CNBC has an interesting article about large-organization CEOs’ frustration at trying to get their workers back into the office. Workers have little interest in returning. Part of that is fear of COVID-19, of course, but many, having experienced the freedom and increased productivity of working from home, are in no hurry to return to the more constrained environment of the office with its meetings and micromanagement.
The obvious observation is that maybe the CEOs are asking the wrong question. Most of them have spent their whole working lives in a well defined, perhaps even regimented, system in which of course employees came into the office to work. How could it be otherwise? But perhaps the right question is, “How can we get our jobs done with a remote work force?”
Meanwhile, over at Medium, CodeX says that the office exodus is a movement. This article is specifically about developers but the same principals probably apply to other disciplines. Senior developers are leaving companies to go out on their own. Those who are staying are demanding remote work as a sine qua non.
Managers who believe or hope that things will go back to the way they’ve always been are probably kidding themselves. COVID-19 will be with us for a while longer and even afterwards people are going to be loath to return to their cubicle farm—or worse, open plan office. The smart CEOs will be asking themselves how to best take advantage of the new reality.