Back To Work!

By that I mean: back to the office. If there's one good thing that came out of the global pandemic, it's that traffic reduced to the point that there were no more traffic-jams and the air was suddenly a lot more breathable in many of the world's most densely populated cities.

But the one good thing, or at least one of the few good things we experienced during the pandemic is now being destroyed by the world's employers. And I can attest to that personally. It's now been almost two full years that I've been working from home, and it's been a great two years in that respect. My commute to work isn't that long by car, only a half hour or 45 minutes max if traffic is slow, but still, not having to travel to the office saves me one to one and a half hour every day. It saves gasoline and a lot of hassle as well, not to mention the absence of traffic-jams and the reduction of carbon dioxide emissions.

Also there's been no mention of less work getting done or workers abusing the bosses trust while working from home. On the contrary: there's been a slight increase in productivity, something I can attest to personally as well. In the morning I can stay in bed a bit longer and in the afternoon I just log off, switch off the laptop and my work-day is done. This has been a clear win for employees and the environment, while causing no harm whatsoever for employers. In total, it's a big win. Why then, now that restrictions are being lifted slowly but surely, is the first thing we hear that we have to go back to the office?

Executives and managers all over the world are "giddy" about welcoming back the workforce in the office. They all use the same lingo in their invitations to workers to come back; they say they feel "energized" about the prospect of being together again, they say they've missed speaking to us "face to face," when in reality we've been in contact via Teams or some other video-conferencing software constantly. This is what I mean:

After two years, giddy executives appear on the brink of welcoming their workforces back to the office, whether their employees are ready or not.

“I can’t tell you how much I am looking forward to being together again,” Apple Chief Executive Tim Cook told his employees in a memo last week, outlining his company’s April 11 hybrid back-to-work plan.

“I hope everyone is feeling as energized as I am, and that you are looking forward to seeing your colleagues in person again in the weeks ahead,” Comcast’s NBCUniversal CEO Jeff Shell wrote in a Feb. 22 memo to staff. “This is an exciting time. Our offices are ready for your return across all NBCUniversal locations.”
_{source: CNBC}

That's from an article titled "Making sense of why executives are eager to get employees back in the office," which also states that "studies show there’s an executive-employee disconnect about returning to the office." Here's the disconnect:

Three-quarters of all executives reported they want to work from the office three to five days a week, compared with about one-third of employees. Among executives who have primarily worked completely remotely through the pandemic, 44% said they wanted to come back to the office every day. Just 17% of employees said the same.

Other research suggests employees have been pleasantly surprised by their work-from-home experience and don’t want it to end.
_{source: CNBC}

And you can bet your bottom dollar that some of the employees said they wanted to go back to the office because they know that their bosses want them to;'I've seen that in my work as well. The article states several reasons for this disconnect, like the fact that they have their own office with a door they can close, and that they probably don't have the same child care issues as their employees. But I think there's another, even more nefarious reason, and that's that they want to maximize their control over the workers. Read the article (there are many more by the way) and watch the below linked video; I know I'll try and stay at home for as long as I can, but I fear I'll be driving my car to work again sooner rather than later...

Thanks so much for visiting my blog and reading my posts dear reader, I appreciate that a lot :-) If you like my content, please consider leaving a comment, upvote or resteem. I'll be back here tomorrow and sincerely hope you'll join me. Until then, stay safe, stay healthy!