This is just a thought experiment but I’m wondering if anyone else sees the same trail of dots and connects them in the same way.
Post covid most companies have come under pressure from the financial markets to recover lost profits, so they increased prices. This resulted in reduced demand as no one was earning more money so corps have had to look elsewhere to fully meet expectations.
As the offices were empty some looked at liquidating their real estate holdings only to realize that a) there is oversupply (hence reduced worth) and b) that their stock valuations (and therefore this years bonus) were in part based on the value of real estate held by corporations. With this self interest in mind many CEO’s suddenly got religion and decided WFH was no longer good.
So faced with this the only way to solve the problem was to stimulate demand and force people back to the office and hence boost value prior to any sell off. But they hadn’t figured in the fact that people have gotten used to not spending massive amounts on commutes and food out of home. ie people have managed to fill their short term budget deficits and don’t want to go back to barely scraping by again, and hence they are resisting not only the QOL impact but also the financial impact of returning to the office. Not to mention they are likely being measured up the ying-yang by MS teams and the like anyway during their work day so where is the win for them.
Thoughts ?