Last week I met with four other male executives, and the conversation turned to remote/hybrid work. These guys were firmly in the camp of “getting back to the office.”
They bragged about all the people they let go who wouldn’t spend 40 hours sitting in a dark Midtown office. And then, they complained that they couldn’t find anyone to take those positions. They ranted about the lack of dedication from this current group of workers and how their turnover rate is unprecedented. Their values are different, they said. So is their work ethic. “There is no loyalty. Nobody wants to work,” they said.
And after not saying anything for awhile, I finally said, “Maybe nobody wants to work – for you.”
I asked him how many women he had at his firm (because I didn’t see any when I entered his office). He said they had about 8 out of 30 people, and now they have 3 (which might explain to a large part why his company was run like a tricycle on one wheel.)
Why did the 5 leave?
After the pandemic, they wouldn’t come back full-time to the office, he said.
Were good at their jobs?
He said very.
Then why would you let your company suffer from having people sitting here when they could do the same work in their home office?
Why you would lose good, talented, efficient, intelligent, dedicated employees that made you and your business better.
He said, well, you don’t always know what they are doing at home.
Was the job getting done?
Yes.
Then what is your problem?
And herein lies the problem and the truth about many of the complaints about remote/hybrid work coming from almost exclusively white male executives.
Work is how they define themselves.
The office is their domain.
While there, they can preside over their employees and be the masters of their domain. Their entire sense of self is wrapped up in their job, title, and money. Office work has always worked for them. They created it to suit their needs – but it has never worked for everyone.
My company is different; I have a full-time staff of 14. Thirteen are women, and seven of those are working moms. Many of these people have worked at CORE for over 10 years. Before the pandemic, we had a flexible policy on office time, understanding that people had lives and commitments outside work. After the pandemic, we decided to trust our team and let them decide what worked best for them if their position allowed hybrid work.
Guess what?
No one left.
Actually, people stayed through tough pay cuts and extra hours while we worked hard to make it through the pandemic. And now, our business is better than it has ever been. We had our best year last year, and this year is poised to be even better. Trust and respect go much further in getting the best out of people rather than threats and mistrust.
Sallie Krawcheck, the CEO of Ellevest and former Citi CFO and Head of Global Wealth Management at Bank of America, attended a closed-door meeting hosted by CNBC CFO Council last month after listening to the group, made up almost entirely of men, speak about how corporate culture and cohesiveness depend on people being in the office. We have to “get back to the way it was.” And this is when Krawcheck called them out on their bullshit.
MSNBC said, “At the CFO meeting, she told a majority male group of finance leaders to look around the room. “Who’s missing from here?” she asked them. “If we want to go back to the way it was, then acknowledge that you know it works mainly if you’re a man and have a wife at home.” Krawcheck said that the work environment that existed pre-pandemic “worked for white men, not everyone, and certainly not women and under-represented groups.”
She firmly believes that workplace flexibility is the new “currency.” Businesses that attempt to replicate their pre-pandemic operational approach may struggle to retain and recruit top talent. Like Krawcheck, we have found people work best when they are given the autonomy to decide where they will get their best work done. That might mean an in-office group meeting if that will produce the best results or an individual job done in a personal workspace without the time wasted in commuting. The value lies in the respect given to employees as individuals and as a team to make those decisions. If you can’t trust your team to work in the space best suited to them, then your problem is not the space – it’s the team and the leaders of that team.
And this goes back to my conversation last week; these men need to take a minute to think about why no one wants to work for them. Why can’t they find loyal workers? Why can’t they find dedication? They can’t find it because they aren’t giving it. It’s a two-way street. And honestly, workplace flexibility is just one issue facing corporate America and their treatment of employees. The pandemic fundamentally changed how and why we work. There is no “going back.” And progressive business owners and managers who respect and trust their employees will reap the benefits of this new world of workers – because the old way never worked for everyone.
Let’s do this.
-Shaun