Either have regular set office team days or choose fully remote, but avoid the messy middle of “come in when you need to”

Firstly a few disclaimers: This article doesn’t intend to compare or argue the merits of either fully remote working or co-location/hybrid. Secondly, these are my views and not those of my employer or any other organisation.

As things are gradually getting back to normal, many organisations are formalising their hybrid working policies. Some are choosing to have set office days – including my current organisation where our Product & Tech leadership (which I’m part of) made the decision to take this approach early 2021. You can read about our rational here. It’s not long and saves me repeating it in this article.

Others are taking the “come in when you need to” approach. This generally means if a team needs some face time for activities that benefit from in person interaction, they arrange to come into the office together. Otherwise do what suits you (the individual) best.

Why “come in when you need to” is the messy middle

When I try and arrange to meet up with friends who are now spread across the country (or even old work colleagues locally for that matter) it’s a military effort finding a time when everyone is free. Usually we have to schedule months out in advance. Even then things fall through as often as not.

I’m hearing similar stories from organisations currently taking the “come in when you need to” approach – teams finding it a struggle to get everyone together in person at the same time, especially when they’ve now hired people geographically further out from their offices. I’d imagine this gets exponentially harder when you want to get a few teams together who are, for example, collaborating on a shared outcome.

For working parents I see it as a particular issue. Most parents I know don’t have five full (i.e. 8am-6pm) working days of childcare (due to the expense). It’s usually a mix of paid childcare, grandparents and then parents splitting shifts on drop-offs and pick-ups (thankfully at my current employer we have flexible working hours which allows you to do this). In my experience at least, it’s a highly disciplined and drilled exercise, needs a routine and is difficult to change on a whim.

“Hey, why don’t we all go into the office tomorrow and workshop it in person?”

What if you’re the only parent on your team and now feel like the “difficult” one because you can’t just always change your routine that quickly? Now they’re all going in anyway and you’re missing out?

From an HR perspective, it’s ambiguous and difficult territory. What if someone says they won’t come in? Is that a conduct issue? When you have set days for everyone it’s pretty simple, they’re the same polices you had pre-hybrid working for those days. In the “come in when you need to” world you’re going to require a very clear definition of “need” and most likely, new and complicated colleague policies.

I’ve a strong suspicion (I know it’s the case in some places) quite a few organisations taking the “come in when you need to” approach aren’t doing so because they see it’s working, but because they’re still in wait and see mode. Why? Primarily I’d guess, fear of attrition in a highly competitive labour market. I predict that as more organisations come out formally with set office day working patterns, others will follow.

Choose set days or go fully remote?

Like I said in my disclaimer, I’m not out to argue the case for either remote or co-location here, just highlighting the situation I see as the worst of both worlds. If you can’t see set days working for your organisation, then perhaps it’s worth looking into whether fully remote is a better option.