Listen to Employees to Understand Expectations and Reduce Polarization

Listen to Employees to Understand Expectations and Reduce Polarization

When employers first sent employees home en masse in March 2020, many felt the exodus would last for just a few weeks. Over a year later, some are attempting to return to normal and call employees back into the office. They're finding this a challenging process, fraught with controversy and polarization. Some employees are refusing to return to the office full-time. Others are accommodating a hybrid model. Others are comfortable with — and in fact, excited about — returning to physical workspaces.

The continuum extends from companies like Twitter that have indicated they'll be fine with employees working from home indefinitely, to companies like Goldman Sachs which is taking a more hardline return-to-office approach.

Amid this environment of uncertainty, employers would be wise to carefully listen to workers who, by and large, are hesitant to return to offices. The Harvard Business Review reported that, according to a March online survey it conducted, 81% of employees either don't want to go back to the office or would prefer a hybrid schedule.