IT IS TIME TO ASK "WHY?"

According to Harvard-based child psychologist Paul Harris, a child asks around 40,000 questions between the ages of two and five. But they are not doing it just to drive you crazy. They want an explanation.

According to a study conducted at the?University of Michigan , toddlers ask so many whys not because they wish to annoy their parents, but because they want an explanation.?

Right now, we must model this behaviour not because we need to relive our early years but because we have a right to demand an explanation regarding the mandate to return to the office.

In my last newsletter, “Culture Does Not Live Here,” I countered the argument that employees must return to the office because of the adverse impact on organisational culture. That is not an ‘argument’ but an ill-informed statement by someone who doesn't know what culture means.

Culture does not live in an office. #culturedoesnotlivehere

So, if the response to your questions is “Culture” refer to the last newsletter and blow that one out of the water.

What you are saying

I have spoken to many employees who have been told they must attend the office so many days each week. or they must attend the office on specific days of the week. Every one of them, without exception, cannot explain the reasoning behind the decision.

These are what employees are telling me.

“I am currently required to attend the office two days a week. On those days I generally end up sitting at a desk on the phone or in Zoom meetings. I rarely sit with the team as I am always talking in the meetings and don’t want to disturb them, and I don’t have much time to talk to them anyway. It makes absolutely no sense to me.”

Industry: Financial

“My commute to work entails a 10-minute walk to the railway station, a 45-minute train journey, and a 5-minute walk to the office. At the end of the day, the same occurs in reverse. That is 2 hours out of my day that I could have been doing something far more productive and enjoyable. What I did whilst in the office could have been done working from home.”

Industry: Government

“I like going to the office as my living situation is not conducive to working from home. I have fewer distractions and access to all the technology that I need. That said, I also want to have the choice. I don’t want to be in the office on a Wednesday because that is the day that I do the school drop-off and pick-up, I do not want to be dictated to that I must be in the office every Tuesday and Wednesday without being given any sound reason.”

Industry: Technology

“I am just frustrated that having been given the flexibility to work when I want, how I want, and where I want, for over 2 years, that is now being taken away from me. I know, and my boss knows, that I was far more productive and far happier. I don’t mind going into the office if it makes sense to do so.”

Industry: Manufacturing

What I am saying

With so many employees telling me and each other how frustrated, disappointed, and downright angry they are feeling, it must be time to do something.

I think that is to ask a collective “Why?” I am not saying that it will be a magic bullet to the short-sightedness and belligerence of management, but it must be worth a try. It must be worth the ability to say at the end of the day “We had a go.”

I was recently told by a person working in the automobile industry that their executive had just made the decision and the announcement that people must be in the office 2 days a week and despite best efforts to make them understand the repercussions of the decision, it was made anyway. If you ask a collective why and do not get a satisfactory response, then my only suggestion is to consider another employer.

Do you want to stick around if your employer does not listen and value your input?

There is a global talent shortage right now, so you are in the driving seat. The infographic from ManpowerGroup paints the picture.

Source: https://go.manpowergroup.com/hubfs/Talent%20Shortage%202022/MPG-Talent-Shortage-Infographic-2022.pdf

So, this is the time to ask why. I suggest a collective why because many voices are louder than one. It also means that you are not going out on a limb and being labelled as a lone troublemaker.

The collective why

Specific days of the week

If you are being told to attend the office on specified days of the week, ask “Why?”

The possible responses could include:

“We will make the best use of our real estate. We can spread the attendance of employees across the week, thereby ensuring there are people in the office every day of the week.”

“If we don’t specify which days, and only specify the number of days, you will choose Friday and Monday to work from home and have a long weekend.”

Now, ask why again,

“Why do you need to make use of real estate by counting bums on seats? Why not repurpose the office to become another remote workplace that has activity-based working spaces? Then let teams and individuals decide on the days it makes the best sense to work out of this workplace or co-locate in this workplace. You can control the use of the workspaces with a booking system.”

The possible responses could include:

“But this will cost us money.”

“We need people back in the office now."

“We don’t have the time.”

?Now, ask why again.

“Why do you believe it will cost money? If you reduced the office space you would save on rent, electricity, equipment, furniture, and amenities. You need to take the time to listen to your employees or lose them.

Why do you need people back in the office when they want to work remotely? For what purpose? According to Buffer’s State of Remote Work 2022 report, 56% said they wanted to work fully remote; 23% remote-first (remote-first means operating closely to fully remote companies with a few exceptions, for example keeping some office space for employee gatherings); 11% office occasional; and 3% office-first, remote allowed.

It will cost you money if your employees leave you:

·??????Employee turnover costs can equal up to?one-third of the employee’s annual salary .

·??????Company turnover can be reduced by 29% to 59 if employees are aligned and engaged. (Source: https://chally.com/blog/causes-and-cost-of-unwanted-turnover/ )??????

A study released in September?by the National Bureau of Economic Research? in the US found high percentages of employees around the globe who?said they would quit their job or start looking for another if their employer forced them to return to the office full-time.

Source: https://www.nber.org/system/files/working_papers/w30446/w30446.pdf

Consider this:

In the United States, it takes an?average of?42 days?to fill an open position . Once an ideal candidate is hired, it takes?six to eight months?to reach full productivity. The opportunity costs lost during this time are further compounded when considering the costs attributed to the hiring process. These costs range between?$2,792 and $4,425 per employee .

Simply put, the average cost to replace an employee can be expensive."

Keep on asking why in the hope common sense will prevail.

See my newsletter “There Are Only Five Reasons to Return to The Office .”

Specific number of days

If you are being told to attend the office a specific number of days a week, ask “Why?”

The possible responses could include:

“At least we will have people using the office space a portion of the week.”

“We need people in the office to enable collaboration and innovation.”

“People need to see each other.”?

Now, ask why again.

“Why do you need people in the office for a portion of the week? Why do you want them to commute to do what they could have done remotely? Why not let them decide when they should come into the office as an individual or team?

“Collaboration and innovation do not require an office. There are many organisations that have collaborative and highly innovative teams that are fully remote. If they decide that collaboration and innovation will be enhanced by co-location, then they decide to make that happen. Consider the likes of Spotify, Gitlab, and SAP which are collaborative and innovative organisations that have a great culture and a remote-first working model.

See my newsletter “Culture Does Not Live Here. ”

?“People can see each other every day using technology. Intra-team collaboration increased during the pandemic. It was the inter-team collaboration that decreased. This can be facilitated through good leadership and cross-functional facilitation.”

The possible responses could include:

“If we cannot see them, we do not know if they are working.”

?“They will not be productive.”

Now, ask why again.

“Why do you need to see employees to know that they are working? We should measure outcomes not hours at a desk. Even when you can see them you do not know what they are doing!”

“Why do you think productivity will decrease? Extensive research has shown that working remotely increases productivity. Stanford University professor Nicholas Bloom who’s been studying remote work for many years has?teamed up with other academics since May 2020, to conduct a huge ongoing survey about employees’ work arrangements and attitudes toward remote work. In April, people who worked remotely at least some of the time reported being about 9% more efficient working from home than they were working from the office. That’s up from 5%in the summer of 2020.

?(Source: https://www.nber.org/papers/w30292)

Whilst those figures are self-reported, there is, however, objective data — like?more calls per minute for call centre workers ,?engineers submitting more changes to code , and Bureau of Labour Statistics data on?growing output per hours worked ?— that has generally shown that people are, in fact, more productive working from home.”

Keep on asking why in the hope common-sense will prevail.

The perversion

We often call the working model we are exploring, the “hybrid model.” I have stopped using that term as I believe it just confuses the conversation. The options for working remotely are numerous whilst hybrid only has two elements. Here or there.

See my newsletter “Our Future of Work Language is Wrong .”

What we should be exploring is a “distributed model.” The problem is that organisations are perverting the intent of whatever model we explore.

When we started to talk about it as “hybrid” we were talking about giving employees the flexibility to work when they wanted, where they wanted, and how they wanted. We were talking about giving them the autonomy to choose how to use that flexibility. We had supposedly woken up to the reality that work was what we do, not where we go.

As the realisation that the future of work looked fundamentally different to how it looked pre-March 2020 sunk in, the unfounded panic also set in. Rather than embrace the biggest opportunity organisations may ever be presented with, executives who were suddenly faced with some challenging work to do craved to return to how it was before the pandemic.

Rather than adopt a truly distributed working model whilst avoiding saying everyone must return to the office on a full-time basis, they found a middle ground that made no sense whatsoever. “Let’s name the days or the number of days they must be in the office and keep everyone happy,” they said.

Read my article “What’s Your EVP ?”

In that article, I included this matrix.

The only true distributed model of working is in the top right-hand corner. Employees have the flexibility and autonomy to work when they want, how they want, and where they want.

In the top left-hand corner, employees have no flexibility to decide when they should be in the office. In the bottom right-hand corner, they have no autonomy to decide when to be in the office.

The bottom left-hand corner is how it was for many employees before the pandemic who do not want to go back.

Call to action

For those employees who can work from anywhere, there is no reason to demand a return to the office on a permanent basis, on a specific number of days of the week, or on specific days of the week. There is no sound reason to do so.

I have not found a sound argument yet.

Every individual and the team in which they work should be able to determine when it makes sense to work from a location in which they can co-locate. Even that does not have to be the old office!

If your employer is demanding a return to the office without providing a sound reason, I challenge you to come together and ask “Why?”

Keep on asking “Why?” in the hope that it will be a wake-up call to the ostriches with their heads deep in the sand, so they don’t have to listen to what they already know is right.

????????????????????????????????????

I am an organisational change management rebel?with?a cause.?

I am an author, sought after keynote speaker, coach mentor and facilitator. My latest and fourth book, "Balanced Diversity: A Portfolio Approach to Organisational Change" is available?here .

I am passionate about enabling individuals and organisations to triumph in the face of constant and disruptive change and I do so through programs regarding organisational change, resilience, agility, leadership, transformation and adaptation.

To inquire about me working with you or your organisation please contact me?here .