One person is really happy about that: former Google CEO Eric Scmidt.
Schmidt, who served as the tech giant’s CEO and chairman from 2001 to 2011, says the change is essential.
Schmidt called himself “a traditionalist” in a new interview with CNBC, noting the often-repeated purported pros of in-person work: collaboration, networking, and young employees’ ability to gain exposure to professional work environments.
Being in a physical office, said Schmidt, is especially important for workers between the ages of 25 and 35 for developing their management styles.
“In terms of their age, that’s when they learn,” Schmidt told CNBC. “If you miss out [on that] because you are sitting at home on the sofa while you’re working, I don’t know how you build great management. I honestly don’t.”
“I think there is a lot of evidence that humans are social,” he said, “and that the current virtual tools are not the same as the informal networks that occur within a corporation.”
The possible end of the work-from-home era might be fueling the Great Resignation as workers seek out more flexible companies, says psychologist Anthony Klotz, the expert who coined the term. He recently predicted that the Great Resignation could last several more years.
It’s possible, too, that Google’s current hybrid approach is part of a long-term strategy to achieve Schmidt’s wish of getting workers back full-time.
In a recent interview with Bloomberg, Google’s former chief of human resources Laszlo Bock called the company’s three-day schedule a “boil the frog method,” because he believes Google executives hope to slowly reacclimate workers to fully in-person work, just like the proverbial frog slowly being boiled alive.
