The writing is on the wall

            Should all employees be required to work in the office 5 days a week?  Are hybrid and remote workers as effective as their peers?  Without a clear consensus emerging, the debate regarding the impact of hybrid and remote work on corporate culture has gained momentum.  For example, AT&T announced that it is was planning to consolidate its office spaces.  This decision means some managers who live near an office being closed will have to relocate or quit.  Employees will be required to work a minimum of 3 days each week at the office.

             The rationale for this decision is increasing facetime maintains culture, spurs collaboration, and affords better mentorship of young employees.  Culture is important.  An unhealthy culture increases employee turnover, burnout, and fosters increased likelihood of mental health issues.  A study by Gartner found that CEO referencing culture as a top priority on earning calls increased 7% in 4 years; but that was from 2010 to 2016!  Clearly, culture was becoming a problem in organizations prior to the pandemic.

             CEO’s and CHRO’s prioritization of workplace culture is a good sign.  They must understand simply having people in close physical proximity has not, and will not, guarantee a culture that is healthy.  An organization’s culture is both amorphous and fluid, which makes changing it difficult.  No direct levers exist for an executive to pull and automatically improve a culture.  To further complicate the matter for executives, culture manifests where the work is done by mid-level managers and below.

             Research by Sigal Barsade and Olivia O’Neil, in 2022, found that an effective organizational culture is compassionate.  It is defined by actions undertaken without instructions.  A compassionate culture is a place where kindness, being treated with respect, honesty, and trust are the norm.  It starts with small gestures of greeting your colleagues when they arrive in the morning, being kind when somebody makes a mistake, and reaching out to a peer who is going through a tough time (this concept applies to virtual teams which can be equally effective). 

             Gathering your team is good; but you need a strategy to create an emotionally healthy culture.  Remember, every organization has an emotional culture.  This includes those based on suppression of ideas, fear, and blaming others.  Culture is impacted by the sensitivity, or lack of it, shown to employees when tough decisions are communicated to them.  For the organizations that ignore this reality, the writing is on the wall.