This post originally appeared on Forbes on November 12, 2024.
Despite overwhelming research that shorter work weeks and remote working are good for productivity, there is still a debate between employees and employers on where and how they work. Spotify made headlines recently for reaffirming its work-from-anywhere policy, proclaiming that "our employees aren't children." So, why do we still have so many return-to-office (RTO) advocates, such as Amazon? "It's a power play between the employer and the employee about return to office mandates or shorter working weeks. And I think a lot of it is coming down to a sense of control," says Dr. Dale Whelehan, a behavioral scientist and CEO at 4 Day Week Global. While many have surmised that control is the real reason leaders are stubborn to change outdated working models, Whelehan's comment tunes into a more interesting undercurrent: the shifting dynamic between employee and employer.
It is indeed a power play; a power play with two dramatic elements beyond control: trust and loyalty. "It's a challenging economic climate, and companies' default is to assume that the worker is the one that's the problem. Therefore, they want to bring the worker back in and monitor and evaluate their outcomes to try and improve productivity through that manner," Whelehan says. The problem with that is that all the research (such as here, here and here) points to these restrictive mandates having the exact opposite effect. "All of these policies to revoke flexibility and autonomy is going to perpetuate further burnout."
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