2025-07-16
6 分钟The Economist.
Hi, this is Ethan Wu, co-host of Money Talks.
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Welcome to Editor's Picks.
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"This isn't just about productivity metrics," Dara Khosrowshahi, the boss of Uber, told employees recently,
after the ride-hailing company said they should all work from the office at least three days a week.
"It's about building the culture that will drive Uber's next phase of growth."
Mr Khosrowshahi is not the only boss to appeal to such fuzzy ideas while herding workers back through the turnstiles.
In January staff at Amazon were told to return to the pre-pandemic norm of being in the office five days a week.
"People riff on top of one another's ideas better when they're together,"
Andy Jassy, Amazon's boss, told the Harvard Business Review when asked about the policy.
Although company culture can be a slippery concept, executives are right to worry about it.
Research suggests that a company's values and norms, including those governing how employees work,
behave and interact, can affect innovation, profitability and stockmarket returns.
But does forcing people into the office really improve a company's culture?
Our analysis suggests that the answer may depend on the type that a firm is trying to instil.
Bosses, by and large, claim that having people in the office is a cultural boon.
The spontaneity that often leads to new ideas is lost when staff work from home.