Is It Worth to Return to the Office? by Szymon Janiak

The post was originally published in Polish on Szymon’s LinkedIn profile. Szymon kindly agreed to republish what we think is of great value to our readers.

Forcing employees to return to the office has nothing to do with their efficiency. This is a problem with the trust and management of their superiors.

Personally, I have been working in the hybrid model for several years. I try to be at least one day a week in the office to have the opportunity to talk to everyone – including trivial topics. I regularly go to various types of offline meetings, but apart from that, I try to work from home. For me, this is by far the most effective model. I can manage my time and focus on the effects of unhacked hours, I work at different times.

Often, the CEOs I talk to have a completely different vision: the pandemic is over, we need to return to normality. As a rule, however, their arguments are as weak as their assumptions. What are the most frequent?

• ‘There are too many distractions in the house.’ If someone has their own office, where a secretary lets in – sure. However, if we work in an open space, which one has more distractions?
• ‘Working from home equals communication problems.’ Yes, because it has to be arranged differently. This system of work is different. In the office, someone can approach you every 15 minutes with every little thing. At home, before someone calls or makes an appointment, they try to solve the problem themselves – is it worse by definition?
• ‘Employees take care of other things at home.’ As far as I’m concerned, they can iron, cook dinner or walk their dog on call – the main thing is that they find a model in which they are most effective. It doesn’t matter what else they do – if they meet the expectations set for them, everything is fine.
• ‘It’s hard to control the time spent on working from home.’ Maybe it’s time to move forward and focus on the effects instead of the time? If someone is to do a project or acquire a certain number of clients – it doesn’t matter if they do it at 6 AM or late in the evening. Let them work as they feel comfortable – as long as there are results.

Most of the stories I know, where someone had two jobs at the same time or did nothing at home at all, were related to the lack or inability to control the effects. If a manager only after six months identifies that the employee is doing practically nothing, then honestly – is it a problem with the employee or with the company’s processes?

It’s true that not every job can be done in this mode – sometimes it’s a matter of specificity, and sometimes someone simply doesn’t have conditions at home or doesn’t like it. In many cases, however, it is possible, and the problem is the CEOs who constantly think that everyone wants to deceive them and certainly watch TV instead of working. It’s time to change the petty mentality. It’s time to account for the effects, not the clichéd time. It’s time to implement procedures that will enable effective management of remote work.

 It is no longer the case that we will return to ‘the normal’. This is the new normal, to which we must adapt.

The comment section had to add:

It is always interesting how people promoting work in the office claim that efficiency lives there. I think I’ve been going to the wrong offices all my life. In order to be effective, people in offices cut themselves off with headphones or hide in some strange places or book conference rooms. I’ll skip the topic of the road to and from the office, etc. because it’s getting boring. The idea that the office is a sandbox for juniors and you should approach them every 15 minutes with a smile on your face are also great. When I need to contact someone quickly, I use a messenger, others  can also text or even call me briefly. As far as I’m concerned, those ideas are quite fanciful and either indicate serious deficiencies in the workflow or simply something needs to be said, so anything is said.

– Marcin Rafałowicz, IT Business Analyst

While I agree with you that the problem with remote work is often a reflection of the inability to force results out of employees, I believe that companies working from the office have an advantage over remote ones.

There is a beautiful English word – ‘Serendipity’ – the occurrence and development of events by chance in a happy or beneficial way. The sum of all interactions over coffee, dinner, and approaching someone’s desk builds a kind of intimacy between employees, making it easier for them to trust each other, have a greater sense of belonging to the team and finally be more creative. Anyone who has tried to do creative workshops remotely on Miro or Figjama knows how painful this process is.

Humans are inherently social beings and function best in a herd. Remote work, which appeared during the pandemic, only deepens the alienation and loneliness of many people, and as a result – reduces their productivity and job satisfaction.

– Wojtek Strzałkowski, Product at GOG.com

There are also other, more ‘human’ arguments, such as: The employer has been designing and building a beautiful facility for years, or renting a super modern space for which they pay several hundred thousand per month. They did a lot of work to make it perfect for the employee, found a convenient location by the subway station so that everyone could get there comfortably, planned details related to logistics, open space, all the conveniences that would increase the comfort of the employees. 

Let’s be honest, really high standards can be set and reached here nowadays, but it comes at a price. And now this employee tells him that he prefers to work from home…

– Przemysław Kobus, Senior Sales Account Manager at AdPixel

It seems to me that this is one of the most interesting social experiments of our time. And to be honest – I bet on a huge resistance to the concept of remuneration for real results, and not simply pay for performing at work.

We can tell each other stories about our own effectiveness or motivation when working outside the office. Just before starting, it is worth getting acquainted with the rich history of research showing how much our self-declaration has to do with reality.

My theory is that with the majority of employees, resistance to returning to the office would be a ‘piece of cake’ compared to resistance to ‘Ok, we stay remote and only account for actual work efficiency.’

– Łukasz Mróz, Partner at Mróz Radcy Prawni

Arguments for working in an office:

• Working in an office allows younger employees to learn directly from more experienced colleagues through informal interactions.

• In the office, it is easier to implement data protection procedures, which reduces the risk of data breaches, which can be very expensive.

• Direct interactions in the office foster a stronger organizational culture and relationships between employees.

• Communication in the office is often faster and more effective through face-to-face conversations.

– Piotr Serwin, Associate Director at AMA International

Return to the office 80% consists of the commercial real estate lobby.

– Filip Nowociński, Software & Data Developer at CT Planning