Over the past few weeks, I’ve spoken with managers and employees about returning to the workplace. Behind every person’s
“That’s the right question,” says Alexandra Samuel, co-author of “Remote, Inc.” “And any organization that isn’t asking that question is going to run into trouble because every employee’s thinking it.”
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It’s understandable. People worked from home — once derided as “shirking from home” — for a year, and the sky didn’t fall. In fact, people
The office is
Consider the experience of Consultant Connect, an Oxford, U.K.-based telehealth company. In the early days of the pandemic, despite CEO Jonathan Patrick’s qualms about remote work, productivity soared, and reports from workers were universally positive. As time went on, however, people started to miss socializing. “So you find yourself in this slightly odd situation, which is you’re running a company that is more productive when people work from home, but you’re missing out on quite a lot of the team-building stuff,” he said. They tried hosting Zoom socials but found them “a bit hit and miss.”
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That’s not to say people go to the office to waste time. There’s value in getting together — it just doesn’t always equate with efficiency or productivity. It’s about creating a corporate culture or building trust among colleagues. Managers I spoke with said employees should get together in person for performance reviews, company parties, strategic planning, annual or quarterly off-sites, welcoming new employees, training colleagues, and resolving conflict. I heard only one reason — using special equipment — that lacked a social element.
Certain projects or tasks require a high degree of cooperation, and those might also be better accomplished in person. “We’re a technology company, and collaboration is super-important for what we do,” says Mark Herrington, CEO of Georgia-based OnSolve. “We’re getting more people asking, ‘When can I come back?’ as opposed to ‘Do I have to come back?’” Samuel, though an advocate for remote work, agrees that it’s not ideal for highly collaborative work: “If you have a day of seven zoom calls, you should be at the office.”
Almost all the managers mentioned that
Brainstorming may not be the best use of the office, either. Groups sometimes generate more ideas
Nor is the office necessarily ideal for heads-down, focused work. “You should pretty much get rid of every desk in the office,” says Samuel. “My feeling is that if you’re going to sit alone at a desk, stay home. There are jobs that are the exception, but in most cases, the point of the office is other people, and the point of home is focus.”
For what it’s worth, going to the office does provide an opportunity for signaling. Just as a power suit or statement necklace sends a signal, so does showing up in person. That’s true precisely because it’s costly. I put on these special clothes, sat for an hour in traffic and stopped by your desk to say hi. Look how much I care!
That’s one reason I don’t expect business travel to stay dormant for long. Yes, the cost savings are impressive — Google reportedly
One benefit that may accrue to employees who return to the office is the chance to separate work life from home life. Those who’ve struggled to switch off while working remotely surely miss the boundary the office provides. “I like the bifurcation,” admits Herrington, and he’s hardly alone.
If returning to the office feels, at first, like a waste of time, remember that the point is not to be more productive. It’s to let colleagues (especially the ones who sign the paychecks) know we care.