The Reasons Why Some Executives Force Work To Be In-Person

Not every norm of American business is irrational, oppressive, or even merely unecessary.  A norm that at this point is all three of these things is the forcing of all employees someone has power over to work in person when there is no inherent benefit and plenty of advantages in not doing so.  When it is unecessary or encouraged with the to-be described motivations in mind, the prohibiting or discouraging of remote work is just another way for a certain kind of corporate leader to exploit other people.  No, this is not an attack on capitalism itself, as capitalism does not have to be the ideas and practices of American capitalism specifically.  This is focusing on the inherently invalid reasons why certain executives or even lower-level managers might force or pressure their workers to appear physically.

Some business leaders might want their workers to come to a predetermined office or see clients in person even when it is not necessary for the work just because they are stupid enough to be enamored with tradition.  Since they have always done work in the presence of others at an official office or at meetings places with clients, they assume that this must be morally or pragmatically superior to virtual work.  The non sequitur here is obvious.  It does not logically follow whatsoever that virtual work is lesser, but even if it did, it would not be because in-person work has been the norm across much of recorded history, as tradition is utterly irrelevant to what is true--except that the traditions are there and there are people who irrationally cling to them for the sake of clinging to them without any epistemological accuracy.

Another reason some (not all, but some) managers or executives might hope to force their employees to come to work in their presence is just as irrelevant and petty as the previously given one.  A simple desire to exert whatever control they can, necessary or unnecessary, to try to feel powerful could also be a factor.  Someone who is in front of you or at least in the same building is easier to scream at or micromanage than someone who is not.  In this case, the ideological motivator is plain egoism, the arrogance and stupidity of thinking that whatever one wants should be done just because one wants it, as if anyone's preferences shape reality beyond those preferences.  For someone who realizes that egoism is irrational and holds to it anyway, they are even more insane in a sense than the casual egoist executive who has for the most part blindly developed their worldview and personal motivations.  As I have emphasized before, it is untrue that managers and executives have to be oppressive and selfish to be a business leader, but some people could believe remote work is good only because it gives them more gratuitous control or ways to hurt others.

Then there is the fact that some businesses are rightly or wrongly alleged to need in-person work for the sake of an established reputation.  Reputation does not matter; it does not necessarily reflect the true nature of a person, organization, or ideology, and one must stoop to irrationalism to believe on the basis of hearsay or consensus that anything is true except that there seems to be consensus!  Remote work therefore does not necessarily weaken a company's reputation unless the reputation deserves to be weakened because it was propped up by fallacies and/or an idiotic business leader in the first place.  Some very particular industries or jobs require in-person work, such as directly fixing a building or setting up chemicals or traps to kill pests, but not all jobs are like this.  In fact, a great number of jobs do not in any way require one to show up to an office after possibly weathering horrid traffic, spending up to hours of one's life getting to the workplace, or spending a consistent amount of money on gasoline.

There are already multiple benefits to lessening the need to travel for work whenever possible (beyond the possibility of more relaxed employees and higher morale as a result).  Without driving to work, there is no way to get caught in traffic and start working late, clog up the roadways when some people might have an emergency need to drive quickly, or waste a potentially large amount of time on a weekly basis just sitting in a car wishing to have already reached the destination.  That is all besides the variable of gas prices, which are an expense that can be totally avoided for work-related reasons by virtual work (when it does not impair the quality or nature of the work, which is not something that would have to happen with many jobs).  The extraordinarily high cost of gas this year alone could easily prompt a person to reason these logic facts out.  In many instances, there is no reason to oppose virtual work except for asinine reasons and there are many objective person and societal benefits to encouraging work to be conducted online when possible.