Back to Office vs Work from Home: Who is Winning the Face-off?

In a recent TeamLease survey titled ‘Future-readiness of Organisations for a Hybrid World’, 76.78% of organisations want to offer employees the option of a preferred work model. But at the same time, 40% of organisations find employee performance management a challenge in the virtual work model. The employer’s apotheosis is on having the workforce return back to office as the productivity and connection happens better only when the employees are working from the office. This has made the HR process highly important. The staffing solutions, the digital solutions and smart hiring has become critical.

There is a lot of wrangling which has been doing rounds over this new colloquy. There are two sides of the story and multifold options, concerns and uncertainties to analyse. Questions on productivity and workplace culture, makes ‘back to office’ a trend as well as now a need.

Concerns of coming back to office

• During the pandemic, the workforce moulded itself to work from home and work remotely. Now after over 18 months, to shift gears back to travel to the office has not been very comfortable for many. They do not seem to like wasting their time commuting when work can be done remotely.
• Many moved to their hometowns, villages or other cities, hence, working from office now requires them to leave all their set up again and move to the city of work, changing their current location. This rejig is a concern of time, money and energy, overall again.
• Moving to a locality/city of work for working from the office, needs the employees trying to adjust a lot. If they were away from family, they would be needing help with daily work such as cooking, cleaning and maintenance of their home. 
• A working woman might again be dependent and face challenges with child care/ elderly care/ household responsibilities.
• There could also be a lack of balance at the businesses where some teams might privilege permanent work from home such as IT, while the others might not have an option. There might be a disparity.
• Losing an opportunity of better salary or a higher position may also be possible as the employee might go to a company offering them work from home options or hybrid options. This usually could contribute to attrition rates.

Why back to office is critical

A ‘double burden syndrome’ is taking place and increasing stress, and employees working from homes are juggling between their personal and professional roles at the cost of their health. After the Great Resignation, companies have come up with initiatives and policies that can attract the employees and retain them. The investment done by the businesses is one of the reasons why back to office is critical.

On the other hand, there is a U turn of employees coming back to their previous employer. This is because there are lack of facilities at home, not proper working conditions, lack of stable opportunities, virtual onboarding during Covid, pending loan repayments, no connectivity with colleagues, unknown faces while remote working, and lack of socialisation. These factors are making the employees return, making ‘back to office’ even more critical.

The lack of personal space, concerns differentiating lines of work and home chores and responsibilities with focus on mental health, is essential which is again adding an important factor on why back to office is currently critical. Work-life balance has gone off the grid. The thin line of difference especially between work and life has vanished. Those struggling are mainly from the Tier 1 and metro cities.