The reasons that managers/execs push for RTO are complex, and sometimes disingenuous and nefarious.
As someone who’s worked remote (and async) and also in big offices, sometimes I see individual workers celebrating RTO for misguided reasons:
1. They use work as a social space
2. They enjoy the break of getting out of their house/from family/partner
3. The ritual of going to and from work as a separate space is helpful
All of these are solvable without mandating RTO, so it is frustrating when workers align themselves with RTO mandates when they could just solve the above.
1. Sometimes people don’t pursue friendships outside their work or family. You should! It is healthy!
2. I sometimes see people not set boundaries during work days, and have their own partners not respect their boundaries (“please don’t come in my office when I’m on a call”). Here, they’re leaning on RTO to set a boundary on their behalf.
3. During WFH in 2020-2021, I set a ritual where I’d go for a walk around the block with a coffee before returning to my small Manhattan apartment. I used Phillips Hues to change the lighting to colder when in work mode.
Offices are a bonus when you live near to them, but mandating their usage is crazy. If workers don’t feel happier and more productive when going into an office, and recognize it as an advantage for them doing work, then execs should recognize that the office is lacking somehow.
We sometimes decry the lack of "third places", neither home nor work (or school). People go there to be social in more flexible ways. I have imagined opening a coffee shop/art gallery by that name.
Maybe not such a great name now, since the second places are getting murkier. But the need is still there.
There's a (very good) brewery with an (excellent) tap room in Milwaukee named Third Space Brewing, not such a terrible idea. https://thirdspacebrewing.com.
I've setup and worked there many afternoons when I've been in Wisconsin. The drinking culture is different in the upper Midwest though, it's not party thing (always) as much as a social activity. You're not expected to get drunk, think France and wine.
My mom grew up in Wisconsin, in a farm town that was little more than a crossroads with a church, a school (K-8, high schoolers went to the nearest big-town high school), a post office... and a bar. The bar was for the farmers to meet and socialize over a beer. As you said, not really to party, just have human contact and find out what else is going on in the area.
I like that RTO keeps my
job exclusive and I get paid more for being willing to come in and rub shoulders with management. I work for my family and to create a better life for them — not for some abstract goal of having the most productive environment (to enrich much larger shareholders than me). I paid a lot of money to live close to these places for work and now I’m reaping the benefit.
office hours is something i consider a positive, when looking at a job. i get that i could/should solve those things on my own, but it requires executive function and i'd much rather outsource some of it
with both the social and the walking thing, i find it easy to get stuck in a negative feedback loop, where not doing it makes it harder to do it. having a work-mandated minimum walk and social time prevents stalling, making it easier to maintain the habits outside of work as well
this perspective might be flavoured by being neurospicy, though. presumably, if i wasn't prone to stalling my habits that way, it'd be less appealing to tie them to a job or shcool or whatever else
(i currently work remote, though. office is positive, but not positive enough to outweigh the salary difference of working for a local company)
I wouldn't say "the break of getting out of their house/from family/partner" is misguided.
I remember during COVID wfh, my co-workers with spouses and kids were not at all happy having all those people together all day, trying to accomplish tasks on different schedules and needs for quiet or collaboration. Add to that most of them didn't have a set up for two adults to work in one office space, and all of them trying to share the home internet.
I like the walk around the block with a change in lighting. I always preferred an office within a 20 minute walk or bike ride but considered a similar walk around the block approach even writing from home but never got the routine set.
It's not real helpful to label a bunch of fairly ordinary. useful, and healthy, aspects of work misguided and then offer no alternative suggestions to address your points.
You go for a walk, live in a tiny apartment in Manhattan, and use lighting colour to give a sense of 'work place'.
Well guess what, your circumstances probably don't generalise.
As someone who’s worked remote (and async) and also in big offices, sometimes I see individual workers celebrating RTO for misguided reasons:
1. They use work as a social space
2. They enjoy the break of getting out of their house/from family/partner
3. The ritual of going to and from work as a separate space is helpful
All of these are solvable without mandating RTO, so it is frustrating when workers align themselves with RTO mandates when they could just solve the above.
1. Sometimes people don’t pursue friendships outside their work or family. You should! It is healthy!
2. I sometimes see people not set boundaries during work days, and have their own partners not respect their boundaries (“please don’t come in my office when I’m on a call”). Here, they’re leaning on RTO to set a boundary on their behalf.
3. During WFH in 2020-2021, I set a ritual where I’d go for a walk around the block with a coffee before returning to my small Manhattan apartment. I used Phillips Hues to change the lighting to colder when in work mode.
Offices are a bonus when you live near to them, but mandating their usage is crazy. If workers don’t feel happier and more productive when going into an office, and recognize it as an advantage for them doing work, then execs should recognize that the office is lacking somehow.