed into the second one. I’m sorry, I hate to sound like Eeyore, but that’s what I see coming further down the line. I could be wrong and I hope I am. When we look at how many people live paycheck-to-paycheck and how inflation surely doesn’t seem to be “transitory,” I’m not sure how a majority of people will dig their heels in and lead a full-scale rebellion against RTO for the long run.

–https://causeyconsultingllc.com/2022/07/04/the-great-resistance-may-cost-you/  published July 4, 2022.

Yeah, sure. You can WFH if you want to… but it’ll cost ya.

“The Wall Street Journal reports that at least one company — the law firm Davis Polk & Wardwell LLP — told employees that they could see their bonuses cut if they don’t work from the company’s office at least three days per week.

‘We’re very focused on having our team in at the same time,’ Neil Barr, chair and managing partner at Davis Polk, told the Wall Street Journal. ‘The expectation is that you come to the office and you support the culture of the firm by being here in person.’

Davis Polk did not immediately respond to Insider’s request for comment.

Meanwhile, as Insider’s Carter Johnson reports, JPMorgan is leaving behind hybrid work for its executives and mandating that they come back in. It might represent an industry-wide shift; a memo from JPMorgan’s operating committee said that ‘leaders play a critical role in reinforcing our culture and running our businesses’ — and therefore ‘have to be visible on the floor.'” -Business Insider, Ibid.

Here’s what it boils down to: are you gonna go along to get along or are you gonna be a problem, pal?

Also – look at the language here: “personality fits in well” and “mesh well.” Let’s strip off the linguistic gymnastics: ONE OF US. Are you gonna go along to get along or are you gonna be a problem, pal?

–https://causeyconsultingllc.com/2023/02/15/hiring-the-cult-of-personality/  published February 15, 2023.

Are you gonna c’mon back as commanded and show your fealty to THE FIRM or are you gonna quit? You need to support the company by being here in the flesh or there’s the door, bucko.

WSJ: You’ve been trying to get people back into the office for a while. Has this encouraged people to come back in a way that maybe they weren’t before?

MR. SOLOMON: Every business has to do what it thinks is right for their business. I have not had a strong point of view about how others should run their business. But I have a very strong point of view about how Goldman Sachs should run its business. Our business is a professional-services human-capital business where 50% of the people who work for Goldman Sachs around the world are in their 20s. They come to Goldman Sachs to have an experience, to learn, to work in teams, to collaborate. And if that’s all fragmented, that experience breaks down. We needed to create a culture of bringing people back very quickly, because we thought it was hurting our competitive position as a business. And so we have nudged, cajoled, evolved. But the bottom line is, we generally are operating pretty close to the way we operated before the pandemic.

–https://www.wsj.com/articles/more-bosses-order-workers-back-to-the-office-as-job-market-shifts-11672689665

We nudged and cajoled but the bottom line is: if we say you’re coming back, you’re coming back. If you don’t want to do that, hit the door. And once you discover that the unemployment rate is not truly 3.5% and you can’t find a remote role as readily as you did in 2021, we think you’ll see the light.