A study found that a CEO will locate the company’s office as close to his home as possible, even if 90% of the employees need to commute an hour+ to get there.
So the chances are that your CEO doesn’t care that you now have to spend thousands more each month on commuting, food, clothing, daycare, etc. Your CEO also does not care about your 2 hours a day spent commuting.
Here is what your CEO does care about:
- His house in the Hamptons
- Investor emails asking about accounting discrepancies
- Renovating his kitchen
- Getting his kid into the best Tribeca preschool at 70k per year
- Golf (thank you reader for reminding me!)
We asked three new yorkers about their experience from 2020-2023 working in corporate America and here is the common theme:
Their company recorded record profits in 2020, 2021, and 2022 while working remotely, executives cashed out and gave measly bonuses. In tech, as soon as hard times hit, they laid off 10-40% of the company and forced return-to-office policies.
An example of one layoff you can see right in this SEC filing, for which the same quarter they recorded near-record profits.
If you work in big 4 accounting, you know that executives at one firm, in particular, voted to split and go public for a big payday…
Meanwhile, let’s look at a few things going on right now.
This is a millennial-focused blog, and if you are a millennial then you certainly know about avocado toast. That is, boomers love to talk about it…
Despite every piece of evidence showing that personal finance habits have nothing to do with housing affordability, the “wasteful millennial narrative” continues to be pushed. We call this the media-industrial complex of propaganda.
Now, let’s look at some data. Homes are less affordable now than they were at the height of 2007.
Inflation is rampant, accounting for a 70% increase in the price of eggs, 30% in regular food, and the propagandized CPI number of 9.1% for all goods.
source: tradingeconomics.com
Largely, life milestones are being postponed or forsaken altogether due to unaffordable asset classes. Yet, we continue to see Employers question why people do not want to work as hard despite the clear evidence that incentives are the lowest they have been in generations.
If we are to look at incentives through labor share, then this report from Mckenzie puts it clearly. “The labor share of income in 35 advanced economies fell from around 54 percent in 1980 to 50.5 percent in 2014”. The report, now outdated, states that the return on labor or labor share is in a state of decline as the return on capital is increasing.
According to research lead by Prithwiraj Choudhury, associate professor at Harvard Business School, published in 2019, companies benefit when employees work remotely. Letting workers choose their locations can boost companies, employees, the environment, and the economy.
It increases productivity by 4.4% on average, reduces turnover and lowers organizational costs.
According to this research, work from home could add $1.3 billion of value to the US economy each year.
More remote jobs could lead to driving 83 million fewer miles per year, reducing emissions by 44k tons.
Hiring costs might fall by more than 4% and companies could save over $38 millions in office costs
Now let’s shift from earnings to savings to further enforce the point that life milestones are no longer achievable and that appropriate work incentives no longer exist. 56% of Americans don’t have $1,000 saved for emergency expenses. And household debt hit a record of $16.9 Trillion on 2/17/23.
Why are we talking about this? Because it’s clear that this is not just a class issue, it’s a generational issue. All logic and common sense tells us that we are just as productive if not more productive while working from home, yet leadership tells us that we must return to office for camaraderie, innovation, etc BS.
Let’s face it, they want to reduce headcount and they want to control you. They might even be happy if some of us got culled by the new york subway system to save them the trouble.
I challenge each and every one of you to speak to your boomer parents tonight and try to explain how homes are unaffordable, how wages have not grown in 40 years, and how you could save 50% of your paycheck and still be worse off than they were making $10/hr in 1980.
What you will find is that they simply can not comprehend it. Neither does your CEO, but the difference is that your CEO does not care in the first place.
But you know who does care? We Care! Join the tribe and stay informed with the information that can help you negotiate remote work and raises.
NewWallStreet is a blog dedicated to Millenial personal finance and monetary success (I.E showing you how to make money and keep it). We know full well that the methods used by older generations are not going to get you to where you need to be. And we aim to forge the path for you and take stances that traditional media fails to. We aim to disrupt the status quo and comment on the state of work to make it better for everyone.
