Future of Work Roundup: June 3rd

This week’s Future of Work Roundup focuses on return to office policies, including Elon Musk’s thoughts for his employees, plus the folks threatening to quit because of the lack of work flexibility.

Elon Musk is not plugged into the future of remote work.

The Tesla and SpaceX CEO and will-he / won’t-he owner of Twitter told employees in a memo that they can work from home only after they spend a minimum of 40-hours a week in the office.

Rewriting what it means to “phone in”.

• Get this: he also said they need to return to the office or, “pretend to work somewhere else,” implying that folks who work remote don’t actually work (which, as we know, is just not true.)
• The memo also stated, “If there are particularly exceptional contributors for whom this is impossible, I will review and approve those exceptions directly.”

The bottom line: Musk is one of the richest people in the world, can swing the stock market with a tweet, and is now trying to dictate how people at his company work. But from Apple to Airbnb, we are seeing big orgs embrace hybrid workplaces. So the question remains: will his employees abide?

Source: The Guardian

As RTO policies start to sink in, workers are biting back.

One of Apple’s top execs resigned over their return to office policy – and that’s just one big name amongst the many little ones who are choosing the freedom of work flexibility.

An uprising is brewing.

• And there’s power in numbers: a global recruiting firm released a survey showing that 50% of US workers would rather resign than be forced back to the office full-time.

The bottom line: Habits are hard to break, including the one where we’ve been nestled into working from home for 2+ years. That, coupled with seeing execs exit, plus a robust job market, is making folks question their work and life priorities – and if an office is included.

Source: Vox

How do we bridge the RTO gap? Not by monitoring people, that’s for sure.

There’s clearly a lot of beef around remote work policies. Enter: how to monitor people’s performance when you aren’t face to face.

Maybe there’s a middle ground for everyone?

• Maybe, but TBD. According to a study, 56% of workers would resign if they knew they were being recorded through their computers. And about the same number said they wouldn’t take a new job if they knew this was going on, too.

The bottom line: We’re still figuring out the best way to navigate remote work, from the right policies to the right tech. It seems to make sense to keep an eye on the folks who are using company equipment (and on the company dime), but trusting the adults you hired is paramount to keeping talented employees around.

Source: Axios