How it should be. Executives aren't dumb. They have seen study after study showing productivity jumped with the pandemic. They're being disingenuous about why they want return to office. Socialization is part of it but that does not require 3-5 days a week.

My conspiracy theory is real estate market is driving it.

My previous employer (~25 people) ran a test for six weeks and had everyone come in twice a week. The metrics showed no meaningful difference in output and we went full-wfh. Got a smaller office, to receive deliveries, and tasked one person from mgmt each day with being there to receive.

I believe in the socializing aspect of office work. I didn't care for a guy hired during the wfh period until we had a company team-building in-person event. I found out he was really great when we had dinner and beers. But that's about as much in-person as is required. Wfh works.

It’s not about productivity bud.

https://archive.ph/oMbXp#selection-1877.0-2023.82

I think everyone expects their employer to track them to some extent. It is pretty standard practice for employers to monitor and run analysis on things like building badge swipes and the amount of time spent connected when working from home. It has also become very common place for employers to record audio and video at the office. WADU is on a different level. It is an artificial intelligence & machine learning system for workforce human behavior. Starting at the moment you arrive to the building, WADU is tracking you using facial and speech recognition. Most JPMC offices and branches have been outfitted with some of the best HD AV security cameras. Whenever you are at your desk, know that there is a HD camera tracking you the entire time. WADU uses the array of HD cameras at the office to monitor all of your non-verbal body language all throughout the day. The collected information is then fed into the AI/ML system and it is used to update your WADU profile in real time. Every manager gets access to a dashboard that lists all the metrics about their subordinates. The productivity metrics about an employee start getting updated immediately after an employee logs into the system. If the employee is at the office, two bio-metrics are available, attention/focus and stress. The bio-metric feeds are updated from the facial and behavioral tracking. Having a bad day? Stressed about something? WADU has already noticed this and alerted your manager. Can’t focus? Not working at your usual pace? WADU has already noticed this and alerted your manager. Did something you normally don’t do? It’s possible WADU flagged it as suspicious and alerted your manager. WADU is also why they are pushing RTO or “return to office” so hard. Upper management does not care if some employees are more productive when they are working from home. They want everyone back in the office as much as possible so that their WADU profiles are being refined. Enhancing their insight into you is more important to them than better productivity from working from home. A lot of teams are now required to come in two to three days per week. Director level and higher are required to come in four to five days per week. Upper management wants to see everyone at all levels back in the office five days a week. They have invested millions into the WADU system, and they want to get a return on that investment. That only happens whenever people are in the office as much as possible.