OPINION:
Last month, Wall Street Pied Piper Jamie Dimon decreed from his Manhattan perch — or perhaps from a remote location in Palm Beach — that his white-collar minions must once again chain themselves to their desks in the offices of JPMorgan.
While many across the corporate diaspora are following Mr. Dimon’s example — Disney, Goldman Sachs, Twitter — it is an open question whether Mr. Dimon, a man with no difficult commute, children in day care, or cubicle to be stuffed in — is right about the primacy of in-office work.
To be clear, there is no hard data or real consensus on which workplace model works the best — in-office, remote, or a hybrid of the two.
Each organizational culture arguably has its own benefits and costs.
Yet here’s the bigger story: The escalating corporate employer war over the best office model threatens to bifurcate an already tight labor market in ways that will have far-ranging impacts on the growth and productivity of the U.S. economy.
Of perhaps most consequence from a corporate strategy perspective, those companies that take the hardest line on in-office attendance face a real risk of losing their best, brightest, most entrepreneurial minions to their remote model competitors.
Devotees of the traditional, chain-them-to-a-desk model will spin that face-to-face interaction offers a more robust set of networking, team-building and mentoring opportunities, which are particularly important to younger workers. Perhaps.
And certainly, “quiet quitter” slackers will be easier to monitor and weed out. That, too, has a grain of truth.
Yet in today’s tight labor market, workers are now shopping around not only on wages and benefits but also on workplace location. Those who have been unchained by the pandemic have learned that with appropriate discipline, they can be as or more productive — and far happier — without having to endure the hassle and costs of a commute.
For many parents, the biggest remote worker payoff is spending more time with their families while often saving large sums on day care.
There are equally big savings and lifestyle benefits for those who moved away from crime-wracked cities and exurbs during the pandemic to more rural, oceanfront, or lower-density settings — and are loath to come back.
Some companies, such as Apple, Google, Salesforce and Starbucks, are trying a King Solomon compromise by embracing a hybrid model that mandates office attendance a few days a week. Yet this loses one of the great advantages of remote work: an expanded talent pool that comes with the ability to recruit from San Diego to Des Moines and Bangor.
This hybrid model is also contributing to a practice known as “hoteling.” Instead of returning to their old offices, many employees are being herded into “Dilbert”-style cubicles by the same corporate executives cutting back on office space. Yes, you may have noticed the depressed commercial office market in virtually all major U.S. cities being triggered by the remote and hybrid waves.
For hybrid employees forced into this hoteling, there is likely to be both resentment and lower productivity as the quiet comfort of an office is traded for the chaos of a shared workspace. Hoteling is a headhunter’s delight, as many of these people are now dusting off their resumes — or, for older workers, pondering an earlier retirement.
From a macroeconomic point of view, we are unquestionably in the midst of a profound structural adjustment in our economy with as yet unforeseen consequences on growth and productivity. Yet at least one clear benefit in these inflationary times is the moderating effect remote work can have on wage inflation.
Surveys suggest here that in exchange for working remotely, many workers are willing to work for less. This only makes sense, as it is significantly cheaper and more enjoyable for most workers to work from home.
At the end of the working day, perhaps the key strategic takeaway may be this: “Do as I say, not as I do” corporate executives like Mr. Dimon, Tim Cook at Apple and Bob Eger at Disney, who often work in remote luxurious Palm Beach-style locations (and earn extravagant sums), need to be more aware of the seething resentment that their line employees are experiencing at being forced back to work after the relative freedom that few would have imagined in pre-pandemic days.
These back-to-the-office hard-liners need to tread lightly and consider this: A flexible workplace tailored to individual needs may ultimately rule the day and labor market.
• Peter Navarro served in the Trump White House as manufacturing czar and is the author of numerous books on corporate strategy, e.g., “The Well-Timed Strategy.” His writings and podcasts appear at http://peternavarro.substack.com.
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