I can’t think about my time in the corporate world without remembering Office Space. The 1999 film which satirized the work life of a typical corporate software company. I just thought the movie was funny. That was until I entered the corporate work force and saw themes from the movie play out in real life.
Working in a corporate cubical ‘farm’ was the norm. Computers needed to be connected to the company computer network and that could only be done in the office. Even with the advent of Broadband Internet in 2000, what most of us today just know as ‘internet connectivity,’ there was no rush by employers to usher in remote work.
Instead, unscrupulous corporate CEO’s chose to take millions of those white collar minion jobs and send them overseas. For example, between 2001 and 2003 alone more than 250,000 call center jobs were off-shored. These jobs did not require a college degree, just a phone, internet access and a limited ability to speak English.
Even when I worked for a large national corporation in the 2000’s, the only staff who could work remotely were regional managers in states where the company did not have an office to go to. Everyone else was expected to come in and sit in a cubical. You were not allowed to go in or out of any door unless you swiped your ID badge, even if someone else held the door, you still had to badge through. HR was in a separate wing of the building and your badges didn’t get you into their wing. You had to have an appointment and permission from your supervisor to even go to HR.
Even during the Pandemic, working from home was not allowed at the companies I worked for, but for millions of workers it was. Unlike my experience, most corporations had a choice, they could completely shut down and lose a lot of money, OR, they could allow their office workers to work from home. Those who haven’t worked at the higher rungs of the corporate ladder might think the choice sounds very simple, but for a lot of corporate executives it wasn’t. Because they were about to lose one of their most precious commodities. No, not the workers, but control over the workers.
Five years down the road we are seeing buyers remorse. I’m surprised it took so long. Bosses were feeling lonely. How can you be a boss if you can’t monitor your people? If you can’t call them into endless meetings to listen to the sound of your voice? How will you know that you are important?
A number of corporations have issued edicts demanding that workers report back to the office or they will be terminated. They claim that it is due to productivity issues or the need for teamwork and collaboration. But none of that is true. Studies have shown that most remote workers are not only more satisfied in their jobs when they can work from home part time, they are also more productive.
We’ve even seen such edicts from Trump ally Viveck Ramaswamy who has demanded that all federal government workers return to the office 8am to 6pm. (That equates to a 10 hour work day). Claiming without evidence that federal workers who work remotely aren’t even working. While there have been cases where someone working from home had multiple jobs or were cheating, these are the exception and not the rule. Despite this, managers want their minions back at their desks.
When I became a corporate executive I sat and listened as the owners of my company spouted off about how everyone was stealing from them and the only way to make sure they weren’t stealing was to have them in the office every day and watch them. Stealing in their mind was getting paid but not working, or not working hard enough.
If you’ve ever wondered if your employer was tracking you take it from me, they are. I know, because when I got to the higher rungs of the corporate ladder it became part of my job to track them. Everything is used to track employees. Not just security cameras and the chip in your ID badge, but the GPS and camera in your company vehicle, the call logs from the landline and corporate cell phones, emails, even tracking software and internet usage on company computers and laptops.
There are people who simply abhor change. Whether it is economic classes, gender roles in society, diversity and inclusion, or accepting a woman as president. And it seems working from home is one more change corporate managers are unable or unwilling to accept. Or maybe they are simply trying to stay relevant. After all, if employees don’t need bosses to stand over their shoulders to make them be productive, then what do we need bosses for?