Employers push for staff to return to the office after working from home as commercial property values plunge

www.abc.net.au Why more employers are forcing staff back to the office after working from home

Some bosses are tying bonuses to getting people back into the office. But with "work from home" the most searched-for term on job websites, the push-and-pull is a source of contention.

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I don’t know why people keep claiming that companies are asking people to come back so their property will increase in value. The value of your property has nothing to do with how many people you put in the building, it’s how many people a BUYER wants to put in the building.
The reason people are asking employees to come back is because of sunk cost fallacies (we bought this shit and should use it), or the fact that some leaders just don’t know how to work remotely well.
- it’s how many people a BUYER wants to put in the building
  and that number gets higher if you work to perpetuate a culture that requires people to work in an office
  
  Too many damn companies lease. I would argue that the bulk of tech office space in a place like San Francisco is leased. Hell, even Salesforce is a tenant in Saleforce tower.
  Sure, a handful of giants own their properties, but I would argue that a lot of the people asking to “return to the office” wouldn’t benefit from increased real estate prices. It drive up their leases when / if they renew.
  
  But the giants are the ones who set the culture for everybody else.
  Also, a company might still have holdings/shares/whatever in funds that have invested in commercial real estate.
  Also also, if too many companies lease, then why would sunk-cost fallacy act as an explanation?
  
  Sunk cost comes into play because we’re locked into a lease agreement for a predefined period of time, and we bought a bunch of shit to make the office work for us.
- Having fewer people in your building also cuts down on cost of electricity, water, etc. It's cheaper, surely?
- You're just making stuff up. Commercial property values are dropping for a reason which is exactly why big corps are trying to reverse the trend of remote work. No will buy these buildings if everyone works remotely.
  More importantly than that, these corps are getting a lot of pressure from local governments to bring people back because our stupid ass zoning laws in the US mean a lot of these areas are vacant, which is bad for the businesses around them.
  
  I’m not making stuff up. I’m someone that is involved in these decisions at work.
  In the case of my gig, San Francisco would like the industry back, and our landlord would like tenants back, but there isn’t much they can do to encourage or “pressure” us.
  SF is trying to lure folks back by cracking down on the crime and homelessness that has filled the void. And landlords are experimenting with even fancier office amenities.
  At the end of the day, that stuff is a blip on the radar compared to the prominence of the sunk cost fallacy, micromanagers wanting to micromanage, or product / design teams wanting all their partners freely available at any waking moment.
- Selling your building makes investors think you're doing bad.

42 comments