Flex work is the hot new corporate perk

[Bloomberg]( Follow Us [Get the newsletter]( This is Bloomberg Opinion Today, a hybrid work arrangement of Bloomberg Opinion’s opinions. [Sign up here](. Today’s Agenda - Flex work is [the hot new perk](. - [Hong Kong is no more](. - Maybe we should [build baby corporate behemoths](. - We’re [gonna need more oil](. Flex Work Is Real Work As we’ve written [before](, there are reasons to go into the office, believe it or not. You remind your coworkers you are a real, 3-D human person and not an AI construct. You show you care enough about your job to shower and leave the house every now and then. Most importantly, there’s more free food these days than ever. But let’s not kid ourselves: There’s also much to be said for working from home on the regular. You’d think this would be consensus by now, but in boss circles it’s still taboo. That may not last. Amazon recently ordered all of its office workers back full-time, and [the result was a bunch of angry workers](, writes Joni Balter. Fellow Washington state employer Microsoft, in contrast, offered hybrid-work options. And what do you know: no angry workers! Amazon and Microsoft are great places to work, but they’re not exactly hot electric-flying-taxi startups. They may need some extra [pieces of flair]( to attract new talent. Demanding everybody drag themselves to the office is the opposite of flair in 2021. Wall Street may feel exempt from this trend, but it’s probably not. As Anjani Trivedi recently wrote, [banking is even further from flying-taxi territory]( these days than Microsoft is. Mere ludicrous compensation for 120 desk hours a week is no longer enough. [Citigroup’s Jane Fraser seems to get this](, Tara Lachapelle writes. She’s offering flexible work arrangements, in contrast to her counterparts at JPMorgan Chase, Goldman Sachs and other banks. These are attractive not just to the youths, but also to older employees who are caregivers, which are often women. You hear a lot about worker shortages these days. Anything that can attract the broadest, most diverse pool of talent should be good for any industry. Further Corporate-Culture Reading: JPMorgan’s [tree-planter deal doesn’t make it greener](. It must put real money at risk. — Anjani Trivedi Sponsored Content The power of PayPal online, now in person. Give your small business an easy way to accept touch-free, in-person payments. Create a unique QR code with the PayPal app and display it on your device or as a printout in store. [Download the app.]( Customer must have PayPal account and app to pay. PayPal RIP Hong Kong Aside from the coronavirus pandemic, which it has weathered relatively well, Hong Kong has suffered no city-leveling natural disaster recently. Yet [the Hong Kong we’ve known for several decades has been eradicated](, writes Matthew Brooker on the eve of three anniversaries: the Chinese Communist Party’s birthday (100 years young), Hong Kong’s handover from Britain (turning 24) and last year’s national security law, which was a dagger in the heart of the old city. Beijing’s interference has turned a free, thriving (if muggy) global financial hub into an autocrat’s dream, sending people and capital fleeing. It’s a loss for the world, but it also continues a depressing world trend. In another example, [democracies are crumbling throughout Latin America](, writes Hal Brands, replaced by ever-stronger strongmen. This is due not only to the anti-democratic energies constantly pulsing in these countries but also the retreat of the liberal global order that helped keep them in check. Trust-Busting Exercise With America’s Big Tech companies bigger and more powerful than many sovereign nations, much of our focus has been on their bigness: whether or not it’s good, what to do about it, et cetera. At the same time, the growing urge to confront China and its stable of national champions has some wanting to defend America’s behemoths as counterweights, in a sort of battle of the corporate [mechas](. Noah Smith argues [both attacking and defending corporate bigness is a waste of energy](. Instead, Noah suggests, America should turn its energy to incubating tomorrow’s giants. History is littered with omnipotent companies that collapsed under their own weight. Innovation, meanwhile, has set the U.S. apart from its rivals so far. Further Tech-Regulation Reading: Forcing Apple to open up to outside app makers could [create security risks for consumers](. — Tae Kim Telltale Charts OPEC+ was shockingly flexible in cutting output when oil demand fell, writes Julian Lee. It must be [flexible in the other direction now that demand is surging](. A [North Dakota fracker is burning off natural gas]( just to save itself a little money, writes Liam Denning. All the rest of us are paying for it. Further Reading Soaring [home prices could fuel inflation if they persist](. — John Authers Paying student athletes could result in [more-valuable benefits being cut elsewhere](, including education. — Allison Schrager Nancy Pelosi has some choices to make about [which Republicans to let onto the Jan. 6]( investigation. — Jonathan Bernstein [Making $1 million last in retirement]( isn’t as simple as it might sound. — Teresa Ghilarducci ICYMI [Donald Rumsfeld has died](. [Bill Cosby is free](. Allen [Weisselberg is in trouble](. Kickers Rejected at 10, 70-year-old woman is [now a Yankee bat girl](. (h/t Ellen Kominers) [$10,000 flute is back]( after a nine-year cab ride. (h/t Scott Kominers) [“Sopranos” prequel trailer]( just dropped. All [the U.S. presidents, ranked](. Notes: Please send presidential rankings and complaints to Mark Gongloff at mgongloff1@bloomberg.net. [Sign up here]( and follow us on [Twitter]( and [Facebook](. Like Bloomberg Opinion Today? [Subscribe to Bloomberg All Access and get much, much more](. You’ll receive our unmatched global news coverage and two in-depth daily newsletters, The Bloomberg Open and The Bloomberg Close. Before it’s here, it’s on the Bloomberg Terminal. Find out more about how the Terminal delivers information and analysis that financial professionals can’t find anywhere else. [Learn more](. You received this message because you are subscribed to Bloomberg's Bloomberg Opinion Today newsletter. [Unsubscribe]( | [Bloomberg.com]( | [Contact Us]( Bloomberg L.P. 731 Lexington, New York, NY, 10022