The Real Reason Companies Don’t Want People Working from Home
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Goldman Sachs CEO David Solomon said that working from home was “not a new normal” and called it an “aberration that we’re going to correct as quickly as possible.”
JPMorgan CEO Jamie Dimon told clients that remote work “slows down honesty and decision making.”
Are these guys serious?
Goldman Sachs profits more than doubled to $4.36 billion and JPMorgan made $9.7 billion during the pandemic when everyone was working from home.
Sadly, there are many other executives who feel the exact same way as these two. They offer made up reasons they think are valid like the ones below.
Productivity will suffer because of WFH
Nicholas Bloom, Professor of Economics at Stanford, ran a study in 2011 that showed folks who were working from home had a 13% increase in productivity.
They concluded that most of that increase was due to people taking shorter lunch breaks, were late less and worked longer than those commuting to an office.
Professor Bloom teamed up with other academics from the University of Chicago, ITAM, and MIT since May 2020 to conduct a larger, more extensive experiment on working from home.
The result was an increase of 9% being more efficient working at home as opposed to the office.
Accountability will cause headaches for managers
Keeping folks accountable in an office is a whole lot easier than working remote. Companies always believe people are slacking off and not doing their jobs.
How can they know if someone is doing what they’re supposed to?
Managers think they always must chase down people to get them to do their work. A quick stroll by someone’s desk or cubicle puts the fear of God in folks.
What they’re afraid of is the lack of trust companies have in their employees.
Lack of collaboration stops creativity
People will have a hard time being creative in their job not collaborating in an office.
