Like Elon Musk, 1 in 3 bosses admit they are pushing RTO because they're so upset about wasting money on all those empty desks

fortune.com Like Elon Musk, 1 in 3 bosses admit they are pushing RTO because they're so upset about wasting money on all those empty desks

One in ten of those firms admitted that they plan to scrap the mandates entirely after their leases expire.

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.world/post/23290873

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return2ozma @lemmy.world

2mo ago

Like Elon Musk, 1 in 3 bosses admit they are pushing RTO because they're so upset about wasting money on all those empty desks

fortune.com /2024/12/17/return-to-office-lease-agreements-rent-elon-musk/

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return2ozma @lemmy.world

2mo ago

Like Elon Musk, 1 in 3 bosses admit they are pushing RTO because they're so upset about wasting money on all those empty desks

fortune.com /2024/12/17/return-to-office-lease-agreements-rent-elon-musk/

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16 comments

It's dumb that they're not pushing to get rid of those empty desks and save that money. But I guess the market demands miserable workers or something.
- You are right, but there’s more to the story.
  Every CEO on the planet would love to cut the cost office space. They loved working from home because it put the cost of having somewhere to work onto to someone else. They would then sell, or cancel leases on expensive downtown buildings and save a lot of money. It’s really that simple.
  However, if everyone does this at the same time - which they would - no one would want to buy the office space, meaning the prices would crash.
  If commercial real estate crashes, loans get defaulted on and banks take catastrophic beating.
  So the banks have been having conversations with CEOs to make sure that doesn’t happen.
  And that’s why your ass is being hauled back into an unnecessary 1 hr commute to work in an unnecessary building.
  
  Ding ding ding!
  I've been saying this for years.
  Two main factors in why mass remote work can't happen:
  1: Tons of managers and executives just psychologically need to be able to physically see people working, be able to have the ability to come pester or chat with employees whenever they want.
  It has nothing to do with actual productivity.
  Its part object permenance (if i cant see it right now it isnt real), and part ego confirmation, as their primary mode of social interaction requires an in person power disparity where they are above others.
  Its for the perpetuation of bullshit 'company culture', the sociopathic 'your work is your personality, is your life' kind of insanity that they require to feel validated.
  2: As you laid out, if we switched to a paradigm of most office work being done remotely, even though this would be overall better for the mass majority of employees, it would blow up the commercial real estate market, probably so significantly that office buildings would start being converted to residences, which could also blow up the residential real estate market.
  Forget how many vacant homes and apartments there are per homeless person, add in how many vacant offices there would be, or already are, as well.
  ...
  We know that shit like RealPage has been caught just literally doing cartel price fixing for residential properties across the country.
  But also, this is almost certainly going on, widespread in commercial real estate as well.
  https://youtube.com/watch?v=2Trz65P1gnA
  Here's a vid where Louis Rossman explains that basically, amidst tons of other false advertising bs in the New York office space market...
  ... people can just publically say they're paying a high rent, under an NDA, while actually paying a much lower rent.
  So all the public facing commercial real estate prices stay high, and thats whats called 'market rate', whilst those in the know are paying way way less, and are mandated by an NDA to lie to everyone else about this.
  
  Everyone works for the banks.
- Orphans must be crushed
  
  “The only good orphan is a crushed orphan” — why are ppl glorifying a terrorist, shit’s kinda makin me feel a lil uncomfortable rn about my millions smh get me some xanny bars stat
  
  I had to read this three times. I learned a lot from you today. Thank you. :)
  
  You’re quite welcome
- From experience, the office leases could be 10 or 15 years long, although there are probably break clauses every 5, so they probably can't get rid of them immediately. You'd really hope they were making plans to reduce their office estates over the next few years and shift more people to wfh, but corporate inertia is hard to overcome, so who knows?
  
  They can sublet tho
  
  Not on a lot of leases, and on the ones where you can, there tends to be fees and a pile of paperwork. Yes, sufficient foresight would have seen the possibility that needs might change, but foresight is in surprisingly short supply in general. For those who can sublet, as I said, corporate inertia is hard to overcome. The businesses that thrive will be the ones who find a solution that works for both the business and the employees.

16 comments