PALO ALTO, Calif.–With some corporate bosses demanding that employees return to the workplace, a new survey explores what those same leaders should do when employees mostly refuse the order.
The survey, conducted by Stanford University remote work expert Nick Bloom and his long-time collaborator Jose Maria Barrero at the Instituto Tecnolgico Autnomo de Mxico in Mexico City, examinedwhat happens when push comes to shove, Inc. reported.
“How many are actually willing to give in and come back to in-person work?” Inc said of the issues explored in the study.
‘Serve as a Warning’
“The results should serve as a warning to leaders planning to simply strong-arm their teams into returning to in-person work,” Inc. stated. “When Bloom and Barrero asked employees whether they had complied with their employers' in-person work requirements over the past week, an incredible 48.5% of those whose bosses want them in five days a week said no. Compliance rose gradually to 84.2 percent among those only required to be in the office one day a week.”
Bloom told Inc. that last number doesn't sound too bad for employers, bit as he further noted, "Pre-pandemic, if you had only about 80% of employees come in on any given day, you'd have a terrible problem."
The Real Loss
Bloom said there is another reason for hardline bosses to rethink their positions.
"The people they will lose because they refuse to come to the office will mostly be people they might want to keep," Bloom noted on Twitter. "Research generally finds hybrid-WFH is associated with higher performance."
It’s a conundrum that is going to be “exceedingly painful for everyone if these new figures are to be believed,” Inc. stated,
The survey also found:
- When faced with employee intransigence, many leaders are choosing to simply ignore workers' non-compliance. More than 42% of bosses are simply ignoring defiant employees.
- Much smaller percentages are resorting to a grab bag of disciplinary steps such as verbal reprimands (14%), negative performance reviews (10%), reduction in pay (15%) and threats to terminate (12%), Inc. stated.
Losing Credibility
“Parents lose credibility when they make empty threats. So do business leaders,” noted Inc. in its analysis. “If you're going to demand a return to full-time in-person work you had better be committed to the policy and have a plan in place to deal with employees who flat-out refuse to comply, because this survey suggests you are likely to meet with fierce resistance. So much fierce resistance that, unless you're looking for an excuse to severely trim headcount, you're unlikely to be able to fire your way out of the problem.”
Bloom said in a statement he posted on LinkedIn that it’s his view the return to having employees in the office five days per week looks “almost impossible.”
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