The Future Of Work Is In Our Hands - Will We Mess It Up?

It’s no secret that the pandemic has had a lasting influence on our day to day lives, and not least of all on the way we work. Not surprising, considering it’s what we spend one third of our time doing.

Since things have settled down a bit and we’re all supposed to return to normal, there’s a fair few of us who want to stick with the new normal and stay at home, at least in part, thank you very much. Where else can we wear pyjamas and hang out with our pets? Initially many, perhaps conversation starved, employees were keen to return to the office, but often only if it was combined with remote working in the long-term.

This has many implications for employees and companies alike, and it looks like we’re all still muddling through. Since it seems we CAN have the best of both worlds with a part-remote, part-office schedule, the obvious future of work seems to be the hybrid model, but is it as simple as that?

Remote Working

Most of us are familiar with the benefits of remote working by now: increased employee productivity, better work-life balance, more autonomy, reduced costs, the list goes on... The rise of working from home has also seen more women get back into work, with official data showing the number of people who are currently economically inactive due to caring responsibilities at home or with family fell by 20,000 in the two years of the pandemic. All good stuff, right?

So Why Do They Want Us Back in The Office?

Despite all the benefits, many employers are still keen to reverse remote working policies.

Those guilty of ‘coasting’ are apparently responsible for the push to get us all back into the office. While coasting isn’t the same as slacking-off, it’s not far from it.

We’ve heard all sorts - from people using company time to simply hang out, listening to comedy podcasts, watching daytime telly and doing the weekly shop at Sainsburys, even cooking gourmet breakfast and lunch just because they can, taking meetings in the bath – you name it, all while keeping their bosses at bay by doing just enough work.

There’s always one who ruins it for the rest of us right, but can we REALLY place all blame on employees here? There’s a strong case to be argued that this behaviour is much more prevalent in workplaces that already had issues – low employee morale and burnout are common triggers for workplace coasting, and many were guilty of it even before the pandemic, they simply get up to more fun stuff now than playing solitaire on their office computer or secretly browsing Facebook like it’s still 2012.

Elon Musk recently warned Tesla employees to return to the office, or else. Demanding them to ditch the “remote pseudo-office" and clock into a Tesla office at least 40 hours a week or “pretend to work somewhere else.” However, a fully in-office policy may not be the wisest talent strategy to implement. It turns out many employees are willing to throw in the towel for more flexible jobs, even if that means sacrificing a higher-paying salary.

The Hybrid Model

It seems many companies are landing on hybrid as the default working model, and in theory, hybrid seems to be a win-win for employers and employees alike, right? Not entirely. For one thing, hybrid working can be exhausting. The psychological shift of changing settings on the regular is unsettling and stressful, leading to productive home working being constantly disrupted. It is reported that 80% of workers in the UK have agreed that hybrid work is exhausting physically, emotionally and mentally.

Office days are also surprisingly expensive, and the cost-of-living crisis is only making this worse. Some employees are touting that office days account for a quarter of their daily income. Our former Prime Minister even claimed that “Mother Nature” wants us to return to the office, but of course Boris wanted us back at our desks: without daily commutes businesses are losing out – just one day of commuting is worth a massive £82m to businesses in the UK. And what are they going to do with all those costly office buildings?

And what about when you turn up for the office day and find yourself sitting alone in the corner, sneaking away at lunchtime with no-one to see you doing so? Not necessarily the most productive way to work in our opinion.

Do What I Say Not What I Do

We also can’t neglect to mention the double-standard of returning to the office. Many employers are mandating that employees return to work while hardly leading by example themselves.

In April, data found a big disconnect between flexibility for non-executive and executive staff, essentially boiling down to the fact that junior workers are being forced to work full-time in the office while their bosses do the fandango at home. So much for company culture. Some have even revealed that their offices aren’t bothering to cater to basic employee needs anymore, like providing pens or tea and coffee.

To state the obvious, there are a lot of issues associated with the hybrid working model, and not to point fingers or anything... but it looks like employers need to work with employees and not against them. Quelle surprise.

What Now?

While we don’t claim to have all the answers, we reckon it’s the responsibility of employers to prioritise employee preferences for the sake of promoting better work quality and keeping employees satisfied and happy with their jobs. The old normal is a relic of the past (it likely always was) and the future of work is still to be determined.

Of course, it isn’t easy to keep up with a changing world, but nothing worth doing ever is.

We need to listen to employees needs to ensure that company culture and work practises are adapting, rather than digging in our heels and forcing an outdated model on an exhausted workforce.

Sure, it’s a shame that there’s no blueprint, easy answers or magic work life balance bullet - but all that means is that WE now get to draft it, and that’s exciting, right?