{"id":168920,"date":"2023-09-01T06:00:00","date_gmt":"2023-09-01T11:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.ict-pulse.com\/?p=168920"},"modified":"2023-08-31T21:34:13","modified_gmt":"2023-09-01T02:34:13","slug":"having-been-enthusiastic-supporters-of-work-from-home-why-have-companies-changed-their-tune","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ict-pulse.com\/2023\/09\/having-been-enthusiastic-supporters-of-work-from-home-why-have-companies-changed-their-tune\/","title":{"rendered":"Having been enthusiastic supporters of work from home, why have companies changed their tune?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Remote working arrangements were a godsend during the COVID-19 pandemic, as organisations could keep functioning, and even enjoyed a range of other benefits. However, three years later, more organisations are mandating that employees return to the office. We highlight a few of the reasons why this change in posture has occurred.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

 <\/p>\n\n\n\n

As technology advanced and more viable and affordable ways emerged for us to stay connected to the office, long-term remote work arrangements were still rare for full-time employees. However, the COVID-19 pandemic blew the lid off that construct when outside of essential workers, for example, work from home became the norm for everyone else.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

At that time, many organisations, particularly those in tech, were effusive about remote work. They acknowledged the convenience, the cost savings to the organisation, as well as the increase in productivity and improved work-life balance that could be realised. In some instances, they even announced that work from home would be a permanent part of their operations going forward. However, less than two years later, that posture has changed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

To be clear, the about-turn with respect to remote work in these tech companies was not due to technology ignorance or ineptitude. As tech organisations, they were not only versed in the tools needed to facilitate remote work, but in some instances, they created those very tools. It thus is not surprising that with these firms now mandating that employees return to the office, organisations in other fields may feel even more justified to do the same.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Based on how vocal tech organisations were about working from home, several reasons have been attributed to their current posture, many of which might hold true for other organisations. We highlight the key ones below.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

 <\/p>\n\n\n\n

1.  The impact on collaboration and communication:<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

 Some organisations found that remote work hindered spontaneous interactions and face-to-face collaboration among employees, which are often important for brainstorming sessions, problem-solving, and maintaining a strong company culture. In the tech space, many of the popular companies have experienced either stagnation or decline in their growth, which has caused them to demand greater focus, creativity and commitment from their employees and which they believe may be more effectively addressed if employees are back at the office.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

 <\/p>\n\n\n\n

2.  The impact on company culture<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Maintaining a vibrant company culture can be more challenging when employees are physically dispersed. And virtual communication tools, while useful, might not fully replicate the dynamics of in-person communication. Moreover, organisations often emphasise the importance of shared values, teamwork, and social interactions, and the close proximity of individuals in offices tends to foster camaraderie and a sense of belonging, which can be more challenging to foster remotely.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

 <\/p>\n\n\n\n

3.  Performance management challenges<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Traditionally, management took comfort that their teams were being productive if they could see their team members working. In a remote work construct, other mechanisms would need to be in place to monitor productivity and performance. However, in many instances the measures, if in fact established, may be inadequate, and managers may not have been comfortable with those systems, which in turn could result in a lack of trust and a desire to revert to past working practices.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

 <\/p>\n\n\n\n

4.  No commensurate change in operations<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

It is often overlooked that the introduction of remote work policies that are applicable to the majority of employees ought to preceded by a major review of an organisation\u2019s operations. However, since the impetus for many of the policies that were adopted was the dire circumstances of the pandemic, work-from-home arrangements were often ad hoc, not comprehensively conceptualised, and not sufficiently supported. To some degree, it may have been assumed that it would be \u2018business as usual\u2019 with people just working remotely. However, it may not have been fully appreciated that successful remote working would be a significant shift in how an organisation functions and so would require intensive planning. Hence, over time, organisations have been ill-equipped to support remote work, especially since currently, the imperatives of the pandemic are largely absent.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

 <\/p>\n\n\n\n

In summary, remote work can be a good thing, but most organisations were forced to adopt it. Based on the circumstances at hand, they struggle to continue it since it is no longer essential. Tech firms, even those that are well-resourced, seem to have fallen into that very trap, which has resulted in them reverting to more traditional operations even though current and prospective employees are keen for remote work arrangements to continue.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Image credit:\u00a0 Malte Helmhold (Unsplash<\/a>)<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Remote working arrangements were a godsend during the COVID-19 pandemic, as organisations could keep functioning, and even enjoyed a range of other benefits. However, three years later, more organisations are mandating that employees return to the office. We highlight a few of the reasons why this change in posture has occurred. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":168922,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"off","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_active":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_note":"","_exactmetrics_sitenote_category":0,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[11],"tags":[71,58,15],"class_list":["post-168920","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-ict-tech","tag-businesses","tag-teleworking","tag-trends","et-has-post-format-content","et_post_format-et-post-format-standard"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/ict-pulse.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/08\/Man-couch-sofa-work-from-home-remote-working-Malte-Helmhold-Unsplash.jpg?fit=1024%2C683&ssl=1","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p2iE1G-HWw","jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ict-pulse.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/168920","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ict-pulse.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ict-pulse.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ict-pulse.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ict-pulse.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=168920"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/ict-pulse.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/168920\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":168924,"href":"https:\/\/ict-pulse.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/168920\/revisions\/168924"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ict-pulse.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/168922"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ict-pulse.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=168920"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ict-pulse.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=168920"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ict-pulse.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=168920"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}