Why the return to the office isn’t working

A survey of more than 1,500 employees in the United States shows that companies’ insistence that staff return to the office after the pandemic has worsened labor relations, and in many cases led to more talented people leaving. Furthermore, a quarter of managers admit that they hoped the order to return to the office would create an opportunity to lay people off.

More than half of those surveyed (52%) say they prefer hybrid work models, while two out of five say they prefer working in the office. But the vast majority (88%) of those who work remotely, and 79% of those who work in the office, agree that the post-pandemic work culture has become highly performative, obliging people to “prove” they connected and working, which of course impacts negatively on productivity: 42% of those who were forced to return to the office say that they go there simply to be seen, with 32% saying that the return to the office simply reflects a culture of bosses wanting to monitor employees’ activity.

The so-called green status effect, showing the ‘available’ green ball on the icon of applications such as Microsoft Teams, or walking around the office looking busy, has become a commonplace tactic that simply infantilizes people. An archaic culture inherited from the presenteeism and factories of the Industrial Revolution, with backward-looking managers competing to…