7 things employees hate about the office — and how to fix them

January 11, 2024 5:30 AM

In the early days of the pandemic, Larry English was inundated with requests from business leaders eager to learn how to successfully pivot their operations to remote work. But in the last six months, all that's changed.

"I don't get asked about remote work at all," says English, who's the CEO of digital, business and technology consultancy Centric Consulting. "When the economy went south, [leadership] felt like they got some power back, and they could start bringing people back to the office — but they've largely left it up to HR to figure out what that means, and they haven't given thoughtful consideration to what you need to make an office a good environment."

In addition to being a digital-focused advisory, Centric itself has operated as a fully-remote and distributed business for nearly 25 years. As its leader, English has become a trusted voice in the spaces of remote, hybrid and asynchronous work. (In fact, he wrote a book on it: "Office Optional, How to Build a Connected Culture with Virtual Teams.")

In 2024, nine in 10 companies with office space will return to the office in some capacity, according to a recent report by Resume Builder. The same study found that most organizations plan to track attendance, with 28% threatening termination for those who don't comply. It's all adding to the tumult of RTO conversations within the workplace — and English is all too aware of why so many employees are resisting their former cubicles.

"You have these mandates bringing people back to the office, and they spend their day on video calls," he says. "Employees want to know: What's the point?"

As employers struggle to answer that question, most offices, by English's estimation, have settled on a hybrid formula: A few days a week working remotely, and a few days in the office. Though that may be the trickiest balance to strike, he notes.

"Being fully remote or being completely in the office are easier to design and operate than hybrid," English says. "The people that do it well design for three things: culture, connection and collaboration. You need to have a gathering strategy, a way to make it meaningful for people to be in the office."

What's getting in the way of making the office a meaningful place? English walked us through seven all too common workplace blunders — and shared how organizations can course correct to create a shared space and community where employees feel seen and engaged.

What employees hate: Punching the clock

The fix: Flexible arrival and departure times

What may feel like small issues to management can have outsize importance to employees — so it's vital to build a change management plan that will anticipate and address more granular problems from day one.

As an example, English points to commute times, and the challenges that can come with intense rush hours, particularly in big cities. "Simply let employees come in later to avoid that rush hour," he says, rather than enforcing a stringent 9-to-5 policy. That flexibility can also provide a cushion for working parents or other caregivers juggling drop-off and pick-up schedules for loved ones. "Give them that flexibility. Little things will go a long way."

What employees hate: A lack of connection

The fix: In-person gatherings — for all employees

One unanticipated complaint about the return to office? For distributed companies, entirely remote employees feel left out, and worried that a lack of in-person time with colleagues and leadership will make them invisible, harming their growth and promotion opportunities.

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This is where the value of planned, intentional in-person connection cannot be overstated, English says.

"We're a fully-remote company, but we get the entire team together in the U.S. twice a year, and locally within regions, we still get together [at other times]," he says. "Face-to-face still matters. It energizes people and deepens connections."

While Centric Consulting doesn't have any brick-and-mortar offices, they lean into regional pockets where significant portions of their staff exist, and create opportunities to gather for more informal meetings, perhaps holding a business development meeting at the local Panera Bread for lunch, or connecting for coaching sessions to support team development.

The all-hands gatherings, which require travel, are of course a financial investment, English says, but it's one with a high ROI.

"Yes, it's really expensive — but we're not paying for office space," he says. "You need to build that budget into how you're handling bringing the team together."

What employees hate: Inaccessible leadership

The fix: More facetime with the C-suite

Access to and visibility among leadership is often promised as a benefit of return-to-office plans. But some organizations are seeing a RTO translate to closed-door leadership meetings that actually isolate the C-suite from the employees that would benefit from boosted engagement with senior-level management. But that's a symptom of a problem much larger than RTO, English warns.

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"That's just a leadership issue, one that has nothing to do with remote work," he says. "If you're not listening to people and you're just segregating yourself, you have to build engagement and create a regular listening strategy. And if you don't, it's going to come back to bite that company."

What employees hate: Top-down decisions

The fix: Granting department heads decision-making power

Every organization has a unique way of working — and within every organization, individual departments and teams have their own weekly rhythms, expectations and outputs to manage. Businesses that blindly command every staffer to come to the office on two or three specific days a week for focused collaboration are ignoring the nuances and expectations of the very teams that make their operation buzz. Instead, simply ask each team what makes sense for them.

"The companies I see do it best are those that push down that decision-making as far as possible," English says. "Perhaps you let department heads decide what days their teams will be in the office. And create parity with consistent guidelines."

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Those guidelines will avoid the creation of "haves" and "have-nots," English says — preventing one team from working in the office just two days a week while others are ordered to report in-person five days a week based on manager preferences. If those discrepancies start to exist, he says, it's time to expand the conversation to HR.

What employees hate: A casual approach to COVID

The fix: Embracing remote work as a safety measure

Whether there's a threatening blizzard or a local spike in COVID or flu cases, putting employees at risk in the interest of filling up office desks is an outdated goal, English says.

"We've proven we can operate remotely, which gives us more flexibility," he says. "Telling everybody to work from home in those instances, it's not only a huge cost-saver for companies, but it's something that most people will appreciate."

That same kind of flexible mindset can be used to boost morale during the holiday season or times of the year when employees are juggling work with school vacations and family time. Closing the office during the holidays, for example, and having a few weeks of all-remote work can give employees extra flexibility (and help them avoid quick-spreading illness).

What employees hate: Skills gaps for young talent

The fix: Nurture young employees with face-to-face time

For new graduates — many of whom experienced college in a mostly-remote setting — coming into the office may actually be seen as a perk, and is an undeniable learning opportunity. But many employers are missing the mark.

"It's harder to train somebody right out of college," English says. "There's a lot to absorb that you just can't absorb over video, just learning to be professional."

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The problem, as he sees it, is that plenty of the folks managing young talent don't have the interest in either coming into the office, or in making it a dynamic and collaborative experience when teams are in a shared space. Building parameters around training and supporting this youngest demographic of talent can ensure they get the mentorship they deserve, English suggests.

"You almost have to make leadership come in and spend an appropriate amount of time with those [recent graduates]," he says. "But that is a real challenge."

What employees hate: No chance to give feedback

The fix: Gather feedback — anonymously

"I always recommend that you have some anonymous channel for employee feedback," English says. "Have a third-party tool or an administrator that can conduct the survey. Even if you do an internal anonymous survey, it's still on your software, and employees will suspect that you can figure out who they are based on their feedback — and they don't want to be honest with you."

But collecting feedback, he warns, is useless if leadership doesn't plan to respond and act. Report back on major trends, and share an action plan to improve what's not working with the return-to-office policy as it currently exists.

"Collecting feedback and responding are equally important," he says.