I see a lot of posts here asking why you're being asked to stop WFH and come back to the office. Regardless of how productive you and your peers have been, your managers are still attempting to require it. No one seems to make sense of all of this and I'd like to offer some insight.
Commercial real estate (and more precisely commercial mortgage backed securities) are the reason you're being told to come back. Pre-pandemic, you were commuting to, typically, larger metro areas or within your metro area to work which would mean what? Maybe you stopped for coffee, or stopped at the store within that area for groceries before going home, as well as eating out and dining maybe after work with co workers. Then the pandemic hits and all of that comes to a grinding halt. Small businesses and even larger chain corporations are now moving to different models that utilize delivery and online ordering of everything (groceries, fast food and carry out, I mean Jesus you can now get beer delivered to your home).
What this mean was that these businesses which were typically weighted more towards being brick and mortar retailers and restaurants whose model depends more so on foot traffic on their sites rather than e-commerce, were starting to dwindle in individuals moving through their stores. Take a look at your local real estate markets and see where the pricing is higher. It's most definitely not in small towns where there is a lack of population to spend money, it's always larger metro areas.
The lack of you being in your office, making these small stops doesn't bode well for the commercial real estate market, regardless of how profitable these companies have remained. Couple that with the fastest and largest interest rate hikes seen since the 1970's and your employers who have mortgages on their office space now have 3 different options:
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Sell their building, more than likely at a loss due to a lack of office space demand, and affect their bottom line.
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Refinance the commercial mortgage, lose money because the value of the building has decreased AND the interest rate will not be nearly as attractive as it was a year or two ago. (It's also worth mentioning that most Commercial Mortgages are adjustable rate with a 7-10 year maturity date, once these teaser rates kick off your companies are paying a lot more in interest unless they're able to refinance which, they are not. Think 2008 style issue here)
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Force you to come back to work so you can stimulate your local economy, and hope they can stave off their lenders long enough for the Fed to drop interest rates and the value of their building to increase.
Option 3 is what they choose because up front cost to them is nothing, it's all fronted to you. That being said every excuse they give you about culture or whatever the fuck it may be is simply a guise to protect their bottom line.
I hope this helps you guys, I work in manufacturing but enjoy following and watching macroeconomics play out.