Big companies are using their leverage to get employees back in the office without any convincing reasons says founder & CEO of EZPR Ed Zitron. Plus, the New York Times’ Kashmir Hill explains the controversy surrounding Madison Square Garden’s use of facial recognition technology to ban some customers. And Sangeeta Singh-Kurtz and Lakshmi Rengarajan, hosts of the “Land of the Giants: Dating Games” podcast, discuss the rise of premium dating apps. To get the day’s business headlines sent directly to your inbox, sign up for the Nightcap newsletter.
00:00 – Welcome to "Nightcap"
00:29 – Remote work wars
04:34 – MSG's use of facial recognition raises questions
09:38 – $500 a month for Tinder?
“The battle over working from home just entered a new phase” so let’s otherwise “Convince It Forward” with Laus DEO
I would love to see the numbers of revenue from in-person vs. work from home
@RABID CUJO CRAZY you’re right he works from (like many others before him). Giving the rich massive tax cuts, increasing spending, building a wall, oh wait wrong guy
in-person = more
work from home = less
I’d like to see quality of life comparison, including mental health effects.
If a person actually thrives in an office, let them go to the office. If they thrive at home, let them stay home.
Increased productivity never gets used to justify increasing benefits for the workers anyway, so it’s a pretty poor way to judge the value of a policy.
@thebuccaneersden our department has been far more productive from home. The only issue is that training is more difficult.
@thebuccaneersden wrong!
I shake my head. So many corporate jobs don’t have much collaboration and don’t have direct dealings with clients.
Make a bunch of people commute back and forth to their cubicles to stare and spread sheets and do Data entry. It’s easy to tell if someone is meeting deliverables from at home or the office.
It’s ridiculous and illogical.
@Smy clearly you’ve never worked from home, or for a large corporation. Before the Pandemic we used to Gather in boardrooms across the country to have online conference calls via Skype for business, now called Microsoft Teams. Communications is constant and far more deliberate and thought out. Emails Teams etc. Before it would be someone whipping past your office yapping about the game last night or GoT episode and then get to the reason they’re there 20 min later and then get back to their office and call you again and hour later after they chatted all along the way with an OH PS I forgot to mention, while you may very well already be elbow deep in the task.
Communications is BETTER now. For some the Office seems to be their entire social interaction. Far more distraction AT the office.
Useless managers need their underlings in the office so they can look like they’re providing something of valuable
@Smy i found that we communicate much much better while working from home. often times quality specialists would say one thing, and do another and totally deny they said the first. after working from home, everything is recorded, either it is meetings or in writing. The best thing that could ever happen. Saves money for both parties, and more productivity and accuracy. it’s only narcissistic people or the incompetent ones that like to hide amidst a crowd that like to go back to the office.
it’s about power
Managers can’t hear themselves talk during endless meetings when their workers are being productive at home. Need something? Send an email.
It’s obvious Starbucks wants more people at their stores. If they push for on-site work, and other large companies do the same, they’ll have more profit from everyone!
I, therefore, am uninstalling my Starbucks app and will make my own coffee and kale bites.
Ya, exactly. I was going 4 times a day to starbucks. Now, after being recalled, i will only make it once! Bad move starbucks!
That’s how companies would like to have it! If you cannot handle remote working then you have the wrong managers.
Many CEOs are narcissists, and narcissists need to be surrounded by subordinates who feel compelled to stroke their egos.
@LightskinNative Is that you, Elon? LOL. That comment about narcissist CEOs must have hit close to home because you sound desperate to discredit the source. But, it’s not my opinion. It’s a proven fact. And all of your creepy comments can’t change that.
@Fritz Smith at least i know what gender i am. Buh bye now.
@L. M. Lewis nope. I’m in a trade because i’m not a white collar feeder 😀
@LightskinNative “at least I know what gender I am.
Wow, that’s good start. Now read as I write this…
the quick brown fox jumps over the vexed dog.
@fritzsmith3296 good job liking your own comment bud. Way to be self supportive. 👏
My brother (an accountant) was working from home 2 days a week for years before the pandemic and said he was much more productive, but his company was already pushing back. They were especially concerned about women working from home because there was an expectation that women would be more focused on family while men could stay focused on work. Pretty offensive.
It’s the truth though so cope
Definitely offensive to men and women, as things often are. The idea that men would be more focused on work is derived from the idea in our society that men only exist to provide, as unfeeling soulless workers, whereas the idea women would focus more on family is derived from the societal idea that women exist to breed and pop out babies. Both are absurdly sexist to their respective genders, Misogyny and Misandry in the same business policy. So sad tbh.
@Walter Shumate It’s actually a set of offensive stereotypes specifically because it ISN’T true, tardo
These companies have invested tons of money in facilities and they don’t want it sitting idle. This is all you need to know.
5 Days a week is unnecessary…. POINT, BLANK, PERIOD!
The good news is that with AI these companies will be irrelevant soon. I’ll run my own businesses and maximize the value of my time and get the money I actually deserve instead of letting a corporation treat me like a cow thank you very much.
So many companies realized how much rent they are wasting and being locked into long leases or land holdings and want to utilize the space they are paying on.
Also employers: “We’re shocked by this quiet quitting phenomenon!”
As a person that coordinates different disciplines collaborating, weather I’m in the office or at home, I will make sure people are collaborating. I will sit in the office at my desk doing teams meetings all day because it works better for everyone. Is there a difference at home. Sure the difference is I’m in my pajamas instead of a blazer and slacks but the work gets done because it has to.
Fewer workers in office means less need for all the middle managers roaming around pretending to provide company value. Those C suite executive must feel lonely without their cronies buttering them up.
My job mandated people to work in the office 2 days a week using the “collaboration” excuse. It’s corporate BS. It makes no godamn sense. We’ve been working from home for 2 years just fine.
My daughter worked e-commerce for Costco from home and had one of the highest counts of member service calls per hour along with satisfaction ratings but this year was told she now has to work membership in store for 3 weeks out of each month with one week of remote at home e- commerce member service. The real reason she has to report to the store is because her department manager is incompetent and lazy and expects her to carry the department
sooo is that “store” policy or corporate policy? many of my supervisors claimed my work as theirs, until i would only work from home, if they wanted me it was mt terms,
My company is largely remote and it’s almost comical how ineffective we are since the pandemic. Basic conversations and sharing of ideas just isn’t occuring despite how many virtual meetings and so on take place. I’m not in a rush to return to the office but I am just amazed at how long the fiction of comparable productivity will go on
I have been working from home for 3 years. I think it’s more intelligent to allow the employees to choose. Saying we need the employee to be in the all together is pretty stupid. The pandemic showed employees tend to work better from home in general.
While a few have ordered workers back the majority are not. I’ve seen massive cuts to commercial real estate space by the dozens of companies I’ve consulted for. There’s little office for people to return to. Furthermore, executives and mid management are not coming back in my experience and hiring practices have transformed to no longer recruit local for the C suite.
Remote work is not just here to stay its greatly ramping up and without little resistance across the board from management as management no longer resides anywhere near an office other than the one in the home. Forecasting models across the board now are including remote work savings. It’s here to stay and it will increase.
In my company our sales & productivity actually GREW since covid allowed us to work remotely. Now they’re forcing us to return to work 3 days a week – so middle managers can feel relevant – despite data showing productivity goes down when we go into work. Lots of people quit, and most refused to show up for the 3 days. Now they’re threatening to fire people if they don’t show up 🙄 I’m prepared to go elsewhere if they want to bully me