Work Arrangements...
Diving deep into where the next generation will be working from
For many, the thought of having to step back into an office five days a week is preposterous. And yet, CEOs like Elon Musk (Tesla), Jamie Dimon (JP Morgan), and Reed Hastings (Netflix) are vehemently demanding for employees to return to the office.
Who’s Really In the Office?
Most people think traditional industries like law and finance are leading the charge to bring employees back to the office, and while this is true to an extent, there are many big tech companies experiencing similar shifts. Apple, Microsoft, and Google announced mandatory 3-days-per-week policies and others in the industry are following suit.
Companies are mandating days in the office, but in reality many employees aren’t adhering to the rules. WFH Research conducted a poll and found that the 43.2% of the time, nothing happened if an employee worked in the office fewer days than they were asked to. Many CEOs like Elon Musk have threatened to fire dissident employees and yet many feel that the promises for consequence are empty.
According to Envoy, 88% of companies have used incentives like free lunches or happy hours to get their employees to return to the office, and still most companies have struggled to get consistent attendance. It’s clear that most return to office policies have flopped.
Apple has consistently walked back its 3-day-a-week return to office policy as a result of pushback from employees. In fact, a group of Apple employees have banded together under the name of ‘Apple Together” and repeatedly clashed with management over return to office plans. The group has already begun gathering signatures to fight the return to office policy.
Who Wants Flexibility?
There is a common misconception that only Millennials or GenZ want flexible work arrangements. According to McKinsey, when people have the chance to work remotely, 87% of them will take it. This finding is widespread across demographics, occupations, and geographies. People offered full-time flexible work spent a bit more time working remotely, on average, at 3.3 days a week.
The pandemic’s impact on how we work is something that is here to stay. People have realized a majority of their work does NOT need to be done in the office. Instead, people have found that having the flexibility to work out of a coffee shop or from the comfort of your own home is far more productive in many cases.
It’s clear that building and developing camaraderie and team spirit within a company is far harder with remote working arrangements, but routine company offsite events have worked to replace water cooler conversations. Realistically, finding a balance of a few days in the office to spur spontaneous collaboration and a few days working anywhere but the office will benefit most companies.
Companies Should be Open To Flexible Work Arrangements
Many companies argue that remote work erodes culture and leads to a lack of collaboration, but the data from the Future Forum argues that hybrid settings allow for better work-life balance while also increasing workers’ sense of belong among colleagues.
There is a stark disconnect between the people making the decisions and the people facing the consequences of the decisions. “Executives have a better setup at work and they probably have an office with a door. They also probably don’t have the same child care issues as many employees.” There are many instances where productivity can be improved by in person collaboration, but most people, especially at the junior level, aren’t always working on high collaboration projects. In fact, many junior people often find themselves working independently on assignments, and a work from anywhere policy can be far more conducive for productivity.
Older executives rely on face-to-face communication to get a sense of what’s going on throughout their organizations and so it makes sense why many tenured CEOs with several years in their role have pushed for more face-to-face interactions. If you look at companies that have developed a positive view on flexible work arrangements, most of them are smaller startups because management in these organizations understand and relate far more with their workers than large companies do. They understand that face-to-face culture isn’t ideal for many and they recognize the importance of change. Change fosters innovation and innovation leads to advancement.
So What About Quiet Quitting?
A recent Gallup study found that over 50% of the US workforce are “quietly quitting”. This notion of people not going above and beyond at work and instead doing the bare minimum has gone viral on social media and been amplified greatly by coverage on the topic.
Many companies might argue that a lack of office time is the reason people aren’t feeling enthusiastic about their work, but if you look beyond the headline, you’ll notice that this trend isn’t new. People have been coasting long before remote work and today people are still more engaged than they were in the early 2010s.
For most of history, people haven’t been as engaged with their work as they are today. While there is a slight decrease in work engagement compared to a few years ago, we’re still at levels that are far higher than historical levels. We should be wary of companies using the notion of quiet quitting as a reason to mandate employees return to the office everyday.
The Exception: Schools
Reading scores for elementary school students plunged to their lowest levels in 30 years during the pandemic, and math scores dropped for the first time in the history of a nationally representative test dating back over 50 years ago. Test taking isn’t the only metric we should consider when looking at student learning outcomes, but I certainly think it’s a major metric.
Adolescents and children need far more structure and guidance than employees and so returning back to in-person classes needs to be a priority. At the current rate, it may take years for some students to recover from pandemic-era learning losses, according to a NWEA report.
School districts across the nation are facing widespread teaching shortages, which were only exacerbated during the pandemic. Many are also suffering from staffing shortages among bus drivers, cafeteria workers, and other academic support positions.
For the last 50 years, the teaching profession has been perennially plagued by shortages. There needs to be significantly more funding allocated towards public school systems and particularly towards teachers. In the academic year of 2021-2022, the average starting salary for a teacher who has a bachelor’s degree (and no prior teaching experience) was $61,070. Teachers educate and nurture the next generation of world leaders… we can’t afford to undervalue their worth in this day and age.
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