Please excuse my smugness and “I told you so” tone in this post. Few things make me happier than having highly respected academics back up exactly what I have been saying for years.
During the pandemic, many who hadn’t been able to work from home were given the opportunity to do just that. Some liked it and some did not, depending on their home situation. Being stuck at home with toddlers or dogs who barked excessively was very stressful and not conducive to focused working.
In addition, there was the issue of how extroverts and introverts felt about working from home. Extroverts felt mildly or severely depressed. They felt like they lost their edge. They missed bouncing off of people.
Introverts were overjoyed.
Many people felt like they had more work-life balance without their commute. Others struggled with boundaries and separating their professional life from their personal life within one space.
The right mix of working from home vs. time spent in the office will vary by individual, but what was clear and an obvious no-no was hiring people for remote roles and then changing the rules, insisting those people had to come into the office or lose their job, even if it was a miserable commute that they had never planned on.
And then there were the companies that changed their corporate policies to support remote work in perpetuity, but because of lack of trust, command and control issues, or the expense of commercial real estate leases, decided to mandate a return to office (RTO). Some very big names did that 180.
It was a giant bait and switch, and it didn’t sit well with employees. I assumed it was a way to have people leave without incurring the cost of severance packages, and the disruption and PR issues of layoffs.
All sorts of predictions were made about how the RTO policy would increase profitability. This has proven to be bullsh-t.
I was standing up and cheering when I saw this video with Adam Grant, an organizational psychologist at Wharton. Grant said, “Over four years there is no discernable benefit for the company’s bottom line. Period. Of dragging people back into the office.” Grant also said that it decreased job satisfaction and negatively impacted work-life balance.
So, basically it pissed people off and didn’t do what they had hoped it would.
Some positions need to be based in an office. Many jobs could be done with some combination of hybrid working. Many companies have opted to stay fully remote. I can tell you that, at least for my clients, fully remote companies are considered highly desirable, but it is harder to get hired because of the competition for remote jobs.
The real issue with mandated RTO was the way companies changed the rules mid-game, leaving employees feeling lied to or bullied.
Yes, I realize most employment agreements are at will, but if you signed up for a remote job, it should stay a remote job for the duration you are in that role. They can change the rules for the next person.
Photo by Giulia May on Unsplash
