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Return to Office Will Fix Nothing
CEOs keep blaming decreased output on remote work. The problem is way bigger than that.
In a Slack message to colleagues, Salesforce CEO Mark Benioff complained that new hires have been less productive than expected.
“Are we not building tribal knowledge with new employees without an office culture…?” he asked.
The cloud-based software giant was an early proponent of working from home during the heart of the pandemic, and the company currently has a hybrid policy. Still, he’s openly wondering if perhaps remote work is killing output.
Benioff is not the first CEO to wonder if a return to the office would be good. He was certainly not the most forceful. He joins a growing chorus of corporate executives souring on remote work — many of which are now making full-throat demands that their subordinates return to the office or risk losing their jobs.
After a hiring wave that grew headcount by 32% in the past year, Salesforce has spent the past month culling people from its workforce. They are just one tech giant to do so. Amazon, Twitter, Facebook, Apple, Snap, and many other prestige brands have wiped workers off the books — often while demanding implementation of, and adherence to, a “Return to Office” policy.
