FT Letter: It will take more than yoga classes for staff to return to the office

Millie Arora, ReD Associates, New York

Tim Harford (“Lockdowns are over. WFH isn’t. Why?”, FT Magazine, February 25) outlines three reasons for the staying power of working from home but misses a critical aspect — how people find meaning at work.

Our research shows people having a more inward orientation to how they derive meaning from their work. This means they are more motivated by the substance of the work than, contrary to popular opinion, workplace culture.

That said, people see the shortcomings of WFH when it comes to the more intangible aspects of learning at work: building collegial relationships or professional networks; receiving and delivering timely feedback; interpreting social cues or building rapport over Zoom, not to mention deeper issues around loneliness and social cohesion that stem from a lack of collaboration and the “creative sparks” when you achieve something together.

These are important aspects to learning that WFH simply cannot cater for. Too often return-to-work policies miss these by focusing only on building social ties with colleagues without equally emphasising how being in the office can foster creativity, collaboration and, what young people crave in particular, mentorship.

Companies should think about how to provide the learning, not just the social environments employees desire. That involves meaningful mentorship, not weekly yoga classes, opportunities to network, not forced Friday drinks, that will re-establish the office as the centre of work.

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