Go into the office if it helps you be more productive.
Don't go into the office if it doesn't.
Whatever you do, don't be lemmings.
One size does NOT fit all.
5 replies (most recent on top)
Then their managers should ferret them out and terminate them for cause and let responsible adults decide what's most productive work environment. That's what they are paid to do! Not micromanage and lord over in/out badge swipes and IM chat status %s.
It's embarrassing leadership can't just stick to a story.
- They've already announced on investor calls that they want "self-selected" attrition (staff to quit voluntarily), which saves severance and unemployment payout costs. They are using all kinds of sticks to achieve that, with NO carrots.
- They rely on a lot of revenue related to businesses in CRE, restaurants, other small business services etc., so they need bvtts in offices to help ensure those businesses don't go belly up.
Treat employees like grown adults. Be honest with them. If you respect staff, staff will respect you. Until then, good luck keeping up WF stock price, because systems, websites, projects will fail due to apathy or worse.
The problem is that there are a lot more people that shouldn't work from home than those that can. And those that shouldn't would choose to work from home.
Problem is that only maybe 5-10% of the firm would show up. The overly ambitious 22 year old fresh out of college and the dinosaur boomer executives. The rest of us would be happily WFH and they would be lonely in those big empty offices all by their lonesome.
This is the way it should have been from DAY 1 of RTO planning — ask employees. Plan according to the people who want to be there, and let the others be remote. Plan real estate according to need. It's not difficult. Instead a few eager beavers want everyone to come into the office — we don't care if Scharf wants to be at one if his eight private conference rooms/offices. We want to be productive from home (and avoid traffic, commute costs, parking, danger of being stabbed on the streets or NY and SF).