The Pendulum Swings Back
By Amit Asaravala
A developer stopped by my office recently to lament that his bosses had retracted flex time and telecommuting benefits. Employees in his group must now report to work between 8:30 and 9:30 in the morning and must be present in the building at least 40 hours each week. Workers in more traditional industries would hardly notice such a mandate; most are already arriving at 9 a.m. and leaving far after 5 p.m. But for anyone who has worked closely with a progressive Internet company in the last six years, a 9-to-5 memo is cause for alarm. Internet workers are well aware that the fast-paced product cycles of the last half-decade were driven by companies unafraid to break the rules. A sudden return to the stodgy workplace of the early 1990s is an indicator that companies will try anything to distance themselves from the freewheeling times of the last six years. What's next—blue suits and corporate cheers?
Sure, we saw plenty of excess at the end of the millennium. Did Netscape really need to let employees bring their dogs in to work? Did Google need to hire full-time line cooks and a masseuse? It's rare to find perks like these anymore. Free lunches and free massages are the first to go when companies need to reduce spending. The fact that the industry is looking to become more efficient isn't cause for worry. It's a return to reality that will, in the end, let companies turn profits. What is worrisome is that we pushed the pendulum too far in one direction and now it's swinging back past the line of reason. Intelligent changes are being undone just as fast as excessive ones.<>
