California tech company films bizarre video pushing return-to-office plan — Internet Brands, an El Segundo-based tech company with subsidiaries like WebMD and CarsDirect

shellsharks , 5 months ago

No small feat to become a top 5 hated person on the Internet for a day. Well done Internet Brands exec team.

Donut , 5 months ago

Notice how all the C-level management are the speakers in this video and they desperately need people to come back because otherwise they'd have to work themselves.

Anyolduser , 5 months ago

In theory the amount of work for people doing HQ level administration (executives, accountants, etc.) doesn't change when they work from home. The work is different because face to face communication is replaced with telecommunication, but the same tasks that were done in office are still being done.

My observation is that the people who want to see a return to office have one or more (but not necessarily all) of the following traits:

1. They think short term or buy into the sunk cost fallacy and want to justify long, expensive commercial leases that the company is locked into.

2. To understand that work is happening they need to see work happening. This can be driven by difficulty dealing with abstraction or generalized trust issues.

3. They don't have a good home life. For a lot of people home is unpleasant and work is a respite. That respite has been taken away by a large, sudden societal shift.

erwan , 5 months ago

The soda can crushing to "crush the competition" is so cringe... I don't know maybe that talks to sales people.

Ephera , 5 months ago

Yeah, I find it so weird. Do they think workers care, how well the company is doing?

Zikeji , 5 months ago

Why does their CEO look like he could be a human version of Mr Poopy Butthole from Rick and Morty?

Also I like the choice of including a damn vending machine in the video. My new job might only be hybrid WFH but at least the break room is stocked and completely free.