In the wake of the pandemic, certain companies are asking employees to return to the office. However, this has sparked backlash and debate in the business world. That said, a former tech executive believes that taking this stand will benefit them over the long term.
About Eric Schmidt
Former Google Chief Executive Office Eric Schmidt is calling upon those working in established offices to spend as much time in them as possible. The leader who ran the tech giant from 2001 to 2011 said in a recent episode of The Diary of a CEO podcast that employees gain experiences in person that they would not obtain working remotely.
Schmidt credits his ascension up the corporate ladder to the time he spent in the office watching and learning.
“When I was a young exec, I knew nothing of what I was doing,” he said. “I literally was just lucky to be there, and I learned by hanging out at the water cooler, going to meetings, and being in the hallway.”
Schmidt said that the knowledge he absorbed during his office time proved ‘central’ to the promotions he learned later on in his career.
“If you’re in your twenties, you want to be in an office because that’s how you’re going to get promoted,” he said.
Data Supporting Schmidt’s Claims
Live Data Technologies surveyed two million white-collar employees. They discovered that over the last year, those working remotely received advancement 31 percent less than colleagues who had fully in-person or hybrid schedules. The former top man does, however, realize that those dealing with legitimate commuting or family concerns might prove more productive in a remote environment. However, when all circumstances remain equal, he believes being in person is the right way to go.
Conflicting Arguments
However, there is research that suggests that these opinions are formed based on different study designs. Moreover, studies also indicate that working at home may reduce a worker’s productivity. A 2023 Stanford University’s Institute for Economic Policy Research (SIEPR) investigation found that employees operating in fully remote settings were 10 percent less productive than their in-office and hybrid counterparts.
Returning to Past Practices
Many companies that embraced hybrid or remote working options during and immediately following the pandemic seem to want to return to the old ways. Corporate entities such as Amazon, Goldman Sachs, and JP Morgan have returned to in-person and tracked the performance of individuals choosing to remain remote, and they may terminate those who fail to meet productivity standards. Meta now mandates that employees work at least three days per week in the office.
Executives Sharing Schmidt’s Viewpoint
Others share Schmidt’s sentiments. One notable example is Open AI executive Sam Altman, who told Fortune magazine that enabling workers to adopt fully remote status was a crucial mistake. Schmidt doubled down on his initial statements at an April lecture at Stanford, where he boldly proclaimed that Google is losing out to competitors like Open AI because of its lenient remote worker policies.
“Google decided that work-life balance and going home early and working from home was more important than winning,” Schmidt commented.
After a video of his lecture appeared online in August, Schmidt tempered his feelings somewhat.
“Eric misspoke about Google and their remote work hours and regrets his error,” Schmidt’s spokesperson told Business Insider magazine.
In 2022, Google told its employees that they planned to return to in-person office work for a minimum of three days a week and re-affirmed this decision the following year, claiming that attendance would factor into employee performance reviews.
However, the company stated last month that it will not follow Amazon’s lead and expects in-person attendance five days per week.
