Jan. 26, 2022 "Workers losing faith in employers as they head back to the office": Today I found this article by Matthew Boyle on the Financial Post:
Companies are calling workers back to the office — again. But after so many fits and starts, employees are losing faith that their managers can get this right.
The share of remote workers who trust their employer to make the right decision on returning to the office hit the lowest point in twelve months, according to a weekly survey by pollster Morning Consult. Just over half of those surveyed agreed, down from about two-thirds who had expressed trust in recent months.
Bank of America Corp., Citigroup Inc. and Credit Suisse Group AG are among the big companies bringing employees back to U.S. offices in the weeks ahead as coronavirus conditions improve.
The announcements come just weeks after many firms gave employees more freedom to work from home at the end of 2021 when the Omicron variant emerged, creating a whiplash effect.
Other employers, like Apple, have postponed their office returns indefinitely. As workplaces gird for a third year of the COVID-19 pandemic, experts say one thing is clear: Making firm plans is a fool’s errand.
“Given many companies have moved, and re-moved, reopening dates, it’s no surprise that remote workers are feeling uneasy about when they’ll eventually be asked back to offices,” said Joanna Piacenza, head of industry intelligence at Morning Consult.
“Employers are currently facing a near-impossible balancing act of following through on the reopening timelines they announced back in 2021 while also being mindful of their employees’ comfort levels and health.”
Communication issues
The growing disconnect between employees and bosses goes beyond return to office plans.
Nearly three out of four executives believe they’re being “very transparent” with regard to remote working policies,
but less than half of employees agree with that, according to a recent survey of more than 10,000 white-collar workers.
Cynicism has consequences: Workers who don’t think their managers are levelling with them are more than two times more likely to be looking for a new job, the survey from Future Forum, a research consortium created by Slack Technologies, found.
One reason for the growing distrust could be a lack of communication. For example, 42 per cent of companies last week told Gartner Inc., a workplace consultant and researcher, that they hadn’t communicated anything to employees about the Supreme Court’s Jan. 13 ruling that rejected President Biden’s requirement that large companies implement a vaccine mandate or periodic testing.
For Brian Kropp, head of HR research at Gartner, the indecision could stem from two years of pinballing policies that have left both employers and employees exhausted.
“It’s so hard for employers to motivate employees right now,” he said.
Workers losing faith in employers as they head back to the office | Financial Post
There are 19 comments:
The heads that will explode will be priceless. I know 8 people all couples who have been making bank for two years working for major insurance company and Banks staying how. They even are not shy to tell you thye hope it lasted forever..lol.. they lobby their bosses for testing hehe anything to not go in for a meeting the sheer fear they have of instead of waking up 7 am and roll in shower then office chair they will have to do it all over again at 4am and drive..lol..I can’t stop laughing.
You may be right Kim. For many people, working at home is a real blessing, the only challenge is that so many people want to do it, that you may be competing with a LOT more people from other geographic regions who will work for less. You may even find that you're competing with people living in other countries.
Mar. 23, 2022 "As employees return to the office, the much-hyped hybrid model faces acid test: Does it work?": Today I found this article by Pete Evans on CBC news:
As former office dwellers make a return to their workplaces, employers and workers are having to navigate exactly what the new normal of work is going to look like.
The subject of heading back to the office after years of working from home is an especially thorny one. In a recent poll by the Angus Reid Institute conducted in partnership with CBC News, when asked what they would do if their employer mandated them back to the office full time, more than half of those surveyed said they would probably start looking for somewhere else to work.
Between March 1 and 4 of this year, the polling firm asked 2,550 Canadian adults what they would do if given such an ultimatum. (A probability sample of this size would carry a margin of error of +/- 2 percentage points, 19 times out of 20.)
A third (33 per cent) said they would begrudgingly do it, but start looking for another job.
Almost a quarter (23 per cent) said they would quit on the spot.
Twenty-nine per cent said they would be fine with it.
The rest weren't sure.
Flexibility will be key
Professor Linda Duxbury, who teaches at the Sprott School of Business at Carleton University in Ottawa, says the answer to the question of what a normal working arrangement will look like from now on is far from clear.
"I'd like to be able to give you one answer … but it's much more nuanced than that," she said.
Duxbury has been researching remote work during the pandemic, and after poring over data from 26,000 Canadian workers, she said a few broad trends can be gleaned from the data.
Roughly one quarter of workers, she said, want to go back to the office full time,
while about the same proportion would rather never set foot in the office if they don't have to.
A complex split like that reinforces why flexibility is the name of the game for office work from now on. Outside of a few industries, the days of mandating 40 hours a week worth of face time in the office are over.
A little under half of Canadian workers are theoretically able to do all or part of their job from home, Duxbury said, but that's not to suggest all of them want to all the time, or produce their best work when they do.
Smart organizations, she said, will be flexible and based on individuals' needs.
"You've got to ... actually start talking to your people [and] stop pretending ... that there is some magical plan you can implement it and it'll be a miracle," she said.
"People are not willing to sacrifice their soul any more for their organization and the privilege of working for you," she said, citing an ongoing war for talent that has given workers an edge they didn't use to have.
It's why her advice to employers is blunt.
"If you get it wrong, you might not have a business two or three years from now even to deal with."
Hannah Gold, a recruitment consultant with staffing firm TDS Personnel, agrees that flexibility is the name of the game, for both workers and the people looking to hire them.
Most of her firm's clients have moved to some version of the hybrid working model, where new hires are coming in on the expectation and agreement that some work will happen in office, while other work will not. While a few employers are insisting on full-time, in-office work, it's becoming a challenge.
"The ones that are mandating it are going to have a more challenging time filling that position," she said, because the job market right now is very much "what we would call a candidate's market."
Work environment expectations are becoming so paramount, they are almost more important than things like compensation in some cases, she said.
"Not everybody wants that," she said, referring to coming back into the office, full time.
"Some people do, but not everyone wants to go back, commute into the office every single day ... like they used to."
Wave Financial is among those employers for whom flexibility is the name of the game. With about 350 employees across Canada and the U.S., the financial technology company has adopted a hybrid approach, and says it's working well.
"We've really learned some things through the pandemic," said Ashira Gobrin, Wave's chief people and culture officer.
"One is that we actually can work very efficiently remotely,
and that people are happy in their homes getting stuff done," she said,
while others benefit from working together in person for certain tasks.
At Wave, the office is "meant to be a place that gives something to you that you don't have at home," she said, but "everybody's got the ability to pick what works for them and then also what works for their teams."
Satisfied workers
On the streets of Toronto on Monday morning, most commuters making their way into the office who spoke to CBC News were happy to be back, but almost none of them expected they would be doing it quite the way they used to.
Jake Cruikshank said his employer asks all employees to be in the office at least two days a week, but he's choosing to come in for four.
"It's just better for me, I just get stuff done," he said.
"Some people can work remotely full time, but I'm just not one of those people."
Hari Balasingham, who works in finance, jokes that his dog may be missing him being at home all day, but he doesn't.
"I prefer to be in the office, to be honest. You get more done there."
The Royal Bank of Canada has implemented a hybrid approach, and Mike Elsey, who works for the bank, said that's fine with him.
"It's good to be back," he said.
"I mean, it's nice to have the flexibility."
Kristen Howcroft, a project co-ordinator with CIBC, will be splitting her work week between home and the office. She said she was looking forward to sharing space with colleagues again, because she misses the interactions with coworkers.
"It'll be exciting and I think it'll bring good morale back to everyone."
On the whole, workers who spoke to CBC News were fine with the idea of coming back to the office in some capacity, but Duxbury said that doesn't mean employers should assume they can mandate things to be how they used to.
She said in this job market, smart companies need to take the threat of losing a quarter of their workforce because of a refusal to adapt seriously.
"Even if they don't leave, do you think it's a good thing to have one in five of your people staying with you for golden handcuffs and hating you? Absolutely not," she said.
"You want people who are staying because they like you and they're engaged in the work and what you do. Good employers are going to come out of this smelling like roses."
Comments:
There are many job functions that can be carried out at home.
But.... People like to do business with people they know and like.
General rule - if you wish to excel in your job, do your duties well and manage the people in your downline.
But if you want to EXCEL IN YOUR CAREER do you duties well, manage the people in your downline, and manage the people in your upline.
To manage the people better - especially your upline - to advance your career - you need to see and be seen. People like to do business with people they know and like. « less
"Computer....money. Lot's of it! Oh and tea. Earl Grey. Hot."
No one is required to provide and maintain employment for your unique personalities or work ethics.
Just don't expect free money because you don't like the options available.
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