Get back to the office or else! Why bosses want workers back at their desks

Analysis: there are three main reaons why bosses and managers are so insistent on getting employees back to the office

Many organisations are struggling with how to get workers to come back to the office after they have been working remotely. At first, different companies tried incentives, ranging from better food to more relaxed working conditions, but these do not seem to have done the trick.

Let's face it: employees do not want to return to the office. Once you have gone months or even years without the daily commute, endless pointless meetings, office gossip and backstabbing and the like, you probably will not be tempted back with the sorts of incentives that have been offered to date.

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From RTÉ Radio 1's Today with Claire Byrne, reporter Brian O'Connell looks at people's experiences of working from home

As a result, companies are increasingly resorting to more coercive approaches. Many major organisations are now threatening employees with a range of sanctions, including dismissal if they do not return to the office. Many companies are calling for some sort of hybrid work week, with two or three days a week at the office and rest of the week done remotely, but there is an increasingly shrill and almost desperate tone to the calls for employees to return to the office or face the consequences.

It's still not entirely clear why managers and executives are so strongly committed to getting workers back to the office. The business press often cites the benefits of spontaneous collaboration and social interactions in the workplace. However, the research on the level of collaboration that occurs in the workplace and the value of face-to-face interactions in the workplace does not suggest that these effects are large or consistent.

Bosses think their employees are less productive when working remotely, but they are probably wrong. While there are likely to be cases in which organisations would benefit if employees came back to the office, the pandemic has changed the way many employees think about work A cost-benefit tradeoff in which the organisation gets often ephemeral benefits while workers absorb the costs is not likely to be viewed as acceptable as it once was.

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From RTÉ Radio 1's This Week, employment law partner with law firm Lewis Silkin Linda Hynes on hybrid working

I think there are three leading explanations for why bosses are so insistent on getting employees back to the office. The first is that they think are right: employees are more productive or creative or that organisations gain some other benefit (e.g., stronger culture) from having employees in the office, and this benefit is worth the cost. This cost often means losing good employees. Even if they do not quit, employees who are forced against their will to return to the office are unlikely to create a happy productive workforce. In the face of the weak evidence that employees are more productive or more creative when they work in an office setting, this explanation does not seem completely convincing.

A second possibility has to do with bosses' desire to regain the power they once had over employees. One of the ways managers exert influence over employees is by observing and evaluating their performance, providing them with feedback and direction and offering rewards for good performance and sanctions for poor performance. Managers do not have as much opportunity to manage the performance of their subordinates if they are working remotely. Employees who have spent months or even years without a manager breathing down their back, and who have continued to be productive members of their organisation, are less likely to seek or accept feedback or direction from their managers.

A third possibility - and one I find most compelling as a psychologist - is that managers and executives find themselves at a loss without an office full of employees. The case is most compelling for managers. At the end of the day, the manager's job is to create conditions that maximize the probability that the work units they oversee will be productive and effective.

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From RTÉ Radiio 1's The Business, how 'helicopter bosses' and micro-management have become a big factor in the world of remote working

It is not at all clear that remote work teams need managers. If they do need them at all, they probably need things like technical support rather than direction, supervision and evaluation. The changing relationships between management and employees brought about by the pandemic are increasingly leading to questions about whether managers and executives are still fulfilling important and valuable roles in organisations. Bosses who are uncomfortable with these questions are likely to push especially hard to bring back the traditional 9 to 5 office.

If you are an executive trying to decide whether to compel workers to come back to the office, if is important that you think through why you are doing this and what costs and benefits are associated with this decision. You can be reasonably sure that forcing employees to come back to the office will lead to lower satisfaction, resentment and an increasing possibility of losing valuable employees.

If you are reduced to managing by threats (obey my rules or get out!), you are very likely to fail

The benefits of forcing workers back to the office may exceed these costs, but bringing employees back to the office is more likely to work out well if you can articulate convincing reasons why this will benefit both organisation and employees. So far, the push to force workers to come back has been notably silent in articulating how, or even whether this might benefit employees.

If you are reduced to managing by threats (obey my rules or get out!), you are very likely to fail. If the pandemic has had any benefits in the workplace, it has led to a seismic shift in employees’ willingness to put up with bad management. The managers and executives who succeed in making their employees want to come back to the office are the ones who are going to win the war for talent.

The views expressed here are those of the author and do not represent or reflect the views of RTÉ