They have figured out a basic….
Their quality of life and their budget’s ARE BETTER working at a job that they do NOT have to be in the office….
Life HAS changed for the American workforce…
Researchers drew on resume data from People Data Labs to understand the impact that forced returns to offices had on employee tenure, and the movement of workers between companies. What they found was a strong correlation between senior-level employees departing directly after a mandate was implemented, suggesting these policies “had a negative effect on the tenure and seniority of their respective workforce.” High-ranking employees stayed several months less than they might have without the mandate, the research suggests — and in many cases, they went to work for direct competitors….
…
At Microsoft, the share of senior employees as a portion of the company’s overall workforce declined more than 5 percentage points after the return-to-office mandate took effect, the researchers found. At Apple, the decline was 4 percentage points, while at SpaceX — the only company of the three to require workers to be fully in-person — the share of senior employees dropped 15 percentage points.
“We find experienced employees impacted by these policies at major tech companies seek work elsewhere, taking some of the most valuable human capital investments and tools of productivity with them,” said Austin Wright, an assistant professor of public policy at the University of Chicago and one of the study’s authors. “Business leaders should weigh carefully employee preferences and market opportunities when deciding when, or if, they mandate a return to office.”
Technology is an industry “where the discourse over the return to office was most heated,”….
…
The tug-of-war over offices has been locked in a stalemate for roughly a year: Office occupancy data tracked by Kastle Systems shows that the national average across the country’s top metro areas — including New York City, Washington, D.C. and San Francisco — has hovered stubbornly around 50 percent of pre-pandemic levels since early 2023.
A spike in departures of senior employees following return-to-office mandates could reflect the “double-pinch” they inflict on managers, who have to deal with the policy’s effects on the teams they lead and in their own lives, said Christopher Myers, associate professor of management and organization health at Johns Hopkins University….
…
Recent Gallup survey results indicate that US employee engagement is “in a slump—but it’s particularly deep for younger workers” and “In 2023, employees felt more detached from—and less satisfied with—their organization … than they did four years ago.” This raises the question of the degree to which management policies vs. employee attitudes toward work are to blame….