More CEOs are working from home

The Future. Remote and hybrid work options have become harder to find in recent years as companies pushed their employees to return to the office post-pandemic. Despite the requirement, CEOs are working from home more often. If the trend continues and more execs fail to extend this perk to their workers, don’t be surprised if a wave of corporate discontent begins to rise.

Home sweet workplace
In recent years, a slew of CEOs have worked from home despite complaints from their employees.

• Brian Niccol, the new Starbucks CEO, will get to stay in Newport Beach, CA, even though Starbucks is headquartered in Seattle. (Last year, Starbucks instituted a policy requiring most white-collar workers to commute to the office three days a week.)
• Hillary Super, the new Victoria’s Secret CEO, has struck a similar deal. Instead of relocating to Ohio, she can fly in from New York when required.
• The former CEOs of Sears and JCPenney also tried arrangements like this years ago, with catastrophic results.

All preach, no practice
Hypocrisy aside, granting CEOs exclusive WFH privileges doesn’t make much sense because the role is inherently social and therefore difficult to perform remotely, whereas many non-managerial positions can benefit from the isolation of remote work.

And then there are the optics of the face of a company distancing themselves from the company itself. They’ll have no leg to stand on when they pressure their employees to return to the office — and they might get ousted if they do, because young employees have more power than they realize.