Work supervisors who want to personally see their staff at work, (thinking if they can't see their workers, their workers aren't working) are calling their employees to be back in the office by Labor Day. Houston HR Consultant Jill Hickman says she sees this in her practice, but she also sees some push-back from staff. "Many of them are thinking, 'Do I want to go back to that environment and if I do, under what conditions?'" Hickman says most supervisors are trying to keeping their staffs with scheduling adjustments and are concentrating on work satisfaction. She says many workers are already back and glad to once again with co-workers they missed. Hickman comments she sees the happiest to be in the office are parents who were playing so many roles at home, they are glad to be back to one job at a time.
The Dark Side of Working Remotely
"Many supervisors always said, 'We will never be remote.' 'We can't work remote.' Then when they were forced to work remote and they were made aware that they COULD work remote --- but they still wanted to go back to in-office work and got the troops back as soon as possible." Hickman says many of the companies that are already back in their offices are losing employees to other jobs that will allow them to work remotely, older staff who didn't want to face the office again taking early retirement , and others who are still not comfortable working in close proximity to others.
photo:GettyImages
Going back to the office.Photo: Getty Images