WHAT HAPPENED & WHAT'S NEXT

AS 2024 GIVES WAY TO 2025, A GLIMPSE AT WHAT THE NEW YEAR MIGHT HAVE IN STORE

- DAMIEN MARTIN

Knowing well how foolish it was, we ended 2023 making predictions for the next year. We did get some things right, believe it or not.

The unemployment rate remained low, though it did tick above 4% for the first time in nearly three years. The list of states with zero-emissions vehicle sales requirements in place is now up to 13, plus Washington, D.C.

Other things we got ... not so right. Heat pump sales have declined dramatically, though they're still outselling gas furnaces.

Workers being back in the office five days a week remains a mixed bag. High-profile companies such as Amazon, UPS, Boeing, Disney, and Salesforce have been trying to get employees back in the office five or at least four - days a week.

Amazon CEO Andy Jassy, in announcing a policy that would require most white-collar employees to be in the office all week starting Jan. 2, said “it’s easier to learn, model, practice, and strengthen our culture,” and that “collaborating, brainstorming, and inventing are simpler and more effective,” and “teams tend to be better connected to one another” in person.

Others argue that return-to-office mandates are a good way to lose your best performers. Too many workers have had a taste of the work-life balance and flexibility remote or hybrid work offers, and there are still enough businesses offering it that those with office mandates will see workers flee or fail to recruit top talent, Gene Marks wrote in The Guardian. Marks, a business management expert and owner of the Marks Group PC, which provides technology and financial management services, wrote that employees who resist RTO mandates “are right and their bosses are making a big mistake.”