How to Lead When Your Team is Disgruntled About Returning to the Office

The US Department of Housing and Urban Development had one of the more liberal telework policies among all the federal agencies so when the department instructed employees of the Multifamily Housing division to return to the office last month, many were unhappy about it, according to the American Federation of Government Employees, the union the represents HUD employees. “They are outraged,” Salvatore Viola, regional vice president of AFGE Council 222, told the Federal Times, which reported the news of HUD’s directive.

Recognizing this, HUD officials are trying to ease the way back for employees. According to the Federal Times, it plans to provide advance notice for the return as much as possible and will train managers on how to communicate these changes to workers. The department is also encouraging the use of wellness leave each quarter for personal health.

“We are offering a lot more flexibility across the department than we have ever offered before,” a HUD spokesperson told the publication. “We’re still providing them some flexibility with telework, but asking them to come into the office because of the work that they do.

So far HUD is hitting all the high points in crafting a strategy to soothe employees irate about having to return to the office. Specific training to communicate changes is important as is offering some level of flexibility even as workers return to in-person  work. Other suggestions include:

Make it profitable for employees to come in. Inflation has taken a bite out of almost everyone’s wallet and many employees feel their paychecks have not kept pace. In fact, a whopping 81% of workers reported last year that their current wage has not kept up with the rising cost of living, according to Monster. Beyond that, consider increasing the amount of PTO provided to employees and bolstering benefits.

Explain how an in-person presence can benefit a career path. Remote workers have been concerned about losing status at the company because they do not give upper management enough facetime and many statistics suggest that is true. Even worse, new statistics show that remote workers are more likely to be laid off than their in-person counterparts. The Wall Street Journal recently reported that people who worked from home five days a week were 35% more likely to be laid off in 2023, according to an analysis of two million white-collar workers conducted by employment data provider Live Data Technologies Anecdotally, this rings true. The WSJ also pointed to Wayfair, which recently told employees that remote workers would be more likely to be affected in company layoffs. Executives also said most workers should be in an office most days. This is not to say you should overtly or subtly threaten your employees with being laid off if they don’t comply; productivity would surely plunge and besides it is a poor management practice. Instead provide employees with clear roadmaps for career advancement and opportunities, which require an in-person presence to take advantage of.