5mo ago

Tech CEOs are backtracking on RTO mandates—now, just 3% want workers in the office full-time

fortune.com Tech CEOs are backtracking on their RTO mandates—now, just 3% of firms asking workers to go into the office full-time

Research shows tech CEOs have given up on rigid RTO policies.

Leaders are perhaps experiencing more resistance than they had anticipated.

Amazon is perhaps the most documented example of how ugly the RTO battle can get: Around 30,000 employees signed a petition protesting the company’s in-office mandate, and more than 1,800 pledged to walk out from their jobs to take a stand.

The tech giant is still complaining that workers are dodging the three-day in-office mandate, over a year after it was announced.

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Tech CEOs are backtracking on their RTO mandates—now, just 3% of firms asking workers to go into the office full-time

fortune.com /2024/08/02/tech-ceos-return-to-office-mandate/

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Because companies are planning to increase hiring soon. The fed is going to cut the interest rate, spurring growth. RTO was just about making employees quit to avoid severance payouts and other layoff perks back when the economy was more slumped.
- (it was also about commercial real estate values taking a land dive but otherwise spot on)
- This is the only correct answer
  
  What about "we have this massive office and only 3 people use it" and "we want to micro manage our employees"
  
  The complex interplay of macro and micro
  
  There's some of that. I know companies in my city were given tax breaks for hosting their office building there. The theory is, the business brings more people into the area who will be spending money on lunch/happy hour/gas/etc. The tax income of that is more than the tax benefit they offer the company.
  Well, people stop coming to the office, and their tax benefit of the employees being in the city dries up. The city was threatening the companies tax benefit if the people didn't come back, and thus, RTO (in my city, anyway).
  
  Never thought about that angle, makes sense though
  
  I agree that those were side benefits of RTO, but it's only stopping because they are planning to start buying up and hoarding tech workers again when the interest rate drops.
- Why would they make employees quit when they are just going to hire again? Weeding out the job hoppers?
  
  It's like when you cancel your Netflix when money is tight and then resub once you can afford it again.
  We are just labor subscriptions for corporations.
  
  First you cut the costs and get a bonus for that, then you fill the empty roles, and then get a bonus for that
  
  Quarterly profits were down. Next quarter is irrelevant.
  
  Because a lot of CEOs these days only care about quarterly reports. When interest rates went up, companies cost to do business also went up, so to keep the red profit line going up, they had to cut costs somewhere. Labor makes up most of the expenses so layoffs and forced RTO happened.
  These CEOs don’t care that they lose years of experience when employees leave. And by the time the lack of experience catches up to the companies shitting themselves, the CEOs hope to have moved on to something else with their massive stock rewards for “increasing shareholder value”. Even the Boeing CEO who wasn’t lucky enough to leave before shit hit the fan is going to get a golden parachute. So really no downside for them.
  
  The computer did that auto-layoff thing.

46 comments