Give Your Staff Reasons to Return to the Office

Dear CEO,?

I understand that you are enacting a policy that all office workers must return to the Office if not five days but a few days per week to start. I also understand the pushback from your staff. Let's turn this into a generational change opportunity versus jettisoning it as a problem. The new reality will require both of us to put on our new thinking hats. Let me share my Lived Experiences with you, it may give you some insight from your employee's point of view.

Before Covid, I used to travel to the Office. It was a 90-minute commute one way, about 3 hours per day. It was routine, and no questions were ever asked. But most days, I worked with colleagues in different offices around the city, country, or even across the pond. Rarely did I feel that my productivity was compromised because we were not working in the same lab.

Come COVID, my work routine was transformed. Now, I am at my desk by 7 a.m.; the commute is 3 minutes long, with a full cup of coffee (homemade at $0.15/cup versus $3.50/cup) and a refreshed To-Do plan for the day and the week. I still allocate 11-plus hours per day to work. But my time is allocated very differently.?

• Employer Projects: 7.5 hours/day
• Volunteer Projects: 6.5 hours/day?

I can produce 14 hours of output in 11 hours because of the synergies between my paid job and volunteer work. I understand you have the power to make me go back to the pre-COVID setup. Sadly, under that scenario, we will all lose.?

I wish more employers would take the opportunity to rethink what we do. Consider this - Make all employees part of your digital transformation journey and both empower and enable them to drive similar transformational change in communities and public institutions where they Live.

Most employees don't want a 4-day work week, perks, or work from home; we want to work to make our organizations sustainable and our communities liveable. Why not seize this moment and make the change?, instead of forcing people to return to the so-called "good old days."?Your employees know how to create win-win-win conditions; all they need is your leadership, not management by committee or coercion.??

Thank you very much for your time.?