ASKING YOUR EMPLOYEES TO GET BACK TO THE OFFICE WILL BACKFIRE ON YOUR COMPANY SUCCESS.
Lately, many big companies’ leadership teams influence employees to get back to face-to-face work at their local sites.
They either want to adopt a hybrid model where employees work from home some days or return 100% to the office.
If you see the news, many leaders are eager to get back. But the employees not that much. Let’s deep dive a bit into why the enormous preference difference.
Let’s analyze the executives.
Why do most managers want to get back to the office?
- #1. Executives are very well-paid individuals. They have a lot of advantages to arrange their families and personal needs.
For example, they can provide their kids with best-in-class education and arrange commute logistics to school and extracurricular activities.
They have the means to hire a tutor to help their children with homework.
They can hire someone to prepare them healthy meals, etc.
They can have the other spouse stay at home to take care of their children, as the executive income is enough to live comfortably.
- #2. They usually have a very comfy office, usually with a door and pleasant space to work while also seeing their team.
- #3. Suppose you have reached that seniority in a company where you can manifest your desires on where you consider your employees should be working.
In that case, odds are, you are 100% committed to the company.
These individuals’ main goals and objectives are related to the company’s success.
Executives are so invested in their company that they do not mind spending hours commuting to connect face-to-face with their teams regularly.
Let’s move to the employees.
Why do employees NOT want to get back to the office?
- #1. Working from home allows you to dedicate more quality time to your loved ones.
Suppose you are a parent and have to go to an office to work. In that case, you need to get your children ready.
You would have to feed them, ensure they do their homework, and leave them at school and extracurricular activities on a tight schedule.
Plus, getting yourself ready.
If you are a parent of very young children, you love to be close to them.
Working from home allows you to dedicate more quality time to your little ones.
Getting back to the office means finding accessible but good-quality daycare services for more extended periods.
It is expensive and consumes lots of time.
Working from home allows a lot of parents around the globe to enjoy their children while also having a job. The employers who understand that will win the talent game.
- #2. Many people who work for someone else have other dreams besides their job.
All the time spent getting ready and traveling from and to the office translates into wasted hours they could have used on what they genuinely love.
- #3. Employees do not get why they are being punished to get back to the office after productivity and efficiency have increased during the pandemic.
Many teams are happier and healthier than ever. They have gained quality time to reinvest in achieving their personal objectives.
- #4. Working at the office removes flexibility.
The freedom and time you gain working from home as you do not have to commute nor get ready to go to the office; is the ultimate currency for many people.
Working at the office shoots at the possibility of working wherever you want.
I am definitely in this bucket. I hate working at the office.
I detest spending time away from my family commuting to an office where I am doing exactly the same I was doing from the comfort of my house in pajamas.
Each case is different. And definitely, some employees cannot work from home due to personal reasons or type of jobs.
Why do employees want to get back to the office? Why are some colleagues eager to return to work in the office?
- #1. Employees who have children and no aid at home find it truly challenging to be productive.
Parents get stressed because they cannot work correctly and are constantly afraid their boss will get upset as they are not fully there.
At the same time, the children are conflicted because their parents ignore them while they need stimulation and dedication from them.
- #2. There are employees with very conflicted family dynamics.
Their spouse expects them to cook, clean the house, and take care of the children while working from home.
- #3. Single employees, extroverts, and pretty social people miss that boost they get working with their team members at the office.
In general, I believe we are biased toward our beliefs and preferences.
Older executives still believe that you need to see each other to be creative, brainstorm, and be more innovative.
But, reality has shown the opposite entirely.
People are now happier than ever before because they have their time back! They can reinvest all that time gained into meaningful activities, and we are seeing it across different industries. Productivity, efficiency, and innovation have increased because people are happier.
How forcing employees to get back to the office will backfire on companies?
Numbers do not lie.
According to a Goodhire survey on Dec 2021; 68% of United States citizens prefer working from home and choose to take a pay cut rather than get back to the office.
Employers should never forget: The freedom and time employees gain working from home is the ultimate currency for many.
Be open-minded and question yourself, do you want to go to the office due to your personal preferences and beliefs? Or are you encouraging a behavior based on science, data, and employee feedback?
A survey from TrustRadius on Dec 2021 found out that 57% of tech employees polled during the pandemic believe they are more productive when working remotely from home.
I can definitely attest that my productivity has gone to the roof.
I read a book a week, I write this blog, spend more time with my husband, play a lot with my baby, work out at home, and I can dedicate more time to other projects I also love besides my job.
I am happier than ever before with my current job mainly because I work from home. I have gained so much time to reinvest in other things I love.
I feel grateful, committed, and motivated toward my job because I have more balance than ever before.
If employees are happy, they are more loyal, motivated, dedicated, committed, and productive. They will be more efficient because they are not sacrificing anything to work.
Eight hours a day is a lot of time. Adding the commute and getting ready times is just a nightmare of wasted time you could have used for something productive.
Time and freedom are the ultimate currency.
Consider your employees, not only your needs as an executive, and you will have happier, healthier, more productive, and more efficient teams.
Fortune recently researched this topic. What is their conclusion? Offices are obsolete, so the manager who insists on employees must return.
Our main point isn't that flexible work works better, although our research found that to be true. What's more important is that we update not just our workplaces but the mindset that leads them. Telling people how to behave is the kind of backward thinking we need to free ourselves from. We should be considering how to lead our employees forward, not ordering them "back to work!"
We should stop repainting our old car when we've got a spaceship sitting in the garage.
Freedom, flexibility, and time are what most employees look for.
Facilitate that through remote work and win the talent game. The companies that offer will take the best talent away and reach the mountain TOP, unlike those trapped on obsolete paradigms.