Why don’t CEOs get that return to office mandates don’t work?

The great “return to office” migration is turning into a resignation-fest – but for some reason, CEOs don’t think the complaints will apply to them.

Office workers across the UK were forced to work at home with little notice when the first lockdown happened in 2020, and most managed it with aplomb. They literally kept companies up and running from their kitchen tables, using their own laptops and broadband. As the pandemic eased, the idea of hybrid working emerged: if we can work from home productively, and we like it, why not let it continue?

But the past few months have seen a host of companies trying to push staff back into offices, from Google to Dell and Amazon. The latter sparked a backlash among some staff after ordering staff back in full-time after last year telling staff they needed to come back into the office at least three days a week, itself an unpopular move.

The latest is challenger bank Starling. Now under the leadership of Raman Bhatia, after founder Anne Boden departed in the spring, Starling isn’t exactly demanding staff return to the office full-time. Instead, the company is mandating ten days in the office each month.

And that, according to a report in The Guardian, was enough to spark resignations. One told the newspaper that they had worked for Starling for years, predominantly from home, and the cost and disruption of going into the office just wasn’t worth the hassle.

But it isn’t just about flexibility and work-life balance or even merely habits. Starling workers complained that the move was rushed and, more practically, that the company lacks desks, perhaps only having space for a third of staff at any given time across several sites.

Starling’s response: we just want to collaborate

The bank issued a statement to the newspaper saying the change merely formalised a long-standing practise of hybrid working, suggesting that staff were encouraged to head to the office two or three times a week.

“By bringing colleagues together in person, our aim is to achieve greater collaboration that will benefit our customers as we enter Starling’s next phase of growth,” the statement added. “People managers are able to provide additional support to colleagues with wellbeing and other personal needs. Those with fully remote or flexible arrangements in place already remain on those terms.”

That echoes the statements released by other RTO companies, notably Amazon, with CEO Andrew Jassy saying more time was needed in the same space to “invent, collaborate and be connected enough to each other”.

But staff seem to prefer working from home, apparently valuing flexibility, work-life balance, and saving time and money on their commutes over the ability to collaborate with colleagues and get support from HR. Indeed, research suggests pushing staff back to the office can harm productivity and lead to churn.

Of course, there are good reasons to go into the office, in particular for younger staff needing mentorship, training and support. And Starling is hardly mandating a full RTO like Amazon, but setting out terms for hybrid working.

But regardless of the number of days staff are stuck commuting, CEOs need to learn it’s easier to encourage a return to the office if people actually want to go back in – and if you have enough desks for them all, too.