Sometimes, you just have to rip the bandaid off, and the executives at the Washington Post have decided that now is the time to do that. 

With their staff up in arms but with too few resignations (I am looking at YOU, Jennifer Rubin!), the leadership has decided to drop another truth bomb on their staff. 

It’s time to quit whining and get back to work. As in back to the office. 

Washpost ceo Will Lewis winning more fans on staff, I hear, with this fresh memo:

Thanks for all your hard work in covering the election.

Now we expect you to return to work five days a week. pic.twitter.com/FGY1aCtplc

— David Folkenflik (@davidfolkenflik)November 7, 2024

Some jobs can be done remotely–the Hot Air staff, for instance, is spread around the country, and it seems to work just fine–and some work is collaborative, and Zoom calls don’t remotely cut it.

Journalism is a mashup of both types of work, but the fact is that you can’t always schedule when you need to see and speak with others. And, of course, some people need more management than others, and nobody can mentor anybody well if you are staring at each other over the internet. 

Employers have, in many cases, allowed remote work to continue post-COVID because they are scared of their employees. The potential loss of productivity caused by remote work might, in some cases at least, pale in comparison to the uproar an employer would face if they forced employees to do their job at an office. 

But The Washington Post is in crisis, and the people who work there clearly have not gotten the message. They have been acting like entitled brats as their newspaper’s readership collapses, their content has become ever more spotty, and the business model is failing. 

Frankly, losing the whiners would be a blessing, and it is much easier to deal with when you don’t have to do buyouts, face lawsuits, or any of the other hassles that dealing with entitled people usually entails. 

My guess is that the CEO at the paper would love for there to be a mass exodus of the most self-important journalists who believe they are too important to have a boss tell them what to do. If they can’t deal with the paper deciding not to endorse Kamala Harris and being asked to come to the office, my attitude would be, “Don’t let the door hit you on the ass as you walk out.”

I would have brought the hammer down, given how dysfunctional the paper is right now. Everybody is being given far too much time to prepare, and just about everyone working there is easily replaceable. It’s not like there isn’t a surplus of journalists hunting for a spot at a still prestigious paper. 

It would be fun to see Jeff Bezos shut the whole thing down, but that isn’t going to happen. But don’t be surprised if he takes the opportunity to clean house and restructure the entire enterprise.