Ever read something that at first strikes you as a “duh” moment but then realize upon further reading that it apparently isn’t?
In this instance, I’m referring to a New York Times article running under the headline “Forget Free Coffee. What Matters Is if Workers Feel Returning Is Worth It.” I mean, given everything we’ve seen and read so far about workers’ general desire to continue working from home at least part of the time should have made this so obvious, it wouldn’t need an article to explain it.
But then again, look at where we are. Many companies continue to slowly bring people back into the office, and perhaps, for at least some of them, the slow pace of return is because they haven’t really figured out why.
A higher return to office rate is something the hotel industry has been waiting for as that corresponds with more business travel, but hotel companies have been contending with different models of hybrid work as well. For those who want more employees back in the office more often, consider what the employees in the article had to say.
In the first couple of paragraphs of the article, we’re introduced to Tim Hirzel, who works for a tech startup in Boston.
“He goes to the office, he said, when it makes sense to be there — when he’s meeting new hires or working in person with colleagues,” according to the article. “And, assuming he has a reason to be there, he likes it.”
There’s another part further down in the story about Megan Lynch, an analyst for the federal government in Washington, D.C., who initially didn’t want to go back to the office but saw the value in being back in person. Along with the forgotten unplanned social interactions and how that helps lead to improved dynamics, she mentioned having supportive managers.
“Plus, the managers at her office have shown that they care, listening to employees vent, checking in with people to see how they can make the return better and being flexible about which days employees need to be at the office,” the newspaper reports.
I don’t need to rehash in detail all the reasons people like to work from home. Many of us quickly adapted to it when the pandemic started and saw that we could do our jobs from home for an extended period of time. In many cases, productivity remained steady or even increased. When companies then pushed for workers to come back to the office, it made little sense at the time because most people felt they could do their jobs just as well, if not better, from home. The only value created in returning to the office it appeared was for the company, not the employees.
So, let’s take a look at the two points I pulled from the article. Hirzel enjoys going into the office when he sees a reason to be there, specifically to meet new employees and do work that should be done in-person with colleagues. Lynch actually found she liked being back in the office thanks to social interactions and having managers who show concern for employees and provide them with support.
Another source from the article sums it up pretty well: “If you are navigating a hybrid work arrangement, it’s critical for employees to understand that there is real value in being together,” said Kristie Rogers, a management professor at Marquette University who studies respect in the workplace. “If we don’t all see that value, people are going to feel slighted; they are going to feel misunderstood.”
I hope that more companies catch on to this as they try to bring people back to the office. For companies that have seen a lot of turnover or didn’t exactly have great workplace cultures, it’s going to be an uphill battle to convince reluctant employees the office is where they actually want to be.
That starts with taking employee feedback seriously about what they want out of their in-office working experience. That doesn’t necessarily mean having to physically redesign the space or overloading them with snacks — although, snacks are great — but you should think about what’s going to make employees like being back in the office.
Think of how many times you were in a meeting and thought, “This could have been an email,” and extrapolate that into employees who look at their tasks and think, “I could have done this at home without the commute.” Think about whether the office culture is welcoming and supportive, a place where employees can be productive without feeling like just a cog in the works.
It’s by no means an easy task, and oftentimes these sort of changes take a while to implement, but they’re worth it if you want to have employees who see the value in being back at the office and actually enjoy being there.