Last 2023 in the work environment was characterized by the arduous debate between returning to the office or continuing to work remotely and about the productivity of employees according to the working conditions offered. There has also been a lot of talk about how certain CEOs talk to their workers with zero motivational or even uncomfortable speeches.
At Genbeta we made a summary of those moments. And now we can add a new action by the Internet Brands firm, a company that manages information and consulting platforms on health and legal issues.
The firm has sent a video to its workers to announce that they have to return to the office. At first, remember that over the last year, the company has been testing different hybrid work formulas. There are people from the team who have returned and they illustrate this with people smiling in front of their screens, the snack machine (it seems that snacks are a great motivation in the office) or another person taking a drink from a machine.
After the smiles, the CEO of the firm appears, with a serious face: Bob Brisco begins his speech in front of the camera by saying: unfortunately a large part of the group has not returned. And from there empty chairs and desks are shown with a silence in the background that contrasts with the joy that the video captured a few seconds before.
Threatening tone to request a return to the offices
We have already seen that many companies that have imposed a return to the offices without their employees wanting to return, They find that many workers are ignoring the mandate. Some well-known ones have made ultimatums or threats, as is the case of Meta or Apple, which has taken measures against its most rebellious workers.
Many of the firms have opted for a hybrid system that It includes several days a week of teleworking and other face-to-face work and this leads to some workers They are more inclined to pass on the idea of returning.
In the case of Internet Brands that is what seems to be happening and its CEO warns:
“Us Let's get serious about the fact that everyone has to go back to the officefor the simple reason that we work better when we are together.
According to the manager, the results are better in the office, although it does not give concrete or practical data to support this statement. Behind him, other managers begin to appear, such as the COO of the firm, saying that they need people back in the offices because by working face to face better ideas emerge.
In all of this, it is clearly seen how the people who appear speaking are reading a document near the camera. that helps them give their pro-office speech.
And all this to conclude that: “we are not asking you to return, but rather we are informing you.” That is, an ultimatum. Then An empty Google Meet call appears because everyone is in the office and several people dancing very happily in the office to the song “Iko iko”. The same company has published the video on Vimeo with a text that begins by saying that they are surprised that it has received a lot of attention and also a lot of criticism but that “corporate videos are corporate videos.”
Images | Taken from Internet Brands video and Photo by Christina @ wocintechchat.com on Unsplash
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