After nearly two years of working remotely, it will be almost impossible for companies to order their people to return to an office. There has been a steady stream of businesses acquiescing to employee demand to continue working from home or at least offering a hybrid model, in which they’ll only be called into the office a couple of days a week.
Corporate leadership may have underestimated the passion of people who want to continue working from form. Surveys have shown that workers would quit, rather than remain if forced to commute back to an office. There have been studies and much anecdotal evidence that indicates that lives have been vastly improved, as workers didn’t need to waste hours a day commuting and being judged for time worked at a desk instead of their output and productivity.
The case of Hearst magazines highlights how important it is for employees to have flexibility and autonomy in the way they work. Alleging unfair labor practices and a failure to negotiate in good faith, workers at Hearst magazines filed charges against the media company. Journalists at Cosmopolitan, Good Housekeeping and Men’s Health, turned to their union, the Writers Guild of America, to take up their fight.
The company’s plans were for the first two weeks, workers are expected to come in once a week. Then, the requirement will be two days per week until early 2022. Eventually, workers will be required to return to the Hearst Tower in Midtown Manhattan for three days a week, and all employees are mandated to be vaccinated.
More than 300 magazine employees signed a petition, calling for flexibility, with regards to where they work, stating, “We, the undersigned, trust in our colleagues to perform all their work responsibilities from the location that is most suitable to their needs. We have seen our colleagues adapt to unprecedented changes in our work lives without a drop in productivity.”
In a Twitter tweets posted by the Hearst Magazines Media Union, employees and supporters voiced their concerns. The employees said that they don’t believe that “a return to office is the same as a return to work,” as “we have never stopped working, regardless of our location.”
“We support a continuation of the functional norm that we have reached as a result of our extraordinary circumstances, with employees and teams able to make decisions that are appropriate for their work needs,” the petition said. “We have seen our colleagues adapt to unprecedented changes in our work lives without a drop in productivity.”
The staff complained that they’ve been asking corporate management for their comprehensive health and safety plan and to delay the mandatory return date to allow for more planning and negotiation. “They have left critical health and safety questions unanswered until the eleventh hour. It was only last night—four business days before our scheduled return—that some New York–based employees learned the [Covid-19] exposure policy. Employees at other offices are still in the dark.”
“It’s our position that by barreling ahead with these last-minute plans, management is making a unilateral change to our work circumstances without adequately bargaining over the change as required by federal law.”
“We are ready to cooperate with any investigation the [National Labor Relations Board] deems necessary and are hopeful this process will reinforce to the company how serious we are about workplace safety.”
Debi Chirichella, president of Hearst Magazines, in an email to staff last month, said, “We recognize that returning to the office is a big step and that some people are apprehensive about it.” Chirichella continued, “Adjusting to this new way of working will require the same flexibility, patience and collaboration that we all demonstrated when we began working from home.”
Critics may say that the journalists and staff are being difficult. There’s a larger issue at stake. The fight is between having freedom, respect and autonomy or being ordered to do something that doesn’t make any sense, in light of new developments.
The almost-two-year global experiment of remote work proved that this method works well. The stock market has been hitting record new highs, an indication that companies have outperformed during the tumultuous times, due in large part to the Herculean efforts of workers.
There is an enormous difference in lifestyle. At home, you can set your own schedule. In an office, you don’t have a choice. You’re forced into the 9-to-5 grind. Being at home, you’ve cultivated productive habits and a routine. This could entail doing yoga, riding a bike or going to the gym on a regular basis. You may have dropped off and picked up your child from school. For the first time in your career, you were able to take your daughter and son to ballet classes, soccer matches and other activities without having to sneak out of the office. Assignments were completed without a boss looking over your shoulder and micromanaging every move you made. You’ve finally tasted freedom—and it was wonderful.
Once you are ordered to go back to the office, this all changes. Your new and improved life will be gone. It’s back to waiting for a bus or train in frigid, cold weather, during the winter, and suffocatingly hot summers. The two to three-hour round-trip commute wears you down, especially as you forgot about how terrible it was. After a 10-plus-hour day, including the commute, you come home tired and irritable.
For journalists, there isn’t a pressing need to be in an office setting five days a week. The work can be done from anywhere. It’s different if you have a job in a laboratory or engineering automobiles, as you need to be in person. The battle shows that some managers can’t comprehend that the world has changed along with the mindset of workers.
The Great Resignation trend clearly demonstrates that workers demand to be treated with respect and dignity. They also require fair and reasonable pay, good working conditions and the potential for growth. Last month, over 100,000 workers threatened and some went on strike in a new movement called “Striketober.” Low wages, lackluster benefits and unfair treatment were some of the reasons cited for their discontent.
Tone-deaf executives who are oblivious to this sweeping change will lose their best and brightest talent. They’ll leave and join their competitors, who are empathetic, offer choices and treat them as adults who can make their own decisions of how, where and when they work.
Source: Forbes
