Remote work, huh? It’s the argument that just won’t go away. A never-ending cacophony of big tech execs throwing tantrums over staff having the flexibility to work from anywhere and on their terms. The horror.
Water cooler small talk is critical for ‘collaboration’, they’d have you believe, and making the daily slog into work on public transport or by sitting in traffic is vital to fuel ‘productivity’.
When you’re at home, you’re lazy. You don’t work hard enough, and you’re not a team player, despite the plethora of research pointing to the exact opposite.
But the worst crime of all here isn’t your inability to return to antiquated modes of work, it’s the fact you’re not helping executives justify spending millions of dollars on the very office space you’re not occupying.
A range of big tech companies have taken drastic action over the last 18 months to cut down on remote work and get staff back into the office. These ‘return to office’ mandates have come in many forms, but most of them have all created the same reaction from staff: a mixture of disdain and a desire to seek opportunities elsewhere.
Dell Technologies, for example, has been embroiled in a war of attrition with staff for months now over its RTO mandates, and staff made it very clear that they’re not keen on these policies.
Admittedly, most of these are focused around getting staff back into the office at least in some capacity, employing a hybrid working approach that research does show offers the best of both worlds for employer and employee alike.
But earlier this month Amazon took things one step further, with the retail giant finally cracking the whip and announcing a full five-day RTO policy.
CEO Andy Jassy broke the news to staff via an internal letter, which was then circulated on the firm’s website.
“We’ve decided that we’re going to return to being in the office the way we were before the onset of COVID,” he remarked.
The reversal to a full five-day week will officially begin in January 2025, Jassy informed staff, while hot desking will be scrapped with staff assigned desks once more. Naturally, Jassy pointed toward the usual reasons behind the decision, noting that this will enable staff to “invent, collaborate, and be connected enough to each other” once again.
Amazon currently requires staff to be in the office three days a week, but Jassy insisted that’s simply not enough time for staff to collaborate, learn and brainstorm.
"If anything, the last 15 months we’ve been back in the office at least three days a week has strengthened our conviction about the benefits," he wrote.
Amazon profits soared during the pandemic despite the fact that many staff were working remotely, so the idea that it’s longing for the pre-COVID glory days seems rather strange.
The company has had a mixed relationship with commercial real estate over the last year, however. Reports from Business Insider in April this year revealed the company planned to save around £1.3 billion in costs by slashing leases, reducing floor space at some sites, and terminating agreements prematurely.
Amazon hit out at the publication at the time, with a spokesperson suggesting this was less of a broader organizational shift and more focused toward unlocking some financial flexibility.
“To suggest that this is about anything else – such as our expectations for working in the office – is at best a misunderstanding and at worst intentionally misleading,” the spokesperson told Business Insider.
But then there’s the fancy new headquarters in Arlington, Virginia. Amazon unveiled the first phase of its new campus in June last year – the project is estimated to have cost around $2.5 billion and will eventually house 8,000 employees.
If I’d splashed out $2.5 billion on a new headquarters, it’s safe to say I’d want staff clocking in each day.
A growing unease among employers
It’s no secret that commercial real estate costs have had big tech sweating over the last four years. With companies having invested billions of dollars in sprawling campuses, the shift to remote work and subsequent ‘new normal’ of sporadic office attendance must have hit a nerve with many executives.
We’ve installed so many ping pong tables, how can you not want to spend hours commuting every day?
Meta, for example, announced plans to shrink its real estate footprint as part of a cost-cutting initiative in 2022, with CEO Mark Zuckerberg confirming at the time that the company would be “transitioning to desk sharing”.
Google has also gone to great lengths to tempt staff back into the office with bizarre incentives such as cut prices at its on-campus hotel at Bay View in Mountain View, California.
The big advantage for staff at Google’s very own Hotel California was the lack of commute and having an “extra hour of sleep and less friction” getting to work.
Some big tech execs are longing for a return to a pre-pandemic era of work only they experienced. Staff were still overworked during this utopia, but were saddled with the additional burden of an inflexible working schedule.
Others are outright fooling themselves if they think this will ever truly return.
Recent research from 8x8 found a majority of IT leaders in the UK see no complete return to the office any time soon.
64% of respondents think that by 2030 the average number of days a full-time employee will need to work is either three (33%) or four (31%). Just 20% envisage a continuation of the current five-day week.
