Meta updates RTO policy with stricter mandate, saying workers may lose their jobs if they don’t show up 3 days a week::Meta, formerly known as Facebook, told employees that its new RTO policy would be enforced by management.

  • books@lemmy.world
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    1 year ago

    Given how bad this company is tanking, I wouldn’t be surprised if this was deliberately done to cut payroll.

    • scarrtt
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      1 year ago

      Absolutely, this return to office stuff has been an absolute gift for CEOs wanting to downsize, it’s the perfect fluffy PR way to turn the thumbscrews. Factor in the popular idea that you’re a slacker if you don’t work hard all the time and you basically have public support too.

      I’m sure plenty of people will just suck it up and view the past few years as a very extended break from office nonsense and commuting hassle, but enough will jump ship to fill quotas

      • P03 Locke@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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        1 year ago

        Office space costs a lot of money. Desktop computers cost a lot of money. The inability of their co-workers to immediately wake up and solve some emergency costs a lot of money.

        Every day they are not continuing remote work practices is another day they are bleeding money.

        • scarabic@lemmy.world
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          1 year ago

          The company I work for is still fully committed to remote first. They have closed multiple office locations including the entire headquarters campus. They can’t stop gushing about how much money they’re saving.

          Thing is though that often, real estate deals are made over long periods of time. I think a lot of RTO stuff is happening because companies can’t just get out of their leases. They spent years and millions of dollars actually building offices and by god they want to see them get used.

          • scarrtt
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            1 year ago

            Yeah, there’s definitely a big sunk cost thing going on too

          • P03 Locke@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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            1 year ago

            They spent years and millions of dollars actually building offices and by god they want to see them get used.

            Whether people are remotely working or in the office, it’s still the same cost. As soon as they sell it off, it’s not a cost any more. Justification doesn’t make the cost less.

        • scarrtt
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          1 year ago

          I suspect that these big corporations were advised by banks and the government to scale back work from home policies to avoid triggering a real estate market collapse in cities by vacating expensive office space en masse. This could cause defaults by landlords and a housing crisis as workers no longer need to pay premiums to live near offices. An exodus from cities would crater housing markets, which would severely damage the overall economy. Thus corporations are pushing for office returns to shed some staff but also to avert an economic crisis, despite the cost savings of remote work

          • P03 Locke@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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            1 year ago

            Since when do big corporations give a shit about bursting industry bubbles? If it’s not their own bubble, they loooooooove to capitalize on the profit margins that come from disasters. Even if it is their own bubble, they’ll find a way to short their own stock to see a big windfall.

            • LufyCZ@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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              1 year ago

              Economy collapse -> people have less money -> people spend less money -> the corporation has less revenue -> :)

            • thisisnotgoingwell@programming.dev
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              1 year ago

              This is almost guaranteed to have trickled down. If the banks go down due to being overleveraged, everyone suffers. Isn’t it strange all the major companies are doing this, even when it doesn’t make sense? Literally no one else from my team works in my office, they’re all in another state. Then again, I work for a bank, so… Yeah. This is the “if I go down, we all go down” part of the plot

    • stigmata@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      “How bad this company is tanking.”

      Y’all are ridiculous. Meta isn’t anywhere near tanking. I don’t know why some of you parrots keep saying this.

      • GenericUsername34@lemmy.world
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        1 year ago

        They lost ~$10b in net income in Q4 '22 and Q1 '23 so definitely a company in some level of distress, but Q2 saw them ~$7.5b in the black.

        • stigmata@lemmy.world
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          1 year ago

          What? They make billions in profit every quarter and have been for a long time. Meta isn’t anywhere near being in trouble.

        • kabobbl@lemmy.cafe
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          1 year ago

          Meta net income

          • Q4 2023: USD 4.652Bn.

          • Q1 2023: USD 5.709Bn.

          • Q2 2023: USD 7.788Bn.

          • Q4 2022: Facebook monthly active users (MAUs) – MAUs were 2.96 billion as of December 31, 2022, an increase of 2% year-over-year.

          • Q1 2023: Facebook monthly active users (MAUs) – MAUs were 2.99 billion as of March 31, 2023, an increase of 2% year-over-year.

          • Q2 2023: Facebook monthly active users (MAUs) – MAUs were 3.03 billion as of June 30, 2023, an increase of 3% year-over-year.

          User stigmata is correct and neither Meta nor Facebook are sinking, despite what we might want to believe.

      • books@lemmy.world
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        1 year ago

        Sorry should have been more clear. Facebook is tanking. Obviously meta as an org is fine.