4 Reasons Why Companies Are Back to the Office
Unpopular opinion: Managers can't count bums on seats remotely, so they want to go back to the office.
So here are some of the real reasons why companies are back to the office.
I learned recently that only 16% of companies have announced fully remote policies, despite a whopping 70% of employees preferring to work remotely.
Such a huge imbalance. So I questioned myself why that is, and made this tweet for more insight.
1. Some Managers Would Be Redundant in a Remote Culture
Many large companies have local offices in satellite countries (eg: Portugal, Poland, India, Brazil, etc).
If those companies go remote, all the local management layers will become redundant. Those managers are dying to go back to "normal", so they keep their job.
2. Some Managers Have No Idea How to Manage Their Reports Remotely
They've been counting bums on seats for all their work life.. They’re having a tough time adapting to goal-oriented and task-driven management.
They still rely on industrial age productivity metrics:
- "Is John doe being productive today?"
- "Oh yeah, very productive. He's been sitting there since 9am. On the other hand Mary Jane is super unproductive. She arrived at 9:10am"
This is not even funny!
3. They Lack a Social Life Out of the Office
They want to go back simply to hang out with co-workers and have a beer at the pub once in a while.
This is where arguments against the social aspects of remote work come from. Sadly some people simply don't have a life out of their working setup, so they are missing that aspect of their lives when working remotely.
4. The Office Is Their Comfort Zone
They've always hired locally in their city. People who look like them and the people around them.
Hiring employees from other countries, cultures, etc is just a big disruption to how they've always done their work.
I've heard such managers saying things like:
- "Oh, it's impossible to onboard someone remotely"
- "We are hybrid, they need to come to the office at least a couple days a week"
It's just evolution. And they are missing out.
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