The Working from Home Conundrum

The COVID pandemic had profound impacts on many aspects of our lives. Some of these impacts were positive and some were terrible.

The pandemic forced us all to come home, literally. In many countries we were locked down in our homes for months. We learned to use previously under-utilised technology, like video conferencing to continue our work from remote locations.

Now with the pandemic essentially over there is a conundrum that many modern businesses are dealing with. Do they bring people back to the office or allow them to continue to work from home?

Employers are paying significant sums of money to rent, and/or own, expensive office space only to now have it sitting significantly empty for much of the time. Their previous processes and cultures are shifting.

Many employers are understandably wanting staff to return to the office, whereas many employees would prefer to keep working at home because it has significant benefits for their work/life balance and personal lives.

So, who is in the right here?

The answer is relatively straight-forward and easily solved. It’s all about balance and fairness.

For almost all my business career the employer has had the upper hand in terms of where and how people work. Unless you had an extremely caring boss, most people were forced to travel to an office every day, and work longer and longer hours away from their families in the interests of productivity and profits.

Employees were accustomed to travelling for extensive periods of time each week and being out of pocket for these travel costs.

Families suffered from these types of ongoing imbalances. Marriages and relationships were put under pressure and children had to endure many hours away from their parents and carers. The working from home trend is therefore a good one but needs to be moderated.

Covid has swung these previous imbalances in the favour of employees. Suddenly that which was frowned upon by many employers, that is working from home, became the norm for many, particularly those in white-collar roles. Travel time was saved, kids got to have meals with their parents and surprise, surprise the internet enabled working from home to be possible. You could actually trust your staff!

The battle lines are drawn on how much time employees should now spend back in the office. Some employers are trying to apply mandates or rules to bring the employees back to the office. But this is causing much resentment and angst amongst employees, and understandably so.

Balance is the key.

Employers need to understand that most employees have proven that they can be trusted when they work from home, because most people care about their jobs. They also need to understand the health and personal benefits that staff gain from being in close connection with their families on a more regular basis. Happy employees produce better work as a general rule.

Employers for the most part have also benefitted to from the working from home trend, because most people are bosses who also have families.

Employees on the other hand need to recognise that their employer benefits from face-to-face interactions in the office. Ultimately this benefits the employees too.

When people come together to collaborate, we develop trust in our fellow workers and colleagues. At home you may be in contact with your colleagues but contact is very different to connection.

Connection is important to relationships and is hard to deeply establish off a computer screen. I watch the TV news each night but that doesn’t mean I trust the newsreaders or know them personally.

Further employees in the same location are more likely to share ideas which can become great business ideas. Process and product improvement is more likely when humans are closely connected to each other and sharing ideas, even if these conversations take place over lunch or at the water cooler. And guess who benefits when a business evolves – both employees and employers, because productivity can be greatly enhanced when people are closely connected.

In my career most of my career progression came from close relationships with people I interacted with or worked for. Without regular and close personal connection workers may find it harder to find that next career step up that they desire. They may also develop slower for they are not regular contact with more experienced people who may be able to help them grow personally and professionally.

There is an argument from employees that working from home still results in work getting done. This is true. Tasks get done. However I contend that working from home can lead more to task completion rather than process improvement. Modern businesses need both to expand.

This is all about give and take.

The best way to solve this dilemma is through open and honest conversation with both sides listening to the needs of the other, and striking a suitable balance with integrity and care for the other.

One analogy I have used with clients is this. If you want to watch a movie you can either go to the cinema or watch a movie at home on Netflix. Both have their benefits and both can be fun. So why would you go to the cinema rather than watch a movie in the comfort of your own home.

We all have different perspectives, but I would suggest you will go to the cinema when it offers you that extra level of experience that you can enjoy and benefit from beyond the home movie experience.

In the movie cinema you can have a treat and watch a movie from special reclining seats with other people who help to create an atmosphere of shared appreciation. We enjoy the joint connection with others, like we would in a stadium.

The same analogy could be used with eating at home versus going out to a restaurant for dinner.

What I believe will get people back to the office is the employer creating a positive experience for the employees when they attend the office.

Why would you go the office if very few of your colleagues are there and you are doing the same thing you could have done from home? In this case you are just doing your work with a different view and from a different desk.

To create suitable benefits from working in the office leaders, need to organise events in the office that can’t be done as effectively from home. This could include team meetings, coaching sessions, strategy discussions, process improvement workshops and team social events. These are best done in shared collaboration.

Team members and leaders would be wise to agree on the days these types of events take place, and the benefits of being in the office should be articulated to staff to get their buy in with enthusiasm – not resentment.

This is all about balance and collaboration.

Rules don’t and won’t work as a general rule and could just create an under-current of anger amongst some staff. Care for each other and a positive outcome awaits both sides.

Has your business been grappling with this conundrum and struggling to resolve it?

I’d love to assist you and share my further experiences on this subject. Several of my clients have benefited from my advice on this sensitive topic.

Do you have other cultural issues in your organisation that you would prefer to solve.

Why not get in contact me by email at mark@mark.worthington.com so can assist you with cultural issues you need my expert insights on?