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Comment by rocgf | Hacker News Reader

Yes, but this is like the opposite of a tragedy of the commons scenario. Are you saying the companies do this in order to save the cities and real estate prices? That's likely not even a small factor at the bottom of the list.

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It's sunk cost fallacy -- especially at the FAANGs. These companies spent billions on monuments to the company's greatness. These buildings, MPK 20 & 22, The Donut, Amazon HQ2, the Circus Tents, aren't just unsellable from the psychological sense, they're unsellable in a practical sense. The number of companies that need/want 2.8 million ft2 (262,000 m2) of nigh-undivided office space can be counted on one hand -- and all of these already have their own white elephant.

Mix in monkey-see-monkey-do management of smaller firms, and of course straight up class antagonism towards workers, and you've got RTO über alles.

Totally agree with this, I’m just saying that few, if any, companies would make the decision to force people back in the office based on the well-being of cities or the real estate market.

All companies act in their best interest and that’s kind of it.

But this isn’t acting in their best interest. It’s acting on the personal feeling of inadequacy of the execs. That’s it.

> The number of companies that need/want 2.8 million ft2 (262,000 m2) of nigh-undivided office space can be counted on one hand -- and all of these already have their own white elephant.

I partially disagree: if necessary, rent out various parts of this office space to multiple companies.

These buildings aren’t designed for subdivision, and attempting to subdivide them, probably would cost 100s of millions.

For instance, MPK 2x are essentially airplane hangers.

I am not reading anyone's mind. I am simply stating that there is political pressure and there are financial incentives

I hope the RTO push fails to cause maximum collateral damage in that case.

Can you give any specific examples of financial incentives to software companies who are forcing RTO?

Your employer had taken a loan and put some of its assets down as collateral. What happens when the collateral loses its value?

Tax credits linked to FTE count. If employees are no longer working downtown their income tax goes to their home city or even another state.

companies do this to prevent a social-economic collapse. what's the point of building up a company if there's no society left to enjoy it in?

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