Take 5 ?: The back-to-office push
Hey there ??,
This week we're looking at?return-to-office mandates.
In today's edition:
The back-to-office push: Friend or foe?
Big companies like?Amazon,?Apple,?Twitter,?and?Disney?seem to be rolling out back-to-office mandates faster than Netflix rolls out true crime.
Amazon and Apple want their workers to clock in at least three days a week. While Twitter – almost dystopian by comparison – wants employees in the office for at least 40 hours a week. Their employees' response? Petitions, protests, and pique.?
Are workers actually returning to the office?
Well, it depends. But in the UK, the answer seems to be yes.?
Recent data from?the Office for National Statistics suggests that?office-based work for all UK businesses has increased by 3.4% in the last month?– the biggest change in the last 12 months.?
68% of UK companies now require you to work from a designated workspace and only 19% of businesses use a hybrid model.?
The decline in hybrid work and increase in office-based work is even more apparent when we look at traditionally office-based industries like the information and communications sector. Here, hybrid work dropped by almost 8% in the last month, while office-based work increased by 6%:
This echoes the findings of JP Morgan's?Return to the Office?report. They found that?the demand for office space remains high?(and there's next to no office availability in some parts of London).?
In the US, "structured hybrid" is what's gaining traction. The typical structured hybrid company requires employees to be in-office between 2-3 days a week.?
According to the?Flex index report, 30% of US companies are now structured hybrid. And?the percentage of US companies that are in office full-time dropped from 49% in Q1 2023 to 42% in Q2.?
Why the mandates anyway??
Like a game of hot potato, CEOs seem to be throwing the same reasons around. Oft-touted reasons include:?
These aren't isolated examples. Tech, finance, and consulting firms are often in the media for their concerns about remote work.
Behind closed doors lurk other anti-WFH reasons which are harder to attribute. Namely, that empty office space is a?waste of money, and workers simply aren't trusted?to do their jobs.
The use of employee surveillance software is?up by 50%?since the pandemic started. Citigroup CEO (Jane Fraser) announced that the bank monitors worker productivity, “and if they’re not being productive, we bring them back to the office.”?
The bottom line? Some execs think their workers perform better in the office.?
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Talent: The cost of back-to-office mandates
The pandemic ushered in a new wave of remote work. Along with it came levels of autonomy and flexibility that many of us hadn't experienced before. And, it turns out many of us don't just like it, we need it.
A global survey of 32,000 workers found that?nearly two-thirds?are prepared to resign?from their posts if served a return-to-office mandate. Unispace found that 42% of companies that mandated office returns saw a?higher level of employee attrition.?
So, staff are prepared to – and will – quit over mandates. And what about the employees that stay but quietly resent you??Or the talent you can no longer hire because of said mandates??A lose-lose situation.
So, what's the answer?
There is ample evidence that employees are generally?happier?and?more productive?when they have flexibility at work. But employers should also be wary that full-time remote work can lead to?increased rates of depression and anxiety.?
In the article,?Should employees be required to return to the office?,?four experts look at the impact of return-to-office mandates in far more detail than this newsletter can?muster.?
The experts concluded that?culture, collaboration, and innovation are only at best weakly correlated?with the place of work?(and probably not correlated at all).??
Rather,?employees' office presence could help strengthen culture and collaboration when that time is used for?non-work tasks?that build familiarity.
Face-to-face interactions enhance collaboration, trust, and connection but?remote work can also be successful with the right talent, technology, and techniques.
Is remote work important to you?
If your company mandated a full-time return to the office, how would you react?????Take our LinkedIn poll. We'll share the results in two weeks.?
Two weeks ago, you voted overwhelmingly in favour of the 4-day week. 84% of you thought you'd be more productive by working fewer hours each week.
Other hot takes ??
Feedback & thoughts?
Is there a theme you'd like us to explore in the next edition of Take5? Or do you have a hot take you'd like to share? Get in touch and let us know.
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Thank you for reading ?!