Surprising no one but the mgmt teams…
Unispace found that nearly half (42%) of companies with return-to-office mandates witnessed a higher level of employee attrition than they had anticipated. And almost a third (29%) of companies enforcing office returns are struggling with recruitment. In other words, employers knew the mandates would cause some attrition, but they weren’t ready for the serious problems that would result.
Meanwhile, a staggering 76% of employees stand ready to jump ship if their companies decide to pull the plug on flexible work schedules, according to the Greenhouse report. Moreover, employees from historically underrepresented groups are 22% more likely to consider other options if flexibility comes to an end.
In the SHED survey, the gravity of this situation becomes more evident. The survey equates the displeasure of shifting from a flexible work model to a traditional one to that of experiencing a 2% to 3% pay cut.
Definitely no arguments there!
I think a lot of middle managers get a small taste of power, and at that point take on the “corporate drone” personality, and start parroting the corporate agenda as well as wanting to directly micromanage their employees (can’t do that if they’re not there.)
“Stakeholders this, we’re here to make the company money that, yada yada yada”
The thing is that the reason corporate wants people back to the office is that these companies have put so much money into these office buildings, and if they don’t get their workers back to the office, then that equals a loss! Can’t have that! They can’t sell the buildings off either since the housing/commercial building market is trashed right now, so again they’d be taking a huge loss.
So even with all of the benefits of WFH to people’s work/life balance, mental wellbeing, and productivity, the company is losing some X amount of money, and that’s what they really care about.