The worst part of the return to office is yet to come

UK companies are demanding staff come back to the office, and the pushback has been equally tense. Workers hit with return to office (RTO) mandates are secretly carrying on with home working, suing, and even going on strike.

Thought losing your pre-work lie-in was bad? The worst is yet to come. Amid concern that remote working may jeopardise teamworking, experts are now advising that organisations adopt a hybrid working rota, where team members are told which days to travel into work.

There is logic to this thinking. But if requiring a set number of days on-site lowers employee engagement, then specifying the days that a person must come in brings its own challenges.

Right or rotten? We explore the implications of a rota system on hybrid offices.

How does a hybrid working rota work?

On first hearing, the idea sounds similar to RTO policies. But, this evolution isn’t about telling staff how often they need to visit the workplace all year-round. Instead, office rotas are controlled by managers, who decide which members of their team should come in on specific days.

For example, the marketing department might be told to come into the office on Tuesdays and Wednesdays, while accountants might be expected to work Mondays and Thursdays.

The reasoning is obvious. Data from Savils shows that office usage has become bunched as employees favour working from home on certain days of the week. Usage has predictably stayed low on Mondays, while Thursdays now have the highest occupancy rates.

With many organisations having downsized their offices to cut rent fees, it has become harder to find desk space or meeting rooms on busy days. This results in schedules being changed, or staff resorting to a headphones-in and hunched-over Zoom meeting.

On quiet days, staff also commonly come into work to find that a key colleague isn’t there, which can cause frustration and a feeling they “needn’t have bothered” with the commute.

Career experts are recommending rota systems as the solution. Some even see it as an attractive employee perk. Companies like Everfair Tax and the Durham Wildlife Trust now advertise their rotas to job seekers as a key component of their company culture.

Flexible working, without the flexibility

Unfortunately, the idea that a rota will automatically solve the issues of hybrid working is most likely wishful thinking. Limiting the days staff attend the office means certain workers will rarely cross paths, causing siloes and impacting productivity.

Importantly, rotas are also disliked by employees. Data from Gallup finds that set office days are much less popular compared to policies where staff have full control over their schedule.

The clue is in the name. Flexible working is enticing to staff because it ensures they can fit their working location around their own personal commitments. If a worker needs to be home for personal reasons on their allotted office day, their manager can either force them to come in, or let them work from home (and research suggests they’re more likely to do the latter).

Gifting specific days to certain teams could also brew resentment. Why should one department get to have a lie-in on Monday morning, while others face the Sunday Scaries?

If your people aren’t on board, the policy is a no-go. Morrisons found this out when it adopted a four-day week. The supermarket chain implemented a rota to ensure that all employees could access the improved work-life balance that the policy offered.

Unfortunately, Morrisons’ maths was off. Its staff were expected to work 13 Saturdays a year to make its schedule work. After backlash, the retailer was forced to scrap the policy.

What’s the alternative?

Bosses who don’t want to force rotas onto staff, but are concerned about losing face-to-face interaction at work, must find a healthy middle ground. One option is anchor days.

Rather than a weekly schedule, anchor days require remote staff to come together at the office for key occasions. These can be organised per month or even per quarter.

Why should one department get to have a lie-in on Monday morning, while others face the Sunday Scaries?

Anchor days work because employees understand why they need to attend the office on a certain day. If managers feel that a problem must be hashed out that requires heads in the room, this is more defensible than ordering teams in on a Tuesday purely for visibility.

ASOS introduced a similar policy as part of its RTO mandate. In June, the fashion retailer told staff they must attend the office for important project discussions and presentations, arguing that virtual attendance from some invitees was creating “strain”.

Another option is to adopt a laissez-faire leadership style, and trust your team leaders to decide what approach to take. Managers are best placed to ask their reports which days they would like to work at the desk, and give notice if in-person meetings are necessary.

It all comes down to communication. Asking staff for their views on RTO mandates (and genuinely listening to the feedback) is the most effective way for bosses to address the teething issues of hybrid working, and prevent disgruntled employees from biting back.