The success of teleworking during confinement caused many companies –especially technology ones– to consider implementing 100% remote work forever. This way of working was less expensive and, in principle, the employee was just as productive as in the office, or even more. But three years after the arrival of the pandemic, teleworking is losing followers.
The big technology companies in the United States are forcing their employees to return to the office for at least three days. Meta was in June the last of the bigtech to announce this measure, which will begin to be implemented next September. The group that owns Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp thus joins large firms such as Amazon, Apple, Alphabet, Microsoft, Twitter, Netflix or Salesforce.
Amazon employees have called protests and now those who fail to comply with the new plan are penalized
Even Zoom – whose technology was emblematic of video conferencing during the pandemic – announced this week that its employees must go to the office for at least two days. “The hybrid model is more effective to innovate and support our customers,” sources from the technology company said this week.
The founder of Facebook, Mark Zuckerberg, was more concise: “According to internal analysis, the engineers who signed up for the company when the work was in person, both those who later opted for teleworking and those who decided to stay in the office, are more productive. than the employees who entered Meta working 100% remotely”, anticipated the manager last March, before making the elimination of 100% remote work official.
Zoom, a benchmark for video conferencing, has announced two mandatory days in the office this week
The partial return to the office has caused unrest among the world’s most privileged class of workers. In early June, hundreds of Amazon employees protested at the company’s headquarters in Seattle against this measure: “This decision harms the planet, hurts families and individual lives. Making us sit in the chair because it has tax incentives is unfair ”, lamented the employee Church Hindley in statements to AP.
The frontal rejection of the employees has led the e-commerce giant to announce this week controls and retaliation for employees who do not comply with the mandate to go to the office for three days. It is not the only company that has hardened the tone.
“Engineers who do face-to-face work are more productive,” says Zuckerberg
Apple has taken the same path in the face of the discomfort that this measure caused when it was announced in winter. So the workers came together in the Apple Together organization to demand more flexibility. The company did not budge and responded with checks and threats to fire them if they did not comply with the new model. In the case of Alphabet, attendance controls have also been established and the company has alerted that the hours of attendance will count in the quarterly evaluation of each worker. The parent company of Google is so desperate that in Silicon Valley it has launched hotel offers near the headquarters to facilitate the arrival at the office of employees who live far away. In the case of Salesforce, the incentive to encourage a return to the office has gone even further. In June, the software company decided to donate $10 to charity for every employee who came into the office one day.
Far from these more extreme cases, the phenomenon has spread to Spanish technology companies, which also coincide with the positive effects of going to the office for a few days to improve business development. This is the case of Glovo, which as of September will increase the number of face-to-face days from two to three. “Sharing time and space with the team and the rest of the company members contributes to maintaining the culture, as well as reinforcing teamwork and creativity,” say sources from the Delivery Hero subsidiary. His colleagues Wallbox and Travelperk have also been betting on this formula for months.
In Barcelona, the big startups are also betting on the return to the office after the pandemic
On the other hand, in the case of Adevinta, the work is carried out mainly remotely and face-to-face meetings are only held occasionally. Seidor also offers employees complete freedom of choice: “This very flexible policy is necessary to continue being an attractive company in a sector where digital talent is very scarce,” admit sources from the Catalan company. To their surprise, they say that in recent months they have been registering greater interest from employees in coming to the office for a few days.
Be that as it may, the data confirms that teleworking has regressed in Spain after the pandemic: according to the Active Population Survey (EPA), only 7.3% of the employed teleworked at least half the days of the week during the last quarter, far from the maximum of 16.2% registered during the confinement.
WeWork, the emblem of shared work offices, this week admitted serious doubts about whether it can continue with its business. But that does not mean that the rest of the competitors are doing badly. In fact, there are more companies than ever in the sector. “In Barcelona, we are noticing how demand is recovering to 2019 levels. Not only professionals and small companies hire us, but also large firms use the offices for face-to-face work by certain teams,” says Gabriel Espín, co-founder of the company. Atticco. According to the manager, co-working is a space that precisely offers the flexibility that digital workers demand in terms of working hours. This week, the giant Regus assured the Bloomberg agency that it has registered record revenues in the first six months of the year. The market is dynamic, despite the turmoil at WeWork. “The narrative hasn’t caught up with reality, and the reality is that large companies are moving toward a more flexible environment,” said Mark Dixon, CEO.
