Why Managers Want Everyone Back in 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.

Do you work from home and are not seen at the office? You must be lazy and barely working in the meantime… This is a mental problem of parochial bosses

For several years, we’ve been working with dozens of people who work remotely. There’s one thing to be said about it: This model works. And yet we still hear appeals for a ‘return to normality,’ because ‘the office is a better place for work.’ Is it about actual efficiency or is it the 20th century mentality: the master’s eye fattens the horse?

Here are some real reasons why some companies want everyone back at their desks:

• ‘I don’t see an employee = I don’t know if they work.’ And if you need to see someone for them to be productive, maybe the problem is not in the form of work, but in the lack of trust and poor processes?
• ‘Remote work destroys organizational culture.’ Or is it a sign that the culture was based only on ‘kitchen chats’ and not on real values and relationships? If a company cannot create an engaging environment in a hybrid world, the office will not be the saving grace of any kind.
•  ‘The team is less involved.’ People are engaged if they have clear goals, interesting challenges and room for action. Micromanagement, control for control’s sake, and forcing them to come back won’t make anyone feel more motivated.
• ‘We need to return to normality.’ But this is the new normal. The world has changed, and so have the expectations of employees. Companies that understand this not only attract better people, but also build more agile, more resilient organizations.

Of course, remote work is not for everyone. It cannot be implemented in every industry. But in many cases, it’s not the actual need that brings people to the office, but the attachment to old patterns.

Efficiency depends not on the place but on people, processes, and organizational culture. It’s time to understand this finally.

The comment section had to add:

American companies come back, currently a minimum of two days a week have to be at the office, usually three, and officially it’s because we are family and team spirit. I really don’t know what kind of team spirit can there be when everyone just clicks in their own corner. I have a hunch bordering on certainty that it’s about the whole bunch of greens that companies have spent on office renovations, because offices are prestigious, and they have to herd the living force into these offices to utilize them. Instead of spending the same money on, for example, the development of employees or their health. There are a whole lot of ideas on what the office renovation money could be spent. But then the money goes out of the company instead of staying in it in the form of a prestigious office in a prestigious part of the city.

– Piotr Ziółek, Advanced Accountant Analyst at Cargill

I noticed that some companies have limitations, e.g. two days of remote work per month. Doesn’t it sound a bit like a vacation? After all, on average, we get two days of vacation per month, two more days of remote work. Could it be that employers have combined remote work with the ‘new’ form of vacation?

– Karolina Surma, Marketing and Sales Advisor at Kongskilde Industries A/S

I will suggest another perspective. Remote work questions the existence of many managerial positions, which, apart from watching people or sitting at desks, don’t bring much to the table. From this perspective, managers are bending over backwards to drive people back to the office to protect their workplace. Another issue is emotions. If a manager likes to receive all these signs of their uniqueness every day, being the ‘boss’, and shine in the corridors, meetings, etc. Remote work takes away most of the pleasure from their position. The argument about low efficiency is apparently wrong because it’s possible to check whether the employee performs their tasks. Usually, there are some KPIs, digital reports or even an appointment. The final conclusion: it is interesting whether companies are looking for managers who can work remotely, because this is yet another skill. Importantly, a company that still has a structure based on supervisors instead of operational managers, ‘substantivity’ managers, has no bright future ahead, sadly.

– Marcin Rafałowicz, IT Business Analys