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Comment by adamkf | Hacker News Reader

Here's the quote from the [actual whitepaper](https://envoy.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/08/Workplace_Data_...) from Envoy that this article references:

> 80% of executives say they would have approached their company’s return-to-office strategy differently if they had access to workplace data to inform their decision-making.

Envoy's not exactly an unbiased source here, since they sell software to collect this data.

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So what this really says is that 80% of executives would have used a different approach if they had data about the subject. Which... is pretty lackluster? If you don't change your strategy in response to new data, you're bad at your job.

It says they would change their approach. It does not say they would change their position.

So while some may have been more open to letting employees work from home, others may have just decided they would’ve used different arguments against it instead now that they know the ones that used didn’t hold up (as widely forecast).

I know for a fact that many HAD data on employee willingness and on Productivity and it didn't lead to 3 days in the office RTO but that followed interests in the retail value and government taxes due to "reviving" downtown and similar ideas of centralized economic growth (which only benefits the few who have investments in those dense office zones and actually damages decentralization, horizontal growth and environmental improvements).

Envoy sells products for managing hybrid workspaces: https://envoy.com/

So they clearly have something to gain here.

Interesting. While 80% said they would approach it differently, 66% felt they would have improved layout and space on-site and 52% would have improved amenities. That tells a different story.

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