- In today’s CEO Daily: Diane Brady on the war against WFH.
- The big story: Signs of economic slowdown in China and uncertainty in the U.S.
- The markets: Continued resilience in the West.
- Analyst notes from Panmure Liberum’s Joachim Klement on the possibility of capital controls in the U.S., Apollo on Friday’s jobs number, and Nomura on the tariff hit to China GDP.
- Plus: All the news and watercooler chat from Fortune.
Good morning. In the early days of the pandemic, it was a revelation for many of us to discover that many of the things we did in the office could be done from home. We collaborated, hired, fired, mentored and found opportunities to connect virtually through check-ins and team activities like in-home scavenger hunts and wine tastings. (At least that was the experience for me.) Now, more than five years later, many leaders have tightened their work-from-home policies in the belief that remote work undercuts culture and productivity. The latest missive comes from Uber CEO Dara Khosrowshahi, who sent a memo to employees this week saying they’ll have to spend three days in the office each week as of June. Companies like Spotify embrace remote work.
It’s hard to tell who’s right. Every week, I get a barrage of conflicting studies: Earlier this week, there was a Criteria report that found 35% of workers prefer to be fully remote. Nearly half were women, which its team touted as a reason for employers to worry about losing women workers; I thought it was newsworthy that more than half of respondents with that preference were men. Minutes later, I was pitched a new Headway survey that found one-quarter of remote workers surveyed said they clock off after four hours or less, take a nap during the work day and have taken a day off without anyone noticing; 40% said they fake activities to trick their company tracking system.
The effectiveness of remote work clearly depends on one’s personality, job, life circumstances, and career stage. We’re back to five days a week in the office for most workers at Fortune but many of us spent significant chunks of time out of the office, too. I think it’s especially important for entry-level colleagues to be in a setting that allows for in-person collaboration and learning, which means the rest of us need to be here to do it. That said, we also need to be in physical environments that encourage the benefits of in-person work and we need to design workflows that make the commute feel worthwhile. Remember when Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella said his title stands for Chief Event Officer? Pizza aside, I do wonder if employers are doing enough to answer a key question: Why do we have to come here?
Most CEOs I meet lean towards getting people back into an office. Some have placed their WFH days in the middle of the week to reduce the temptation of taking a long weekend. What’s less common are the kinds of practices we saw five years ago: the mental-health check-ins and team-building activities that build loyalty and culture.
If you want to continue the conversation, join me at noon EST today for a live webinar with Accenture CEO Julie Sweet, Delta Air Lines CE Ed Bastian and Michael C. Bush of Great Place to Work. Click here to register.
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Contact CEO Daily via Diane Brady at diane.brady@fortune.com
This story was originally featured on Fortune.com
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