Start Wars: Behind the Logic of In-Office Mandates 🏢

Amazon, amongst multiple other commerce and tech giants, are getting sued for failing to compensate employees for remote work expenses.

Apple's head of AI resigned. Musk has mandated all employees to return to the office for at least 40 hours a week.

A lot of people are not happy, and seem to be resigning in droves.

Scratching my head, my initial thought was, how awful all this is happening.

Being one of the current "little guys" on the outside looking into the glass doors of these large corporations, it's easy to take the L and think that everything is falling apart, the world is ending, and that remote work is no longer a welcome part of the white collars' experience. I like to refer to as the "Start Wars". Companies are starting to expect employees to start coming back in office full-time, and some people aren't liking it.

On the other hand, however, I had a secondary thought.

We as a nation and, I might add, the rest of the world, are coming out of a two-year long pandemic. For many companies, remote work was a no-brainer in order to protect the employees from the raging grip of Covid-19. Remote work was the "new normal". The alternative was to expose employees to a deadly virus that could kill them, a grandparent, a young child, or anyone immunocompromised, which, I can imagine, would have then resulted in a much greater mass of lawsuits than we've already seen in the last two years.

Makes sense.

Fast forward to here and now. While Covid is no doubt still coming and going, statistically it doesn't appear to be as much of a threat today as, say, in March 2020. Although Covid cases have reached a significantly high spike last month, there seems to also have been a significant drop since the start of this new month, with death levels today remaining at the lowest since the start of the lockdowns. Assuming the numbers are accurate, approximately 78% of the US population has had at least one vaccination dose, with approximately 67% fully vaccinated.

The point: the number of Covid cases appear to be at a safer and more manageable level such that companies are beginning the back-to-work mandates.

There also remains a question of productivity. As someone who does enjoy remote work, I still have to deal with real levels of distraction, from the levels of noise outside my door, to the temptations of migrating to my fridge even after lunch breaks. It is not impossible to stay focused, and I get work done. But it gets much more difficult from home than if I am onsite with an entire team to interact with and hold each other accountable.

Lastly, there is the crucial question of mission intensity. Companies like Tesla and SpaceX are leaders in tech and innovation. With this in mind, along with the desire to significantly advance civilization, is it even all that practical to allow everyone on staff to continue work from home? The reality is that it is not.

For innovation, a lot of parts must come into play that cannot be always done from one's home office or the coffee shop. Manufacturing and factory work is impossible to accomplish without being at a unified location. Other tasks, like executive and even engineering, are not impossible but somewhat inefficient. Software engineers, for example, can absolutely work from Starbucks or their dining room table. But isn't it both faster and easier to solve certain programming issues, when you have an entire team on the floor to throw around ideas and solve those problems? I vote yes.

If humanity is to change the course of civilization with space exploration and renewing energy efforts through electric vehicles, it would be foolish not to expect employees back in office.

While many people may not agree with the back-to-work ultimatum either way, it makes sense when you look at it through the eyes of a CEO who slept in the factory and worked 100 hour weeks for nearly twenty years.

Sources:

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2022-06-01/amazon-workers-close-in-on-trial-to-recoup-work-at-home-expenses

https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2021/us/covid-cases.html

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2022-06-01/musk-s-tesla-ultimatum-return-to-office-or-work-somewhere-else#xj4y7vzkg

https://twitter.com/elonmusk/status/1531867103854317568?s=20&t=k8IOx27UU0Fgh2UZ_2iv-Q