Jodi’s Journal: CEO’s message about returning to office illustrates broader issues

June 13, 2021

Want an unfailing fast way to upset people? Offer them something of value – and then take it away.

Elected officials discover this regularly. Try cutting a government service – basically any service – and at least some pushback will begin.

Want a way to cause instant anxiety and distress in the workplace? Try changing where people sit.

Now, mash those two concepts together, and it’s not at all surprising the struggle that is ensuing as employers attempt to determine where work should occur in a post-pandemic society.

We ran an update several weeks ago checking in with many employers and found no real common themes other than everyone appears to be working through what a blend of remote and in-person work could or should look like.

And I think, as is often the case, that what emerges in Sioux Falls likely will look more like a traditional workplace arrangement than in areas where longer commuting and more costly office space exist.

But for a glimpse of what’s bubbling not too far beneath the surface within the workforce, look at what happened in Washington, D.C., after Cathy Merrill, chief executive of Washingtonian Media shared her concerns about not returning to the office.

She published this op-ed in The Washington Post, originally titled “As a CEO, I want my employees to understand the risks of not returning to work in the office.”

Merrill mentioned how in conversations with other CEOs, there is a shared sense of pride for how teams performed in the past year. But she also noted, correctly, that “we all started at a place where we and our employees knew one another, which made remote work considerably easier and more productive. We also could rely on office cultures – established practices, unspoken rules and shared values, established over years in large part by people interacting in person.”

She went on to say how more established employees seemed to be among the most reluctant to return to the office, which posed a problem from a leadership standpoint. Incidentally, that is not a theme I’ve heard from Sioux Falls business leaders. In our community, there appears to be a divide among those favoring remote work and in person, but I don’t sense any themes around career stage – if anything, I hear more that younger workers favor remote work.

Where Merrill really sparked controversy, though, was in her attempt to warn employees about how being a remote worker could evolve. She estimated  20 percent of every office job is outside an employee’s core responsibilities and involves mentoring, team-building, etc.

“If an employee is rarely around to participate in those extras, management has a strong incentive to change their status to ‘contractor,’” she said, noting that would mean no set salary or benefits.

She continued to voice a fear I hear from many CEOs: a loss of collaboration, creativity and culture.

“So although there might be some pains and anxiety going back into the office, the biggest benefit for workers may be job security,” she said. “Remember something every manager knows: The hardest people to let go are the ones you know.”

So it was pretty candid and straightforward, right? Could I see her points? Yes, though switching people from salaried to contracted work seems a bit unrealistic currently given the hiring challenges most are facing. However, much of what she offered does reflect realities of the workplace and elements of what I’ve heard from other business leaders.

But, wow, was there backlash.

I mean, it was so bad the staff stopped publishing for a day in protest.

More than a dozen of them tweeted the same message: “We want our CEO to understand the risks of not valuing our labor” and “We are dismayed by Cathy Merrill’s public threat to our livelihoods.”

And when I looked at the reaction from places the column had been shared on social media, the comments were overwhelmingly opposed to Merrill. She was called out of touch, a dinosaur, selfish, someone who must not have a life and, of course, anti-worker.

Merrill went into damage-control mode. The headline in her original piece was changed to: “As a CEO, I worry about the erosion of office culture with more remote work,” to reflect how it wasn’t meant to threaten her employees.

While CEOs might talk about culture in the context of where people work, what I hear from workers generally revolves around productivity. Many feel like they have been as productive or more working from home. But it’s important to define productivity too.

For the past year, for many, that has been about trying to make sure you stayed in business, covered the essentials and managed through unprecedented upheaval. At the same time, because of a whole host of economic and governmental factors, many businesses found they ultimately finished quite strong in 2020. Against that definition of productivity, many could easily make a case for it.

But what does productivity look like in late 2021 or 2022? Does it involve more ideation, new product development or succession planning? These are the questions that can help determine an optimal workplace setting, which likely will look different from business to business and even within businesses.

Regardless, the workplace needs to be a lot more than a place to plug in a computer. It has to foster a valuable experience for employees to find value in it. Many comments I saw were from those who said they felt relieved for distance from “toxic” work environments – bullying, gossiping, even harassing co-workers were cited a lot. So before employers assume remote work is all about more easily managing home life, it’s worth carefully examining the environment inside the office.

I’ve also in recent weeks heard from many employers who said their teams are eager to get back into work. That says a lot about what they’ve created there too.

But Merrill’s point to workers also is worth heeding I think. It will be easier in a challenging hiring environment to believe we’re all indispensable. But no one is. So as we all navigate yet one more turn in the pandemic evolution, it’s important to balance an emphasis on how and why we work with where and when we work.

Returning to the office: As businesses prepare to bring back more workers, approaches vary

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Jodi’s Journal: CEO’s message about returning to office illustrates broader issues

“I want my employees to understand the risks of not returning to work in the office,” she said. From there, a clash of opinions ensued.

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