#return to office

#return to office

After joining the ranks of the " overemployed" in 2021, John, a millennial software engineer based in California, earned as much as $300,000 annually working multiple full-time remote roles. The extra income boosted his earnings to over $300,000 a year, allowing him to grow his savings and splurge on things like a roughly $9,000 honeymoon with his wife. "I figured I'd give it a shot," John told Business Insider in 2023.

Opendoor, which buys and sells homes, is currently making waves as the latest meme stock beloved by retail traders. The stock got another boost on Thursday when the company announced cofounders Rabois and Eric Wu were rejoining the board and that Kaz Nejatian, COO of Shopify, was appointed CEO. At market close on Friday, the stock was up 470% year-to-date.

After years of assuming hybrid working would permanently shrink their need for desks, bosses are increasingly bringing staff back more regularly. The result is a surge in demand for bigger, modern offices that has caught many firms short. One national consulting executive admitted he had misjudged the future of working life: "In lockdown I had to look into a crystal ball and predict our future ways of working and got it wrong."

You could feel the energy bursting out of GAP's headquarters in San Francisco; even the city's mayor showed up. "I just spoke to the GAP employees who are back in the office five days a week starting today," said San Francisco Mayor Daniel Lurie. "GAP - thank you for leading the charge on the back to work San Francisco. Let's go." The white box from the company's latest viral campaign front and center welcoming nearly 2,000 employees back to the office.

One of Australia's largest banks has made it clear to employees that not coming into the office will have consequences. In an internal memo on Thursday, ANZ Group said employees' salaries will be cut if they are not in the office for at least half the working week. Bloomberg first reported the memo. A spokesperson for ANZ confirmed the contents of the memo to Business Insider.

As more companies demand employees spend more days in their workplaces each week, some critics claim that tightening return to office (RTO) rulesin partaim to provoke resignations from employees unwilling to give up their remote or hybrid work arrangements. Reinforced RTO mandates, especially by large companies like Amazon and Starbucks, sparked accusations that management's tighter in-office requirements are a cover for pushing flexibility-loving workers to quit.

Starting Sept. 29, the coffee giant, Starbucks, will require many corporate workers to commute into the office four days a week, up from the current three. While framed as a culture-building move, the shift raises new concerns about environmental impact and community strain - both of which add up for a large company - at a time when climate goals should be moving forward, not in reverse.

I understand this creates real challenges for many, and those concerns are valid. At the same time, this directive comes from the governor's office as part of broader policy decisions about how state government operates.

You have to be willing to do yourself, to an even higher degree, what you ask of everyone else.