Ask Sanyin: How Can We Shift the Return-to-Office Conversation?

It’s been five years since the start of the pandemic, and we’re still debating a return to the office. I know that being together physically is important for communication and connection. How can I bring employees back to the office in a way that responds to their needs rather than being seen as “command and control”?

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YOU ARE SO RIGHT IN FOCUSING on the need for connection and human flourishing. While the return-to-office (RTO) debate has focused on worker productivity, for most companies productivity has been stable or has improved, regardless of whether employees have been working from home or in the office.

Putting productivity at the heart of this conversation has also centered the issue of trust. Employees receive the morale-killing message that leaders doubt their judgment, commitment, and work ethic and that they don’t deserve the autonomy that is key to genuine engagement and high performance. That’s the tension at the heart of the current debate.