Here’s a rare sight: a CEO of a large company has spoken out in support of remote work for employees, slamming those firms that drag staff back into the office against their will. Dropbox boss Drew Houston compared RTO mandates to trying to force people back into malls and movie theaters.
Speaking on an episode of Fortune’s “Leadership Next” podcast, Houston said what most people have long thought: that returning to the office is a waste of time and money when employees can do exactly the same tasks at home.
“We can be a lot less dumb than forcing people back into a car three days a week or whatever, to literally be back on the same Zoom meeting they would have been at home,” he said. “There’s a better way to do this.”
I used to manage a team of people who were all remote except one and myself. It’s not hard. You set expectations and they either meet them or they don’t and you address those issues. I do think some of them struggled due to working from home creating a “barrier” to asking for help when you don’t know your coworkers as well, but I did everything I could think of to reduce that so they’d feel comfortable reaching out via teams (creating group chats, designating “helpers”, etc) or even coming into the office if they chose but there were very mixed results and in general things were worse than when we were primarily working from the office. I don’t think the problem is working from home, it was communication skills and some people just lacking the discipline to not goof off when they are at home (I’m one of these, I need an office environment to focus). That is a case by case thing though that needs to be addressed with the individual.