Spring is coming: the days are getting longer, the temperatures are milder and the virus is slowly retreating. It’s the time of year when office workers dare to venture outside and into the office. There are an estimated 15 million of them in Germany. And soon they won’t be able to ask to work from home anymore. The legal right to it expires on March 20, along with many other things that the federal government had decided to do to slow down the omicron wave.
Hard work is also done at home
And then? Back to the prepandemic business as usual, i.e. commuting five times a week and office hours from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m.? Two-thirds of companies would prefer it that way, at least according to the employers’ association BDA. It is quite possible that these companies have not yet understood what the consequence would be: It is not uncommon for the highly coveted and sought-after specialists to flee. Simply because their bosses obviously still don’t trust them. And because they have not understood that in the working world they are no longer alone in determining what works and what doesn’t. Anyone who now stubbornly orders “Get in at the office” could soon be sitting there without IT specialists, engineers or lawyers.
Two years of the corona pandemic have proven two things, firstly: working from home doesn’t just mean a sofa instead of a desk. People also work hard and productively at home, often even more than in the office. And secondly: For some tasks you don’t need the company, neither colleagues nor bosses nor special equipment. It is best to do this alone and save yourself the unpaid hours on the road. Millions of people have experienced this in the past few months. You will hardly let yourself be persuaded to the contrary again.
And that’s not even necessary. Many would like to go back to the office, even if not every day. Two years of the pandemic have also shown that working from home alone is usually not ideal. Some tasks become easier if you exchange ideas with colleagues instead of brooding over them alone or possibly looking after children. Many employees also work longer at home, and private and business matters become blurred when everything happens in the same place. Many now experience this as a burden. The office as a place of work has – who would have thought it – developed a whole new appeal.
A little more freedom would be a good start, coupled with clear rules
Giving it up altogether and saving the rent would be just as unwise. Studies have shown that employees at home are also losing their connection to the company. If the social aspect of the job recedes so much into the background, the inhibition threshold to look elsewhere for financial incentives also falls. The result: Even then, the sought-after specialists are gone.
So if it shouldn’t be the old office, but not the home office either – what then? A little more freedom would be a good start, coupled with clear rules. If everyone can decide to some extent where he or she works, that creates well-being. And if everyone knows that the entire team gathers in the office one day a week and exchanges ideas, this strengthens social ties and the managers keep track of things.
Of course it won’t be cheap. The fact that every office worker will need two equipped desks in the future – one at home, one in the company – is the least of it. The office itself has to change: away from a place where employees are kept to one where they like to come and where they create real value. It would be high time to think about it, whether you want to work from home or not.