Life Between 0 and 1

My company started bringing people back to the office in August and September of this year to mostly negative feedback from employees that had been working and over performing for almost 3 years. Thankfully I don’t have to return as I don’t meet most of the requirements to have my remote work cancelled, but I do talk to a lot of people that didn’t have that luxury and have returned to the office at least three days a week, increasing to four after the new year.

The first problem I’ve seen already is the lack of resources available and ready when people do return to the office. For weeks it was a total disaster while people tried to create their own space. These people, who have perfected remote work in whatever space they created at home, are now having to survive like nomads while they hunt for a desk that has the equipment they need to work efficiently. There aren’t assigned seats, just “areas” of desks that are assigned to a group and/or team. No one was happy about how it went down when there were months prior to people returning to get all of this setup.

Next major problem is the perception the corporate higher ups are pushing around “culture” and “collaboration” in the work place. Approximately 60% of the employees were within a specific distance from a home office, so they’re not anywhere near the pre-COVID capacity. Since there is no requirement around the actual days people work, only that it’s at least three days per week, the culture and collaboration being pushed as the reason to bring people back has been underwhelming and total disaster. No one team is fully together on any given day of the week, adding to the fact that 30% of the employees are still remote working. Sure, management of these areas should decide on a particular day everyone is on-site, however most managers don’t want to be in the office either and are just following mandates like everyone else.

I have already made it very clear to my manager that if I’m asked to return to office, I will be looking for new employment. Yes, I know, it’s not something that should be said, ever. I’m sure he’s aware of how frustrated I am already because meetings are already being scheduled for conference rooms without an online meeting attached. It’s just going to get worse as people start to assume people are on-site and no longer remote. I’m on the fence if I should start looking anyway to avoid the difficult conversation about them trying to get me into an office or figuring out how to eliminate my position. Time will tell as more people start to voice their opinions around returning to work. The feedback is definitely not positive.

Here’s a few stories showing both sides of the argument. The trend though is employers that don’t listen partially to their employees, those employees will likely start looking for a role that better suits their remote work accommodation.

Opinion: What CEOs are missing by trying to get workers back to the office

Amazon’s return-to-office mandate won’t work out

More Than 1/3 of Remote Workers Would Quit or Find a New Job if Asked To Return to Office [Survey]

While writing and reading articles, it dawned on me that the core battle isn’t employees vs. corporations or executives vs. non-management; rather it’s a battle between introverts and extroverts. Those that absorb energy from the people around them want to be in office, those that don’t prefer to say at home. It’s quite interesting though that most of the downsides in the third article can be remediated with a bit of effort. Here’s just one example of a company that was strict in-office pre-pandemic that transitioned to strict remote and everyone is benefiting.

These companies decided to go fully remote – permanently

My company is based in another state 2,500 miles away, I’m not going to be asked to go into the office. What I think will happen is they will find a way to eliminate my, and most remote worker positions, systematically over the next 12 months. Time will tell if I’m right or being paranoid.