source: Wikipedia
It’s a story that just about everyone is familiar with. When the pandemic hit, it sent tens of millions of people home to work. A condition which held until just recently.
There are two schools of thought about this development: One, driven largely by employees, says that work from home should become a permanent part of the economic landscape, and the other, driven by more conservative upper management, would prefer to see employees come back to the office, with work from home arrangements being much more limited in scope and scale.
So far, the economy as a whole is undecided, but individual companies are beginning to make firm decisions in favor of one school of thought or the other. Disney’s chief, Bob Iger, for example, drew a clearly defined line in the sand, requiring his employees to come back to the office at least four days a week (with a preference on Monday through Thursday).
His thinking is that as a creative company, there’s intangible but unquestionable value in face-to-face interactions, which tend to spark an increasing number of creative ideas. For a company that thrives on exactly that, it may well be the right decision, but it’s also fair to say that although Disney’s employees are complying, there are some grumbles of discontent.
At this point, it’s much too early to say which way the remote work wars will be decided, but Disney is certainly a company to watch as the drama continues to unfold.