When Are We Going Back Into An Office?
Several large companies have given clear directives that work-from-home days are numbered
What is common between Amazon, Wells Fargo, Goldman Sachs and Google?
They are all companies which are clearly looking to get their employees back into an office, and fast! The past 2 weeks have been filled with news stories of various large companies talking about their back to work strategies.
Amazon told employees last week that it is planning to "return to an office-centric culture as our baseline.". As of now, they will continue working remotely till end of June, but start going back into their offices by July.
Wells Fargo also weighed in on this topic through a memo sent to employees stating that, ‘We believe most of us benefit by being physically together’. The bank is eyeing September as a potential back to office date for it’s teams.
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Although employers are not mandating vaccinations to their teams, they are encouraging them to take it. Companies like 3M and Deere are working to get their employees vaccinated through on-campus vaccination drives.
The Hybrid Option
Does this mean our days of working from home will soon be over?
Not quite. Many companies are clearly taking the ‘Hybrid’ option of working. Microsoft is championing this.
The company released it’s 2021 Work Trend Report title - ‘The Next Great Disruptor is Hybrid Work - Are we Ready?’. You can download it here (It’s a great report, and I’d recommend everyone read it).
The company feels that flexible work options are here to stay, and the talent market has fundamentally shifted due to flexible work. The company says that high productivity has masked the fact that our work force is exhausted, and that leaders are out of touch with the ground reality of working remote.
The company seems to be sold on the idea of a hybrid work environment for the long run, with some employees working from the office while others work from home.
CitiGroup has been clear that the future of the bank is hybrid. The company expects employees to work 3 days in office, and 2 days from home. The directive seems to be applicable at a global level.
Google seems to prefer working from an office, but keeping the option of working remotely open. The company said it plans to bring people back into an office from September onwards. Employees who want to work from home for than 14 days in a year would need to formally apply for it. In exceeding circumstances, employees will be allowed to work remotely for up to a year as well.
Facebook, suggested that a majority of it’s workforce will work fully remote over the next decade, also seems to be putting together a back in office plan. The company is opening it’s offices in May with 10% of it’s team back in, and expects to have 50% by September.
Going Fully Remote
In the initial 3 months of the pandemic, many companies were surprised by the high productivity of employees despite working fully remote. It lead to many companies weighing their options of being a fully remote company.
Twitter was one of the largest companies that committed to being either fully remote, or remote first. Other large organization which joined this bandwagon last year include Shopify, Quora, Slack, Zillow, Coinbase and a host of others.
It’s easy to spot that fully remote is clearly only an option for tech companies. We are yet to see too many cases of banking, insurance, consultancy and other businesses commit to being either fully remote, or even remote-first.
While being fully remote is a very credible option for startups, companies which have 100/500/1,000+ employees will find the transition to be difficult. If a new company with a ‘remote first’ approach from it’s onset grows into 1,000+ employees over time, it will be much more sustainable than an existing large company going fully remote. Changing a company culture takes time and effort.
The Path Forward
Most people (Including myself!) are exhausted thinking about ‘Remote first vs hybrid vs Office first’ choice.
On one hand, being remote first allows you to hire the best talent irrespective of their geography, and helps save on real estate costs. Plus, people love the flexibility!
On the other, most people have not completely adapted to working remotely - The toll on mental health will take years to truly understand. Not to mention the impact to culture of the company, which is often a force multiplier to a great company’s output.
Companies are not great at making decisions, especially when the parameters are intangible.
This seems like a topic which won’t get 100% consensus anytime soon, but hope to see some movement on this quickly. The impact of back to office strategies have far reaching consequences on other aspect of society including mobility, residential real estate, immigration, etc. The faster we can see decisions, the sooner we can plan and build our lives around it.
Sources and reading material
Microsoft report: https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/worklab/work-trend-index/hybrid-work
Google: https://www.cnbc.com/2021/03/31/google-speeds-partial-office-reopening-and-puts-limits-on-remote-work.html
Goldman Sachs: https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2021-03-29/goldman-sachs-says-summer-interns-will-work-from-its-offices
Wells Fargo: https://www.wsj.com/articles/wells-fargo-plans-to-bring-employees-back-to-the-office-in-september-11617133597
Amazon: https://www.cbsnews.com/news/amazon-return-to-office-covid-19-pandemic/
Citi: https://www.wsj.com/articles/citigroup-plans-for-hybrid-workforce-post-pandemic-11616519476?mod=article_inline
Facebook: https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2021-03-26/facebook-to-start-reopening-silicon-valley-offices-in-may