Out of office: Hybrid workers reluctant to return
As the three-year anniversary of the beginning of Covid looms, some employers are looking to bring an end to the hybrid working experiment. Yet, with Pandora’s pandemic box opened, can the world of work ever be the same again?
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It's really very simple ... the problem, not the solution!
Of course there are differences across the board - different business cultures and, in particular, different services being delivered by employees. And then you have different personality types (not quite as simple as grouping by generations), and different stages within the learning aspects of a job.
But once you've allowed greater freedom of choice (think flexi-hours or cafeteria benefits), it's against human nature to happily accept the withdrawal of those choices - especially if that is imposed by 'the boss'.
Hence my opening statement ... easy to describe the problem but harder to see a solution!
Basically what seems to be missing from most of the entrenched positions (on either side of the battle lines) is any sense of dialogue/consultation/compromise. I know it's a cliché, but there are win:win options out there - just not as 'one size fits all', so some effort individually is needed to get there.
We consulted our staff in early 2022 and the overwhelming majority wished to continue home working. so we made it permanent. We down sized the office and rather than have room for 15 staff we moved to a serviced office block with a room big enough for 3 with shared kitchen and toilet facilities.
The admin team work there on a rota and any other staff go in as needed for either training or client purposes. The block has a meeting room that we can book out at no extra charge. We have a monthly staff meeting of all staff via Zoom and have a whatsapp group for urgent messages. There's nothing we can't do at home that we need an office for. Everyone is equipped with all the technology they need. Anything that can't be scanned is sent to whoever needs it by recorded post, special delivery or courier or staff local to the office can pick it up.
Work/life balance is much better and productivity is amazing.
There will never be a return to pre-covid working. People adapt and if they find that adaption better they will stick to it.
The roads are full of traffic at the moment. Why? Rail strike. People adapting to getting to work and back home. Some will stay using their car even after the strike is settled.
2020 What's the problem? Stop working due to covid or work from home.
2023 what's the problem? The real problem! is productivity down? KPI's not being met? Moral? I've yet to see a data driven reason to these leaders mandating a return to office, its all 'culture' and 'trust' or 'feelings'. Nothing more than a gut feel or that they feel the office is empty.
Nothing more than a gut feel or that they feel the office is empty.
And they're tied into a lease they're paying a lot of money for!
can we agree this isn't a great reason to bring people back in the office, and definitely not the reason they give to people
I saw a press article today, Sir Jim Harra defending HMRC staff WFH arguing no decline in productivity (the particular instance was answering telephone calls) whilst accepting wait times had increased. Clearly he is not calling in on the public numbers.
I have also been in a dispute over HMRC failings and recovery of costs. Identified were long periods of waiting for a call to be answered. HMRC did not dispute the hold times (we have records) but felt we could have been doing something else whilst holding. I suppose if you are WFH you could make a tea, walk the dog, go to the gym before a pickup. If you are working on someone's tax how can you put it to one side, knowing (well hoping) that any moment your call will be answered?
Does WFH work? It did for me when I did it but I had to get into the work frame of mind. That involved getting up at the normal time, dressing for the office, then going into a room that was kitted out for work without any distractions. However, I much prefer the office environment where a team exists that does not require Zoom/Teams/What'sApp when you need to discuss something simply by putting a head around the door and gauging if a colleague can talk.
I see Tom123 was referred to and WFH worked for him and his team. I see he is in a finance team for a manufacturer. Do the manufacturing teams get to work from home? For some employer's it is a means of downsizing office requirements, heating costs etc. For those WFHers it's savings on commuting costs and time, effectively a pay increase; although part offset by increased costs at home. For those who cannot commute it's increased fuel costs and damage caused by potholes or train/bus fares against declining services.
It calls to mind a description of lockdown being, "The middle classes staying at home, whilst the working class delivered to those homes."
There are so many nuances to this, I do not know the answer. Does anyone know aside from their perception of their own productiveness? How do you measure it and against what? WFH was intended as a short term measure in response to a medical need, so we pitched into it expecting it to cease; the medical ceased but WFH is now a "right". Many are now thinking not so much WFH as WTF.
I see no issues with hybrid working. But as a user of services, hybrid can be a pain insofar as response times are reduced. "We will respond in 4 days" seems to be a norm and then you will get an email back with at times a misunderstanding and its a to and from email exercise. A reluctance to allow a phone call, which would sort it quickly, is another issue.
Currently waiting on my Institute to give an answer to a very simple question.
Until there is a discipline imposed on those working from home and some kind of standard set hybrid working is likely to result in a poorer service level.
But not to misunderstand, I support hybrid working but it requires some organisation to make it work well.
The classic is CIS refunds for Ltd Co's. When the local office was in existence it took ten minutes to sort out any problems and refund was released. What a palaver it is now. This is digital in its worst form Working from home in a lot of cases does not give access to an answer. An e-mail to do this, another e-mail to ask for clarification etc.etc.
Yet, Yet, Yet in sales you always get to talk to a person.
It will doubtless work for some but not everyone. It is very evident that the standard of service in large organisations has reduced to ludicrous levels - HMRC, energy companies, most civil service departments, insurance companies, and any other organisation you can think of. Solicitors - don't even ask - it takes so long to do the legals now that we can go on holiday in the waiting period. Banks - do they still have staff? - some won't even pay out cash (difficult I suppose if the staff are WFH).
It may work in computer based enterprises but one always comes back to training - if they aren't in the office how do they learn. Just look at the Civil Service the level of production has fallen by about 1.3% apparently so they would have to have thousands of new workers to bring it back up. That is sheer madness if ever I heard it. I certainly don't want to pay for any more of them to sit at home.
Definitely time to retire.