Workers Still Skeptical That Paying to Go to Work Pays OffWorkers Still Skeptical That Paying to Go to Work Pays Off

I once worked for a company that refused to provide its employees with writing implements. The founder's rationale was that pens and pencils were personal accessories and he didn't think it a good use of corporate funds to underwrite employees' fashion statements. 

It didn't matter that some of us picked up pens not because they made us chic but because they helped us write things down. The founder considered his pen to be a reflection of his personal aesthetic, ergo everyone's writing utensils were also accessories first, means by which to take notes second. So I bought my own Pilot pens and started paying attention to which competitor companies paid for the tools employees needed to do their jobs and which ones did not.

I thought about the pen costs and how it opened everyone's eyes to what costs employers expected employees to bear when I was catching up on my weekly reading around return-to-office mandates, a news story now going into its third year. I was reading an excellent column by Computerworld's Mike Elgan in which he breaks down one of the reasons employees are resistant to RTO mandates:

Prices vary by region. But in general, since the beginning of the pandemic in 2020, the cost of living has risen dramatically for employees: annual mortgage payments have grown by more than $3,500; the price of a car has risen by about $10,000; and the cost for groceries has increased by around 10%.

The direct additional cost of working in an office for employees is higher, too: Gasoline costs more than it did in 2019; annual child-care costs have increased by more than $1,000.

I've written before about how employees are looking at commuting costs and asking why they're paying to lose time by going in the office. That mindset isn't going away. In fact, they might be asking even more urgently, especially if returning to the office is going to cost them both time and money in increased transit costs and childcare costs. 

One of the reasons we're in year three of stories like "Workers Resist Return to Office Mandates" is that there is still a disconnect between high-level management and the wider workforce, and so long as that disconnect is baked into the company culture, workers are going to keep one eye on the door as they ask, "What else is this job gonna cost me?"

This is not to say that remote working is the best and we should all do it forever -- not at all. Some jobs require in-person collaboration, and some career stages require being around the colleagues who can help you level up. But we can look at this return to office movement as a sign and an opportunity -- for good workplace strategists to identify the costs their workers bear, ask whether those costs are ultimately going to hurt the company's bottom line or enrich it, and see whether those costs are necessary at all.