Analysis: Starbucks' decision to give their new boss a jet for his commute to the office shows a strong and extreme bias against remote work
Imagine that you live in Dublin and take a job in Vienna. You have three options: (i) you can work remotely, (ii) you can move to Vienna or (iii) you can using your corporate jet to commute from home to work, a distance of roughly 1,000 miles (1,600km).
One of these options, #3 is clearly idiotic, but this is essentially what the new CEO of Starbucks will do. Brian Niccol lives in California and will commute to the Starbucks HQ in Seattle three days a week to go to the office. The company will provide him with a jet, which certainly softens the blow. Let's be honest, most of us would probably not get this perk for a commute from Dublin to Vienna.
From Fortune magazine, profile of new Starbucks' CEO Brian Niccol
But why would anyone take on a commute this long and expensive? In part, the answer seems to be a strong bias against remote work. We know that remote workers are happier and more satisfied with their jobs. This is hardly a surprise. If you can suddenly do your job without having to deal with the stress and expense of commuting and you can avoid meetings and office politics, the quality of your life will almost certainly improve.
During the pandemic, research seemed to show that remote workers were more productive than regular office workers, but more recent research suggests a more nuanced reading of the data. Remote workers might be slightly less productive than regular office workers in some jobs and more productive in others. However, the expense of bringing people back to the office more than offsets any gain in productivity associated with bringing workers back to the office.
Nevertheless, executives and managers are strongly committed to the idea that people must come to back to the office and the idea that a CEO could work remotely comes close to heresy. If your CEO does not want to move from California to Seattle, it might seem sensible to provide him or her (almost always him) with a corporate jet to make this commute possible.
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From RTÉ Radio 1's The Business, Siofra Mulqueen looks at how digital nomads are maximising the benefits of remote work to blend work responsibilities with global adventures.
I think a case can be made for the argument that some employees cannot do their jobs remotely. First, there are many workers who never had the chance to work remotely. If you are a health care worker, a member of police, firefighting or military services, a farm worker or a store clerk, you probably never worked remotely. Remote work is a luxury of the white-collar workforce, but there are some white-collar jobs that cannot be done remotely, such as a surgeon.
It is not clear that being CEO is one of those jobs. Think about what CEOs do while they are at the office. About 25% of their work involves people and relationships, about 25% involves functional and business unit reviews, about 16% involves the organization and its culture, and most of the rest is spent on strategy. Like other white-collar workers, much of their time is spent in meetings: CEOs spend more than three-quarters of their time in meetings, and it is a good bet that much of that time is wasted.
What would happen if the CEO decided to work remotely, perhaps coming back to the office occasionally when truly needed? First, there would probably be fewer meetings. Meetings can be improved, but they are rarely worth the time and effort they require. It would also send a powerful message about the necessity of bringing unwilling employees back to the office, If your CEO does not have to come back to the office, it is likely that you don't need to do so either.
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From RTÉ Brainstorm, how remote working has changed how we learn on the job
CEOs would also have to spend less time on developing and maintaining the culture of their organisation. There is surprisingly little evidence that organisational culture has much real influence. When it does, that influence is often negative, especially in organisations that have cultures that emphasise cutthroat competition. Perhaps freeing executives from this largely pointless work would allow them to focus on more important topics, such as making better products or treating their employees in ways that make them want to perform well?
Starbucks recruited Niccol as CEO because they are floundering and he helped to turn the struggling Chipotle Mexican Grill around. Perhaps he will do the same with Starbucks, but he has an opportunity here to do something more than rescue an arguably overpriced coffee chain. He could say "no thanks" to the offer of a corporate jet, and simply work from home, coming to Seattle if and when that is necessary.
Right now, Starbucks looks kind of ridiculous for subsidising a 1,000-mile commute. They could look visionary by breaking the mould and letting the CEO work from home when that works best and to come to the corporate office on the rare occasions when this makes sense. Starbucks was once the only place many Americans could get a decent shot of espresso in the chain's early years. Instead of giving us Quad Venti Pumpkin Spice Lattes, how about giving us a new model for executive leadership?
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The views expressed here are those of the author and do not represent or reflect the views of RTÉ
