The success of teleworking during the confinement caused many companies – especially technological ones – to consider implementing 100% remote work forever. This way of working was less expensive and, in principle, the employee was as productive as in the office, or even more so. But three years after the arrival of the pandemic, telecommuting is losing followers.
America’s tech giants are forcing workers to return to the office for at least three days. In June, Meta was the last of the big tech companies to announce this measure, which will begin to be implemented in September. The group that owns Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp joins major firms such as Amazon, Apple, Alphabet, Microsoft, Twitter, Netflix and Salesforce.
Even Zoom – whose technology was emblematic of video conferencing during the pandemic – announced this week that its employees must go to the office for at least two days. “The hybrid model is more effective in innovating and supporting our customers,” sources at the technology company said this week.
The founder of Facebook, Mark Zuckerberg, was more concise: “According to internal analysis, the engineers who signed for the company when the work was face-to-face, both those who later opted for telework and those who decided to stay in the office, they are more productive than employees who entered Meta working 100% remotely,” the manager anticipated in March, before making the elimination of 100% remote work official.
The partial return to the office has caused unrest among the most privileged class of workers in the world. At the beginning of June, hundreds of Amazon workers protested in front of the company’s headquarters, in Seattle, against this measure: “This decision damages the planet, hurts families and individual lives. Making us sit in the chair because it has tax incentives is unfair”, lamented the employee Church Hindley, speaking to AP.
The frontal rejection of the workers has caused the e-commerce giant to announce this week checks and reprisals for employees who do not comply with the obligation to go to the office for three days. It is not the only company that has tightened the tone.
Apple has taken the same path in the face of the discomfort that this measure caused when it was announced in the winter. Then the workers grouped together in the Apple Together organization to demand more flexibility. The company did not give in and responded with controls and threats to fire them if they did not comply with the new model. In the case of Alphabet, attendance controls have also been introduced and the company has warned that the hours of attendance will count in the quarterly evaluation of each worker. The parent company of Google is so desperate that in Silicon Valley it has launched hotel deals near the headquarters to make it easier for workers who live far away to get to the office. In the case of Salesforce, the incentive to encourage a return to the office has gone even further. In June, the software company decided to donate ten dollars for each employee who came to the office one day to charitable organizations.
Far from these more extreme cases, the phenomenon has spread to Spanish technology companies, which also agree with the positive effects of going to the office some days to improve business development. This is the case of Glovo, which from September will increase from two to three face-to-face days. “Sharing time and space with the team and the rest of the company’s members contributes to maintaining the culture, as well as strengthening teamwork and creativity”, point out sources from the Delivery Hero subsidiary. Its colleagues Wallbox and Travelperk have also been betting on this formula for months.
On the other hand, in the case of Adevinta, work is mainly done remotely and face-to-face meetings are held only occasionally. Seidor also offers total freedom of choice to the employee: “This very flexible policy is necessary to remain an attractive company in a sector where digital talent is very scarce”, admit sources from the Catalan company. Surprisingly, they say that in recent months they are registering a greater interest from workers to go to the office some days.
Be that as it may, the data show that teleworking has declined in Spain after the pandemic: according to the Active Population Survey (EPA), only 7.3% of the employed teleworked at least half of the days of the week last quarter, far from the maximum of 16.2% recorded during confinement.
