When do we just start calling out that it's about their commercial real estate holdings? I'm an engineer at a large fortune 500, and while my part of the company has made it very clear to leadership that we are going to remain remote, they made this whole huge deal about RTO for the rest of the company. They said it was about culture, but it's very obviously about real estate. The CEO is very ego driven and likes his big buildings. I was really hoping someone would have the balls to call him on that in one of the many comical public meetings they had about RTO.
Like i said, I'm not going back to the office, and my part of the company is openly defiant about it. Most of us are independently wealthy and they know we can just walk.
It’s not just about liking the big buildings. It’s also very much tired to company evaluation numbers and stock price.
Real estate is a huge part of company asserts and they reflect in the stock price.
Why do you think these huge mega companies publicly traded have these trillion dollar campuses and stuff? Private companies would find that a little bit crazy, when they are more focused on having actual cash in the bank.
The real estate isn’t an ego thing, it’s protecting and growing the price of company stock
A lot of companies with large campuses have gotten concessions from local government, since the workers will increase economic activity in the area. So part of it is also that city governments are putting pressure on companies to get people in, and they might lose millions in tax breaks they got for building in their city.
My previous employer put on a handout that was supposed to make people feel good about RTO that Denver was chosen as a hub because of a $7 million tax break. So it's about real estate but there could also be other bullshit reasons for it as well, none of which actually have to do with collaboration or culture.