Employees expect flexibility during a crisis. During the pandemic, employers have been more lenient with their work from home policies to meet the needs. While it may have been a good push to prove to some employers that remote work is feasible, some offices will require their employees to return to the office. But what happens when this work from home arrangement isn’t feasible in the future, but the employee wants to continue? Here is how to tell an employee that they can’t continue to work from home.
While you may not have staff members clamoring to request that their current work from home arrangement continue indefinitely, it is on the minds of many employees. According to this survey, 42.7% of employees want to continue to work from home, at least part time.
Disconnect between an employee’s desire to work from home and an employer’s intention to have the staff return to the office will occur. For instance, in this study, only 37% of jobs can effectively be performed at home, yet 50% of the American workforce was working from home during the Covid-19 pandemic. That means hundreds of thousands will be returning from work at home – and as their manager, you get to tell them! Some staff cant wait for the news, while others will want to continue their work from home arrangement.
The most notable motivations for work from home arrangements are (they were allowed to choose more than one) :
No commute: 55.7%
Flexible schedule: 48.3%
More productive: 36.8%
Have more time with family and friends: 34.3%
More times for hobbies or exercising: 30.5%
Better performance: 27.8%
People have found a better balance in managing their household and family demands when they do not have a commute to add to their day. In fact, there has been a push towards workers moving outside of major cities to more affordable or larger spaces in the suburbs.
What about the staff who have left the city and don’t want to return to the office? Anecdotally I have heard of people moving outside of the city without clearing a permanent work from home arrangement in place with their employer.
This leaves us in a challenging position as managers because we may lose parts of our team when we tell an employee that they can’t continue to work from home. If they don’t get it from us, they may from someone else and leave the team altogether.
Finding out if the organization supports work from home
You may have received some communications from your organization on how much work from home they will continue to allow, if any. You may or may not have some discretion as a manager if you want to keep the current arrangement or request employees return to the office.
During the pandemic, many parents ended up doing double duty with children at home due to school closures. One of the previous requirements that many organizations had to work from home was proof of reliable childcare. Expect this to continue when it is reasonable to demand your full attention during the day.
It’s a good idea to start to understand if your organization supports continued work from home by putting your feelers out in your chain of command. You should also be very honest with yourself if you think it is a good fit for everyone on your team. Would a mix of staff working remotely and working in the office work?
Work from home resources:
How to manage your virtual team from home
How to support staff who are burned out from working at home
How to perform effective remote performance reviews
How to tell an employee that they can’t continue to work from home
Depending on the individual employee, this may be a difficult conversation. They may have been counting on a permanent schedule change to accommodate their personal circumstances. But since people are complicated, individual staff members may resist going back to the office for a variety of reasons. I have heard from another manager friend that they have a reluctant employee because they have gained weight and do not want their colleagues to know. Essentially, you do not know all of the true motivations and may need to dig deeper within the two scenarios below to find the root cause of any reluctance to return to the office.
The tricky part of difficult conversations is getting them started. Here are tips and strategies to motivate yourself to start difficult conversations.
Scenario one – still required at the office a few days a week
In this scenario, employees are still required at the office several days a week. There may or may not be flexibility on which days the employee chooses to work at home. So we will assume that the difficulty with the conversation will be that the employee either expects to work fully from home or wants specific days off that can’t be accommodated.
To prepare for this meeting you will need to:
- Be able to explain why some in office work is required. For example, some work with a physical item is required or their role will change to accommodate duties that may have been put on hold when the office transitioned to work from home.
- Have answers for why certain days are required in the office. You may have decided on a model where the office in split in half so that the office floor is not as crowded or there is some alternating days where someone is always present in the office. As a result, more senior members of the team may have their preferred days honored first.
Scenario two – employee can’t continue to work from home
In this scenario, there is no continued opportunities to work from home. The employee who wants to continue to work at home is likely to be disappointed and will likely counter the news with multiple reasons why they are effective at working from home. You will need to articulate a high level rationale for why they will need to return to the office.
To prepare yourself for this meeting, think of the following:
- Be able to explain why full office work is required. For instance, due to the hours there is limited flexibility. Scheduling or business demands may dictate in person collaboration. On boarding new employees may not be effective via distance and there is an ongoing gap in their knowledge.
- Not everyone can handle working at home and it would be unfair if some worked from home and others cannot.
- You miss out on the hands on time with your staff and between your staff. Missed opportunities may occur to move projects along. For instance, I used to be able to walk to someone’s desk and have a 30 second conversation with them rather than a long email chain.
- While you can’t directly tell an employee , “I don’t trust you”, you have lingering feelings that the employee is not always their most productive. It’s much trickier to browse YouTube during a meeting if everyone can see everyone. You can simply say that you believe that their productivity will benefit from a structured office environment.
When it comes to how to tell an employee that they can’t continue to work from home, it will require some communication finesse on your end. Understand that employee expectations towards work from home as a perk are forever changed and you will need to find a solution that works for the business and the needs of your team.