A hybrid model — working a combination of on-site and from anywhere — creates different classes of workers and maintains the wall between management and workers. Hybrid workplaces are an effort by management to hang on to power and privilege for as long as possible, I concluded in the worst of both worlds in May 2021. The next month, in not remotely working, I suggested that as — or if — this pandemic winds down, it may get difficult to attract and retain talented people unless they have a degree of control over where they spend their time, especially if competitors offer work from anywhere. This year, in 2023, I note in work is human that the taste of working from anywhere has accelerated the departure of older workers — “Dennis C. would rather retire than return to the office full time — and that’s exactly what he did.”
A recent series of surveys showed that almost half (42%) of companies with mandated return to office policies had higher than anticipated attrition, that 76% of employees will leave if flexible work is taken away, and that losing flexible work is like getting a pay cut.
If there’s one overarching theme resonating from the Greenhouse, SHED, and Unispace reports, it’s this: Companies need to embrace the wave of flexible work policies or risk being left adrift. As we set sail into the future of work, flexibility isn’t just a passing trend; it’s a necessity, the new standard. After all, the key to not just attracting talent, but retaining it, lies in one simple word: flexibility. To ignore it is like trying to run a marathon with one shoe. Possible, perhaps, but far from comfortable or efficient. —The Damaging Results of the Mandated Return to Office
Management has been asleep at the wheel.
Totally agree! From a personal standpoint, if you work hybrid you don’t have the flexibility to live where you want because you are tied to an office. This can be very challenging in households where multiple people have careers especially at the rate that layoffs/job changes happen now. Also what many people are running into is that if they work from home they need a home office, yet they can only afford a home office in places that are a far commute for the days they do go in…
From a company standpoint, it becomes tricky to always have people both in office and at home because then the office needs to set up for people to always join virtually and employees tend to wonder why they drove in just to sit on Zoom. Resources aren’t being maximized for value at all and their labor pools are limited to their office location. Plus as you mentioned, it becomes difficult to keep up a culture of transparency and communication when there is a group of people having water cooler conversations that leave others out.
It seems odd to me that so many businesses are choosing this path forward when there are so many clear downsides. Even if they are stuck in leases those are sunk costs which is the first thing we were taught in introductory econ!