Technology

"These elite CEOs probably work 100-plus hours a week and they're much more work-focused."

No they don’t. Full stop. Let’s stop fabricating this bullshit. That’s 16hrs a day M-F with 10hrs Sat/Sun. Elon Musk is not doing those hours period, let alone while also finding time to play Elden Ring.

CEOs DO NOT WORK HUNDRED HOUR WEEKS.

CEOs DO NOT WORK HUNDRED HOUR WEEKS.

CEOs DO NOT WORK HUNDRED HOUR WEEKS.

CEOs DO NOT WORK HUNDRED HOUR WEEKS.

NOBODY FUCKEN DOES, YOU'D BE A BRAIN DEAD ZOMBIE

My main take on the pandemic is that employers involuntarily gave their employees a huge benefit set by having to go remote. They had to give this benefit set not just to their buddies or a select few, but to people they consider undeserving or do not trust.

All of their moves since have reflected that they want to put the cat back in the bag.

It's not about productivity at all and never has been. The studies even called the bluff by comparing productivity and determined that productivity is higher with WFH. The reaction to that has been to ignore the data and lean back into gut feel, because high level management isn't really about productivity.

You can tell this simply by the fact that their natural environment is the office and very few things in an office environment are actually about productivity. The reason they want return to office is the same reason they wanted open offices: control. It's easier for them to hover behind you in an open office plan. It's easier for them to order you around when they don't have to call you first.

It's all about control, and likely always has been.

Good, they'll be left with second rate wage slaves while other companies who trust their employees will be more productive and competitive as a result.

Managers are managers because they're good at playing power games, not because they're good at their jobs. These games are harder to play if people aren't there. That's why they're so scared.

Seems like the commercial real estate collapse has a lot to do with it too.

These elite CEOs probably work 100-plus hours a week and they're much more work-focused.

Oh ffs. I have nothing against Nick Bloom but this statement is so BS. Even if "elite CEOs" could work 24 hours per day, 7 days per week their salaries could not be justified by any means. There are just not enough hours in a day to actually do it.

The mandates symbolize the sharp disconnect right now between the way CEOs and employees think about work.

He's right about that though.

It's also to make sure the commercial real estate market doesn't crash

This is the best summary I could come up with:

"Because the labor market is looser and there's more talent to be hired, I think the employers think they'll be able to get their way," Dr Grace Lordan, associate professor in behavioral science at the London School of Economics told Insider.

A certain kind of CEO — noticeably skewing male and older, she said — is drawing from this "command and control" playbook as a way to rebuild an employee base that fits their idea of being productive and diligent.

"This belief of a certain cohort of people, and they are represented across all sectors, that presentee-ism is productivity, for them it's perfectly rational that if somebody doesn't want to come into the office then that basically means they're not somebody who wants to add value to the firm," Lordan added.

Elon Musk is consistently adamant about workers at his companies from X to Tesla being present in office, going as far as calling remote work "morally wrong."

A number of firms that benefited from a pandemic bump in business, particularly in tech, went on a hiring spree — triggering the "Great Resignation" as workers quit for ever-higher salaries and perks.

That attitude means certain types of employees will lose out — and return-to-office mandates will likely hurt diversity too if they are strictly enforced.

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For a lot of positions. Remote work is not just the past and the present. It is also the future.

It was never about productivity. It was always about control.

And by "look like" we mean "totally are"

These dingles are gonna flex like this just before another Covid surge, I guess?

Oh my god, so much this! The only apparent reason I see for many of the “return to office” cases I know about is for middle managers to be able to hold court and lord over their subordinates. As for the actual work that needs to be done, I see little advantage (in fact, constant interruptions for management and colleagues make it quite worse).