WFH or RTO? How to keep the office relevant

Modern offices have to offer more than simply a place to work, argue authors Chris Kane and Eugenia Anastassiou

The pandemic upended the way society and offices work and it’s unlikely to ever go back. But as business leaders try to work out the best model for productive workers and profit, the workers themselves have other ideas, as Chris Kane and Eugenia Anastassiou explore in their book Where Is My Office?

In the past, many millions of people all over the world commuted into cities and towns to work in offices of various sizes and shapes, usually housed in centrally located large glass and steel buildings. It was regarded as part of the normal daily routine and it was taken for granted that one needed to commute to a fixed place of work. Then along came the Covid-19 pandemic lockdowns and up-ended and completely re-shaped the world of how the office works; all of which unleashed a Pandora’s box of challenges for both enterprises and business leaders occupying these buildings and landlords alike.

The global lockdown gave rise to a period of reflection like never before, in the context of how we work in offices. Furthermore the transformation is global and everyone is experiencing the seismic shifts in the working landscape at the same time. The dilemmas are universal from New York to New Delhi, since most office workers all over the world experienced Working From Home (WFH) during lockdown and like the concept of incorporating a measure of flexibility into their working lives. Inevitably, most people are now questioning the need to commute to a downtown central HQ seven-days a week, 9 to 5 just to send emails and appraise reports – especially since technology has enabled elements of their work to be done productively and effectively, anytime, anyplace, anywhere and on any platform. This has led to a huge focus in the need for new models of working and whilst the office is not quite dead yet, its role in the emerging post-pandemic world of work needs to be reconsidered and reimagined.

How this will be achieved has caused huge debates as a variety of protagonists engage in a tug-of-war of words and opinions. The recent example being Amazon CEO Andy Jassy, who wants his office workers returning to the office (RTO) three days a week, saying that is was “one of (his) top priorities this year”. More than 30,000 Amazon employees signed a petition demanding a reversal of the mandate when it was announced – despite that fact that Amazon had also revealed that they were laying off 18,000 workers the month before. Employee concerns were centred around issues such as many had re-located during the pandemic, some of them living too far from an office base, in some cases requiring an unfeasible seven-hour commute or the prospect of upending their lives and families to move once again to be near the office. In the petition, employees also suggested going to the office once or twice a week or a few times a month would be sufficient, depending on the demands of a particular department or team and the work required. In other words the employees wanted to take some control in figuring out the working patterns of how to do their job in the best way possible – which requires a blended form of working supported by a combination of workplaces or platforms.

Amazon’s challenges in trying to manage and adjust to the hybrid world of fixed and flexible working, whilst attempting to meet the needs of management, employees and their bottom line is a scenario being played across the board, from large global companies to SMEs. What is evident is that no one has really experienced this level of extensive change in the ways we work since the Industrial Revolution and we are now in completely unfamiliar territory. Everyone must come to terms with the fact that work is moving away from the bureaucratic, paper-pushing age of the Fixed Office to hybrid, tech-enabled, agile Flexible Working and we are now entering a new era of multi-dimensional working or as we call it – Omni-working. This encompasses Fixed and Flexible, but also extends into fully-digital, platform-based, borderless Fluid Work. With the exponential rise of AI, machine-learning GPT, the metaverse and automation, making significant in-roads and changes in our working lives, the binary either/or choice of the office or WFH seems a moot point.

This begs one important question – what is the workplace in this era of multi-dimensional work demands? Beyond the office, WFH and remote platforms: is it now somewhere where people gather to collaborate, brainstorm, and innovate? Is it a place where they build up networks, get their mentoring or learn new skills? Or just an escape from home and domestic life? The place of work has now transcended the production line of factory-style clerical desks to become a forum, a meeting place, a talking-shop, an ideas lab, a learning centre, even a refuge.

All these facets of a workplace are now key consideration for all organisations in attracting and retaining the best talent and building up an organisational culture to help their people thrive and succeed. This goes beyond offering free doughnuts, gym memberships and state-of-the-art break out areas to entice their staff back to the office. Those so-called perks do not make up for giving people the freedom to choose when and how to work or shaping what an organisation’s RTO and WFH policies look like – as Amazon’s employees petitioned. More useful perks like increased sick leave or paid time-off, childcare benefits, wellbeing and employee assistance programmes would go a long way in incentivising a workforce. It also means that the natural work chain no longer necessarily requires a traditional office building, but a variation on the theme; including setting up staff to access near-home work hubs or co-working offices and meeting areas. In this way that they can easily manage when they need to meet up with colleagues and team members for all-important collaboration and networking, whilst also avoiding having to do a time-wasting, environmentally unfriendly, long commute to a central office on a regular basis. Organisations who are adopting these initiatives are proving to be quite successful in improving the workplace experience for their workers rather than offering free beer and swish socialization areas.

The time has arrived for bringing in some real innovation and fresh thinking in reimaging work for the 21st century. It is no longer just about having a singular focus of providing a great office building with attractive facilities and design features, the emphasis has to shift to understanding the people, technology and leadership issues and how the workplace can support the performance of the business. It also requires a holistic approach and a huge effort and willingness on everyone’s part: business leaders, an organisation’s departments, management and the workforce to come together to reframe what a particular business’s workplace should look like in order to fulfil their organisational goals.