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With the governor leading the charge, employers are increasingly requiring their employees to return to the office — and it’s a transition that is proving painful on all sides. Starting next month, state workers will be expected to return to the office four days per week as “an operational necessity, to maximize collaboration, cohesion, efficiency and accountability.”

Certainly, many employers are recognizing the business benefits of people working together in an office at least a few days per week, but widespread employee protests have shown that implementing that return is going to be an uphill battle.

So what do you do as an employer who’s ready to make that call? And what rights do you have if your boss wants you back in a cubicle?

Benefits of WFH

Since the pandemic in 2020, working in an office has largely turned into working from home, and employees have benefited in so many ways. Let’s start with saying goodbye to a commute and saving money on car, gas and other related expenses, not to mention avoiding that rush-hour traffic, which gives you time back in your day — sometimes significant time.

WFH also eases the stress, complexity and cost of child care. Many working parents have been able to reduce the amount of childcare they need to pay for as they juggle work deliverables with raising children. WFH allows working parents to spend more time with their children, as they’ve eliminated commute time and can take breaks during the day to check in.

There’s also a marked mental health benefit for some employees, particularly those who struggle with marginalization and the negativity that can accompany team dynamics when the team lacks inclusion or there’s corporate politics. Working remotely, often with their webcam turned off so people can’t see them, can feel more psychologically safe and comfortable to some employees.

Lastly (and most notably for employers), surveys have found that many WFH employees are willing to forgo a raise and/or promotion in order to stay at home, leading a 2022 National Bureau of Economic Research paper to conclude, “the shift to remote work lessens wage-growth pressures.” Additionally, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reports lower job turnover associated with higher WFH employee satisfaction as well as increased productivity in certain industries. Factoring in utilities and other costs associated with office work, WFH may be the most efficient model for some businesses.

Benefits of working in the office

All that considered, many employers have learned the hard way that there’s an efficiency and productivity that comes from working together, in person.

In many ways, working with co-workers in person allows for a more creative and spontaneous exchange of ideas. Many people do their most innovative thinking when engaging in conversation on a break or while getting a coffee. These fluid, unstructured and creative co-worker interactions are totally missing from the remote work situation. Rather than needing to schedule several Zoom meetings, some problems can be solved quickly with a brief exchange.

The opportunity to communicate using words, face and body expression, tone of voice and demeanor are much more effective than relying 100 percent on digital communication, which many of us have largely been doing since 2020. And all of that erodes our connections and working relationships with our co-workers. The WFH model has made people more transactional and less connected with each other. If working relationships are not nurtured, the day becomes a series of isolated tasks and remote meetings.

While the negative impact to co-worker relationships is a loss for employees, it has a significantly more negative impact on employers. All of the benefits of working in person are now missing from the employer’s business model, and while it’s hard to quantify, some have found it adds up to a big cost on their balance sheet. While WFH was necessary during the pandemic, it’s no longer necessary in most cases, and employers want the most they can get from their spend on their workforce. So it’s not surprising that the takebacks are now happening in full force.

Employee takebacks are tough and disruptive

As a former labor negotiator, I can verify it’s tough to do an employee “takeback” — meaning taking compensation, scheduling or some other employer-sponsored benefit away from employees after they’ve had a chance to enjoy and appreciate those benefits. That’s where we are with employees working from home.

Employees have appreciated this benefit for five years now. That’s a long time to get used to an employer benefit. Now, employers are taking that benefit away. It’s not very different from taking away any other benefit such as paid time off or health care. It’s a tough negotiation, and you usually need to give something when taking something away. So as employers increasingly demand that their employees give up an employer-sponsored benefit they’ve appreciated and come to expect, it’ll be interesting to watch all of the “give/get” negotiations that occur this year.

Ultimately, I suspect we will all settle on some compromise, a middle ground of hybrid work, but only after a disruptive year of negotiating between employers and employees.

A lawyer and HR leader, Janine Yancey founded Emtrain to provide an online learning solution to develop and measure employees’ skills in ethics, respect and inclusion, and give employers a scalable tool to proactively manage employee behaviors. Her vision of a skills-based, data-driven talent approach on culture topics has put her at the forefront of thought leadership on sexual harassment, bias, diversity and ethics issues. Janine is a sought-after speaker and has been published and interviewed in the mainstream media including Washington Post, USA Today, ABC, MSN, CNET, Bloomberg Business, TechCrunch and Startup Grind.

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