Remote work and employer credibility

Companies (many of them) want employees to return to the office. Employees (many of them) want to continue working from home. There is a danger here, because managers and workers are looking at different things, and that difference can lead to a loss of confidence and even a loss of credibility.

Managers see little reason to delay returning to the office. (This was before the latest wave of Covid from the "delta" variant.) A common reason given is to "improve productivity". There may be some gains with people working in an office, but the argument is lacking. I suspect senior managers, knowing that the accountants are looking at expenses, know that they risk losing buildings and office space. (If the office is empty, why continue to pay for it?) But let's go with the "improve productivity" argument.

Employees feel differently. They think that they are more productive working from home. Not having commutes in the morning and evening help this perception. Shifting back to the office means that employees will have to wake earlier, drive (or take the bus) to the office, possibly pay tolls or parking, and then make the same trip in the evening. They lose perhaps two hours each day to the commute. Their productivity drops, as they would be doing the same work but in ten hours, not eight.

So when managers say "everyone must come back to the office" and employees ask "why" and managers say "for productivity" there is a definite discrepancy. Employers may see a modest gain in productivity (and a possible reduction in expense as they cancel contracts for conferencing software) but employees see a large decrease in productivity (due to commute times) and an increase in expenses (gasoline, transit fare, tolls, lunches). Employees also have to wear nicer clothes -- no more t-shirts and torn jeans!

I suspect that few senior managers are considering the change from an employee's point of view. Most probably think that "going back to work-in-the-office" is easy, as employees were doing this prior to the Covid-19 pandemic.

I also suspect that few employees are thinking in terms of economics, and instead simply have the feeling that work is better and more productive with "work-from-home".

The discrepancy about productivity remains, whether we analyze it via numbers or via emotions. And that discrepancy is a problem. Employers claim that "work in the office" gives better productivity, and employees thing "work from home" gives the better productivity. When senior managers call workers back to the office and claim "higher productivity in the office", employees don't believe them.

The worst position a management team could take is probably the position of "we can't operate with employees in remote locations". That is patently false, as the company has been doing just that for more than a year.

But the softer "improved productivity" argument also has problems. Employees don't see it that way, and once employees don't believe one thing senior managers claim, they start to question everything that senior managers claim.

I think that managers can avoid this loss of credibility. I think it is managers that must take steps to avoid the problem, not employees.

First, managers must recognize that they are asking employees to shoulder the costs of commuting to the office. They must also recognize that while employees were willing to bear these costs prior to the pandemic, they did not have to pay them while working from home, and asking them to come to the office means paying those costs again. The change from work-from-home to work-in-the-office is not cost-free to employees.

Second, managers should recognize that some employees are more productive while working from home, and working from home can be an effective way to contribute to the company. Some employees may welcome a return to the office, and may be more productive there. That does not necessarily hold for all employees. If managers care about productivity, they will work with employees and craft policies that maximize productivity.

Third, managers must recognize that business relationships, including employer-employee relationships, are built on trust. They must act in ways that establish and nurture that trust. They must maintain credibility. If they don't, they face a significant loss of productivity, either through attrition or through apathy or even hostility.

It's nice to think that we can simply go back to the way things were before Covid-19. The world has changed, and we cannot go back. We must move forward, with the knowledge that the work-from-home has given us.