Having tasted the past few years of working from home, there is growing resistance to returning to the office. And rightly so. The average office is not exactly a warm bath for optimal performance. The office garden is something of a scarecrow for many people, meeting rooms are often crowded and the coffee is substandard. Office expert Japke D. then recently headlined in the NRC that home workers are spoiled brats, but concluded that they are right.
Elon Musk just came out with a very different sound. He made headlines with a leaked e-mail to his staff. His e-mail was an outspoken plea for everyone to just come back to work in the office. "If you want to work remotely that's fine, but you work a minimum of 40 hours in the office," Musk said. This would be the best solution to keep everyone motivated and accommodate the factory workers who have to work in the factory anyway.
The truth lies in the middle. Both Japke's work-at-home approach and Elon's mentality, have major drawbacks for the company, your employees' motivation and the ultimate success of both. Despite the obvious solution, there are still legions of companies that still clearly struggle with their approach. In that regard, credit to Musk. Better to be clear (even if your employees don't fully agree) than to have no direction at all. People simply thrive better with structure.
And that lack of structure is also immediately one of the biggest drawbacks of working from home. People work longer hours (that doesn't mean they get more done or work smarter, by the way), they [move less](https://www.radboudumc.nl/nieuws/2020/thuiswerkers-bewegen-veel-minder-door-coronamaatregelen#:~:text="Each group has gone less,the commute has been eliminated."), sit at the screen much longer and take fewer breaks in between. This also reduces memory capacity and the learning capability. Moreover, we are becoming less creative If we cooperate less with other people.
But perhaps worst of all, we lose trust in each other. Online, you either look at a screen or at a small black camera. Neither way do you make real eye contact. This and the lack of body language make it almost impossible to really listen to each other. Disastrous for the interconnectedness and thus trust. And in companies where there is no trust, motivation declines, people drop out or leave, and performance declines.
Companies are unique because of the culture between them. If you don't see each other, that culture disappears like snow in the sun, and with it, your employees' commitment.
This does not mean that you should force everyone to come to the office. Indeed, by doing so you undermine the very sense of autonomy and ownership. We have had a taste of how things can be done better and it is precisely this combination that is the best solution. Instead of forcing your employees to join unnecessary traffic jams so that they are in the office by 9 a.m., let your teams decide together when they will see each other at the office.
Create an office that is nice to go to. Encourage more senior colleagues to be visible so that colleagues see the leaders, and they see them. Make sure colleagues can learn from each other at work so there is an inspiring environment. And provide good coffee.
That way you work to create a culture that people want to be with and come to. Then you also don't have to force them to come to the office.
