The BIG BOSS BULLY

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We will likely need a decade to assess the impact of the “get back in the office, or else” approach of command and control CEOs, versus the CEOs that genuinely believe: “We know you will use good judgment on where/when to work to get great results.”

For example, Drew Houston, Dropbox’s CEO, told Fortune last month that his company’s approach - 90 percent remote, 10 percent in-person - has been their strongest retention and satisfaction tool. “Bosses who are insistent on in-person work as a rule, need to give up control, he advised, ‘and need a different social contract. If you trust people and treat them like adults, they’ll behave like adults. Trust over surveillance.’”

On the other hand, Amazon CEO Andy Jassy, has a message to employees who don’t want to return to the office. When Amazon ordered its employees to return to the office for three days per week starting in May, many Amazon employees weren’t happy about the decision. Thousands of workers signed a petition against the mandate and staged a walkout in response. Many Amazon knowledge workers do not technically need to be in an office location. That hasn’t changed BIG BOSS Jassy’s position on the matter. According to Business Insider, Jassy told workers, “‘It’s past the time to disagree and commit,’ adding that ‘if you can’t disagree and commit... it’s probably not going to work out for you at Amazon because we are going back to the office at least three days a week.’”

Frankly, remote work research is all over the place. Most studies do suggest that in-person work, somewhere between 23 percent and 40 percent of the time is the ideal, providing a balance between flexibility and isolation. The key, however, is to really LISTEN to people as the source of what the best approach is. Rarely does a “one size fits all” policy work out very well. Occasionally, organizations will have people who abuse flexibility. They should be fired. However the overwhelming majority of people want to do the right thing to deliver meaningful contribution and results.

It’s seductive to confuse strident decisiveness with being a real leader. Often that just means you have the immunity and short term power to be a self righteous, BIG BOSS BULLY. It will be very interesting to look back to see how this all turns out. I’m betting on the Houston’s over the Jassy’s. What about you?

Think Big, Start Small, Act Now,

- Lorne

One Millennial View: My only question is what’s the intent? It’s pretty clear that great results and productivity can be achieved by many knowledge workers from remote spaces. No CEO should argue that. However, a company like Dropbox has 3,118 employees. As of Nov. 2023, Amazon has 1,685,853 employees (1,112,555 in the U.S. alone). I take a small issue with calling other adults bullies because we should all strive for the psychological safety to stand up for ourselves and each other, and I think most CEOs want to do the right thing as well. While I’m sure some bullies exist, CEOs are smart enough to have the wherewithal to realize it’s a modern day bad look. With a responsibility to oversee the productivity of more than 1.5 million employees, does remote work become an impractical complication that adds too much unwanted pressure to an already demanding managerial situation? Is limiting remote work like an unfortunate budget cut, and wrangling people back to the office is the only way to maintain order with that many people? I truly don’t know, however, I think it’s worth questioning. What would you do if you were responsible for 1.5 million plus people?

- Garrett

Edited and published by Garrett Rubis

The BIG BOSS BULLY

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