Hilarious corporate video Remember when Internet Brands tried to announce their new (non-negotiable) hybrid return-to-office policy (with the celebratory song “Iko Iko” playing in the background)? They're now available on Vimeo I pulled the video.
Does this signal a further shift in thinking about working from home? As the Washington Post reports:
Now, a new study from the Katz School of Business at the University of Pittsburgh shows that while office mandates may not help companies' financial performance, they can reduce workers' satisfaction with their jobs and work-life balance. “This suggests that…”Let's go back to a time when as many people as possible can happily work in the office, as we did before the pandemic,” said study co-author Mark Ma, an associate professor at the Katz School of Management. he said. Additionally, mandates make workers less happy, making them less productive and more likely to look for a new job, he said.
The study analyzed a sample of Standard & Poor's 500 companies and examined the effects of office mandates on quarterly earnings and average changes in company stock prices. These results were compared to changes in companies without office authority. The results showed that the obligation made no difference. Obligated companies did not see any increase in financial performance compared to non-obligated companies. The sample covers 457 companies and his 4,455 quarterly observations from June 2019 to January 2023.
“Compliance issues are universal,” said Prithwiraj Chowdhury, a Harvard Business School professor who studies remote work. “Some companies make veiled threats about promotions and raises… This is unfortunate, because this is your talent pool, your most valuable resource…” , rather than addressing obligations as a means to increase productivity, the focus should be instead. Harvard University's Chaudhry talked about building policy on a team basis. This means not only understanding how often and where your team is most productive in-person, but also making sure to structure your in-person days to allow for more collaboration. Requiring employees to work in the office to increase productivity in general has not yet been proven effective, he added.
“A return to power is just a convenient reaction to try to get the world back on track, rather than recognizing this as a point of fundamental change,” he said. “I call them retroversion orders.”
The article cites the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics as showing the opposite trend, with approximately 78% of workers age 16 and older “working fully in the field in December 2023, up from 81% the previous year.” “Decreased from.” For technology workers, only 34% worked full time onsite last month, compared to 38% last year.
“Nonetheless, some companies do their best to fulfill their obligations, reminding employees and sometimes threatening them with promotions or job security if they don't comply. “It is unlikely that they would do so, because it could be seen as admitting a mistake,” Ma said. . ”