Why do people say that "return to office" is about raising commercial real estate prices?
A lot of times, when people discuss the phenomenon of employers ending work-from-home and try to make their employees come back to the office, people say that the motivation is to raise real estate prices.
I don't follow the logic at all. How would doing this benefit an employer in any way?
You are viewing a single comment
Why would the shareholders of a company want them to take on additional unnecessary expenses like leasing office space?
Or rather, why do real estate company shareholders have such ridiculous levels of influence compared to other groups who would logically prefer more wfh?
Because if you move up the ladder far enough, they're all the same group. Mister X sits at the board for companies a, b and c, but he also has a real estate portfolio. He's not the one spending the money for these companies to return to office but he has a vested interest in people returning to office in general, so he lobbies for it wherever he can. Simplified example but you get the gist.
You are grasping at straws if you think the exact same shareholders work both sides in any but a few outlier cases. This is goofy logic that people who are not in management think how companies run.
Do you know what boards of directors are? These people are not running the company they just sit together every so often to give their opinion on shit. They're sometimes related to the industry sometimes not. Again my example is a massive over-simplification of thousands of small colusions and conflicts of interests which drive these kinds of corporate wills. And for your info I did work in corporate management, not that far from CEOs so I do have an understanding, thankfully left that shit behind now though.
Yes I sit on three board of directors. I can assure you that the CEO or CFO or any other high level board members are not making decisions because they have interests in other entries. In fact as a board member, your job and pretty much your only job is to ensure those making decisions are doing it in the interest of the company they represent. If there are any conflicts of interest, we take an extremely close look at that. If a CEO or even a board member did not disclose some conflict, particular in financial matters, that would be one of the few ways to be removed. More so, that is one of the few ways shareholders could pierce the corporate envelope and sue a CEO or sitting board members for that matter.
Sure, whatever let's you sleep at night. Capitalism is a perfect system and corruption doesn't exist, got you 5/5.
Well less corruption than any other system.
That's really not how it works. In the same industry sure. But not across vastly different industries like tech, legal, government, etc and real estate.
I would suggest you to check out warren buffets portfolio
Warren Buffet is not typical of CEOs. He's an icon for a reason.
Warren Buffett is not directing resources from his position in one company to enrich himself in another company that he may have large personal holdings. That is one of the few ways shareholders can get around the safety of a corporation and sue a director.
More to the point, the board of directors are going to be extremely interested in the actions of Buffett if they think he is trying to enrich himself at the cost to their company.
Using him as an example that is.
It's insidious.
It's not influence as in "let's have a logical and transparent discussion about wfh vs on premise".
It's rumours, back channel favours, manipulating numbers, etcetera.
Bear in mind not all companies are publicly traded. Plenty of closely held companies were started by grand dad and run on rumour and here say.