There are literally subreddits about how to abuse the trust of remote work, but there have always been people doing that. I think the main thing that changed is that amazing revenue multiples that made it possible for companies to ignore these issues are no longer there. Meanwhile the costs of everything, including salaries has skyrocketed. So I think it's lower valuations + higher costs -> more pressure on efficiency. Companies that don't become efficient have their valuation collapse or go under.

well, and let's be honest - most CEOs and boards get the same advice from the same advisors and peers. and the advice since Elon took over Twitter (not that I can say he "started it" but it was around that time I started hearing C-suites say he was right to let everyone go) has been to implement more draconic policies at your software companies.

that interest rates have been higher and liquidity in general has been tight created a perfect storm of bias that these policies are working or could be beneficial. in better times, a company with good funding and a healthy customer base would come through and eat everyone's lunch if their competitors were treating their devs like that. but because of the temporary complete collapse in competition as we've known it, especially amongst startups, this has gone on far longer than it typically would.

it'll get better soon but we've lost an entire generation of technical leadership now (due to burnout and other factors) so it'll be a slow and turbulent recovery.

Valuations are at record highs though. For instance Microsoft stock is at an all time high yet they're instituting RTO (which was clearly not needed to get the stock to the ATH) and an aggressive, anti-employee culture. You can see a lot of this coming from people like Musk who have astronomical valuations, not tied in any way to reality.

>Meanwhile the costs of everything, including salaries has skyrocketed.

More like everything except salaries.

People used to have unions fight for them, now they must exploit corporate weakness as empowered thinkers should.