Four and half years ago, I was asked this question in an interview: What will work look like in 2025?
My answer, which I gave from my kitchen in my pandemic mullet—business on top, sweats on the bottom—was, “I think it will look close to what it looked like in 2019.”
Enter Andy Jassy, President and CEO of Amazon and his mandate to return to office five days a week in 2025.
I’m not usually one to make predictions, but I must say I’m not surprised at the way the tides are changing.
Because, as we know—the pendulum always swings back.
So when we’re trying to manage remote work, hybrid work, technology, AI, social pressures, and personal stress, we’re asking a lot—of our managers, and our company’s infrastructure. And I’m sorry to say that most companies aren’t doing it well and are throwing in the towel. They aren’t willing to invest the time, money, and training to get it right. What a missed opportunity.
If you’re looking for alternatives to the all-or-nothing approach to hybrid work, here are my recommendations. Keep in mind these ideas are for knowledge workers, not those on the front line.
- Employees don’t need to be in the office five days a week – unless there is a specific business issue that requires it. We have great technology that allows us to work from anywhere.
- If employees come in one or two days a week, leaders should pick which days and make it the same for everyone. What’s the point of coming in and sitting by yourself in a cubicle?
- If employees come in three days, leaders should choose two “anchor” days and employees or teams can choose the other. By the way, research from Stanford professor Nicholas Bloom found that two to three days in office is the sweet spot. It “still gets you the level of mentoring, culture-building, and innovation that you want.”
People want flexibility, but they also want and need connection. They want to grow on the job AND to combat loneliness and isolation. And when we come into offices, we support our cities and our local businesses.
So, no I’m not celebrating Andy Jassy’s Five-Day RTO mandate, but I do understand his desire to do it: It’s easy.
But great human leaders know that the human stuff is the hardest stuff. And these days the really important stuff.
Don’t take the easy way out.
10/8/24
