telling those living within a 50 mile (80km) radius of a Big Blue office to be at their desks at least three days a week
This feels a bit discriminatory, but also sort of an obvious solution for those who can move or pretend to have moved to their parents’ place, etc.
Big corporations still have major investments in real estate to justify to shareholders, and management at many companies prefer to see bums on seats – a phenomenon Microsoft previously termed productivity paranoia.
Happens incredible rarely, but I’m with Microsoft on this one.
In general I do see the point of mingling, especially during the probation period, when so many things are new. But the forceful, out-of-thin-air number of days in the office is daft. They could at least make it moving average over a quarter or two. Or a whole year.