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CORONAVIRUS UPDATE: BA.5 BLAMED AS U.S. CASES JUMP 19% OVER TWO-WEEK SPAN





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 1. Home
 2. Personal Finance
 3. Help My Career


HELP MY CAREER




‘IT’S NOT ABOUT THE FUTURE OF WORK, IT’S ABOUT THE FUTURE OF LIVING’: HOW TO
HANDLE THE DREADED ‘RETURN-TO-WORK’ ZOOM CALL WITH YOUR BOSS

Last Updated: July 24, 2022 at 7:15 a.m. ET First Published: July 18, 2022 at
12:47 a.m. ET
By

QUENTIN FOTTRELL

  comments


AFTER ‘THE GREAT RESIGNATION,’ MORE COMPANIES ARE SAYING IT’S TIME FOR ‘THE
GREAT RETURN’

HAS THE TIME COME FOR THE GREAT RETURN? IF SO, HOW MANY DAYS A WEEK IS
APPROPRIATE?

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When is it good for you to return to the office? 

Some people may be tempted to quote that famous New Yorker cartoon and reply,
“How about never —  is never good for you?” But what is acceptable in a
smarty-pants magazine cartoon is hardly acceptable in real life. Few managers
will take kindly to a zero-sum game.

So how do you handle that conversation? Because if it has not happened yet, it
likely soon will.


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Some companies have gone fully remote. Airbnb ABNB, +0.54%, for example,
launched a “live and work anywhere” program for its employees. With more cities
instituting strict rules around short-term stays, the company clearly has a
vested interest in leading by example and having its employees work from home
(or in an Airbnb in the country). Coinbase COIN, -4.29%, Slack, Shopify SHOP,
-1.74% and other companies are also staying remote. 

Meanwhile, a large number of companies are allowing their employees to work on a
hybrid schedule, meaning a few days a week at home and a few days a week in the
office. They include Twitter TWTR, -1.54%, Reddit, Facebook parent Meta META,
-1.58% and, of course, Zoom ZM, -0.60%  — another company that obviously
benefits from people working at least part of the time at home.

It’s also worth remembering that remote work is a luxury. Only 7.1% of workers
in June teleworked specifically due to the pandemic, according to the latest
jobs report, a decline from 7.4% in May. A Federal Reserve report released in
May found that in late 2021, just 22% of people were working full-time from
home.



“Research suggests that members of Generation Z, born between 1997 and 2012, are
more likely to have an easier conversation with a boss who wants them to go back
to the office.”

We’ve come a long way. First we had The Great Resignation. (Some called it The
Great Renegotiation.) Then there was The Great Resistance, where some employees
dug their heels in under the sofa and point-blank refused to go back to the
office. Has the time come for The Great Return? If so, how many days a week is
appropriate? And if you don’t want to return, why not?

More than two years into the pandemic, members of Generation Z are more likely
to have an easier conversation with a boss who wants them to go back to the
office. Gen Z — born between 1997 and 2012 — are the most likely to say they’d
prefer to work in the office, according to a survey of 11,000 high-school and
college-aged respondents conducted by the National Society of High School
Scholars this past spring.

This younger generation could be more in need of mentorship than millennials,
Generation X and baby boomers, and they may have fewer familial
responsibilities. Research has shown that women, particularly working mothers,
are more likely to want to work from home. Other people may have underlying
conditions that put them at greater risk of severe COVID-19 outcomes, or a
person in their household who is at heightened risk.

“Transparency and directness work best. See how your coworkers feel about it,
and look back at the challenges and successes of the last two-plus years.”

Before clicking into the Zoom meeting with your manager, digest these data
points: Despite return-to-the-office mandates introduced by some companies,
non-executive employees are nearly twice as likely as executives to return to
the workplace full time, according to a survey of 10,818 workers in the U.S.,
Australia, France, Germany, Japan and the U.K.



Over one-third (34%) of “knowledge” workers — those who deal in information —
returned to the office five days a week, found a poll conducted between Jan. 27
and Feb. 21, 2022 by Future Forum, a consortium launched by Slack that aims to
put a digital workplace first. Meanwhile, “employee sentiment has dropped to
near-record lows,” the report said.


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“Work-related stress and anxiety is at its worst since our surveying began,” the
authors wrote. “The data also indicates that employers will pay a price for this
discontent: Workers who say that they are unsatisfied with their current level
of flexibility — both in where and when they work — are now three times as
likely to say they will ‘definitely’ look for a new job in the coming year,
compared to those who report satisfaction with their work flexibility.”

Nicholas Bloom, an economics professor at Stanford University and prominent
remote-work researcher, suggested avoiding the return-to-work talk altogether.

“Do you even want to have this conversation?” Bloom said. “If you bring it to
people’s attention, they may formalize your situation. If you say nothing, they
may turn a blind eye. Keep calm and carry on. That might be the way I’ll go.
It’s clear that that’s what’s happening in a lot of places.”

Still, that won’t work for everyone. And for a happy, healthy workplace,
transparency and directness often work best. See how your coworkers feel about
it, and look back at the challenges and successes of the last two-plus years.
Has your company risen to the remote-work challenge?

Here are some handy talking points for employees who want to negotiate working
from home, at least part of the time. There’s a lot at stake for both employers
and their staff. Chris Herd, the CEO of Firstbase, which advocates for remote
work, puts it this way: “It’s not about the future of work, it’s about the
future of living.”

1. NO TWO EMPLOYEES ARE ALIKE

Some employees live with an elderly parent, while others have comorbidities that
make them more susceptible to serious illness from COVID-19, even if they are
vaccinated and boosted. People may also prefer remote work due to a disability,
caregiving responsibilities, a reprieve from workplace microaggressions, greater
productivity at home, or a desire for better work-life balance.

2. YOU’RE SAVING YOUR COMPANY TIME

Not only does commuting less save you stress and anxiety, it also saves you 70
minutes a day, according to research by a group of economists at WFH Research,
including Bloom, who calls it a “magical trick” to restore 35 minutes to your
home life and 35 minutes to your work life. In other words, it benefits you and
your employer. “It’s a win-win,” Bloom says. 



3. HYBRID SCHEDULES ARE SMARTER

Bloom suggests telling your manager: “I want to be organized.” The team should
pick X number of days a week to come in, but people need quiet work time at home
that complements more “watercooler brainstorming,” he said. Of course, it’s a
balance. Studies have shown that employees can waste precious hours social
networking, online shopping, playing videos or simply doom scrolling through
their feed. But to allay any fears, your results and level of virtual engagement
should speak for themselves.

4. SMALLER OFFICES COST LESS MONEY

There is a financial and environmental advantage to working from home and/or
working in a hybrid setup: Less commuting provides less congestion and fewer
carbon emissions. Although many companies are locked into multi-year leases,
many are finding that don’t need all that office space five days a week, and
that hybrid working will require less space. Plus, hybrid work can save the
commuter anywhere from $2,000 to $5,000 per year in fuel and/or transportation
costs.

5. IT’S A MUTUALLY BENEFICIAL RELATIONSHIP

“People want to work, but they want to work for companies that treat them well,”
Herd said. Most people need to work for a living, but Bloom and Herd said
companies need high-quality employees, and highlighting your productivity and
happiness — and the productivity that goes hand-in-hand with hybrid work — can
be persuasive, with or without a recession on the way. “If it’s not about work
and productivity, what is all this for?” Herd added.

“Help My Career” is a new column that helps readers navigate a changing
workplace.


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MY HUSBAND AND I BOUGHT A RETIREMENT HOME IN 2008, AND HE DIED TWO YEARS LATER.
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ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Quentin Fottrell


Quentin Fottrell is MarketWatch's Managing Editor-Personal Finance and The
Moneyist columnist. You can follow him on Twitter @quantanamo.



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