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In a gnarly game of “Would You Rather,” some employees admitted they would rather keep their flexible work arrangements than their partners.
Some 43% of US adults are more afraid of having to work on-site full-time than they are of breaking up with their romantic partner or getting a divorce, according to a LiveCareer survey of 3,853 respondents published earlier this year.
“Someone mandating me to go back into the office means I have less control over my time, and my time is directly equated to how I feel about my life, how I feel about myself,” said Jasmine Escalera, a career expert at LiveCareer.
She shared with HR Brew how people pros can navigate “sticky” return-to-office conversations.
Talk about it. HR pros are no strangers to being the messenger of leadership’s rules. Escalera recommended setting up pre-RTO interviews with employees to discuss they’re feelings about the change and the potential upsides.
“Utiliz[e] that as a catalyst to, hopefully, help the organization see that productivity could potentially be impacted by bringing employees back into the workplace,” she said.
Do what you can. While HR pros can’t dismantle a company-wide mandate, Escalera said they can advocate for certain employees to have remote or hybrid work arrangements, depending on individual needs or job requirements.
Leadership may feel RTO can help the “bottom line,” Escalera said, “but if we’re not thinking about the front line and we’re not thinking about the workers, we could actually be reversing the actual thing we’re trying to help, which is to enhance productivity, enhance innovation, enhance creativity.”