Another week, another ‘Wave’ ???

5 news items from the world of work and workplace you can digest in 5 minutes.

This week:

1. Are hybrid return-to-office mandates as flexible as they seem??
2. Google is now badge-tracking and noting attendance
3. 1 in 4 NYC office buildings now valued at less than their sale price

Inflexible in Nature: Are hybrid return-to-office mandates as flexible as they seem? Touted as dynamic and agile, a fixed pattern of in-person and remote working could actually deprive workers of the autonomy they need to thrive, reports BBC . “Often, it’s giving employees a hybrid schedule of where they should do their jobs, without any flexibility,” says Tim Oldman , founder and CEO of employee-experience research firm Leesman . “It’s shoehorning them into fixed patterns that may not best support their work.” Inherently, these mandates are rigid, with strict requirements around days in the office and working hours. “People tend to respond very well to feeling they’ve had choice and control over their life in general,” said Matthew Davis , associate professor at Leeds University Business School . “For most people, a fixed schedule is their least preferred option of hybrid working. Generally, the less control people have, the less good their outcomes.” Read Full Article.

RTO Crackdown: 谷歌 received huge backlash last week, after updating its hybrid three-day-a-week office policy to include badge tracking and noted attendance that will be included in performance reviews, reports CNBC . Additionally, employees who already received approval for remote work may now have that status reevaluated. Staffers say they’re being treated like schoolchildren and there’s increased uncertainty about what the future holds for people who moved to different cities and states after they were cleared to work from remote locations. “If you cannot attend the office today, your parents should submit an absence request,” reads one top-rated meme posted online by an employee. Another highly rated meme said, “check my work, not my badge.” Read Full Article.

Office Values Wiped: “15 million sq ft of New York City office space is underwater,” reports Bisnow . Slow leasing and rising interest rates have taken their toll on America’s largest office market, with scores of New York City office buildings now with loan balances that are larger than their valuations. 1 in 4 buildings in the city are now valued at less than their last sale price, according to JLL. That’s $10.6B in value that has been wiped from the city’s office buildings. “The numbers we are expecting probably to grow, just given two things: one, the state of the market now, but also the fact that we have been expecting a correction — both in terms of asking rents, which obviously feed into valuations, and loan underwriting — for some time,” 仲量联行 Director of Research Andrew Lim told Bisnow Thursday. "It's happening more slowly than we expected.” Read Full Article.

Hiring Struggle: UK firms without flexible working ‘will struggle to hire in next five years’, reports The Guardian . Natalie Campbell MBE MIH , co-chief executive of Belu and advocate of the four-day week, said: “I think the world has changed post-pandemic. People absolutely recognise that being visible, being seen at a desk, literally at the desk in front of a screen, does not deliver or make for a fully productive workforce. I think people have recognised that trying to shoehorn 19th-century Industrial Revolution-style ways of working on to jobs that go from knowledge economy right through to manufacturing and then through to the care system doesn’t work.” Joe Ryle , the director of the 4 Day Week Campaign , said: “We live in a country which could be called Burnout Britain. We work some of the longest hours in the world, some of the longest in Europe, whilst also having one of the least productive economies.” Read Full Article.

Reversing Policies: Last year, Farmers Insurance Group informed employees they could work remotely on a permanent basis and many planned accordingly, selling their cars or moving to other states. But the company's new CEO has other plans: Raul Vargas told employees last month that he'd require the majority of staff to work in the office three days a week to further "collaboration, creativity and innovation" — and outrage ensued, The Wall Street Journal reported. The shift will impact roughly 60% of the company's 22,000 U.S. workers. "I was hired as a remote worker and was promised that was the company culture moving forward," a worker said. "This is seemingly a power move that is frankly disgusting." Another sold their home and relocated closer to their grandchildren which they said was a "huge financial decision based on a lie." Read Full Article.