Malcolm Gladwell, a Canadian author, has expressed his opinions on working from home, saying that he thinks the practise “hurts society” and that any future recession would probably push people back into the workforce.
Gladwell made the remarks in an interview with The Diary Of A CEO podcast. Gladwell is the author of six New York Times best-sellers and the host of the Revisionist History podcast, which has millions of listeners.
During the emotional 90-minute conversation, Gladwell observed, “It’s really hard to feel relevant when you’re physically distant.”
It’s difficult to express this fundamental psychological truth—that we want you to feel needed and a part of the team—as we fight the struggle that all businesses are now fighting to bring employees back into the office.
We want you to be a part of our team, too. And it’s incredibly difficult to accomplish that if you’re not here,’ Gladwell said.
Gladwell, a staff writer for the New Yorker, has been open about his own years-long avoidance of the workplace, choosing instead to work from his posh West Village house or nearby coffee shops even before the epidemic devastated New York City’s commercial office market.
The New Yorker’s affluent Midtown headquarters was out of the reach for the best-selling author, who said in a 2008 interview with New York Magazine that he had a “aversion” to the area.
As a matter of fact, the story detailed the extent to which the New Yorker went in order to accommodate its star writer, even going so far as to send couriers to his house to pick up fact-checking supplies.
But Gladwell provided an alternative strategy for the remaining population.
According to the author of Blink and The Tipping Point, employees need to go back to work in order to reclaim their feeling of “belonging” and to feel like a part of something greater than themselves.
Working from home is not in your best interest, he says. “I realise it’s a bother to come into the office, but is it the kind of work life you want to have if you’re simply sitting in your jammies in your bedroom?”
According to Gladwell, a downturn will probably prompt people who are “sitting in their jammies” to return to work.
Don’t you want a sense of belonging?
He queried. I’m becoming more upset with leaders’ failure to communicate this to their staff members clearly.
“What’s the purpose if we don’t feel like we’re a part of anything significant? If all you get is a salary, what have you reduced your life to?
Gladwell’s comments will probably be favourably greeted by the mayors of the major cities in the country, who are having difficulty getting people back to work.
Mayors of New York City Eric Adams and San Francisco London Breed have encouraged employees in the IT and financial industries to report back to work, as their presence will support other small companies that depend on office foot traffic.
Only two-thirds of San Francisco’s workforce has gone back to their offices.
Even fewer offices are occupied in New York, with an estimated 36% returning.
According to city authorities, the continued use of remote labour resulted in a $400 million tax revenue deficit in 2021.
The fast food restaurant Shake Shack said that it had fallen short of sales projections due to the far slower-than-expected return of office employees to their desks.
According to Bloomberg News, security provider Kastle Systems estimated that workplace occupancy in 10 major US metro regions averaged 44 percent in the week ending July 27.
Officials in San Francisco said that remote labour cost the city $400 million in lost tax income in the previous year.
However, financial and technological firms are in a precarious situation because they worry that if they push employees back into the office, there would be widespread resignations.