Tech companies are the most well positioned to keep working from home – and have even created the tools to do so. Yet they’re urging workers back to the office.
Why? Control.
Up goes childcare fees, up goes traffic in the cities, up goes vehicle depreciation and unproductive work time.
In Australia, there’s a movement by major city-based companies to return to the pre-Covid days and shackle their staff to their desks five days a week.
Two-thirds of chief executives see workers returning to the office five days a week within as the hunt for talent slips down the list of management priorities, according to a biased KPMG survey.
Don’t forget the coiffed HR set who side with the bosses no matter what.
In August, Grindr gave its workers a return-to-office ultimatum: either agree to work twice a week in person from October, or lose their jobs.
Employees hired remotely would need to relocate to Los Angeles or one of its other US ‘hub’ cities, such as New York or Chicago.
According to the Grindr union, 82 of the company’s 178 employees have been let go for refusing to comply.
Grindr’s decision to implement such a strict return-to-office protocol – and willingness to lose nearly half of its staff – has come as a shock.
Elon Musk ended working from home for employees at Twitter (now X) in November 2022 after mandating they work in person at least 40 hours a week.
In recent months, Big Tech companies, including Amazon, have also stiffened their hybrid-working mandates. Among the highest-profile and surprising return-to-office tech announcements was at Zoom.
In August, the video-conferencing platform – synonymous with remote work – announced that workers living within 50mi (80.5km) of an office now must work in person at least twice a week.