I think it’s not so much about middle management. They implement the policies of the actual decision makers.
I think it’s because the people who actually make these decisions perform their work mostly via face-to-face meetings, handshakes, projecting personal charisma, reading body language, and personal networking. This leads to an overestimation of how much of other jobs depend on time spent in the same room with others.
The executive imagines the meetings they missed, leading to lost opportunities. So they see a loss of productivity.
They don’t appreciate how much easier it was to edit that manual or analyze that data without Joe the human tuba trying to breathe around his phlegm in the cube next door, or without the folks three rows over arguing about which director’s vision of Superman was best.
The executive imagines the meetings they missed, leading to lost opportunities. So they see a loss of productivity.
This is a fantastic point, and one I had not considered.
From this standpoint, the side pushing for return to office really does feel like they’re in the right. I think I would argue that a subset of those folks are still pushing a return for the wrong reasons (e.g. thinking that remote work lowers productivity naturally, not just based on an observation of their own missed meetings or face time), but otherwise I agree entirely.
They need to fake working and that’s hard to do when remote is based on output. Ie, did the work get done or not. Being a middle manager w people to bother in office means they can fake it or have issues all day and be talking …
This hits the nail on the head at my work. Immediate manager couldn’t care less where we are, and has said frequently that the team is more productive from home.
It’s the higher ups that are pushing for return to office, constantly sending out surveys, arranging free-form “open door” meetings and things like that because they’re lost without seeing people face to face.
I can concentrate far more effectively at home, where I’m in full control of my environment, and I spend up to half of my day in video calls with people in different locations anyway.