Remote work is better for the environment, better for employees' wallets, better for employees' stress levels, saves employees hours and hours per week, reduces company operating costs while increasing employee morale...the list goes on and on. Yet executives continue to try to convince us that some ethereal office kumbaya far outweighs these much more readily quantifiable benefits.
Grow up. This is business, not your favorite college dive bar on a Saturday night.
How did managers in global companies cope with employees based overseas before the pandemic if face time is so critical? As such a manager I can promise you I was not flying to multiple continents every week to get face time with people.
Are these executives ensuring they have face time with all of their directs every week? Any CEO of a multinational company is going to be spending a majority of their time on a plane. How can these companies possibly continue to function if *the head of the entire company* isn't even getting weekly face time with their directs?
The answer is, of course, that all of this is complete and utter nonsense. The good thing about executives speaking out like this is that its easier to identify companies who don't care about employee morale, aren't forward thinking, don't change with the times, don't want to take an opportunity to cut costs while actually improving morale and productivity...in short, companies you don't want to work for. They can enjoy their third tier talent while the high performers flock to companies with a better chance of future success.