President Joe Biden wants remote-working federal employees to return to their offices, at least on a hybrid basis. His mandate could have a ripple effect on the private sector, where a large part of the corporate workforce has yet to return to the office.
A survey of HR leaders released last Tuesday by the Conference Board found that 56% of workers continue to work on a hybrid or fully remote schedule, and 68% of organizations are considering or implementing strategies to increase the share of work that is done on-site.
Uphill Struggle?
It may continue to be an uphill struggle to get workers back to brick-and-mortar offices. According to the Conference Board survey, 73 % of respondents said they were finding it difficult to entice workers to return to the office.
“If employees wanted to be back at the office, they already would be,” Corey Noyes, owner and financial advisor at Balanced Capital, an investment advice firm, said via email.
“There is significant evidence that many workers prefer to work at least partially remotely,” the Conference Board’s report, The Reimagined Workplace 2023, observed.
“Some recent attempts by organizations such as Amazon, Apple, and Twitter to mandate stricter return-to-office policies have been met with reluctance and, in some cases, highly visible protests,” it pointed out.
Helping Small Businesses
“A new report from the Government Accountability Office found 17 of 24 federal agencies were only using an estimated 25% or less of the capacity at their headquarters buildings,” according to NBC4 News in Washington, DC.
“More people physically working in D.C. means more people shopping and eating [in downtown DC]” the news organization noted.
“We’d like to hope that a rising tide lifts all ships when it comes to having more people in the offices, so we’re hopeful that it would translate to more sales for us, which is great,” Pearl’s Bagels co-owner Oliver Cox, told the television station.
Impact On Local Employers
“President Biden’s efforts to return workers to the office for part of the week will definitely have an impact on local employers,” Jane Oates, president of WorkingNation and former Assistant Labor Secretary for employment and training, said via email.
“Five out of six of nearly two million federal workers live outside of the DC Metro area, so employers across the country will benefit from the Feds ‘leading the way’ from completely remote work to a hybrid model,” she said.
Unintended Consequences
“Putting the squeeze on, and forcing them back, will cause many of them to ask the inevitable questions. If I can continue working from home and make more money in the private sector, is it worth sticking around [with] my federal job just for the benefit?” Balanced Capital’s Noyes asked.
“If federal employees are forced back into the office more of the week, some employees may decide to look elsewhere for employment among companies who offer more flexible work options like remote work,” Timothy D. Golden, a professor of management at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in Troy, New York, said via email.
“This could create a windfall for companies who endorse remote work by opening the door for them to siphon off desirable talent from the federal government’s payrolls,” Golden concluded.
A Stiff Price Tag For Virtual Workers
As I wrote last year, “Working virtually can come with a stiff price tag: Remote workers who fail to engage properly on Zoom and other video calls to the satisfaction of their employers can find themselves out of a job.
According to a study released in April 2022, 92% of U.S. executives said that employees who work remotely and frequently mute themselves or don’t appear on camera during virtual meetings “probably don’t have a long-term future at their companies.”
The study was conducted by Wakefield Research for Vyopta, a digital collaboration platform. The survey of 200 executives at companies with 500 or more employees was done between March 9 and March 17, 2022.
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