# Why are some employers so obstinate about requiring in-office work during COVID if it can be done just as well remotely? **URL:** \ **Category:** The Quarantine Zone\ **Tags:** covid-quarantine\ **Created:** [August 11, 2021, 2:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-some-employers-so-obstinate-about-requiring-in-office-work-during-covid-if-it-can-be-done-just-as-well-remotely/948411 "2021-08-11T02:35:21Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 8\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![Steve\_MB](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/steve_mb/32/5339_2.png) [@Steve\_MB](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Steve_MB)\ **Post date:** [August 13, 2021, 2:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-some-employers-so-obstinate-about-requiring-in-office-work-during-covid-if-it-can-be-done-just-as-well-remotely/948411/41 "2021-08-13T14:41:36Z")
> [@Eva\_Luna](#): > > But the thing that gets me is that my work is quite quantifiable Work-from-home has the effect of damping down corporate culture and making the quantifiable bottom-line work product more prominent. On the one hand, this scares managers who rely more on office politics and established hierarchies than on useful skills. On the other hand, healthy corporate culture does have advantages in building teamwork. ---
**Author:** ![Old\_Wench](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/ecccb3/32.png) [@Old\_Wench](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Old_Wench)\ **Post date:** [August 15, 2021, 3:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-some-employers-so-obstinate-about-requiring-in-office-work-during-covid-if-it-can-be-done-just-as-well-remotely/948411/42 "2021-08-15T03:02:00Z")
> [@Euphonious\_Polemic](#): > > Add to that, there are some managers that simply love to have meetings. They are basically lonely and bored for most of the day, so they schedule meetings so that they can chat about stuff that everybody already knows (or nobody needs to know) and have pastries and coffee brought in. It’s a social time for them. I see that you know my previous [pre-pandemic] office administrator. She wasn’t happy unless she was planning a meeting/party/social event, badgering people for agenda items for said [usually pointless] meetings and then spending WAY too much time on every agenda item, and also ordering food for said events. And birthday parties - she insisted on monthly BD parties and made each BD person pick a different treat for the party. It was ridiculous. ---
**Author:** ![asahi](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/asahi/32/8693_2.png) [@asahi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/asahi)\ **Post date:** [August 15, 2021, 3:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-some-employers-so-obstinate-about-requiring-in-office-work-during-covid-if-it-can-be-done-just-as-well-remotely/948411/43 "2021-08-15T03:14:52Z")
> [@Steve\_MB](#): > > On the other hand, healthy corporate culture does have advantages in building teamwork. I guess this discussion is really about what’s important to the individual and the company. At some of your highly innovative companies that are in a hyper-competitive environment, I get why they want employees to think of the office as home and their colleagues as family, because it’s analogous to being in a war against other competitors. If you’re Apple, Google, or some other prestigious company, you’re in the major leagues. You’re in an intensely competitive environment. You chose that life and everything that comes with it. But for most of the rest of us, work is work. It’s a job. And it’s not healthy to think of work as your home. It’s important to establish boundaries. ---
**Author:** ![Odesio](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/odesio/32/20003_2.png) [@Odesio](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Odesio)\ **Post date:** [August 15, 2021, 5:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-some-employers-so-obstinate-about-requiring-in-office-work-during-covid-if-it-can-be-done-just-as-well-remotely/948411/45 "2021-08-15T05:07:52Z")
> [@Eva\_Luna](#): > > After some additional back and forth with HR, they sent me an accommodation form for my doctor to fill out, which I will deal with. But I can’t help wondering: what is the purpose of making me schlep halfway across a crowded city full of commuters just so I can sit alone in a room doing the same damn thing I can do at home, only with less infection risk? My employer has been pretty good about keeping us out of the office. We have had three dates scheduled for us to return to the office but each time it was pushed further back because it was deemed not safe enough to return. I was supposed to return to the office last week, but because of the Delta variant and so many Arkansans refusing to get vaccinated they pushed the return to office date back a few more months. At this rate I might not end up going back until next year. > [@Eva\_Luna](#): > > So maybe this is an unanswerable question, but WHY do employers do it when it’s not necessary? Because they have a lot of real estate in the form of office space and they don’t like seeing it go unused. I’m not arguing that this is a good answer but for a lot of employers I think it’s the truth. ---
**Author:** ![paulmarkj](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/9e8a1a/32.png) [@paulmarkj](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/paulmarkj)\ **Post date:** [August 15, 2021, 12:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-some-employers-so-obstinate-about-requiring-in-office-work-during-covid-if-it-can-be-done-just-as-well-remotely/948411/46 "2021-08-15T12:36:57Z")
I tihnk there is stil a question mark over the quality of work by people working from home. The eason why peope are asking (demanding?) it is because it is beneficial to themselves and therefore all sorts of biases come into play. The dynamics of work - the interaction between people - is very important. If anyone believes they can build trust as easily via zoom or have equally good communication channels, and good teamwork, please provide the UNBIASED evidence. ---
**Author:** ![MandaJo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/ac91a4/32.png) [@MandaJo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MandaJo)\ **Post date:** [August 15, 2021, 2:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-some-employers-so-obstinate-about-requiring-in-office-work-during-covid-if-it-can-be-done-just-as-well-remotely/948411/47 "2021-08-15T14:19:03Z")
But the question here is specifically about WFH during COVID. In the case of a pandemic, I think the onus to prove things shifts from the employee needing to demonstrate they can work from home effectively to the employer needing to prove that they can’t. One thing I always remember is that it’s always easy to spend other people’s time and money. I think a lot of time management is really focused on what makes their own life easier. For example, someone in management goes to look for a piece of information they very rarely needs, and it takes them 30 minutes to extract it. That’s annoying, so they start requiring various underlings to start extracting that information weekly, and putting it in a central report, so they can find it next time. Across 15 underlings, this takes quite a few manhours each week. Which might be fine if the manager’s 30 minutes were really that much more valuable, but a lot of the time, they really aren’t–especially if it’s information the manager only needs once a year or less. It’s just so easy to add one more form, one more report, for a next time that doesn’t come. I think WFH is the same. It’s going fine, but something happens and it would have been more convenient to have a person at the office. So getting them in the office becomes really important, even if that’s honestly a disproportionate response to a specific situation, and the problem could have been dealt with in a more targeted way (everyone in the office the last 3 days of the month, or something). I’m currently working with someone who thinks he can “system” away his entire job, and doesn’t seem to know or care how much work each new “system” puts on others, so I am pretty sensitive to this bullshit. ---
**Author:** ![Eva\_Luna](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/e495f1/32.png) [@Eva\_Luna](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eva_Luna)\ **Post date:** [August 15, 2021, 5:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-some-employers-so-obstinate-about-requiring-in-office-work-during-covid-if-it-can-be-done-just-as-well-remotely/948411/48 "2021-08-15T17:42:11Z")
I am not saying that at all, I am saying that given the fact that we are in a global pandemic, allowances should be made for people who have jobs that can be done remotely to reduce infection risk to themselves and others, even if under normal circumstances they would work in a workplace with others. But I do also believe that some jobs can, or even should, be done remotely some of the time even if they haven’t been historically. ---
**Author:** ![Odesio](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/odesio/32/20003_2.png) [@Odesio](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Odesio)\ **Post date:** [August 16, 2021, 5:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-some-employers-so-obstinate-about-requiring-in-office-work-during-covid-if-it-can-be-done-just-as-well-remotely/948411/49 "2021-08-16T05:29:02Z")
> [@MandaJo](#): > > But the question here is specifically about WFH during COVID. In the case of a pandemic, I think the onus to prove things shifts from the employee needing to demonstrate they can work from home effectively to the employer needing to prove that they can’t. In an employee/employer relationship it is the employer who controls how, when, and where the work is done. And there’s no onus of proof to shift because under normal circumstances it doesn’t matter what an employee or an employer can prove. An employer is required to make reasonable accommodations for individuals with a disability though and we can work with that even during a pandemic. > [@Eva\_Luna](#): > > am not saying that at all, I am saying that given the fact that we are in a global pandemic, allowances should be made for people who have jobs that can be done remotely to reduce infection risk to themselves and others, even if under normal circumstances they would work in a workplace with others. I agree. Our business continuity plan for a pandemic was “send everyone home” because enough sick workers could make it difficult for us to do business. And employees will remember their heartless managers who seemed to take no interest in their safety during a pandemic. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-some-employers-so-obstinate-about-requiring-in-office-work-during-covid-if-it-can-be-done-just-as-well-remotely/948411.md?page=2)