Episode 2 | The Back to Work Challenge
In this cast, the COVID back to work challenge. Lately I've been getting asked by a number of different organizational leaders. How do I get my employees back to work? It seems that there is this challenge. I've had my employee out. They've been working from their homes during, during this whole COVID thing. And now I got to get them back into the office. How do I make that happen, Ron? Now, to me, this is a really interesting question because within this question, depending on how you answer, what I'm going to say tells me a lot about how you're approaching leadership and general. And the question is very simply, why should they come back?
Now that question might shock you a little bit. You're sitting there thinking, well, they work here. They have to come back. Well, uh, not good enough. Why should they come back? Because I told them so not good enough. Why should they come well? Um, because we got to get our work done. They've been doing to die at home for the last 16 months. Why should they come back? Are you starting to get me the challenge that we face with this question is your employees have been operating outside of your business from their home performing adequately at probably at least adequately, if not performing well. And they've just gotten a glimpse of a different reality. They've gotten a glimpse of what it would mean to not actually have to commute to the office, to incur the expense of driving their car however long it is. I mean, average, commute's probably 30 minutes.
So they're losing an hour of day, all the gas, all of the wear and tear on the car, all of the aggravation and the stress of dealing with traffic, they don't have, they haven't had to do that for the last 16 months. And now you're saying, come back to the office and they're looking at you going, why, depending on how you answer this question, is going to dictate whether they actually do so willingly or they become part of the hashtag great resignation or they do so reluctantly. And listen, if they come back reluctantly, congratulations, you have just now disengaged a section of your workforce. And they're most likely your salaried workforce who are doing value added knowledge work. You can't afford to disengage them. That is a technical term. I like to call #stupid. Don't do that. We need to come up with a valid reason. Guys. We have to come up with a valid reason. You know what underlies a lot of the old answers, you know, we're operating from this old employment contract that says, I pay you to come to the office to do your job. Well, we can't just simply go back to that old contract. We have to reconsider. Why should they come to the office? And I think you need to understand the perspective of the employee for a minute. You know, I talked a little, I'll skip all that. Why should they come back to the office? Such an important question.
Before we explore a good answer to the question. Why should I come back to work? Let's take a step back and look at it from the employee's point of view for a minute. I want you to get something when COVID hit our, our society. The globe in general, went into this sense of trauma of panic and like what the heck with it was there was fear and hoarding and this great unknown uncertainty about what the future held. And the thing you got to get is that that trauma triggered loss, loss in the sense of loss of my habits, loss of the way I've always done things. Loss of, if my kids aren't in school, I've got to work from home. All of these changes all happening at once. It was stressful, it was overwhelming. And when you deal with the fear of what is this COVID thing, and is it going to get me?
It was just this incredible traumatic experience in our business world, in, in the globe in general. And when we experience loss of this magnitude, we will inevitably go through the grief cycle that Kübler Ross has made, made famous. First, we go into denial. Then we go into anger, negotiation, depression, and then finally acceptance. And I would argue that all along the way, you're dealing with the fear of the unknown, the fear of a virus. Is it going to get me? Is it going to get my family is do, am I safe? So you're dealing with all of that. And the thing about strong emotions like this is that strong emotions wake us up. It wakes us up. And what we end up doing is we start to question what's going on in our lives. Is this, is this all there is, is this where I saw myself when I was younger?
Is this what I want from life? Now, if you lay that background on the executive that is playing the, I told you so hard of the, the mom card, if you will, that do it because I told you, so how's that answer going to play for that employee? That's questioning their decisions, questioning what's going on. Now they're being told that they have to come back to work. I think you're going to find they're going to be highly resistant to that logic because it's disrespectful. It just doesn't have a, a human connection embedded within it. It's just business as usual. You're part of the machine, get back here and be a part of the machine. And whenever you treat your employees like a part of the machine, the process, the equipment, you're disrespecting them as a human being. And they're not going to want to come to back.
If they come back at all, they'll be reluctant. They'll be disengaged. And it's highly likely that what we're seeing in the workforce now with people resigning at rates that we haven't seen in years is a result of managers who they couldn't buy a clue. If they're standing in front of the clue store with a bucket full of cash, they just, they just don't get it. You can't force this. We need to treat this situation from a humanistic perspective, not a business as usual perspective. So why should they come back to work? I really need you to stop and answer that question. Maybe your business is such that it requires an in-person high touch to customer perspective. And if that's the case, then play it. Maybe there are certain things that can really are better done when everyone is at the facility. So find a way to turn that into language that the employees can buy into because we can't have them coming back reluctantly or not at all. We need everyone to come back.
It seems to me that there are actually two points of resentment. One is the employee that's been off for the last 16 months. That's coming back and they feel like they're being forced to. So be absolutely certain that you're following good safety protocols and following your local guidelines and, and health guidelines do not put people at risk ever. Okay. Hear me say that, but provided that you're following all the guidelines that your jurisdiction requires, and you're going over and above to make sure that your employees will feel safe. There's still two points of resentment. One is the employee that feels that they can do their job adequately from home. So why do they have to come back to work? And then two there's another form of resentment. And that is the quote unquote essential workers that didn't have the pleasure or the benefit of working from home.
You required them to come to work all the way through the pandemic. They are actually going to resent the people that are coming back to work. Now there's two points of resentment, the people that are coming back and then the people that didn't get to leave in the first place. So how do you deal with that? Well, I have a really simple way to look through this recognize first that we need to separate these two, because the employee coming back to work, we need to have a valid why, and we need to be able to have a conversation with them. That's empathetic and addresses their fears and concerns. And that is really key. If you don't do that, they're not going to want to come back. So really important to it, acknowledge where they're at to give them a valid reason why to thank them for their cooperation and their flexibility. And to, to ask them to come back for the good of your customers, the good of your business.
The second group, the employees that stayed. We got to treat them a little bit differently because unlike the first situation where the resentment is toward you, the employee that's coming back is going to be resentful of you for asking them to come back potentially. In the second case, the employees are resentful of the other employees who got a perceived benefit that they didn't get. How do you deal with that? Well, here's my recommendation. First of all, acknowledge the fact that there's a difference that certain employees were asked to go home for the good of everyone and make sure that you, that you say it that way, because we didn't send that group of employees home for any other reason than to minimize the risk to everyone. So acknowledge what they're talking about, empathize with the emotions and the frustration they feel it doesn't mean, you agree with it, just empathize with where they're coming from then. Thank them, thank them for their loyalty. Thank you them for their hard work. Thank you. Thank them for coming to work every day.
Now, If you've gotten through this process where you've acknowledged the situation, you've empathize with them and you've thanked them. If they're still engaged with you, you can go the next step, which is to explain the difference between an essential worker and everyone else. And the fact that we wouldn't be in this, if we didn't have people like you staying, and then thank them again, after that, you can go a step further. And what I like to do is ask a question and the question I would ask them is this, how can we make sure that we all work effectively together? And that we welcome these people back, get a specific answer for them and then ask them, Hey, can I count on you to do that? Now you've got what I call an integrity lock.
When you ask somebody, can I count on you to do that? And they say, yes. Now you've got them on their words saying that they're going to help you make this better. And if they don't, uh, now you've got an opening to give them some feedback on how to get in line with the expectations, because it was their suggestion in the first place, not yours. And I think what you'll find is that dealing with resentment of not having been able to work from home is the easier of the two challenges. But the first one, the employee that is coming back to work to give them a valid reason why, we need to empathize with their situation. And we need to invite them back to work and recognize. Invite might not be a word that you're comfortable with. We need them to come back to work.
Yes. And here's why, and then expect them to, and if they still don't, well, they probably weren't going to come back anyway. But I think if you treat them as a human being, treat them with respect, give them a valid reason, empathize with their situation and explain why you need them to come back. I think you're going to get a different outcome than what a lot of companies are dealing with right now. And having people leave them because they feel like they're being treated with disrespect.
So who does what? By when I would encourage that from this cast that you take a few minutes and ask yourself, why exactly do I need my employees back here and look at it through the lens of the employee, not through your own, you know, not just coming back to satisfy your ego or to do it because that's the way we've always done it.
That that is not a valid reason. We need to them to come back for a very specific business reason. And if you can't come up with one, um, then maybe you ought to rethink your business strategy of whether you need them there in the first place. Cause by the way, if you use less office space, um, doesn't that potentially lower your, your costs structure. That's not a bad thing. If you can manage it, remote work might actually be to your benefit. Don't just bring them back because you need to bring them back. It doesn't really make sense to me. And it's it doesn't ring true to the employee. Who's gone through the trauma of this COVID challenge. So for now that's it. And we'll see you on the next episode.
My company Developing Leaders Inc. provides a number of performance improvement related services to companies such as yours. We work with the Fortune 500 and local so Cal Businesses. If your company needs support in developing their process performance or in enhancing leadership effectiveness, reserve your no obligation strategy session with us today.
Reserve Your Strategy Session
In this cast, the COVID back to work challenge. Lately I've been getting asked by a number of different organizational leaders. How do I get my employees back to work? It seems that there is this challenge. I've had my employee out. They've been working from their homes during, during this whole COVID thing. And now I got to get them back into the office. How do I make that happen, Ron? Now, to me, this is a really interesting question because within this question, depending on how you answer, what I'm going to say tells me a lot about how you're approaching leadership and general. And the question is very simply, why should they come back?
Now that question might shock you a little bit. You're sitting there thinking, well, they work here. They have to come back. Well, uh, not good enough. Why should they come back? Because I told them so not good enough. Why should they come well? Um, because we got to get our work done. They've been doing to die at home for the last 16 months. Why should they come back? Are you starting to get me the challenge that we face with this question is your employees have been operating outside of your business from their home performing adequately at probably at least adequately, if not performing well. And they've just gotten a glimpse of a different reality. They've gotten a glimpse of what it would mean to not actually have to commute to the office, to incur the expense of driving their car however long it is. I mean, average, commute's probably 30 minutes.
So they're losing an hour of day, all the gas, all of the wear and tear on the car, all of the aggravation and the stress of dealing with traffic, they don't have, they haven't had to do that for the last 16 months. And now you're saying, come back to the office and they're looking at you going, why, depending on how you answer this question, is going to dictate whether they actually do so willingly or they become part of the hashtag great resignation or they do so reluctantly. And listen, if they come back reluctantly, congratulations, you have just now disengaged a section of your workforce. And they're most likely your salaried workforce who are doing value added knowledge work. You can't afford to disengage them. That is a technical term. I like to call #stupid. Don't do that. We need to come up with a valid reason. Guys. We have to come up with a valid reason. You know what underlies a lot of the old answers, you know, we're operating from this old employment contract that says, I pay you to come to the office to do your job. Well, we can't just simply go back to that old contract. We have to reconsider. Why should they come to the office? And I think you need to understand the perspective of the employee for a minute. You know, I talked a little, I'll skip all that. Why should they come back to the office? Such an important question.
Before we explore a good answer to the question. Why should I come back to work? Let's take a step back and look at it from the employee's point of view for a minute. I want you to get something when COVID hit our, our society. The globe in general, went into this sense of trauma of panic and like what the heck with it was there was fear and hoarding and this great unknown uncertainty about what the future held. And the thing you got to get is that that trauma triggered loss, loss in the sense of loss of my habits, loss of the way I've always done things. Loss of, if my kids aren't in school, I've got to work from home. All of these changes all happening at once. It was stressful, it was overwhelming. And when you deal with the fear of what is this COVID thing, and is it going to get me?
It was just this incredible traumatic experience in our business world, in, in the globe in general. And when we experience loss of this magnitude, we will inevitably go through the grief cycle that Kübler Ross has made, made famous. First, we go into denial. Then we go into anger, negotiation, depression, and then finally acceptance. And I would argue that all along the way, you're dealing with the fear of the unknown, the fear of a virus. Is it going to get me? Is it going to get my family is do, am I safe? So you're dealing with all of that. And the thing about strong emotions like this is that strong emotions wake us up. It wakes us up. And what we end up doing is we start to question what's going on in our lives. Is this, is this all there is, is this where I saw myself when I was younger?
Is this what I want from life? Now, if you lay that background on the executive that is playing the, I told you so hard of the, the mom card, if you will, that do it because I told you, so how's that answer going to play for that employee? That's questioning their decisions, questioning what's going on. Now they're being told that they have to come back to work. I think you're going to find they're going to be highly resistant to that logic because it's disrespectful. It just doesn't have a, a human connection embedded within it. It's just business as usual. You're part of the machine, get back here and be a part of the machine. And whenever you treat your employees like a part of the machine, the process, the equipment, you're disrespecting them as a human being. And they're not going to want to come to back.
If they come back at all, they'll be reluctant. They'll be disengaged. And it's highly likely that what we're seeing in the workforce now with people resigning at rates that we haven't seen in years is a result of managers who they couldn't buy a clue. If they're standing in front of the clue store with a bucket full of cash, they just, they just don't get it. You can't force this. We need to treat this situation from a humanistic perspective, not a business as usual perspective. So why should they come back to work? I really need you to stop and answer that question. Maybe your business is such that it requires an in-person high touch to customer perspective. And if that's the case, then play it. Maybe there are certain things that can really are better done when everyone is at the facility. So find a way to turn that into language that the employees can buy into because we can't have them coming back reluctantly or not at all. We need everyone to come back.
It seems to me that there are actually two points of resentment. One is the employee that's been off for the last 16 months. That's coming back and they feel like they're being forced to. So be absolutely certain that you're following good safety protocols and following your local guidelines and, and health guidelines do not put people at risk ever. Okay. Hear me say that, but provided that you're following all the guidelines that your jurisdiction requires, and you're going over and above to make sure that your employees will feel safe. There's still two points of resentment. One is the employee that feels that they can do their job adequately from home. So why do they have to come back to work? And then two there's another form of resentment. And that is the quote unquote essential workers that didn't have the pleasure or the benefit of working from home.
You required them to come to work all the way through the pandemic. They are actually going to resent the people that are coming back to work. Now there's two points of resentment, the people that are coming back and then the people that didn't get to leave in the first place. So how do you deal with that? Well, I have a really simple way to look through this recognize first that we need to separate these two, because the employee coming back to work, we need to have a valid why, and we need to be able to have a conversation with them. That's empathetic and addresses their fears and concerns. And that is really key. If you don't do that, they're not going to want to come back. So really important to it, acknowledge where they're at to give them a valid reason why to thank them for their cooperation and their flexibility. And to, to ask them to come back for the good of your customers, the good of your business.
The second group, the employees that stayed. We got to treat them a little bit differently because unlike the first situation where the resentment is toward you, the employee that's coming back is going to be resentful of you for asking them to come back potentially. In the second case, the employees are resentful of the other employees who got a perceived benefit that they didn't get. How do you deal with that? Well, here's my recommendation. First of all, acknowledge the fact that there's a difference that certain employees were asked to go home for the good of everyone and make sure that you, that you say it that way, because we didn't send that group of employees home for any other reason than to minimize the risk to everyone. So acknowledge what they're talking about, empathize with the emotions and the frustration they feel it doesn't mean, you agree with it, just empathize with where they're coming from then. Thank them, thank them for their loyalty. Thank you them for their hard work. Thank you. Thank them for coming to work every day.
Now, If you've gotten through this process where you've acknowledged the situation, you've empathize with them and you've thanked them. If they're still engaged with you, you can go the next step, which is to explain the difference between an essential worker and everyone else. And the fact that we wouldn't be in this, if we didn't have people like you staying, and then thank them again, after that, you can go a step further. And what I like to do is ask a question and the question I would ask them is this, how can we make sure that we all work effectively together? And that we welcome these people back, get a specific answer for them and then ask them, Hey, can I count on you to do that? Now you've got what I call an integrity lock.
When you ask somebody, can I count on you to do that? And they say, yes. Now you've got them on their words saying that they're going to help you make this better. And if they don't, uh, now you've got an opening to give them some feedback on how to get in line with the expectations, because it was their suggestion in the first place, not yours. And I think what you'll find is that dealing with resentment of not having been able to work from home is the easier of the two challenges. But the first one, the employee that is coming back to work to give them a valid reason why, we need to empathize with their situation. And we need to invite them back to work and recognize. Invite might not be a word that you're comfortable with. We need them to come back to work.
Yes. And here's why, and then expect them to, and if they still don't, well, they probably weren't going to come back anyway. But I think if you treat them as a human being, treat them with respect, give them a valid reason, empathize with their situation and explain why you need them to come back. I think you're going to get a different outcome than what a lot of companies are dealing with right now. And having people leave them because they feel like they're being treated with disrespect.
So who does what? By when I would encourage that from this cast that you take a few minutes and ask yourself, why exactly do I need my employees back here and look at it through the lens of the employee, not through your own, you know, not just coming back to satisfy your ego or to do it because that's the way we've always done it.
That that is not a valid reason. We need to them to come back for a very specific business reason. And if you can't come up with one, um, then maybe you ought to rethink your business strategy of whether you need them there in the first place. Cause by the way, if you use less office space, um, doesn't that potentially lower your, your costs structure. That's not a bad thing. If you can manage it, remote work might actually be to your benefit. Don't just bring them back because you need to bring them back. It doesn't really make sense to me. And it's it doesn't ring true to the employee. Who's gone through the trauma of this COVID challenge. So for now that's it. And we'll see you on the next episode.
My company Developing Leaders Inc. provides a number of performance improvement related services to companies such as yours. We work with the Fortune 500 and local so Cal Businesses. If your company needs support in developing their process performance or in enhancing leadership effectiveness, reserve your no obligation strategy session with us today.
Reserve Your Strategy Session