Remote Workers Willing to Take $12k Hit as Roblox, Amazon, Nike Push for Office Comeback

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Welcome to?Future Work .

Every week, I scan the news for must-know stories about the employee-centric, happiness-focused, distributed, and AI-driven future of work. Below is this week’s edition.

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Are you currently working remotely?

And asked to return to the office, like at Roblox, Amazon, and Nike?

How much of a pay cut would you be willing to take to keep working from home?

That question has now been answered: up to $11,627 annually.?

And for good reason, shows new FlexJobs research.??

The Need-to-Know:

• Roblox, Nike, and Amazon are returning to the office. Roblox was fully remote but now asks people to come into the office three days per week. Nike went from 3 to 4 office days, and Amazon told managers they could fire people who stayed at home.?
• Those mandates could lead to resignations. Only 6% of Americans prefer full-time office work if given a choice (Gallup), and 56% know someone who plans to quit due to a return-to-office mandate (FlexJobs.)
• Workers would even take a 20% pay cut to stay home. The risk of losing employees due to these mandates is real, as FlexJobs' research found that 63% of respondents are willing to sacrifice up to 20% of their pay for remote or hybrid jobs or almost $12k on an average salary.
• Remote work saves money. Remote workers save $2,387 – $12,750 annually due to reduced expenses on commuting, meals, and other office-related costs. Fully remote work has also created 'Zoom towns' with a lower cost of living, although this could prove risky for employees who are called back to the office.?

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Remote Workers Willing to Take $12k Hit as Roblox, Amazon, Nike Push for Office Comeback

It’s been a busy week on the return-to-office front.?

While Dropbox sensibly returned 25% of its office space , as Jordan Novet shares on CNBC, companies like Roblox, Amazon, and Nike called their employees back to the office.

Roblox told employees to come to the office three days a week or take a severance package, writes Jonathan Vanian .?

Remote employees must relocate, and those who choose not to go into the office from Tuesday through Thursday “can opt for a severance package.”?

This decision marks a significant change from May 2022, when Roblox told employees that remote work would be the primary mode of operation.?

Plus, Roblox is an online world where people make money designing games for others. The irony is thick on this one, folks.

Amazon, which mandated RTO earlier this year, told managers they can now fire employees who won't come into the office three times a week.?

Eugene Kim reported how managers were advised to privately discuss with employees who don’t meet the minimum in-office requirements and document those discussions in a follow-up email.?

Documentation leaked to Insider shared this instruction:?

"This conversation will 1) reinforce that return to office 3+ days a week is a requirement of their job, and 2) explain that continued noncompliance without a legitimate reason may lead to disciplinary action, up to and including termination of your employment."

And finally, Nike, an industry leader and Oregon’s largest company, said employees must return to the office FOUR days per week as reported by Matthew Kish for The Oregonian / OregonLive.com .

"We’ve seen the power and energy that comes from working together in person, and we aim to create more of that,” a statement shared.??

Employees may disagree: “Some say Nike needs workers in the office to collaborate on new products while others warn the company risks losing employees if it takes away flexibility."

Return to Office: Risky Move, Employers?

Mandating employees to return to the office remains a risky move.?

Employees will vote with their feet, given the many benefits of remote work .?

Gallup polling indicates that only 6% of Americans would prefer to work in an office full-time if given the choice.?

And now, new research shows that employees would even pay to avoid the office.??

A widely shared USA Today article, “Americans Will Part With Pay To Work From Home ,” drove over 40,000 engagements across social platforms like Facebook and Reddit.?

The article reports on research from Stanford University economist Nick Bloom , which reveals that employees are willing to forego about 8% of their annual pay for a remote or hybrid job.?

In my interview with him about this research, Nick explained that 8% sounds like a lot but that it isn’t:

“If you had one job that paid 8% less, but you only had to go in two days a week, and the other one paid the base, but you had to go five days. The hybrid role means you can live further away from the office, have more space, a better neighborhood, and have more free time. This is why that's about the average number we see in the data.” – Stanford Economics professor Nick Bloom.

FlexJobs 's “Remote Work & RTO Pulse Report ” wanted to understand these potential pay cuts in more detail and surveyed over 8,400 individuals in August 2023.

The study found that 63% of respondents are willing to accept a lower salary if they can work remotely.?

And not just the 8% from previous research: 17% of employees are willing to take a pay cut of up to 20%, while 10% are willing to take more than 20%.?

Based on a median U.S. salary of $58,136 for full-time employees, an 8-20% pay cut totals $4,650 – $11,627 annually.?

This, while, as Jane Thier points out accurately in Fortune, “home prices are skyrocketing, pay raises are flat in many industries, and most jobs are failing to provide a cost-of-living adjustment.”?

Still, FlexJobs found that for most people (63%), flexibility is the most important factor to have in a job, more than salary (61%), having a good boss (48%), meaningful work (48%), and health insurance (42%).

FlexJobs’ CEO Sara Sutton , one of our 55 Remote Work Thought Leaders , shared with me that the results didn’t surprise her:

“These sentiments aren't surprising when considering remote work's wide range of benefits. People we surveyed experience improved mental and physical health, higher productivity, cost savings, less commuting stress, better work-life balance, and an overall happier work experience. These make the trade-off to work remotely well worth a pay cut for many.” – Sara Sutton, CEO, FlexJobs

On the trend of companies asking for office returns, Sara warned that this is a risky move.?

“Today's workforce values working remotely so much that 56% of people say they know someone who has quit or plans to quit due to return-to-office mandates. For employers, failing to provide remote work options could result in higher attrition rates and greater challenges around recruiting, hiring, and retaining top talent.” – Sara Sutton, CEO, FlexJobs

Make Less, Save More

As I wrote in last week’s Future Work, “6 out of 10 CEOs Predict We’re Returning to the Office Full-Time. I Don’t Think So ,” remote work can result in significant cost savings, potentially offsetting a hypothetical pay cut.?

In a 2023 report from Owl Labs on hybrid work, employees shared that coming to the office costs them $51 daily, or $12,750 annually.

Bloomberg research from Emma Court earlier this year pegged this cost at between $2,387 (Chicago) and $4,661 (New York), but regardless, working from home means less money spent.

Besides meals, commuting, and other office-related costs, remote workers' additional cost savings come from moving to more affordable places, so-called "Zoom Towns ."

But moving far away may have downsides as companies could replace remote employees in the US with more affordable people in other parts of the world.

(They may even be located in North Korea and use their salary to fund the country’s ballistic missile program .)

Also, as Sara shared, hybrid roles are only getting more popular:

“Our Top 100 Companies for Hybrid Jobs , which recognizes the employers with the highest number of hybrid job openings, welcomed more than 50 newcomers, signaling the expanding number of employers embracing hybrid work and striking a balance of in-office and remote work setups.” – Sara Sutton, CEO, FlexJobs

The bottom line:?

While the return-to-office trend gains momentum, the gamble for employers is real.?

Employees are putting a tangible price on the privilege of remote work of up to almost $12,000 annually, even in economically challenging times.

The advantages of remote work, from financial savings to improved work-life balance, are well-documented, and employees are becoming increasingly vocal about their preferences.?

It seems abundantly clear that the future lies not in rigid office mandates but in the flexible embrace of hybrid models catering to employer and employee needs.

As two employees at the water cooler would say: "Shut up and take my $12k."

– Daan

?? Read: "Remote Workers Willing to Take $12k Hit as Roblox, Amazon, Nike Push for Office Comeback." (With more context, examples, and links from Emma Goldberg , Julia Hobsbawm , and others)

New Podcast Drop: Bye, Full-Time Jobs

It's the end of the 9 to 5 job – and I'm here for it!

I loved every minute of this conversation with SHRM Foundation Chair and the WSJ best-selling author of "The Inside Gig," Edie Goldberg .

Edie has studied work her whole life and concluded that full-time jobs with a rigid task profile ain't the way.

My four key takeaways from this discussion:

1) Employees Want Purpose: More than ever, employees want purpose and meaning. They want to impact their team, company, or the world positively. Similarly, learning and growing (as Daniel Pink says: Mastery) can be very motivating. Managers can ensure that people continuously learn.

2) Remote Culture, Goals and Motivation Drive Engagement and Retention: We're not always together in hybrid and remote work. The sense of belonging is the glue that holds everyone together. People want a place to belong, so company culture is so important.? This is also why goals are important: working together toward a common objective. Managers can help employees by having meaningful conversations about setting and achieving goals, which drives motivation, engagement, and performance.

3) We Need a New Approach to Managers: We need better support managers for successful hybrid and remote teams. First, to help them understand that management is about getting work done through other people, training them to do it well, and then recognizing them for success. We should also separate the leader of the work and the leader of the people. These are different things that require different skill sets. Don’t make people take on work that drains them.

4. Companies Should Embrace Fractional Work: Talent marketplaces like Fiverr and Upwork connect people with work that matches their skills and interests. Edie believes we can apply that in a company, too, and leverage employees' skills, experiences, passions, and interests.??

?? Listen: "The End of the Full-Time Job: How Fractional Work Finally Liberates Us (With WSJ-Bestselling Author Edie Goldberg)"

Tool of the Week: ChatPDF?

We are WAY too busy not to use AI and other technology to simplify our lives. So we're sharing one a week.?

This week, meet ChatPDF – like ChatGPT but for a single PDF.??

The next time you need to find an answer in a long text, try ChatPDF. It's free!?

?? Check out our Tool of the Week: ChatPDF

Get Ahead: Smart Reads Around the Web

Bloomberg: A High School Teacher Powers AI Unicorns

A fascinating story by Marissa Newman and Aggi Cantrill about Christoph Schuhmann , a teacher who created an image database that's central to AI unicorns like Stable Diffusion. And no, he's not making any money from it! >>>

AVClub: Black Mirror creator unafraid of AI because it’s “boring”

Matt Schimkowitz shares an interesting take on Generative AI from the creator of Black Mirror. While many salivate about AI's potential, he thinks "it is pretending to be something it's not capable of.” >>>

Business Insider: "I got lonely and returned to the office"

Most people don't want to work fully remotely, as we learned in "What Remote Employees Really Want." ?Not in the last place because it can be pretty lonely. Fortesa Latifi shares such a story. >>>

Fortune: Andreessen dropped a ‘Techno-Optimist Manifesto’?

VC @Marc Andreessen wrote a love letter to technology, including a prediction that 50 billion people will settle on other planets. The full thing is here , but for the highlights, Rachyl Jones got you.? >>>

Bloomberg: Microsoft: Don’t Spy on Employees to Ensure Work?

85% of managers worry they can’t tell if employees are getting enough done, while 87% of workers say their productivity is just fine. A wild discussion ensued on LinkedIn and Reddit . Take your pick, or read Dina Bass' original story. >>>

PS: For more articles, I shared the top 15 most engaged articles about the future of work on LinkedIn.?

From the FlexOS Team:?Make the Most out of a Skip-Level Meeting

Make Less, Save More

As I wrote in last week’s Future Work, “6 out of 10 CEOs Predict We’re Returning to the Office Full-Time. I Don’t Think So ,” remote work can result in significant cost savings, potentially offsetting a hypothetical pay cut.?

In a 2023 report from Owl Labs on hybrid work, employees shared that coming to the office costs them $51 daily, or $12,750 annually.

Bloomberg research from Emma Court earlier this year pegged this cost at between $2,387 (Chicago) and $4,661 (New York), but regardless, working from home means less money spent.

Besides meals, commuting, and other office-related costs, remote workers' additional cost savings come from moving to more affordable places, so-called "Zoom Towns ."

But moving far away may have downsides as companies could replace remote employees in the US with more affordable people in other parts of the world.

(They may even be located in North Korea and use their salary to fund the country’s ballistic missile program .)

Also, as Sara shared, hybrid roles are only getting more popular:

“Our Top 100 Companies for Hybrid Jobs , which recognizes the employers with the highest number of hybrid job openings, welcomed more than 50 newcomers, signaling the expanding number of employers embracing hybrid work and striking a balance of in-office and remote work setups.” – Sara Sutton, CEO, FlexJobs

The bottom line:?

While the return-to-office trend gains momentum, the gamble for employers is real.?

Employees are putting a tangible price on the privilege of remote work of up to almost $12,000 annually, even in economically challenging times.

The advantages of remote work, from financial savings to improved work-life balance, are well-documented, and employees are becoming increasingly vocal about their preferences.?

It seems abundantly clear that the future lies not in rigid office mandates but in the flexible embrace of hybrid models catering to employer and employee needs.

As two employees at the water cooler would say: "Shut up and take my $12k."

– Daan

?? Read: "Remote Workers Willing to Take $12k Hit as Roblox, Amazon, Nike Push for Office Comeback." (With more context, examples, and links from Emma Goldberg , Julia Hobsbawm , and others)

New Podcast Drop: Bye, Full-Time Jobs

It's the end of the 9 to 5 job – and I'm here for it!

I loved every minute of this conversation with SHRM Foundation Chair and the WSJ best-selling author of "The Inside Gig," Edie Goldberg .

Edie has studied work her whole life and concluded that full-time jobs with a rigid task profile ain't the way.

My four key takeaways from this discussion:

1) Employees Want Purpose: More than ever, employees want purpose and meaning. They want to impact their team, company, or the world positively. Similarly, learning and growing (as Daniel Pink says: Mastery) can be very motivating. Managers can ensure that people continuously learn.

2) Remote Culture, Goals and Motivation Drive Engagement and Retention: We're not always together in hybrid and remote work. The sense of belonging is the glue that holds everyone together. People want a place to belong, so company culture is so important.? This is also why goals are important: working together toward a common objective. Managers can help employees by having meaningful conversations about setting and achieving goals, which drives motivation, engagement, and performance.

3) We Need a New Approach to Managers: We need better support managers for successful hybrid and remote teams. First, to help them understand that management is about getting work done through other people, training them to do it well, and then recognizing them for success. We should also separate the leader of the work and the leader of the people. These are different things that require different skill sets. Don’t make people take on work that drains them.

4. Companies Should Embrace Fractional Work: Talent marketplaces like Fiverr and Upwork connect people with work that matches their skills and interests. Edie believes we can apply that in a company, too, and leverage employees' skills, experiences, passions, and interests.??

?? Listen: "The End of the Full-Time Job: How Fractional Work Finally Liberates Us (With WSJ-Bestselling Author Edie Goldberg)"

Tool of the Week: ChatPDF?

We are WAY too busy not to use AI and other technology to simplify our lives. So we're sharing one a week.?

This week, meet ChatPDF – like ChatGPT but for a single PDF.??

The next time you need to find an answer in a long text, try ChatPDF. It's free!?

?? Check out our Tool of the Week: ChatPDF

Get Ahead: Smart Reads Around the Web

Bloomberg: A High School Teacher Powers AI Unicorns

A fascinating story by Marissa Newman and Aggi Cantrill about Christoph Schuhmann , a teacher who created an image database that's central to AI unicorns like Stable Diffusion. And no, he's not making any money from it! >>>

AVClub: Black Mirror creator unafraid of AI because it’s “boring”

Matt Schimkowitz shares an interesting take on Generative AI from the creator of Black Mirror. While many salivate about AI's potential, he thinks "it is pretending to be something it's not capable of.” >>>

Business Insider: "I got lonely and returned to the office"

Most people don't want to work fully remotely, as we learned in "What Remote Employees Really Want." ?Not in the last place because it can be pretty lonely. Fortesa Latifi shares such a story. >>>

Fortune: Andreessen dropped a ‘Techno-Optimist Manifesto’?

VC Marc Andreessen wrote a love letter to technology, including a prediction that 50 billion people will settle on other planets. The full thing is here , but for the highlights, Rachyl Jones got you.? >>>

Bloomberg: Microsoft: Don’t Spy on Employees to Ensure Work?

85% of managers worry they can’t tell if employees are getting enough done, while 87% of workers say their productivity is just fine. A wild discussion ensued on LinkedIn and Reddit . Take your pick, or read Dina Bass ' original story. >>>

PS: For more articles, I shared the top 15 most engaged articles about the future of work on LinkedIn.?

From the FlexOS Team:?Make the Most out of Skip-Level Meetings

Skip-level meetings can be a powerful tool to accelerate your career and grow the company, shares our Nhi Le , who spent two weeks researching these super-meetings.

She built an AI bot to practice your next skip-level meeting and wrote template invite emails and example questions to ask.

?? Read: "How to Make the Most out of a Skip-Level Meeting (Guide + Templates)"

Until next week!

I want to help you get ahead.

If you have topics, ideas, or requests – I'm all ears!

– Daan