Because most employees found out they are/were being exploited but never noticed it, either financially (with all the expenses involved), emotionally (by putting up with corps BS “culture”), socially (especially for introverts or people who would rather spend time with their family than someone who would replace you in a week), or even physically (poor chair/desk/work environment/etc.), all that especially when companies expect those employees to return to the office with the same compensation before the pandemic as if the inflation isn’t a thing, probably if those companies offered a hefty raise (at least 50%) in return to RTO, probably portion will return back..

Should I read the article or your comment?

... how many times do I need to return to the office?

... oh, so, repeatedly.

... what, like 5 times a week?

... that's a lot of returning to a place I never much liked.

... and you say it will keep happening indefinitely?

...

... and I have to do it on my time.

... and at my expense?

...

... to hell with that!

Don’t forget too you will go the office to have video calls meetings just like if you were at home.

I can just open my laptop at home… oh you say I need to drive for an hour first. Should I drive in a circle? To a certain location? Oh, and it’s one hour before I open the laptop and then another hour after I close it. For free. In my own car. While endangering my life and paying for gas. Oh and it’s at certain hours.

What exactly is the benefit of this?

You get to pump up the ego of a man who holds you in contempt because you’re not a sociopath like him.

It's harder to maintain the workplace status/dominance hierarchy remotely.

A corner office is a useless status symbol when subordinates aren't visibly toiling away in their awful open plan office spaces.

To be fair, Googlers did this even before COVID, because crossing the Mountain View campus was a hassle and room-to-room video worked really well.

> Managers say they will renew the push to get employees back into offices later this year.

Of course, who else would “renew” such a push?

Mostly micromanaging CEOs that want people back in the office or CEOs that want to quietly lay off people.

With unemployment this low, I just can NOT believe how many companies are doubling down on RTO. Companies hold almost zero leverage at this point. Even the “quiet layoff” theory makes no sense, because they’re still on the hook for severance and unemployment.

For context, Fortune, WSJ, FT, etc. have all been consistently over the past 2 quarters churning out several opinion articles on the topic of remote work.

The articles are always opinion pieces loosely based on cherry picked reality. They either attack remote work with reasons why it "doesn't work", or attack how remote work destroys corporate "culture" or city centres.

It's useless to have any honest discussion on these pieces because they are an obvious concerted effort to shape public opinion in order to save commercial real estate investors who were caught with their pants down now that several companies are not renewing leases.

Rush hour commuting sucks, but so does trying to concentrate at a desk surrounded by noise and disturbances. I was surprised none of the respondents touched on that; it's the main reason I either stay late or work from home.