answer questions using the reading MANAGING PEOPLE Some Companies Want Employees $($Back$)$ at the Office Roughly one in five U$.$S$.$ workers perform some work from home or some other remote location, and this remote work group averages about three hours of remote work per day. There are a variety of reasons why some companies allow $($some$)$ employees to work remotely. In the case of IBM, it reported at one point that about $40\%$ of its employees worked remotely, allowing it to reduce its office space by almost $80$ million square feet, saving it about $$100$ million per year. Giving employees the flexibility to balance work, family, and other nonwork issues as well as the improvements in technology $($and its falling cost$),$ contributed to companies adopting remote work policies. Some employees $($and perhaps their supervisors$)$ also felt that they would be more productive if given this flexibility. Other well$-$known companies that were prominent adopters of remote work included Aetna, Bank of America, Best Buy, Honeywell, IBM, and Yahool What do these companies and IBM have in common now? The answer is that all have since either ended or curtailed programs that allow employees to work remotely, rather than at the company office. IBM. for example, recently gave remote working employees the choice of returning to work at the office or applying for a new position Presumably, some will not wish to choose either option and will look for another job and$/$or retire. Why have these companies changed their view on remote work? The commonly stated reasons are that more work is done by teams and that face$-$to$-$face interaction between team members is thought to be more effective in identifying business problems to solve and business opportunities to exploit, developing creative solutions$/$strategies to do so$,$ and executing them wellQUESTIONS $1.$ Do these companies that have scaled back or ended remote work have anything in common? For example, are these companies with strong revenue, profit, and market value growth? Are they in similar or different industries$/$businesses$?$ To the degree they have something in common are these companies likely representative of what other companies are doing. or will do in terms of how much they permit remote working? $2.$ Summarize the advantages and disadvantages of remote work. Are there particular types of companies where remote work is more$/$less likely to be effective? $3.$ How do you think employees will react to changes $($such as those at IBM$)$ in remote work policies? What will be the short$-$run and long run consequences?