Any work model is fine as long as it applies to everyone

As more economies open up, companies are also deliberating their next move. Some are continuing with a fully-remote operation while some are prepping their office spaces to welcome their employees back. 

If your business is 100% remote, with no one having to come in, good for you! This means that everyone — including the boss and HR — has the benefit of working from home. 

But, if you are an employer who is pushing to go back to the traditional way of things, then you have to step up and lead by example by also going back to the workplace. 

Why? Here are some reasons. 

For one, as the boss, you should never ask your employees to do something that you wouldn’t be willing to do yourself. This is especially highlighted with the debate on remote or office work. Having execs at home while normal employees are typing away at the office is a sign of unfairness in the workplace.

Second, if you believe that everyone performs better at the office, then why are you not there? Think of it this way, what kind of message are you sending to your staff if you are sending them back to their cubicles with this reasoning? Are you suggesting that you don’t trust them to finish their tasks at home?

Lastly, the business is dead in the water without your employees. The longevity of the firm relies on the employees’ will to do their tasks. To retain them in the organization, it is important to listen to their inputs and suggestions.

As it turns out, not everyone is given the same choices when it comes to working arrangements. A pulse survey from Slack’s Future Forum found the following results:

• Non-executive employees are nearly twice as likely as executives to be working from the office five days a week.
• Non-executives’ work-life balance scores are now 40% worse than their bosses’, plummeting at five times the rate of executives’ over the past quarter.
• Non-executives are also reporting more than twice the level of work-related stress and anxiety as executives.

If an employee wants to work full time in the office, that’s great! But if you and your HR person want to work some of the time from the office and sometimes from home, then everyone else needs that opportunity as well.

Besides, if everyone but the boss is at the office, then who is guiding and supporting the rest of the team?

Any office mandates should apply to everyone — top to bottom — in the workplace. It should be an “All for One, One for All” solution and not just a mandate for a select few. This way you can keep everyone happy, productive, and satisfied in the organization. 

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