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Dropbox CEO slams return-to-office mandates, compares them to outdated malls and theaters
(www.techspot.com)
this post was submitted on 09 Jun 2025
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I still don't understand how this talking point makes sense. So businesses are purposefully incurring costs to prop up an industry that they're not involved in? A business will stop leasing a building and save money if they can, hell mine did.
Lots of Fortune 500 companies own buildings and both they and their executives have big investments in commercial real estate. They don't want the market to collapse because it'll hurt them all personally.
See my other comment in this thread.
Companies Renting offices are usually not pushing for RTO. Definitely not full time RTO.
Lots of businesses own their offices. Those buildings are assets on the company balance sheet. If no-one uses those offices they become worthless and the company visibly loses money.
Wouldn't those businesses that own their offices still prefer to sell or rent a property if the business will run without it? Artificially filling a property with employees to "make use of" the property rather than get money out of it is a good way to be left holding the bag when other companies ditch their properties to save money and crash the market anyway. To your point, the property is still the same asset whether employees are in it or not; it costs money. I guess I'm not really buying the notion that businesses are banding together to lose money for the greater good of the business real estate market. The same companies that won't even invest in obvious long-term profitability plans? Really?
That is a lot of it. Companies with office assets don't want to be left holding the bag. They have sunk costs (x year leases) and there are some benefits to the business of people being presentatial, so from the employers PoV everyone should return until the lease expires.
If they own the property then not having it fully used means that it will sell for less when they are finally able to do so.
Some jobs also need a proportion of the workforce to be present, so hybrid becomes the best balance for them.