When employees are not at their desks, they may not be working at all. Since the earliest pandemic lockdowns, many CEOs opposed to teleworking have said this in one way or another.But media mogul, billionaire and former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg took it a step further last weekend in an interview with Mo Rocca cbs sunday morning show. Not only are they out of work; Remote workers are basically on vacation.
“If you think (work) can be done from home, I don’t know,” Bloomberg said. “But every golf course I’ve heard of in the last three years has had a summer record, okay? It’s funny, but it’s also tragic.”
Suggesting that any stressed-out remote worker can just head to the golf course to blow off steam, without needing attention or punishment from their manager, is certainly a viable approach. But in terms of data, Bloomberg isn’t that far behind.
Earlier this year, a research paper published by Stanford University economists Alex Finan and Nick Bloom found that remote work did indeed create a golf boom as the post-pandemic Golf course attendance surges around mid-afternoon on weekdays.
The most logical explanation is that with the new freedom from supervision that comes with remote work, some employees are turning to golf to fill the day and recharge during the off-season.However, it’s all a bit ironic because well documented Passion for golf— Even if it’s 2 p.m. on a Tuesday — Those in the corner office.
But contrary to what Bloomberg seems to suggest, Bloom and Finan said the triple-digit increase in golfing during work hours has not directly led to a drop in productivity. As long as employees take breaks on the green later in the day, “then (playing golf) will not reduce productivity. In fact, national productivity has been strong during/after the pandemic.”
The anti-long-range team remains strong
For Bloomberg, a staunch critic of flexible work, that’s not enough. Golfer or not, Bloomberg ranks himself with other big-name CEOs, including JPMorgan Chase’s Jamie Dimon, Twitter’s Elon Musk and Alphabet’s Sundar Pichai, as firmly Consider face-to-face work essential.
In early August, Bloomberg wrote Washington post The op-ed expressed his dissatisfaction with government workers logging in remotely, even claiming taxpayers were footing the bill for vacant offices. (He also claimed that 80% of his namesake company’s employees come to work at least three days a week, a requirement he has since increased to four days.)
Who is Bloomberg? Valued over $96 billionSaid that remote work has made Washington, D.C. “never the same again” and that tax dollars wasted on empty office space has significantly reduced public resources.
“This has gone on for too long. The pandemic is over. The excuses for allowing offices to remain empty should end too,” he wrote. “Our managers are already seeing the benefits of returning to in-person work and we’re hearing about those benefits from their teams, especially young people just starting their careers.”
Bloomberg says remote working harms an organization’s future prospects by eliminating opportunities for mentoring and upskilling, not to mention its impact on young workers themselves. It turns out that remote employees can also be affected by proximity bias, in which their bosses subconsciously prefer and prioritize the employees they see most. Remote workers, on the other hand, can benefit from saved commute time and more valuable family time.
Bosses are losing patience with remote work battle
Jefferies CEO Rich Handler agreed with Bloomberg, saying permanent remote roles are for short-term goals and paychecks, not for careers.Handler says hybrid working is likely here to stay wealth, But “the reality is that if you’re in an office, you’re going to be in a lot of interesting ‘real-time’ situations because physical presence is important.”
At this point, even the most pro-telework experts agree. “The bottom line is that when someone works from home, personal interaction between colleagues is significantly reduced,” said the researchers behind the project. Work from home research Bloom and the José María Barrero consortium wrote in April. “This is the price workers and companies pay, which is slower on-the-job learning, in exchange for the flexibility and personal autonomy gained when working from home.”
It’s a significant cost, but some workers clearly value a round of golf more. Too bad for them, weekday golf — like a plethora of fully remote roles — may be a thing of the past thanks to Labor Day return-to-work regulations.
“Human behavior is probably not going to change anytime soon; I can’t work with you if it’s over Zoom,” Bloomberg continued in the CBS interview, explaining why working remotely will never be better than in-person Work holds the long-term advantage. “You can’t do the same thing over Zoom that you can do in person. Period.”
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