Although the COVID-19 pandemic ended long ago, telecommuting, which was widely implemented at the time, is still continuing, causing woes among large U.S. companies.
The Wall Street Journal reported on the 21st that large U.S. companies such as Microsoft, Paramount, and NBCUniversal are seeking to mandate their employees to come to work, but are struggling.
According to a survey of 9,000 office workers conducted by Work Forward, a research institute, it was found that companies are demanding more than 12% more time to work this year than early last year.
During the last COVID-19 pandemic, telecommuting surged among U.S. companies. This was the result of the forced closure and distancing of offices in accordance with the prevention of the spread of infection and quarantine policies. For workers, the burden of long-distance commuting was reduced, and remote working technology was developed at this time.
However, companies such as Amazon, Dell and JPMorgan have declared a halt to telecommuting this year. The New York Times plans to increase the number of people who come to work at least three times a week to four by November. Microsoft is planning to have employees in the northwest come to work three times from February next year.
Paramount, a film company, issued an ultimatum to employees in New York and Los Angeles to commit to work five days a week within this week, urging them to choose to leave the company with a certain salary if they do not accept it.
Meanwhile, after ordering tens of thousands of employees to go to work, Amazon temporarily allowed some people to work from home, including New York and Houston, due to a shortage of desks, parking spaces, and video conference rooms.
According to Nicholas Bloom, a professor of economics at Stanford University, about a quarter of them are still working from home, similar to in 2023. Employers are protecting excellent employees to prevent them from changing jobs, while about half of managerial executives want to work from home even at the risk of losing their salaries, the survey showed.
According to the WSJ, there is still no significant change in the size of employees who come to the office and work. “Currently, companies have a lot of concerns,” said Beth Steinberg, a long-time human resources executive in the IT industry. “Companies are unable to punish employees, especially those with high performance, for not going to work.”
SAM KIM
US ASIA JOURNAL
