A lot of times, when people discuss the phenomenon of employers ending work-from-home and try to make their employees come back to the office, people say that the motivation is to raise real estate prices.

I don’t follow the logic at all. How would doing this benefit an employer in any way?

  • Cryophilia@lemmy.world
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    1 year ago

    Why would the shareholders of a company want them to take on additional unnecessary expenses like leasing office space?

    Or rather, why do real estate company shareholders have such ridiculous levels of influence compared to other groups who would logically prefer more wfh?

    • Obi@sopuli.xyz
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      1 year ago

      Because if you move up the ladder far enough, they’re all the same group. Mister X sits at the board for companies a, b and c, but he also has a real estate portfolio. He’s not the one spending the money for these companies to return to office but he has a vested interest in people returning to office in general, so he lobbies for it wherever he can. Simplified example but you get the gist.

      • Cryophilia@lemmy.world
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        1 year ago

        That’s really not how it works. In the same industry sure. But not across vastly different industries like tech, legal, government, etc and real estate.

    • DogMuffins@discuss.tchncs.de
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      1 year ago

      It’s insidious.

      It’s not influence as in “let’s have a logical and transparent discussion about wfh vs on premise”.

      It’s rumours, back channel favours, manipulating numbers, etcetera.

      Bear in mind not all companies are publicly traded. Plenty of closely held companies were started by grand dad and run on rumour and here say.