My wife, who spent much of her career in corporate HR, would often note:
"People who want to work, will work wherever you put them. People who don't want to work will find a way not to work wherever you put them."
The people who used WFH as a "2 year vacation" are the same people who will wander the office engaging in random conversations and scrolling Facebook the remainder of the day.
I always wondered why we presume traffic and cubicles are a cure for the lack of motivation.
It’s a level of friction that discourages the worst behaviors.
You probably lock the front door of your house. The reality is, it’s not a meaningful thing in most cases, as a moderately in shape middle aged man, I could likely kick or pry it in in seconds.
We do it because it keeps honest people out and increases the friction for the bad guys - kicking the door down in itself becomes a felony. (Burglary)
Likewise, people are on a bell curve of sorts with respect to motivation. The people on the bottom are a waste of oxygen and require explicit directions for every task, and the other extreme are self-motivated and will create novel tasks to complete without any direction.
Some people need the office to function appropriately on that curve. I have one guy on my team who came to work physically every day during the full lockdowns in NYC because for him, the context shift of being in the office was important. He is probably the smartest person I’ve ever met, but he can’t work at home. Another colleague is living on an island somewhere.
The rest of us are in the middle. Combine that with other business requirements, and you have to make a decision that’s best for the business.
Since the door/lock analogy is widely used I would like to point that they have 2 other major advantages
1: they have the effect of warning you of unauthorized access: you can maybe break a door/window in a matter of minutes but you wont catch me napping nor you will be able to make it look like nobody broke in.
2: they keep unmotivated attackers out and can move the attacks off to you and on less protected properties.
Locking your door looks more like an historical artifact from the time the police wasn't ready available for policing the neighborhood of normal people.
Probably you should then have looked at the dog joke on the top. If I DONT want to do stupid work beleive me , I will work very hard to find smart ways to NOT do your stupid work. In other words I will be the absolute lazy programmer whose output is so good that it scares their manager to the point of insecurity. These are the kind of people that wants “their” team back in office. Again something very stupid but it is a viscous circle…
If that’s how you work, it’s in your interest to keep the stupid going.
Look at what happened to COBOL people. Eventually, the bean counters figure it out, and “work from home” becomes, “work from the Philippines” at 1/5 the cost.
I know there are some employees that have children at home during the day, making it difficult to get any work done. This is especially true in cities where there is often not enough room for a dedicated office. My boss does best in the office, because almost everyone is home, so it is quiet (unlike his home situation).
Cubicles, as opposed to an office with a door that closes mean someone is likely to walk by and see what you are wasting time doing. Once in a while everyone has 'compiling' time to waste, but eventually it gets obvious
My wife, who spent much of her career in corporate HR, would often note: "People who want to work, will work wherever you put them. People who don't want to work will find a way not to work wherever you put them."
The people who used WFH as a "2 year vacation" are the same people who will wander the office engaging in random conversations and scrolling Facebook the remainder of the day.
I always wondered why we presume traffic and cubicles are a cure for the lack of motivation.