Prior to the COVIDian days, Ford was shifting to no assigned desk (“hoteling”) and remote working. Management that thinks cubicle workers glued to their laptops all day in WebEx meetings are going to collaborate are imbibing in some mushrooms.
Workers have been able to offset the stiff rise in prices over the past couple of years by not having to pay for daycare, lunch, work clothes and commuting expenses. RTO is going to be a big financial hit. Those who think that working remotely is all about goofing off aren’t considering the real financial implications. Nor have they been working very long. Believe me, when an office worker wants to goof off all day, she’ll find a way. In the cubicle days, that meant going over to someone else‘s cubicle and chatting. Usually it was about kids or cats or trips or office gossip. Then you had TWO workers unproductive instead of just one. See, it’s all up to management to be skillful in assigning tasks, setting completion dates, and following up. They are bad at that so they have been telling their bosses “RTO!” Well… what are they going to do when they’ve got all their little minions parked in their temporary unassigned desks and productivity still sμcks?