Analysis: it joins 'quiet quitting' as another pinch point between employers and employees over the future of the workplace
This article is now available above as a Brainstorm podcast. You can subscribe to the Brainstorm podcast through Apple Podcasts, Stitcher, Spotify or wherever you get your podcasts.
The Covid pandemic led to many important changes in the workplace, most notably a shift from office work to remote work in many industries. As the pandemic subsided, businesses are starting to push employees to return to the office. This is, in part, because of a mistaken belief that remote workers are less productive than workers who return to the office. Organisations have used a mix of incentives (better opportunities for raises and promotions to employees who return to the office) and sanctions (warnings for failing to return to the office, dismissal) to persuade or force employees to return to the office.
While employers often claim that returning to the office is critical for productivity or for maintaining the culture of their organisation, there are reasons to believe that employers have mixed motives for pushing their employees to return to the office, including their discomfort with managing remote workers and their growing realisation that remote work changes the power balance between executives and employees. Whatever their motivations, a growing number of executives are working hard to bring as many of their employees back to the office as possible.
We need your consent to load this rte-player contentWe use rte-player to manage extra content that can set cookies on your device and collect data about your activity. Please review their details and accept them to load the content.Manage Preferences
From RTÉ Radio 1's Morning Ireland in Jan 2022, Cian Mc Cormack reports that 88% of workers are not keen on full return to office
Employees naturally see things differently. They are likely to be more satisfied with remote work than with working in the office, and they experience a range of benefits such as reduction in time and costs associated with commuting, fewer meetings, more control over their working hours, lower levels of workplace harassment etc when working remotely. On the other hand, there are relatively few incentives to return to the office.
So what are employees supposed to do if their managers insist that they return to the office? One possibility is to bamboozle your bosses by "coffee badging". This involves showing up at the office bright and early, making sure that management notices that you have come to the office, then grabbing a cup of coffee and making a beeline for the nearest exit. Once your manager sees that you have made it to the office, you can beat a hasty retreat and go back to where you are likely to be more productive – at home.
We need your consent to load this rte-player contentWe use rte-player to manage extra content that can set cookies on your device and collect data about your activity. Please review their details and accept them to load the content.Manage Preferences
From RTÉ Radio 1's This Week, Linda Hynes from law firm Lewis Silkin on hybrid working
It is a cynical and wasteful strategy. You still have to get dressed in your office gear and trudge to your workplace and back, all to make it look like you have obeyed the command to come back to work. But it is no more cynical than forcing you to come back to the office so your executives will feel better about returning to a routine they are used to. If bosses are dead set on forcing you to show up at the office, even at the cost of lower employee satisfaction and lower productivity, give them what they want. Show up at the office, but when it is time to get real work done, look for an opportunity to make your Irish goodbye!
It is disappointing to see the "return to the office" movement turn into a cynical game, where management is pushing employees to make decisions that are arguably bad for them and bad for the organisation and where employees are searching for strategies to defeat or deflect these mandates. The experience of the Soviet Union provided an object lesson in the corrosive effects workplace cynicism run amok. The old Soviet saying "they pretend to pay us, and we pretend to work" exemplifies the rot that can set in when organisations and employees no longer trust or value one another.
Bosses who want their employees to return to the office need to give careful thought to two key questions. First, why is it important to get them to return? If the answer is productivity, returning to the office is unlikely to lead to higher productivity, and will often reduce the productivity of the workforce.
We need your consent to load this rte-player contentWe use rte-player to manage extra content that can set cookies on your device and collect data about your activity. Please review their details and accept them to load the content.Manage Preferences
From RTÉ Brainstorm, a look at the future of work
If the answer is "culture", you are probably engaging in self-deception. Organisations exist where strong cultures contribute to their success, but they are few and far between. If you cannot come up with a convincing answer to the "why?" question, you should not push employees to return to the office.
Second, instead of pushing, why don't you think about what you can do to attract employees back to the office? You are asking many employees to make real sacrifices to return to the office. If you are not willing to give them any good reason to come back, you are likely to be left with a sullen and resentful workforce who are eagerly searching for the quickest way out.
If you are lucky, these employees will stop at "coffee badging". If you are unlucky, you will lose your best and most valuable employees to competitors who are willing to take a more considered and more considerate approach to attracting employees back to the office.
Follow RTÉ Brainstorm on WhatsApp and Instagram for more stories and updates
The views expressed here are those of the author and do not represent or reflect the views of RTÉ
