It’s time to kill the return to office mandate and it’s time to ask employees what is the most ideal way for them to work and to embrace those revelations.
At the height of the pandemic, downtown Toronto offices had over a 50% vacancy rate due to public health restrictions and work from home mandates. In 2023, vacancy rates were still hovering around 40%. At the time of this article office vacancy rates are sitting around 18% with the National office vacancy rate sitting just above 17%. While the numbers tell us that people are returning to the office, the idea of getting to 5% or less is becoming more and more of a fairytale. Gone are the days when everyone is in the office.
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There are two important takeaways from this data that need to be made clear:
First, the work from anywhere economy is here and cemented into the North American economy and way of life largely as a legacy piece resulting from the pandemic.
Second, across Canada there are still between 17–18% of office workers choosing to work from where they live rather than living where they work. They’ve opted out of the push and pull mandates and have landed in a space where they can sustain their work and thrive in hybrid and/or remote situations which work best for them. Amazing!
See, despite big companies like Google, Starbucks and Disney expecting folks to ship into the office or to ship out of the company, there are two underlying issue that CEO’s may be missing with these directives.
First, remote and hybrid work is here to stay and not only is it part of the way we can work, it’s a viable option for some of the most creative thinkers and economic drivers across many industries.
Second, the best talent will go where they can be the most creative and have the most flexibility and balance between work and life to nurture their well-being. Recent data from the Charles Schwab Modern Wealth Survey 2023 reflects this.
Third, despite a company’s best efforts to hire top talent and pay them well to come into the office, the shadow costs employees face just to get to the office in the 2020’s are at a boiling point. According to data from Flexjobs, remote and hybrid workers save an average of $6,000–$12,000 per year in costs. Not only do these workers save money, they can afford a more affordable home outside of an urban center which can save them hundreds of thousands of dollars in mortgage payments and taxes over 10 years. Some are pushing even further out to more affordable regions, this is becoming more widely known by remote workers as geographical arbitrage.
So, unless your company can fork out enough money to cover the shadow costs accumulated by your employees year-over-year, it’s a hard sell to justify a return-to-office mandate. The genie is out of the bottle and in most cases, it’s too damn expensive to put it back in.
If I am running a company, why would I care about this? Could I not just find another qualified worker willing to work in the office full time? Well, if you are in Canada, I wish you good luck. According to Brendon Bernard — a senior economist at Indeed, “There’s a traffic jam of employers looking to hire.” This isn’t in all sectors yet, but it’s coming at an increasing rate over the next 5–10 years and something I touch on in my latest book here:
Listen: How To Be You In A World Where You Can Be Anything
Here’s another quote from economist Armine Yalnizyan that sums up what we are experiencing in Canada:
“[The labour market is] the tightest it’s been in half a century, and it’s not unique to Ontario. It’s happening all through the global north.”
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The vast majority of workers in Ontario haven’t experienced anything quite like it during their entire working lives: a…
Although this data is lagging from 2022–2023, it paints the picture across multiple sectors as it relates to those labor shortages in Canada.
So, if this is where we are — Now what?
How to we move forward and stop this push and pull return to office or else conversation and get to a place of harmony where companies and employees can speak candidly about their needs and find ways to put the needs of humans first?
Here’s how:
Try New Things
Now is the time to test and explore incentives like flexible work hours, 4-day work weeks and benefits which promote well-being over aggressive salaries, among others. Not everything will work for your company but working with your team to see what works best can go a long way to engage your team and communicate to them that they are valued!
Remote Work
If you are already a remote worker — keep doing what you are doing. Don’t listen to the noise when Elon Musk demands something that goes viral and keep doing what helps you thrive and bring your creative self to your craft. Add value daily and focus on connection over communication with your team and find ways to have data to back up your ability to continue working remotely should the conversation resurface.
Hybrid Work
If you are working hybrid keep showing up but don’t treat the in office days any different than your remote days. Both matter equally and the work you do regardless of where you do it is the most important thing. This will also continue supporting the narrative that hybrid work can work for you and your company.
In Office Work
If you are working in the office keep finding ways to make it work for you but avoid treating it like an anchor that everyone needs to drop. We grow when we expand our comfort zones and it’s ok to continually think outside the box and to test new ways of working for optimal performance. If the office provides you comfort and that’s what feeds you, great! Connect with others who feel the same. Just don’t expect everyone else to feel the need to come in and remember that many folks choosing not to work in the office may also be trying to cut their shadow costs, improve their well-being, and seeking new ways to strike a better work/life balance. They aren’t necessarily not coming in because they don’t want to.
Conclusion
At the end of the day, the push and pull of remote work and in-office work is simply noise and weak at this point. A stronger conversation is actively asking what your team needs to be well and thrive and leading ways as to make those answers work. Easier said than done but when you ask employees what works for them and truly listen, those same employees will likely stay longer, respect your leaders even more, and carry a heart of gratitude because they feel listened to, respected and valued. This in turn can cultivate increased productivity, engagement and motivation across teams. All good things for the bottom line.
And remember, what matters most is how passionate you are about the work you do, regardless of where you do it and aligning passion and profession doesn’t always require an office. Great work happens when you care.
Ryan
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Previously Published on Medium
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