When looking at my employer - they’re enforcing a 3/2 hybrid model during the last 6 months. Before that more or less everybody worked from home 100%.

During the WFH period we had more deployments & less incidents than ever. In addition we had less sick leaves (due to tolerance being higher when WFH). Yet - the leadership is ignoring this and enforcing the hybrid model.

> They have either seen a drop in productivity or they haven't.

Some of them are claiming that they have, but none have shown anything resembling evidence or numbers, there’s been nothing but hand waving about the value of water cooler talk. There’s no reason to believe a word they’re saying.

Employers have no obligation to provide studies. They set the rules if they pay the salaries. Employees can choose to leave. In the end, the decisions by both will determine winners and losers. That’s a market!

Nobody is suggesting otherwise, obviously.

The conversation is about whether there is a drop in productivity and what evidence we have of it, not whether employers have an obligation to collect or share such evidence.

Without an actual formal study, I'm skeptical that an employer can accurately measure productivity. Unless of course they are in a stagnant industry where the tasks today are exactly the same as yesterday, like counting widgets built on an assembly line.

I challenge you to measure the productivity of middle management.

Because any good thinker of any sort knows that their locally experienced “vibes” are rather fallible?

Because sharing these insights could help convince at least some employees to RTO?

Because it’s good to have credibility and look like a sensible decision-maker in the eyes of your employees?

Note: Studies includes internal studies or analysis of a company’s own performance.