The End of 'Work From Home'

 

The end of 'work from home' is not the result of the Tyranny of Corporate Bosses! 

Earlier this month, #Amazon CEO Andy Jassy said that the company will return to having employees in the office five days a week, beginning in January.

“We’ve decided that we’re going to return to being in the office the way we were before the onset of COVID,” Jassy said in a message shared with employees. “When we look back over the last five years, we continue to believe that the advantages of being together in the office are significant.”

Jassy — who replaced Amazon founder Jeff Bezos as chief executive in 2021 — said the company operates better when employees are in the office together.

AND that is what it is. 

For many organization, 

the back to office mandate is coming 

from the experience of the past 4 years 

and not some kneejerk reaction of a leader 

who wants to see people in office slogging out. 

And who is to be blamed you ask? 

Think about it.

The ones who worked from home. 

Many of them took unfair advantage of it 

and got carried away with their new found freedom. 

They actually under-delivered. They even moon-lighted. 

The Managers had a tough time 

managing the remote team who would 

be difficult to connect at times and even 

become unreachable during working hours. 

Collaborations went for a toss as people would 

not connect with each other and talk things over. 

In office, you walked across and talked to people.

In the virtual world, while things were easier to do, 

people hesitated to call & talk waiting for meeting request.  

Of course, not all employees were like this. 

Many were more productive in WFM mode. 

BUT, the overall experience of the management 

in organizations, based on feedback from managers, 

has been on these lines, showing 'WFM does not work'

AND hence, those organizations will institutionalize a

back-to-office mandate with the facility of WFH extended 

to employees in very special conditions only, with approval. 

So next time you are in a debate, 

taking the side of Work From Home, 

do give a thought to how honest & true

were you while working from your home. 

Tickle your Integrity and Question Yourself. 

Don't just blame it on old-fashioned leaders

who don't understand the generation of today. 

They understand business. They understand people. 

And, as a Leader, taking decisions is what you do. 

And most of the time, people will not like them. 

It's your job to take decisions with conviction. 

And then uphold that conviction. Be True.

Leaders will face more and more of these

challenges, especially, Remote Working. 

Your workforce will demand #WFH, 

while you will have evidence that

it doesn't work in your company.

Who do you call?? 

#BackToOffice #CoachHemant #LeadershipDevelopment