A lot of employers are still trying to get their employees to come back to the office, with varying degrees of success.
"NOOOOO! I DON' WANNA GO BACK! I DON' WANNA GO BACK!"
Once an employee loses the commute, and can work with both feet up, take a dog-walk break when the dog wants it, get both the laundry and the job done at the same time, and -- depending on whether there are kids or their ages -- do it all in lovely peace and quiet, it's kind of hard to go back to the old ways.
But if you're an employer who wants to get employees back to the office, do not fear. You have a surprising new ally.
Would you believe, the Chief Executive Officer of Zoom?
Huh? Zoom? The videoconferencing company that made work from home possible, maybe with a little help from Teams and Webex?
Yes, that Zoom. According to The Daily Mail, Zoom CEO Eric Yuan recently told employees that they had to come in to the office at least two days a week if they live within a 50-mile radius of a Zoom office.
Mr. Yuan reportedly told employees that they "cannot have a great conversation" if all of their meetings are remote.
The CEO of Zoom said that!
And get this. He also reportedly said, "Quite often, you come up with great ideas, but when we are all on Zoom, it's really hard. We cannot debate each other well because everyone tends to be very friendly when you join a Zoom call."
IT SEEMS THAT MR. YUAN HAS A POINT.
I just hope he made this announcement on a Zoom call.
And I hope that none of his employees live 50 miles from a Zoom office, which means they'd have a 100-mile round trip commute. Even for only two days a week, that sounds awful.
POSTSCRIPT: It appears that the Zoom CEO was having Zoom meeting fatigue as early as 2021. Maybe he'd be better suited to commercial real estate.
Image Credits: Man dragging woman and laptop from Adobe Stock. Zoom logo from flickr, Public Domain. Dude with miniature pumpkin -- I guess that's what it is? -- on his head during 2020 Zoom conference from flickr, Creative Commons license, by Fabrice Florin.
