> Their plan was put on pause through the end of the year as Covid-19 cases ticked up once again throughout the U.S., so EY leaders used that time to ask employees about their reluctance to come into the office. Common threads stood out to Frank Giampietro, EY’s chief wellbeing officer for the Americas: Employees weren’t sure what to do about pet care or child care.

> In response, EY announced a fund in February 2022 to reimburse up to $800 per year for commuting, pet care and dependent care costs for each of its 55,000-plus U.S. employees. The fund, which is ongoing, had an immediate positive impact on employees’ in-office attendance, Giampietro adds. Since EY first rolled out this benefit in February 2022, EY has seen a 150% uptick in office attendance across the U.S. “It didn’t take a complete rehaul of our return-to-office policies to make employees happy,” he says. “We just needed to listen to our people and understand what, specifically, was problematic for them, and offer resources to address that.”

This is hilarious. $800/year comes out to ~$70/month. That's a tiny fraction of commuting/pet-care/childcare costs. And that's peanuts compared to the average salary for someone working at a big-4 company. We're supposed to believe this is responsible for a 150% uptick in office attendance, as compared to any number of other factors in play in early 2022?

I have to admire the the "Chief Wellbeing Officer"'s chutzpah. I suppose that's the kind of PR spin that lands you a plush C-suite job