Employees resist return-to-work plans

Long story short: Employees resist return-to-work plans

May 21, 2021 8:29 AM

Employers have their hands full when it comes to getting employees back into the office.

As states reopen and organizations announce that business-as-usual is on the horizon, employees are resisting a return to work. Almost a third of employees do not want to return to the office until the fall, and 17% do not want to go to the office ever again, a survey by HealthCareInsider.com found.

But employers are doing their best to ease the inevitable transition: business leaders are prioritizing their employees’ well-beingand productivity, boosting safety measures and embracing more flexible work schedules.

“We feel a commitment and a responsibility to the local economies in which we have physical offices, and want to do our part to support those businesses,” says Darcey Schoenebeck, EVP of people and culture at RxSense. “There is no replacement for physically getting into a room together to collaborate.”

Will employers and employees ever agree on a perfect return-to-work scenario? Read more from our top stories this week:

5 business leaders share their plans for going back to the office

As businesses around the world prepare for the inevitable return to work, employees and employers are left wondering: what does that actually mean?

There’s no one-size-fits-all answer. After a year in which almost 70% of full-time workers in the U.S. worked from home, according to a survey by Owl Labs, companies have realized that their teams are more adaptable, flexible and productive than they may have realized. Now, business leaders are doing the hard work of figuring out the best post-pandemic plan, aiming to create a workplace scenario that will support employee happiness as well as output. We checked in with five business leaders to hear about their various approaches — all of which prioritize their teams’ well-being.

Read more:

5 business leaders share their plans for going back to the office

Employers want to end WFH, but employees say ‘no way’

With the vaccine rollout pushing forward and COVID restrictions being eased all over the country, employers are eager for a return to the office, but many employees still aren’t ready.

While many people are excited to return to a sense of pre-pandemic normalcy as soon as possible, 27% of employees say they aren’t comfortable returning to their workplace until fall or later, according to a survey by HealthCareInsider.com, an online resource that provides healthcare and insurance information. Seventeen percent of the people surveyed say they’ll never feel comfortable returning to the workplace.

Read more:

Employers want to end WFH, but employees say ‘no way’

Working hard or hardly working? Why it’s OK that your employees take breaks from being productive

In the wake of the shift to all-remote work, many workers are taking liberties with their time on the clock: 42% have been on a date at least once during the workday, 76% of women shop online during work at least once a week, and 56% of millennials have taken a personal day without telling a manager, according to a survey by online retailer E-conolight.

The amount of time employees are spending on “non-work” is not necessarily a determinant of how productive they’re being, according to Derek Richards, research psychologist, psychotherapist and chief science officer at SilverCloud Health, an online therapy platform. While work from home comes with several perks, for some it can also mean longer hours and fewer opportunities to “sign off” in the evenings.

Read more:

Working hard or hardly working? Why it’s okay that your employees take breaks from being productive

Employee mental health plummets with return to work plans on the horizon

Employees are dreading a return to the office once COVID restrictions are lifted. Stress, anxiety, PTSD and depressed moods have all increased since March after slight improvements earlier in the year, according to the most recent Mental Health Index by Total Brain and the National Alliance of Healthcare Purchaser Coalitions.

Two-thirds of employees say they have anxiety about returning to the workplace after more than a year of remote working. Employees have continuously struggled with poor work-life balance and high levels of stress and burnout. With employers hoping to reopen offices and return to pre-pandemic life, they must be prepared to deal with a workforce in crisis.

Read more:

Employee mental health plummets with return to work plans on the horizon