Office or Home?

For most of the pandemic, Daniel’s company let everyone work from home. When the contract ended, the managers announced that employees would be expected in the office three days a week. Daniel, who tended to work better in silence, wasn’t happy. It was high time the company asked its staff what they preferred, he thought.

He remembered to bring his laptop on the first day, but he forgot to book a desk. He tried working in the cafeteria, but it was too noisy; then he tried using headphones, which only gave him a headache. He would rather his manager had warned him, but he said nothing. After two weeks he stopped taking the early bus and started working from the library on his free days.

The company’s survey seemed to confirm his worries. According to the results, a majority of employees appeared to be less productive in the open-plan office, although the managers insisted that the figures didn’t tell the whole story. Meanwhile, the HR director suggested that everyone should come in on Tuesdays so that teams could meet face to face.

Daniel proposed a compromise. Provided that each team agreed on its own schedule, he said, people could work from home on two days. Employees would still have to attend important meetings in person, even if they lived far away. Whereas the managers wanted fixed rules, he preferred a flexible system in case someone needed to look after a child.

The idea was not accepted at once; nevertheless, the director agreed to a three-month trial. The results were encouraging. Consequently, the company adopted the plan permanently. As a result, Daniel regretted not having spoken up sooner. He had assumed that nobody would listen, and that assumption had been wrong.