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Company Town

Enticing employees back of office buildings by going resimerical is an interesting idea but needs to be taken a lot further to have a chance. Depending on the age and life-stage of the employee their needs and wants will vary a great deal. Lets say for the sake of argument, a vast majority of the employees at a certain company ExampleCo are either single or coupled with no kids or pre-school kids. A resimerical situation that could work for this set is heavily subsidized housing in walking distance from the place of work. Add to that easy access to amenities they would care for like daycare, fitness centers, food and entertainment - ExampleCo might have a good number of takers for working from the office all days of the week. 

Assuming this office location is the downtown area of the city, it will likely not cater to the folks with kids that need to go to school - and the desirable ones currently tend to be in the suburbs. To get this crowd to come to office everyday, would take more doing - they need bigger homes, they likely want to own the home, the schools need to be equal or better than what they have in the suburbs. Notwithstanding all these incentives, if there are employers out there who are willing to accommodate 100% remote workers, they might be the ones to come out ahead. 

The singles and couples with no kids will prefer the ability to work from anywhere in the world - make the most of their years of freedom instead of being tied down to a subsidized apartment less than a mile from their office. It is all about how much choice does the person have and what they will be willing to give up in the face of such choice. Back in the day, these problems were solved by company towns. I grew up in one myself back in India and am very grateful for the quality of life and the opportunities it afforded me. 

As companies layoff tenured and newer employees for no understandable reason and the most uncivil manner possible, they can no longer have a reasonable expectation of loyalty for anyone who works for them. People will not make life and lifestyle changes to comply with the mandates of company leadership when they know full well they can be tossed out like last week's garbage any time. They want to make the choices that are right for them and their families - not what helps the CEO make more money.
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