Thread by @DanPriceSeattle

Companies are sending people back to the office to "increase productivity"

As a CEO, that makes no sense.

Our company has worked remotely for 16 months. How was productivity affected? This April, we set a record for revenue. In May, we broke that again.
theguardian.com/commentisfree/…

The extra revenue allowed us to grow past 200 employees for the first time. Remote work opened our recruiting pool significantly: we now have workers in 24 states.

Nationwide, research shows remote work fueled 5% productivity growth since people aren’t burnt out from commuting.

Companies say the office motivates employees.

What motivates you? The chance to have a pizza party at the office? Or knowing you can spend rush hour having dinner with your family instead of getting honked at by someone who just cut you off?

The truth is, companies have had it too good for too long by requiring staff to spend unpaid time traveling to and from work just so managers can feel in control.

We just proved most office jobs can be done from home just as well.

The average worker spends 55.2 minutes commuting daily, up 10% from 2006.

The typical worker makes $20.17 an hour. But add in commuting time and that pay rate drops to $18.09 an hour.

If you actually got paid for commute time, the median worker would make an extra $4,800 a year

Research shows that workers feel more negative emotions during their morning commute than at any other point in the day. How does making people miserable before work unlock productivity?
[pdf] international.ucla.edu/media/files/Ka…

Instead of making a top-down CEO decision, I asked our staff how they want to work:
7% want back in the office full time
31% want office-remote hybrid
62% want to work from home full time

I told them: Do whatever you want

Employees know how to do their jobs better than any CEO

For employers, there are plenty of benefits to putting employees first.

Can't find workers?

We’ve had more than 300 applicants per job opening since we became remote-eligible, the most since we got tons of press for enacting a $70k min wage 6 years ago.

Cutting commutes is probably the biggest thing companies can do to help the environment.

I see ads from corporations claiming to be green then see they require desk workers to spend an hour a day spewing exhaust into the atmosphere to reach an office park inaccessible by transit

Not every company can go remote, but those that can and are sending workers back to the office anyway are doing a disservice to their employees and to their long-term future.

Read more in my Guardian column
theguardian.com/commentisfree/…