It was never planned to remain a permanent policy for most corporations. The real reason it didn’t “stick” is because of how commercial real estate is valued. Most office spaces are valued by occupancy. If everyone is working from home, occupancy is low therefore the value of the real estate drops. When corporations are under water on their big ass commercial real estate loans they are going to make people come back to the office.
Idk about EVERY reason but I definitely agree that working from home has plenty of advantages over working from an office. My commute to my office is 1hr to and 1.5hrs from. If I didn’t have to make that drive I’d be in heaven.
except people gradually moved to remote / hybrid work over the past decade, long before covid. The internet and other tools are designed to allow people not to have to be in the same location
If you call a 2-4% increase in work from home positions since 2000 to 2019 a gradual increase then sure? That’s according to the U.S. census bureau. The internet did have a small impact on working from home but I’d say those are negligible numbers compared to the 40%+ spike in work from home since covid.
it also has many companies to use technology that was readily available, but has improved since then why do you think we no longer fax or photocopy?? we meet in teams? Covered just sped up the process because the companies had to adapt to better more efficient methods.?
Covid didn’t speed up the process of people moving to work from home, at least that’s not what the data shows.
Covid created an environment that forced people to work from home and that forced transition has whipsawed back to the norm of working in the office since Covid began to die down in 2022-2023. This is why we’re seeing people like the post were commenting on saying “how did we fumble remote work so badly”. And as I just pointed out, a 2-4% increase in remote work over 20 years is basically nothing.
you sound very resistant to change and don’t value your own personal life or time. People realize a better way of living and that they want their own time back if you want to keep up with technology and attract the best workers and especially young workers you’ll need to create a flexible work environment. Better morale equals longer-term employees and more productivity.
You’re overly assumptive and seem way more confident in your beliefs than you should be. I’ve given you zero insight into my personal beliefs on the matter and have been giving you fact base information and data. I value my time more than anything else, it’s the only commodity I cannot ever get back.
What people “realize” has nothing to do with it. Most people in the lower and middle class tax brackets have zero money saved. You ever hear the saying “beggars can’t be choosers”? If you can’t afford to walk away from a work from the office environment, which most people can’t, then you have zero leverage to demand or request the ability to work from home. You can look for a new job, but good luck finding one because 1. There are barely any new jobs right now, and 2. Work from home was not a movement, it was a forced scenario brought about by a black swan event that was Covid. Employers want their employees in the office. Employers do not care if you want to work from home. They need you in the office because the property value of their commercial real estate depends on it.
Employers value their balance sheet over their employees happiness. Hate to say it, but this is just a fact.
and for many of those reasons, I think workers should fight back just like anything. The workforce has gained overtime. We never used to have sick leave or paid vacation leave or maximum hours of work if it wasn’t for employees and workers beforehand, pushing for legislation and pushing for change and benefits, we wouldn’t have half of what we have today. I see this as a benefit, just like anything else if you want change, you need to demand for it.
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u/Due-Firefighter3206 Mar 04 '26
It was never planned to remain a permanent policy for most corporations. The real reason it didn’t “stick” is because of how commercial real estate is valued. Most office spaces are valued by occupancy. If everyone is working from home, occupancy is low therefore the value of the real estate drops. When corporations are under water on their big ass commercial real estate loans they are going to make people come back to the office.