Origin Story

What does it say about a company's culture and return-to-office policy if an employee can die in their cubicle and go unnoticed for almost a week? Coworkers were mistaking the smell of death for faulty plumbing.

Another shuffle is coming. Not quite the "great resignation" we saw as the teeth of the pandemic receded, but something significant. There are a lot of unhappy people sticking with bad companies because the job market for new go-to-market roles has been highly volatile over the past 1-2 years. Sucking it up and sustaining a paycheck despite toxic cultures has, for some and until now, been better than the massive uncertainty and income gap of the recent B2B job market. That could be changing soon. If the feds cut rates in September, that could signal a growing confidence in the near-future market that encourages investors to put cash back into play, allows PE firms to start moving on over-pregnant exit options, and allows healthy and growing start-ups to finally start planning for IPOs. If we start to see headlines of these signs of momentum come to fruition in the coming months, 2025 could be a whole lot of fun. Great people will find better cultures and opportunities as well. It has been really frustrating to talk to great people who feel "stuck" in awful companies. I'm so excited for them to finally have their day.

“Who is forcing employees back into the office, and why are they doing it?” I was talking to someone recently about working from anywhere, and started digging deeper into the WHO and WHY behind these Return To Office (RTO) mandates so often in the headlines. From my perch, there are clear benefits to the employee, company, and environment in a Work From Anywhere setup. Increased flexibility. Increased family support. Better health. Save time. Save money. More networking. Increased productivity. Increased profits. Broader talent pool. Less pollution and noise. Better for infrastructure. Better for the future. And probably many others I’m missing here. Every survey I’ve seen, including polls I’ve run in my own network, overwhelmingly show workers favoring the flexibility and related benefits of 100% remote roles (or at least having this as an option). So, this begs the questions that came up in the chat. * WHO is making this request? * Based on my own research and business articles, there is one group that pulls this RTO lever more than any other: CEOs. When we see a headline that says “Company ABC requires staff in house starting X date,” it’s not a random group of marketers or engineers or HR or [DEPARTMENT] making that call. Or a few executives or consultants. It’s the Company. And in this context, Company = CEO. Perhaps more importantly… * WHY are they doing it? * When posing this question to the community, the logic that came back included reasons like justifying a pricey office lease that is already signed. Also, you can’t offer legacy benefits remotely like that Employee of the Month parking space. Office bullies can’t “influence” people as easily with physical intimidation. The leadership team is change-resistant. In my heart of hearts, I say it’s that last one - not wanting to change - that is the biggest driver behind forcing folks back into the office. It may sound silly or “unscientific,” but I’m convinced some CEOs believe with enough resources, mandates, repetition, hard lines, and loud speeches, they can literally will the past into existence and have worker configurations and environments exactly as they were in 2019 and earlier. [cue scene where Thanos turns back time with gauntlet] Look, even the company Zoom smoke-signaled it didn’t believe in its own mission/solution when it forced folks to show up onsite. This month, Grindr lost half its staff after requiring teams to be in the office - or out of a job. And these scenarios are on the heels of dozens of companies suffering the similar fates - employee attrition, lost brand reputations, legal challenges, etc. So, what does this all mean? I believe the most successful companies of today and the future will be the ones that embrace a Work From Anywhere model. As a direct result, they will also attract top talent (who requires flexibility, which is the new currency), and thus gain an even further competitive edge. [fingers snap] What do you think?