My echo chamber is one again showing me lots of content about organisations pushing for a ‘return to office’.  Of course most people have long since returned to offices since the pandemic.  What this term really means is ‘a return to more office’.  Pre-Covid, many of us were tied to a 5-day in person working week.  Flexibility looked like the occasional day from home – if your boss allowed it of course.  The pandemic changed all of that.  We learned that you could actually get quite a lot of stuff done remotely after all, and it would not lead to a wave of skiving. Many organisations figured out that a blend of in-person and remote work could be the best of both worlds.

It has not, however, quite worked out as hoped in all cases. Some leadership teams remain desperate to return to the old ways and the old days (pro tip – if you are using the word ‘again’ a lot, you might just be going in the wrong direction).  There remains a disconnect between how much in-person time leaders want and how much time employees want (leaders obviously wanting more than their people do).  This has led to a range of initiatives from mandated days, monitored presence, links to performance reviews and even cringey corporate videos extolling the benefits of the often fabled watercooler.

Here’s the thing.  If you want people to come to work in your office, mandating it, making unevidenced statements about the benefits of the office and monitoring attendance is not the right way.  All this does is suggest you don’t really have a compelling strategy for creativity, innovation and culture – all those things so often quoted as better in person (spoiler – not necessarily). 

Contrary to some beliefs, most people don’t hate coming into the office (although the evidence is fairly conclusive that many people hate commuting to one though). They don’t want to come into the office for no reason at all, to spend all day doing things they could do at least as, if not more, effectively at home. 

It’s not like most offices were ever awesome places in the old das.  Many of them are distraction factories full of noise where it’s hard to concentrate on deep work. Others are poorly designed, lit or ventilated.  Getting there sucks too.  Despite some opinions they are not hotbeds of creativity or spontaneous innovation.

Organisations have a choice.  If they want people to come into their offices they can mandate and monitor it, or they can chose to make it worth their employees’ while. They can make being in the office meaningful – and deliver actual useful business and employee outcomes. 

If you believe that people need to come into the office to collaborate and build relationships, facilitate them in doing so. Put the effort in.  Bring them in for the stuff that matters, not update meetings, Teams calls or to sit in sterile spaces or even worse, behind their closed office doors. Microsoft talk about ‘moments that matter’ in the office, like onboarding and new team formation. Leesman talk about ‘purposeful presence’ in the office.   Whatever you call it, work has changed and organisations can look backwards or look for something better. 

The primary purpose for going to the office must be communication, collaboration and connection.  Otherwise, why bother?

Don’t hide behind the watercooler trope. If organisations want to get people together for creativity, innovation and collaboration then they need to create the conditions, not assume it will happen as a by-product of attending a physical workspace.  There are many ways to make in-person work effective and useful.  To make it feel worth the commute. 

Have a defined purpose for in-person work.  Define what is done together, and what is done remotely.  Invest in your office time and physical spaces.  Create a community and connect people.  Focus on creating those desired interactions, relationships and cultural moments.  Listen to people about what they need to work at their best, rather than what leaders think about how people work best. Empower them to put that into practice.  Make your office a place that people want to come.

Or you know.  Force them. And have an unhappy and disengaged workforce.