It’s not mentioned as a possibility because nobody has ever been able to substantiate that claim.

ThrowawayR2 4 days ago | parent | next [-]

Nobody has been able to substantiate any of the other claims either but that hasn't stopped posters from endlessly repeating them.

	▲	mulmen 4 days ago \| parent [-]
		False. RTO press releases have explicitly mentioned the benefit to nearby businesses.

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aurareturn 4 days ago | parent | prev [-]

Shouldn't we trust that the execs have this data and can see productivity metrics that aren't available to the public?

Unless you think all RTO is a conspiracy.

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nemomarx 4 days ago | parent | next [-]

Why would they not use those metrics internally as part of the RTO policy then? Surely they would be picking particular stats out to highlight the benefits of RTO, talk about how well everyone is doing afterwards, etc.

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aurareturn 4 days ago | parent [-]

Because they don't want the public/employees to misconstrue those metrics? Maybe they don't want employees to know how they view productivity?

Surely if they're presented with solid evidence that WFH increases productivity, they'd keep it. Execs make millions in bonuses if the performance of the company hits certain goals. It's baffling that people here still talk about real estate conspiracy theories.

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cmiles74 4 days ago | parent [-]

If there were clear metrics showing that in-person teams “out perform” remote teams, we would be hearing about it constantly. The supposed rationale for keeping such data secret sounds far-fetched to me.

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aurareturn 4 days ago | parent [-]

The rationale is that there is no upside and pure downside for releasing these metrics to the public. It opens them up to scrutiny.

The evidence is that there have been more RTO calls than companies switching to pure WFH post-Covid.

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cutemonster 4 days ago | parent [-]

If more people eat hamburgers than vegetables, you'll start saying that that's evidence that hamburgers are more healthy?

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aurareturn 4 days ago | parent [-]

It'd be evidence that people enjoy eating hamburgers more than vegetables.

	▲	nextaccountic 4 days ago \| parent [-]
		Yeah, but managers enjoying RTO doesn't mean that it's good for the company

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jon-wood 4 days ago | parent | prev | next [-]

It’s absolutely all being done on vibes. The execs don’t have some super-secret productivity dashboard giving them a breakdown of employee output by work location. Maybe, if they’re really on the ball, they have employee profit contributions divided by that, but that would then immediately show all the support staff as unproductive.

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aurareturn 4 days ago | parent [-]

I agree that a lot of smaller companies would do it on vibes. I don't think Microsoft would.

	▲	mulmen 4 days ago \| parent \| next [-]
		Based on what? Why do you trust Microsoft’s judgment here? They are fallible like anyone else.
	▲	int_19h 3 days ago \| parent \| prev [-]
		You are talking about a company that shipped Windows 8.

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mulmen 4 days ago | parent | prev [-]

> Shouldn't we trust that the execs

No.

> can see productivity metrics that aren't available to the public

I am an employee of a company claiming my productivity is higher in the office. Nobody has ever shown me anything even remotely resembling a productivity metric. They haven’t even tried.

Productivity metrics are a holy grail. If any company created one that works they’d be bragging about it endlessly to shareholders and correlating it with the enormous profits they’d be generating.

If they have one that works I’d like to see it so I can use it to measure changes in my daily habits and further increase my productivity.

Since they can’t articulate this metric at all I can only conclude that it doesn’t exist.

With how contentious RTO has been why haven’t the advocates published data on how big of a boost it has been to their KPIs?

> Unless you think all RTO is a conspiracy.

It’s possible RTO is just regular old incompetence. No need for conspiracy theories.