Mary Crosby!
Humana
I think it's about depressing wages more than anything. Companies know WFH works just as well. But they also know people like it quite a bit. They have it away for free, by making in office default they can negotiate lower wages for people who really want to work from home.
This is how you buy weed in DC...
Edit: No seriously, look it up. You can't legally sell weed in DC the but you can possess. So the shops sell you $70 socks and then gift you devil's lettuce.
I know several (small) companies that give you 8 hours PTO on your birthday. You can use it immediately or save it for later.
I was once rear ended at a red light. I was knocked unconscious and the driver drove off. A few kind witnesses called police who took a report. They got half his plate imprinted on my bumper, but never tracked him down. I had State Farm, and I was even paying extra for the "uninsured driver coverage". They said they couldn't cover it because until they had another driver's information I was automatically at fault, even with the police report and witness accounts. They said it didn't count as uninsured driver because it's possible the guy had insurance. I was flabbergasted.
In the end I had a concussion and needed to take time off work for recovery and my short term disability insurance ended up suing State Farm because they didn't want to pay for my medical treatment. State Farm agreed to cover medical care but only if it was recorded as my fault and I paid my deductible. In anger I tried to switch insurance companies but found out they have a shared database and since it was recorded as a hit and run my fault, nobody else would take me. And State Farm jacked my rate up 30%...
"Affirmative action" is literally just recording metrics. It's wild to me how many Americans think it's a quota or DEI hiring program or something.
Basically if a company receives over x dollars per year in federal contract money (there are different thresholds for veterans, disability, and race) they have to keep some voluntary data (applicants, interviewees, offers given, accepted, promotions) on file for 5 years. If your business doesn't take enough federal money you do nothing. This data is not reported to any government agency or anything, it sits in a dusty binder in HR. If nobody ever files a discrimination lawsuit, it just gets shredded.
If somebody does sue claiming discrimination the dusty binder is retrieved so the judge can look at it. The plaintiff still has to prove their discrimination case in court, and the AA data could just as easily exonerate the company in court too. This benefits veterans, people with disabilities, as well as racial minorites.
This is honestly a pretty weak program, people being discriminated against usually can't afford to sue a company, which is why some states took it a bit further. The extreme hate right wingers have for these few data points is also interesting to me. They have done a good job marketing their talking points to the left too.
Source: former corporate AA/EEOC compliance specialist, apparently you all hate that this job exists.