[PantaloonFlames]

The power in the market for labor.

If remote labor is the norm, then every tech company has to compete with every other, across all geographies. If local labor is required, the employers can manage or restrict their competitive environment. There are fewer options for the employee.

The bulk layoffs of the past couple of years have a similar effect - gaining power. It makes every employee a little more conscious that their employment is provisional and conditional.

But I think RTO goes beyond just market power gains. There are many workers who are conscientious, attentive, and dedicated. For each one of those there are plenty who are just punching their time card. I’m no expert but it seems to me that RTO gives the employer and mid-level managers better visibility into all of that dynamic.

But RTO fights against the reality that employers have constructed distributed teams, with people working from all over the globe on the same project. If that’s the case, what is the difference whether I work from my home office, or a hotel desk space in a big building alongside people I don’t know.?

[brookst]

> If remote labor is the norm, then every tech company has to compete with every other, across all geographies. If local labor is required, the employers can manage or restrict their competitive environment.

Doesn’t that seem backwards? A company that supports remote work has a worldwide talent pool.l, including lower cost geographies. A company that insists on RTO can only hire locally, so has less talent available and can’t arbitrage labor costs.

I think RTO makes no sense, but I don’t see how it gives employers more power.

[jackcosgrove]

I have thought about this too.

* Remote workers aren't actually a worldwide labor force because of time zones, so the competition on the labor side is less than in theory.

* Remote work diminished the difference in liquidity between labor and capital markets. Capital is by nature more liquid than labor, and being more liquid gives you an advantage. As you say, the competitive pressures exist in both markets, and maybe this is a wash in terms of power.

* Remote workers can pay off mortgages faster, leading to more early retirements.

I still think the primary reason is a desire to manage according to the old style, which is a different argument than the GP.

[alpha_squared]

> Doesn’t that seem backwards? A company that supports remote work has a worldwide talent pool.l, including lower cost geographies.

Humans are not just replaceable cogs. When you hire someone, there are several things built into the assumption of that work that we take for granted. For example, federal holidays or work culture. The US is notorious for accepting overwork as the norm (people even brag about working 60-hour weeks) where that's just not acceptable in other parts of the world. That's obviously not true everywhere (e.g. 9-9-6 in China), but is true in enough places that it's not trivial to just swap in person A from country X with person B in country Y. That's not even touching on labor laws, language barriers (e.g. understanding office lingo like "circle back"), or value structure. The latter is huge where Americans care a lot about their jobs and careers and most parts of the world don't have the concept of a career.

[WheatMillington]

Yes, and moreover it's obvious from anyone's experience that applying for remote roles means workers will have MUCH more competition for the role. Employers ought to love this.

[aisenik]

Capturing and controlling a market is preferable to competitive markets under our political-economic system. It's been the model for Silicon Valley since Bezos sold his plan to lose money until Amazon had a controlling stake of the retail market in the late 90s. It's a seemingly unavoidable outcome of under-regulated capitalism.

[d0mine]

It is worth mentioning that companies colluding for forced RTO, so people can’t easily leave

[NBJack]

Couple this with regular threats and fear mongering about AI coming for the jobs of tech workers, and the picture gets even more somber. The tech industry wants to cheapen labor.

[WalterBright]

> The tech industry wants to cheapen labor.

Of course. And the workers want more money.

It's how markets work.