If there is a downturn, start with making people that want to keep their job come to the office. If they won’t, good luck to them in their endeavors to find another position during the recession.
I said it! Now flame away!
I don’t call it flaming, but what’s the point of that?
Especially in undermanned fields.
I do electrical distribution design. Too few workers and getting older.
Sitting at home, I design in multiple states.
Fire the H-1Bs FIRST.
It’s actually the other way around. In a downturn (or in anticipation of one), the first course of action is to dramatically reduce the size of the office, send everyone to work from home, and save a ton of money on rent and utilities in the process.
Why make them come to the office if there is no need (depending on the position).
For me and my coworkers, our “customers” are in Europe and Australia mainly and Penn / Cali.
My company moved their offices from a large building to a building 1/3 the size and saved significant coin on the lease ... but it is 75+ miles away from me (that would be 3 1/2 hours driving if I had to go in). My other coworkers are in NC, NJ, and Conn.
I’m on the computer at 6am to 7:30, take my kid to Private School, then back to work at 8:30 and usually work till 7pm to catch the start of the day for our Australian people.
Yeah, sure there are situations where “you just need to be there” like when setting up computer system for the manufacturing floor or Quality Control area, but if it doesn’t matter if you were on the moon, what the difference between being in the office or at home (other than spending $100/gas a week and sitting in traffic for 3 hours a day).
“Back to the office” is the old “keep the employees under the thumb” mentality as well as misery loves company attitude.
Go to the office if you want ... but I know that my and my coworkers productivity has definitely increased because we work many more hours being at home then in the “office”.