For anyone who has gotten the tap on the shoulder for a promotion knows that promotions are generally in management roles. Most companies have few promotions and pay raises for those who are just happy doing their job and do not want to or don’t have comfort within leadership roles. This has the unintended consequence of those who want the promotion and added pay that often follow but are not skilled leaders taking roles they shouldn’t be in and creating a hostile work environment. As I have pointed out, many toxic leaders don’t know that they are toxic either because they never wanted a leadership role or were never trained to lead.
There is also the unintended after-effect that when there is no room for those who are happy with what they are doing to gain promotion or added pay, this raises turnover. It raises turnover because it becomes more financially advantageous for employees to strategically job-hop instead of developing company loyalty.
We must ask why companies are doing this. Many companies make a budget to address turnover by constantly hiring. And pre-COVID, that was semi-reasonable. However, leaders are screaming, “talent shortage,” “No one wants to work anymore”, and my personal favorite, “workforce shortage.” However, the Bureau of Labor and Statistics shows this isn’t true.
Now, some industries are seeing a talent need shift towards those who are skilled in engineering and automation. The job reports show that a growing number of people are over-employed. Business is seeing an organizational trend among the labor force of no longer willing to put up with uncomfortable work environments with toxic leaders and leaving jobs the minute anyone starts demanding in-person or hybrid over remote work. The workforce prioritizes lowering stress and no longer making their life all about their job.
At first glance, one would want to argue that these workforce shifts are not good things. However, a lower-stress workforce is more productive. Remote workers are also statistically shown to have more productive hours in an 8-hour workday than an in-person worker on average as well.
Studies also find that remote work also tends to displace middle managers by enhancing shared leadership. And as remote work becomes more popular as a work modality, we need to start thinking about our teams and what they need, which includes higher pay. Recognition of their work through non-management promotions and regular pay raises for those who just like their job and do not seek to lead will help enhance your workforce and lower costs associated with turnover.
If you enjoyed this article, like and subscribe. And remember, remote is here to stay.
While I have had time off from posting on this blog, I have been bouncing in between working on my dissertation, doing consulting work on remote work and remote leadership development, and developing a postdoc fellowship at Stan State University, which is targeted at helping students find, obtain, and maintain remote work positions. This fellowship is in partnership with the California Department of Rehabilitation, Stan State University School of Business, and The Stan State Student Disability Center to create this year-long program.
The goal of the program is to help students define what modality they are most productive in and work with the lifestyle they want while helping them gain remote employment as an effort to gain experience in remote work. Many companies are hesitant to provide remote work when someone is at an entry-level phase, but developing remote work experience is helpful to these students. This way, they have more experience and education at graduation.
This fellowship comes at a time when employees, according to an article published in Forbes.com, are screaming for remote and hybrid modalities, and students are also joining in the chorus. According to the Forbes article, 65% of workers prefer a 100% modality, with 32% preferring a hybrid. Inside Higher Ed did a recent survey in 2021 of 400 students and found over 27% preferred remote education. While a 2023 survey published by Edscoop.com showed that 69% of students prefer fully remote and hybrid/ blended learning options.
I personally this term has a remote synchronous class, an in-person class, and a hybrid/ hyflex class that I am teaching at Stan State, and honestly, I enjoy my hybrid class most. It allows my students to select the modality that works best for them. I value my students, and as the Dean of the Stan State School of Business often says, “You have to go and meet the students where they are” really rings true. My students have less stress in my hybrid class and seem to have more room to express themselves. However, I will wait for them to give more of their qualitative feedback.
If you would like to participate as a remote employer for this fellowship or as a remote leadership specialist, please email me at seubank@csustan.edu. You can also reach me on my other social media platforms. Remember, Remote Is Here To Stay.
The movement towards the future of work being remote is still going strong and is still fraught with controversy. However, transitioning to remote work becoming part of the business norm has some added benefits. Today we will explore the fact that remote work has been increasing diversity in the workplace. Specifically, remote work has increased the number of neurodivergent people in the workplace.
First let’s work on our vocabulary. The dictionary defines neurodivergent as “differing in mental or neurological function from what is considered typical or normal (frequently used with reference to autistic spectrum disorders); not neurotypical.” Although, it should be noted that this term also includes those who are diagnosed with ADHD.
Now that we have the term clarified let’s focus on the fact that diversity in the workplace has been researched to be a massive benefit to an organization’s creative problem-solving and production. When you have a diverse population coming at a problem from different angles, you get an inspired answer. The disabled community since COVID, according to the Bureau of Labor and Statistics (BLS), has entered the workforce from 9% of the workforce in 2019 to over 20% of the workforce as of 2023, which in large part has been because of the growing use of remote work as a modality. According to the article by Gonzales (2023), the BLS federal statistics show disabled workers are becoming a growing population in the workforce and the fact that traditionally disabled workers suffer a higher rate of unemployment compared to their neurotypical counterparts. In the article Gonzales (2023) also went on to detail that in the disabled community, over half of that population are 65+ and traditionally have a higher rate of unemployment and workplace discrimination than their counterparts. Further to the article, Gonzales (2023) comments on how the disabled community is also one of the fastest-growing demographics of entrepreneurs. The BLS notes that neurodivergent workers of the disabled community are the most likely to start their own businesses. Especially those with ADHD.
Many of you may have seen Connor De Wolfe’s YouTube videos on ADHD neurodivergent content, where he speaks about social and scientific differences neurodivergent people have as part of their lived experiences. As he has displayed on his channel, ADHD people learn skills quickly, are very creative, and have unique problem-solving abilities. However, managing workers that are neurodivergent is not the same as managing a neurotypical worker. Their motivations are also vastly different. Ok, money is a common motivator for both groups; there is nothing wrong with that. However, motivation styles must change on the part of leadership. Remote work is also an excellent tool when leading remote teams in a diverse workplace that includes neurodivergent team members. It allows room for the neurodivergent person to not be overwhelmed as easily and to engage in ways that give freedom to not have to emotionally mask their symptoms.
There are also YouTube influencers on the topic of ADHD and neurodivergence that have great ways to help your teams stay focused and successful. Influencers like @olivialutfallah, Olivia Lutfallah, and Ludovico Saint Amour Di Chanaz, a Ph.D. who studies ADHD as a researcher. My personal ADHD motivational and memory tool is to use music. Such as, when I run 5k’s or go hiking with my kids, I play a specific playlist, so I memorize where I am based on the timing of the song, and over time the location makes the song play in my head, and I remember where I am. As I get better at remembering, I set a playlist that is faster to set a pace to help me speed up production. I do the same work in my workplace, and the benefit is when I start singing along with the music in remote work, only my seven-year-old is bothered. (Although a word to the wise, always make sure you are on mute before you belt out songs cause that can turn into an awkward moment). This is yet again another opportunity afforded by remote work so that I don’t have to emotionally mask and I can be my authentic self as a business leader.
If you would like to learn more about how you can train your teams to better balance the changes to leadership that the remote work revolution is creating for the future of work, please check out my social media and my consulting practice for ways to help develop more comfort levels for remote work. Remember sharing is caring, so like and subscribe. As always, remember, that remote is here to stay.
There is a lot of research on the benefits of walking during the workday to increase productivity and creativity, reduce stress and help with mental health. However, taking a walk during the workday onsite can be hard. Let’s face it, most business clothes are not breathable and comfortable. They just aren’t. In remote work, there tends to be a more flexible dress code. I enjoy an early walk to our local mom-and-pop coffee shop with my boys (before the central valley heat makes us burst into flames). It’s only 3 miles round trip.
During my walk, I listen to music with my kids and husband, answer calls and emails from my phone, and prep project pitches that come to me in the relaxation of walking. I often say I could rule the world from my phone and would be Galadriel from The Lord of The Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring and how she had power and chose not to be corrupted. I get a lot of work done on my walks with my family and a lot of relaxation.
There are so many memes and skits by several content creators like @LOEWhaley on managers who focus on policing their teams instead of supporting their teams and managing the work. One of my financial sector mentors told me, “Manage the work, not the people.” And she is right.
When we as leaders spend so much time trying to catch people in the wrong, that’s all we see and all we address. This makes it so we ignore our high producers and don’t put our energies into managing the work and creating trust with our teams. Letting go of control is tough, but what we get out of it as leaders by giving room to build trust will help enhance your team.
If you would like to learn more about how you can train your teams to better balance the changes to leadership that the remote work revolution is creating for the future of work, please check out my social media and my consulting practice for ways to help develop more comfort levels for remote work. Remember sharing is caring, so like and subscribe. As always, remember that remote is here to stay.
A topic that comes up a lot in my consulting and dissertation research is forcing employees to turn on their cameras. Because this is such a hot-button issue, when asked about my opinion, I always ask, “What is the company in question’s camera policy.” Often there is no policy because having such a policy can create legal hardships for a company. With across-the-board remote work being so new (even though remote work has been researched since the 1980s), many companies do not want to address the legality. And for good reason.
During COVID, many were forced into remote work with no training or correct work-from-home setup or support. What I mean by this is that many of us who work from home have a setup around our kids going to school on-site, and any other people in the house are also off-site. So, during COVID, when health care and childcare were hard to come by in small spaces, many were dealing with chaos in their workspace that could not be addressed. Then there are those like my family who moved when able to accommodate space needs. The healthcare and childcare sectors are still trying to recover, and we are still addressing more needs and support for people to have a work-life balance.
Mental and physical health issues must also be factored in when discussing camera use in remote work. One of my friends who died a year ago was balancing taking care of his father and fighting cancer simultaneously. He was doing his best to hide his struggles so that while he fought for his health and cared for his father, he would not lose out on growth opportunities. His career was a lot of what was keeping him going. Often within leadership, we feel showing vulnerability is a weakness. As many in leadership still operate on this concept, it creates a toxic culture of hiding illness and life from management to protect one’s earning capabilities. I have known several women who went through a divorce or domestic violence, and working remotely helped them continue to afford to provide for themselves and their families and escape the situation. Having the camera on would have not only shown a vulnerability but could have endangered their lively hoods as well, and for many, cameras were used as tools to harm them. So, cameras, for many, can be triggering and harmful to mental health. Not to mention women victimized in this way are often persecuted in business, and their ability to make solid business decisions is called into question. And for many, their ability to make money is their only tool to protect themselves.
There are also privacy issues and cultural concerns around the use of cameras. The background filters can only do so much. This brings us to issues of Wi-Fi. Many times, when we are dealing with cameras, this can strain the internet connection, make for spotty reception and loss of communication, and increase frustration.
So, for leaders who want to encourage the use of cameras without hurting their workforce and establishing connections and trust, here are my suggestions to help leaders with this issue:
Touch base with each team member and ask how they prefer to be communicated. Everyone is different. Some may prefer phone calls, instant messages, etc.
Share with your team how you prefer to convey urgency. Such as an instant message on teams means this is a priority. Or emails are a priority for tracking. Or maybe the instant message is when you can, and emails are the priority. It is up to you so that you and your team are all on the same page.
In big meetings, have cameras on for the intro to the meeting and turn off the cameras when not presenting. This makes sure to address any Wi-Fi issues.
In one-on-one, once there is flickering in the signal, give the verbal ok to your team to turn off their camera.
As your team members one on one who does not want to use cameras, why they don’t? Not everyone is comfortable.
If you have team members who say often they are not camera ready, show your team that there are days you aren’t either, and lead by example. Show not being camera ready, and if decorum is important to you, show little things your team can do to help. Tell them you want a one-on-one camera at the meeting and why. Then offer to have the meeting in 10-20 minutes and give them time to get ready. Sometimes, we all need to plan self-care, and taking 10-20 to look presentable is good. So, be flexible and show humanity on your end as a leader. You’ll earn more points than you think, showing you are also human.
If you would like to learn more about how you can train your teams to better balance the changes to leadership that the remote work revolution is creating for the future of work, please check out my social media and my consulting practice for ways to help develop more comfort levels for remote work. Remember sharing is caring, so like and subscribe. As always, remember that remote is here to stay.
When I started studying remote work and remote leadership in my master’s and now in my doctorate program and finishing my dissertation on the topic, I did not think I was taking on such a taboo topic. Even post-COVID remote work is a hot-button topic that many in leadership roles are speaking out in media against the move towards remote work. In this blog and my research, I have identified several causes for leadership to dislike remote work even though it benefits corporations greatly. Benefits such as higher productivity, as reported by the Bureau of Labor and Statistics, lower overhead fees, lower utility fees, lower real estate fees, and a wider hiring pool by being able to hire all over the country.
With all this to consider, we must ask, aside from a bit of training in leadership in general to middle managers, why are companies trying to treat remote work like it is the same as being in the office?
Remote work was never a workplace design to mirror the office. It was designed to give more freedom of creativity and cost-saving opportunities for companies and employees. So, why are leaders trying to manage remote work as if people are in the office? Well, there are a few reasons why:
Public schools are designed to mirror the structure of old-school factories in timing, seating, rules, etc. As such, this form of leadership mirrored by teachers is what many middle managers and leaders mirror and attribute as a standard business structure. However, education isn’t cut and dry anymore; not everyone is productive or creative in those environments, and the same happens in business.
As a business culture, we are still idealizing old organizational cultures of “All go and no quit” and similar attitudes which foster burnout, workplace PTSD, and Workplace Violence. These attitudes praise those who stay later than others to get more work done when needing that additional time shows time management issues across the board, not good work ethic. Several research studies found that constant overtime contributes to these toxic work environment issues and hurts productivity and accuracy goals. Basically, the more work you do without rest, the lower the quality of work produced.
There is also the middle management feeling they must watch nonstop to see if anyone is in their mind taking advantage of the company in completing the work. I speak from experience and research when I say both show that looking for issues that’s all leadership will find at the expense of ignoring those working hard and doing the work. If leadership learns to let go and trust their team, even in a remote modality, the focus shifts to managing the work and letting the team do its job and leadership to do the same.
Middle management also has often never experienced anything but in-person work, so physically, not seeing the team in the office feels like a loss of control and a loss of influence. It is hard for leaders to build trust with their team and know their skills if they do not build skills to manage a remote team vs. an in-person team. This is probably why many middle managers push back on the idea of remote. The new method scares them.
Because middle management is not often taught how to lead but instead is promoted as one of the high performers, these managers are at a deficit. They don’t know how to motivate other than toxic leadership methods shown in TV, movies, and a few self-help books. Where these methods may have worked in person in the past many workers are no longer willing to tolerate the behavior, so motivating a team has to be done by learning how to be vulnerable and human as a leader and gaining faith from your team. I often quote the line from Disney’s Remember the Titans, “Attitudes reflect leadership”. This means we must teach our leadership teams to let go and trust their team so that the work performance can speak for itself rather than trying to police one’s team.
If you would like to learn more how you can train your teams to better balance the changes to leadership that the remote work revolution is creating for the future of work, please check out my social media and my consulting practice for ways to help develop more comfort levels for remote work. Remember sharing is caring, so like and subscribe. As always remember remote is here to stay.
To start this article, I want to point out that I have worked remotely in manager and non-manager roles for over 11 years now. I have been a salaried worker for over 15 of those years. When on-site, I know many managers are trained to use the observation approach of workers throughout the day. But, per the Bureau of Labor and Statistics findings (The BLS), in-person workers are only productive for approximately 3 hours in an 8-hour day. Where the BLS findings of remote workers show that remote workers are productive 5 hours in an 8-hour day. Not only that, many remote workers are salary workers. So, they aren’t paid to work nonstop for 8 hours. They are paid to get the job done within the project timeline.
This means that everything else managers observe, thinking employees are productive in person or remotely after those productivity spaces, is workplace theater. And when leadership pushes especially remote workers to be at their computers nonstop, we are pushing an unhealthy organizational culture that promotes burns out, workplace PTSD, low morale, and disrespects our team as if they are hourly workers.
A stressed employee makes more mistakes, has lower morale, and is likelier to develop burnout and workplace PTSD. I have found some tried and true methods to address this in my teams.
Find out which of your employees are salary vs hourly. As a leader, you should know about your teams, from their interests, skills, education, experience, and their pay based on time or quality.
Encourage remote workers to step away from their workstations occasionally. We hear too many cases on TikTok where managers have come down on employees for taking a moment to go to the bathroom or get a cup of coffee in the kitchen. Employees need that small task to replenish their minds to take on emotional labor. If their work isn’t done and they are gone for hours, yes, follow up. But often, this is not the case.
As leaders stop investing so much time in trying to catch people in the act of doing something wrong or taking advantage of remote work. When you spend so much time catching people doing wrong, you ignore those doing things right. You also hurt the organizational culture. People who are taking advantage of their output will tell the story more than you wasting time trying to be overly suspicious of everyone. Not to mention this behavior hurts your mental health as a leader.
Encourage team members to take their meetings when they can from outside or in another room than their workspace. Limited distractions should still exist, but a little time outside helps improve mental health.
Create after-work remote cocktail hour or other such social events to help encourage collaboration and networking. This helps build morale and helps everyone’s mental health.
Have an honest conversation with HR and your team about them holding additional jobs and what the policies are. This will help keep everyone above board and help maximize productivity.
Incorporate a quantitative and qualitative method of analyzing productivity. This will give a better picture of your team.
Discuss the importance of taking time off and balancing work and life. For many, their job is a big part of their identity. Creating room for hobbies and friends allows employees to be more fulfilled and more likely to stay.
These are just a few ways to help and support your teams. For more info, look me up on my social media and my consulting services. Remember sharing is caring. And as always, remote is here to stay.
Last month I went to the Gallo Winery summit with fellow faculty members at Stan State and the Dean of the School of Business at Stan State. (A big thanks to the talent acquisitions department at Gallo for having us). The point of the summit is to see where local Universities can help develop lesson planning for students based on real changes happening in business to better support our students. While at this summit, the discussion of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion within Operational Management was brought up. I sadly had to inform the representatives from Gallo about the fact of findings from, Mohr (2021), showing that since 2014 on average, women are only applying for jobs and internships ONLY if they meet 100% of the qualifications and skills. The study noted in, Mohr (2021); shows that male counterparts, on the other hand, apply when they meet 60% or less of the requirements.
The concept that we miss all shots we don’t take and the mantra of the worst anyone can say is no are concepts I live by. So, when I heard this statistic, I was shocked, sad, and curious. Women, especially, are often told that we suffer from imposter syndrome. As detailed in, (Paulise, 2023), imposter syndrome is where one has the skills to do an activity but feels as if they are not worthy or like they are pretending to be someone they are not. A great example of theatrical imposter syndrome can be found on the TV show “Big Bang Theory.” When Amy has a meltdown about the team trying to steal her work as their own.
This got me thinking about how much of our experience as women is imposter syndrome and how much of it is workplace PTSD? And in researching to write this article, I came across a Harvard Business Review article, Tulshyan & Burey (2022), which argues that unconscious bias and racism in the workplace can contribute to women doubting themselves and seeming like imposter syndrome. But these negative biases can also be causing workplace PTSD.
As detailed in the article on Lattice, Beaudry (2022), Workplace PTSD is defined as the multiple aspects people had difficulty coping with when they are engaging in a negative and abusive workplace. Such as the emotional toll and how that can manifest physically when in a toxic or hostile work environment. (This is why there are HR laws about hostile work environments). However, over time multiple organizations are having toxic leadership (as I have said often because there is little on-the-job actual leadership training in the business world outside of college. Often, managers are promoted from top performers to leadership, and the first mistake they make is misreading fear as respect.
These factors creating workplace PTSD are hurting the economy and making major companies lose out on really skilled talent, all because we have organizational culture issues to work out systemically in business. So, to be the change I want to see in the world, I continue to offer my services in consulting for business and remote work development. Also, I challenge all that read this article the next time you are applying to a job and not seeing yourself in 100% of the skills and qualifications, ask yourself, “How many of these skills do I meet that I may be questioning because of how people have treated me vs. if I know I can do an awesome job at this position?”
Remember sharing is caring and if you liked this article like, subscribe, and check me out on my other social networking sites.
Many of us have seen dramatizations of the changes in the workplace due to remote work all while seeing much of these scenarios evolve in real time. A great example I have seen and experienced was detailed on Laura AKA @Loewhayley accounts on TikTok, YouTube, Instagram, etc., in the form of Human Resources asking hard working specialists who have been at a company for a long time to take on a leadership role. However, in business culture we do not praise those who choose to stay in their role because that is what they are good at and the challenges in the role evolve and are fulfilling to the employee. Current business culture tends to favor a business leadership centric financial reward system. Which was good for those who fall into the past preferred attributes of leadership. However, remote work turns all those norms on their face.
Since the beginning of academic research in the business sector about the concept of remote work was started back in the 1980’s business culture has always favored a leadership focus. So, let us start with some nomenclature. Most business research is even from the leadership perspective. Research that specializes on the perspective of employees is called the study of followership. However, in between these two perspectives of leadership and followership are the grey Jedi’s of the business world. These grey Jedi’s are called Subject Matter Experts or SME’s for short.
Now that we have the terminology down let’s focus on the current business culture that has been developing since at least the 1900’s which is predominantly leadership focused. Where there is research on followership there isn’t a lot of it. As such we have social media influencers who advertise as workforce, business, and finance specialists that make memes. However, this is yet another instance of art reflecting life.
Business culture focuses on the advancement and struggles or leadership in the workforce instead of the focus on the experience of the labor force. Which causes more than a few topics of divide both for onsite and remote modalities. Although studies show in remote teams there is natural space for more autonomy for remote workers. Also, studies show there is more room for creative processing and problem solving especially in remote teams with a diverse and collaborative makeup of the team. As such in remote work an interesting thing develops. That is shared leadership.
Shared leadership is where everyone holds responsibility for their own contributions, there may be one or more people doing the coordinating and administrative work such as payroll submissions, or other leadership tools. However, with the transparency and room for creativity and autonomy that remote work creates it means the time of the middle manager is growing to a close.
This ushers in an interesting period in workforce development in business. It means businesses will shift in seven fundamental ways.
Companies will focus higher pay in hiring hire quality talent,
The days of people who just hold leadership jobs will no longer be a concept in middle management,
The business sector will have to redefine what leadership is and what a good leader looks and acts like,
There will be less of a focus on trying to promote people to leadership roles and instead try to work with employees on developing more challenging roles in each aspect of business and more of a culture of loving one’s role instead of working towards the next step up. Employee satisfaction will become a bigger tenant of business.
SME’s will become the filling in between to help companies develop skills for employees and fill in the organizational gaps of this shift.
Upper management will need to be sought after using a totally different lists of skills, and attributes versus just experience as leadership.
Lastly leadership and business psychology will need to become a bigger concept along with overall operations in business school to better prepare employees.
Now these organizational changes will not come overnight. All systemic changes come with growing pains and pushbacks. The change is in the air and the research for over a century is pointing to these changes to be necessary for businesses to stay on the cutting edge and avoid the current situation of business of having too many food critics in the kitchen and not enough chefs.
If you enjoyed this post, please like, share, and subscribe. And remember, Remote is here to stay.
Remote Work has been the subject of a lot of backlashes this year. Much of it stems from companies wanting to demonize employees for wanting remote work and remote work itself to deflect some serious organizational issues within the company and ongoing recession fears.
Companies want a layoff without the layoff repercussions like paying for unemployment.
Companies are sick of all the lawsuits for wrongful termination and hostile work environments because remote allows for more transparency.
It also has brought back the desire by employees to want Unions to help protect their rights.
The labor market is more competitive, and during COVID, employees learned more about their rights and have learned to set healthy boundaries through the “Quiet Quitting” and “Acting Your Wage” movements.
However, aside from normal scams to force people back into the workplace, some companies are resorting to more creative ways to attempt to shame remote workers. These attempts to shame remote workers like they are Cersei Lannister with a bell yelling “Shame” really are hypocritical here. It also shows that employers are not willing to ask hard questions about what employees would need to be able to be in person again.
The scam I am referring to is the current controversy of Marc Benioff of Salesforce offering to donate to “a local charity” for every worker that comes into work in person. I call this tactic a scam and not as Fortune and Gizmodo.com call it generosity because it really isn’t.
I was prompted to do more digging into the Salesforce issue when like many, I saw the Youtube video from Attorney Ryan at https://youtube.com/shorts/oQiWZJNuaJQ?feature=share . In his video, he claims that Benioff plans to deduct from the charity for all those who do not come into work in person. However, I cannot confirm or deny this statement as I found no deduction information. So, Attorney Ryan, if you have other information on this part to share, I welcome it.
However, the scam part came across when I researched the issue further. All the articles published about this say that the donations will be made to, “a local charity”. This is suspicious to me as the charity is not clearly defined. It is also a common tool for those who have a lot of wealth to use philanthropic charities to hide money and take a tax break. In the case of Benioff, he and his wife are on the board and head several charities, as cited on foundationguide.org. Further, there is little oversight about donations, which can lead to the wealthy still maintaining a controlling interest in the money instead of leaving it to the charities to use freely. A more concise explanation can be found by Adam Conover in his TV show, “Adam Ruins Everything”, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KWNQuzkSqSM.
So, before any Salesforce employees or other companies start to take into this scam, a few questions need to be asked. Such as are these charities under the control of someone close to the head of the company. Is this sort of a method easy to research and see that it’s a scam to make remote workers come back to the office? And is this a good PR move?
This controversy clearly shows that deeper conversations need to be had. Such as, why are these companies demanding people return to the office? Does the reason fall under the three insidious reasons that have been going on since 2013? If a company comes up with a really good reason, they need to ask themselves, “What would my employees need to be supported and able to come back into the office in person?”.
Moreover, depending on whether they have families because they must live so far away, many have childcare expenses to address. As a working mom, I can speak to how hard it was to return to the office and be so far from my kids even though they had great childcare and how remote work allowed more bonding and time with my boys. This means many may additionally have to pay for private school or move further and have a longer commute to have their children in better school districts or aim for areas with more resources for their children if they have special needs.
There is also the cost of housing. Per Zippia.com https://www.zippia.com/salesforce-careers-10060/salary/california/ The average salary for a worker at Salesforce is Between $95k- $137k per year. Now for those outside of the San Francisco Bay Area, that sounds like a lot; however, that is not a lot of money for that area. According to a Fox 11 News article in Los Angeles, from April 2023 noted, for Alameda County, the median income is $155k, and to be middle class, the income ranges from $104k- $311k to be considered middle class. The article can be found at https://www.foxla.com/news/middle-class-california-income-report . The report showed that the low-income max for San Jose and San Francisco is around $80k a year. Based on this information, Salesforce workers are making just a little above low income for their area and at the lower end on average for middle-class status.
After going over all this research and all these statistics, companies cannot effectively provide for their employees to encourage an in-person model of business anymore. It just isn’t doable. Remote work is the most effective way to get productive workers and allows employees to be less stressed when providing for themselves and their families. The math doesn’t lie. No, the amount of shaming or scamming will work out well for business. It is clear that Remote is here to stay.
True TV. (2019). Adam Ruins Everything – Why Billionaire Philanthropy is Not So Selfless. YouTube. Retrieved June 12, 2023, from https://youtu.be/KWNQuzkSqSM.
Dr. Stephanie Diana Eubank DBA Remote Team Research (AKA Dr. Bear) 