If you’re not confused, you're not paying attention

I thought the quote from Tom Peters was a good title for this newsletter. If you are paying attention and reading all that is being written and spoken about the return to the office, then you will be confused.

I searched on Google for remote work in the news, and the continuing wide range of perspectives on the return to the office is quite amazing.

In a recent search, Steve Schwarzman, the 76-year-old CEO of the Blackstone group – the world’s biggest commercial landlord – accused remote workers of staying away from the office because it means “they don’t work as hard” and can save money.

He said that the continuing vacancies in office buildings in the US directly resulted from the rise in remote work since the COVID pandemic. (A 9-year-old could have told me that.)

He went on to say that it was likely firms would cut back on space once their current leases came to an end.

Why does the term “vested interest” come into my head?

Also speaking on the same panel as Schwarzman at the Future Investment Initiative summit in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, was the chief executive of Goldman Sachs, David Solomon, who infamously said that remote working was an “aberration” that needed to be corrected “as soon as possible.”

Scoop

Then, in stark contrast, is Scoop's Flex Report Q4 2023.

Forbes reported that the hybrid management start-up that also compiles the Flex Index had analysed remote work policies and revenue growth at 554 public companies in partnership with the Boston Consulting Group.

“It found that the average public company that gives employees choice over whether to come into an office also outperformed on revenue growth over the past three years by 16 percentage points, compared to companies with more restrictive policies.”

“The report shows that the three-year industry-adjusted revenue growth rate of companies with what Scoop calls a “fully flexible” policy - meaning they allow employees or teams to choose when or whether they come to the office or are fully remote - is 21%. Companies in the data set with more restrictive policies - say, those that have corporate mandates for a couple days per week or those that require full-time work in the office - had only a 5% industry-adjusted revenue growth rate, the analysis found. When excluding the tech industry over the same period, public companies that were “fully flexible” outperformed by 13 percentage points.”

Disruptive science

Then there is the headline “Disruptive science: in-person teams make more breakthroughs than remote groups.”

The subtitle adds fuel to the fire. “Analysis of millions of papers shows that far-flung collaborators produce fewer foundational discoveries than groups working together in person.”

What angers me about this report is that it infers employees must return to the office because collaboration will suffer.

Most employees are okay with returning to the office but want to do it on their terms. They want to do it when it makes sense, such as for collaboration and innovation. This makes going into an office intentional. There is a purpose – not just because it is a Wednesday.

It states the obvious, which the same 9-year-old could have worked out. Collaboration can take place at a distance. But would the outcomes be better if we collocated for collaboration? Most likely, yes.

And it refers to the breakthrough and disruptive discoveries, not just your average, “Let’s just get our heads together and work out how we can work better.” It talks about concepts such as time-evolving block decimation, an algorithm to simulate quantum systems, and new technologies such as web crawling.

Remote work is dwindling; is office space the reason?

Then there is the report from HR Grapevine. It explores why there has been a significant decline in the volume of Americans working remotely.

Lori Tansey Martins, President of the International Business Ethics Institute, says it is due to the impact on corporate culture.

“Survey data reveals a notable decrease in employee feelings of alignment within organizations, particularly among remote workers. Despite the levelling off of declines among in-office and hybrid employees, remote workers continue to experience fraying cultural bonds.”

If remote workers are experiencing “fraying cultural bonds”, that is not a result of where they work but poor leadership.

Culture does not live in an office. I could go into a busy office, be surrounded by people, and not feel alignment. Culture is a set of shared beliefs, values, and experiences. I challenge you to find one definition of Culture, which refers to a building, an office, or any form of bricks and mortar.

I have used this analogy before. I am part of a great culture, Liverpool Football Club. I am an avid fan, being born and bred in that city. As of June 2023, there were an estimated 200 million fans globally. The capacity of Liverpool’s home ground is 61,276.

This means that only 0.03% of fans are ever together. Yet, we have a great culture. We have the same values, sense of purpose, behaviour patterns, expectations, and assumptions. We sing the same songs.

Leaders must foster a more connected and inclusive environment regardless of employees' location. They must encourage meaningful connections both virtually and in person.

I will tell you why there has been a decline in the volume of employees working remotely.

RTO bullying tactics

In my newsletter “RTO Bullying Tactics”, I explore the tactics used to coerce workers back into the office.

Not only have employees been threatened with performance management and job losses if they do not return to the office, but executives also have their bonuses linked to their time in the office and getting their employees there.

As reported by BBC Worklife,

“Amazon sent a warning email to employees they believed were disobeying its three-days-in-the-office rule. Google released a memo giving managers permission to factor unexcused absences from the office into performance reviews. Advertising network Publicis bluntly told US workers that failure to come into the office three times a week could impact salary increases, bonuses and promotion opportunities.”

In Australia, one of the big four banks, ANZ, has told employees that their annual bonuses will be cut if they do not spend at least 50% of their scheduled working hours in the office.

The Commonwealth Bank, Suncorp Group and Origin Energy have similarly linked office attendance to annual performance reviews and bonuses.

And in the UK, banking giant Citi has told employees bonuses will be docked if they are not in the office for at least three days a week.

ANZ Chief Executive Shayne Elliott told employees that being in the office is in their interest. Of course, it is in my interest if you are going to dock my pay or sack me!

That is why the volume of remote workers is declining. It’s not by choice.

Bribes

Some organisations have taken a lighter touch than those using bullying tactics. BBC Worklife reports:

“Some are designating certain spaces in the building for health purposes," says New York-based management consultant Liz Kislik. This includes areas created so new mothers have a private place to pump, diabetics don't have to inject at their desks, and those who need daily physical therapy have the option to do it at the office.

As a type 1 diabetic, being able to not inject at my desk is not a perk. It is a right. Providing mothers with private places to feed babies is not a perk. It is a right.

Salesforce tried pulling at the heartstrings and offered to give $10 to local charities whenever an employee came into the office.

According to The Guardian, companies are trying to bribe workers back into the office with free tacos and life-size chess, work areas overlooking greenery where “employees feel like they’re in a tree house”. A real estate firm in New York has installed professional-level virtual golf links that use infrared sensors and cameras to analyse your swing. Apparently, according to the director of investments, it helps foster collaboration. Really?

Goldman Sachs has used food trucks to serve everything from lobster to doughnuts and blast loud music outside its offices in the afternoon.

This wins the bribe fest. Also reported by The Guardian:

“One company that has taken the idea of making work feel like home very literally: by creating private pods to let employees masturbate. At Stripchat, a Cyprus-based adult social network firm, workers can now spend up to half an hour a day on the company dime inside a “wank pod”: an enclosed black sphere equipped with a comfy chair, Oculus virtual reality headset, lotion, lube and tissues. A spokesperson for the company said it wanted to “provide current and attract new employees with a safe, comfortable space to rub one out”.”

The bottom line is workers want something other than free beer, golf, or treehouses. They want the freedom to choose where they work, when they work, and how they work.

Real estate

The HR Grapevine report also said:

“Organizations, heavily invested in office spaces, are faced with the prospect of diminished office space value, with a McKinsey & Company report projecting potential losses of $800 billion in real estate value by 2030 in a moderate scenario.”

Iva Durakovic, talking to news.com, said:

“This will sound harsh, but I think the desperation to get everyone back in the office is largely to do with money and real estate.”

In a previous newsletter, I wrote:

“The ANZ Centre at 833 Collins Street, Melbourne, was completed for $750 million in 2009. It is the largest single-tenanted commercial building in Australia. It comprises 14 storeys, provides a gross floor area of 130,000 square metres, and accommodates 6,500 staff.

Is CEO Shayne Elliot’s mandate to return to the office about teamwork, collaboration, and sharing of ideas, or more about concern over the empire he has built and the square footage of real estate that could sit empty?”

Layoff wolf

I wrote recently about the massive hiring during the pandemic, followed by massive layoffs. Companies who want to avoid the massive layoffs and the bad press that accompanies them may use covert tactics in the guise of a return to the office.

Dan Schawbel, managing partner at Workplace Intelligence and New York Times bestselling author, told CNBC:

“A company might use a return to office mandate as an opportunity to restructure its workforce.”

One company that could be employing this “covert layoff” tactic is AT&T, which recently mandated that 26,000 managers across 50 states work in person — but only at offices in just nine locations.”

In a June report, an AT&T employee told Bloomberg  that the telecommunications company’s new return-to-office mandate was “a layoff wolf” in sheep’s clothing.”

“RTO is a cheap and dirty way for companies to avoid legal complications and financial obligations associated with layoffs,” says career advisor and workplace expert Laurie Ruettimann.

Power 

And finally – the power struggle.

Some bosses are using the “command and control” playbook to rebuild the employee base that they had pre-pandemic. That is a workforce that “looks” productive and diligent because they have bums in office seats.

What are managers doing when their employees are working remotely?

What are they doing as they wander the empty corridors? They need to look like they are in control and, therefore, need a floor of people. They need to justify their existence by having people physically present to manage

It also makes them feel like they are in control when they can see their employees in the flesh. It does not equate with productivity or performance, but there is a comfort factor in having people to boss around.

These managers are hanging on to a 1950s Theory X from Douglas McGregor. The Theory X management style assumes all workers have little ambition, are less intelligent, are lazy, must always be watched, and must be directed and controlled to work.

Last words

I’ll end with a quote from Lewis Carroll which seems apt:

“Why is it that people with the most narrow of minds seem to have the widest of mouths?”