the great resignation or a reshuffling?

how many in-person days make sense for your firm… and who decides?

by steven e. sacks

the concept of “quiet quitting” is now mainstream thought. summer 2022 is over, and with it, for many companies and their workers, their remote work arrangements.

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many recognizable companies have sought to get back to some normality. some want workers to return to the office full-time, some have asked for a two- to three-day in-office arrangement, and some have viewed remote work as successful and see no reason to change anything for the foreseeable future.

workers will not easily accept these changes.

at the beginning of the covid-19 pandemic, working from home seemed weird and disquieting compared to the daily in-person interaction with coworkers in the lunch room, meeting rooms, offices, hallways, the cafeteria and running into colleagues in the sandwich shop. it was regular life: the commiseration over assignments and projects; complaints about supervisors and other employees; past and future weekend plans; and brief chats about streamed and binged shows of every genre.

after a while, people became used to silence, comfort and the ability to manage work and personal time. while change is more challenging for some people than others, we can all agree that a majority of workers became used to and enjoyed this newfound freedom that did little to damage their organization’s productivity and may, in fact, have increased productivity.
what has been the reaction?

gallup polled more than 8,000 workers and discovered that the desire to work exclusively from home more than doubled since october 2021. among fully remote workers, 60 percent said they would be “extremely likely” to look for other opportunities if their employer decided not to offer remote work at least some of the time. however, for those working remotely, about 60 percent wanted more structure than what they were getting from their present arrangement and 40 percent indicated they wanted full autonomy to come and go as they liked. among the 60 percent desiring structure, there was even less agreement about coordinating in-person and remote schedules.

 gallup looked at five critically important issues:

1. where are employees working now, and where will they work in the future?
2. what happens if organizations do not support remote flexibility?
3. why do many remote-ready employees prefer hybrid work?
4. what will the future workweek look like?
5. how can we make hybrid work more productive and engaging?

based on much of the survey results, the hybrid model appears to be the preferred work arrangement.

if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it … more than necessary
now employers face a challenge in managing a new workforce philosophy and attitude. those whose organizations were remote-only operations during the pandemic’s peak may face some pushback by transforming it into a hybrid model. overall, however, it is the right move as it will allow a form of “catch-up” with team members, colleagues and management. it’s not the worst thing to reconnect unless the culture was toxic prior to the pandemic. that’s a different issue.

the pandemic most likely exacerbated feelings of burnout because of the remnants of doing more with less – a carryover from the great recession. with many employees forced to balance work and child care, among other responsibilities, mandatory (at least in 2020) at-home work became a gift or a curse depending on one’s outlook. let’s just focus on the gift aspect. (for wine and spirits storeowners, it was absolutely a gift.)

the gift was that your employees derived flexibility working from home, maintaining and even improving productivity. consider all the responsibilities working parents have (and if in the “sandwich” generation, it includes care of their children and their own parents): child care, grocery shopping, repairs to the family car, cable guy, plumber, drycleaners and on and on. quite a weekday plateful, unless all of it is taken care of on the weekend, making saturday and sunday one long lunch hour.

it is pure folly to think that jobs not involving clients or other third parties cannot be conducted remotely. i thought about what type of work reflects the baseline or minimum of effort to dress for and commute to. call centers came to mind. get up, brush teeth, comb hair, get coffee, turn on computer, adjust your headset, take a sip and accept the first call. what could be so bad if a call center would be mostly remote? a call can be taken and directed anywhere. systems are developed to compensate for someone on a break. while the work is repetitive, it can be done in one’s pajamas. but is it all fun and games? can any job be better than one where you can roll out of bed at 7:55 am and be ready by eight o’clock? but even call centers have created disenchantment – refresher or advanced training, for instance, had to be done in person, thus creating resentment.

culture leads to trust
how will a sense of esprit de corps be (re-)created in an environment with a new mindset by employees? it is no longer just about money and benefits. flexible work arrangements are a real positive not only for employees; owners and managers gain as well. think of the cost reduction when operating in an office for a couple of days versus every day. then think of the larger cost reduction if there were no office days. if your lease renewal is at least between nine and 12 months from now, this time window will enable your team to really transform into a virtual company. by concentrating time and devoting resources to creating effective systems and processes, there will be no need to keep a physical structure.

suppose you trusted your people to work remotely pre-coronavirus and trusted them all the way to the present. in that case, there is no reason not to trust them now as you consider the transformation toward a fully virtual operation. your employees maintained desired productivity levels, joined zoom meetings punctually and actively participated, and were effective (if in a supervisory role) in overseeing their direct reports while maintaining a comfortable level of collegiality. it is now simply a matter of taking the temperature of the employees openly and honestly. discuss their feelings about remaining remote or if they desire flexibility so that they may meet with their colleagues, irrespective of levels.

consider this, however: should businesses in any industry or profession decide to have their people work remotely, big brotherism may start to make its virtual existence known, as described in a recent new york post article. if bosses decide to grant remote or flexible work arrangements, there may be tradeoffs as the article discusses, including phone tapping and tracking, hyper location-monitoring and emotion-analyzing software (the last being somewhat laughable), which can enable a biometric tech to determine if there is a pout on the person’s face.

really?

and this will result in a heartfelt discussion with the employee? so technology will give leaders tools to be more attentive and exhibit additional behaviors than they otherwise would, pre-pandemic?

nice.

there may be a barely perceptible change in employees’ attitudes, a pre-existing sense of displeasure that may manifest itself from even the smallest interaction with others and can escalate. leaders should be aware of this or take steps to become more aware.

but not with software.

happy employees, happy employers

in a study by tracking happiness, 12,455 employees were surveyed about their work conditions. a total of 65.1 percent of respondents were male, and 34.5 percent were female. the location of the respondents varied, with 38.6 percent coming from north america, 36.1 percent coming from asia, 19.5 percent coming from south america and 5.1 percent coming from europe.

the study discovered that the ability to work remotely increases employee happiness by as much as 20 percent, and commuting sharply decreases it if commuting time goes beyond one hour. more specifically, for millennials, if given an extra full day remotely, their happiness at work increases by 4 percent on average.

on the flip side, the study also found that respondents who had the ability to work 100 percent remotely at the height of the pandemic, but are now mandated back to the office full-time, are (or soon will be) significantly unhappier than the average respondent.

this is the time for leaders to ensure that their employees understand the company’s philosophy, vision and goals for the future, what type of employer they want to be for the organization’s future leaders, and how they want to be perceived in their pursuit of new talent. the multigenerational workplace will show different desires that play to people’s specific strengths, and a one-size-fits-all structure for businesses will not be the answer.

no one can predict the future, but what may make sense is a hybrid model that is predicated on logic and efficiency. if it really makes more sense to meet in person in certain circumstances, so be it. otherwise, if something is a “nice to have” like a zoom call, but not a “must have,” then consider the priorities of others and pass on the “nice to have.” seek another way to share information that is more efficient and just as timely and, if relevant, can be responded to in a timely fashion.

guidance on work arrangements should be clearly explained, practical and reasonable. it is an important investment to make to ensure that policies are in alignment with the company’s culture and values and can find a viable and agreeable middle ground for work arrangements.

 

 

posted on october 18, 2022