Why I’d Rather Close My Company Than Return to the Office Full-time

The pandemic might be disappearing in the rear-view mirror as we head into 2024, but a lot of organizations are still struggling with the question of whether or not to mandate a full-time return to the office. For me, however, it was a no-brainer: I’d rather close my company down than go back to the way things used to be.

My reasons for this are multi-layered.

On a personal level, spending all day in the office is not something that suits me anymore, neither from a practical perspective nor from a motivational one.

Tokyo, where Attuned is headquartered, is a huge, sprawling city, and I live pretty far from the center, meaning that commuting to and from our office would eat up at least two hours each day. Being stuck in the office during business hours would also deprive me of the flexibility I need to take care of and be with my young kids. The opportunity to experience and appreciate their fleeting childhood, and to be present with them every day, is something I am fiercely protective of, and not something I’d give up lightly.

At the same time, Autonomy is very important to me, motivationally speaking.

At Attuned, we measure intrinsic motivation across 11 categories defined by psychologists, and Autonomy is my own top motivator. This means that I prize personal freedom particularly highly, and am more motivated when I can make my own decisions over how, when, and where to work. The notion of having that freedom restricted by returning to the office full-time is therefore pretty demotivating.

From an organizational perspective, meanwhile, remote working isn’t something that started for us out of necessity during the pandemic—we were already experimenting with remote and hybrid working styles before 2020. And while we may not have planned to go all-in on it quite so rapidly, it was a strategy that was already bearing fruit in terms of employee satisfaction without any discernible downsides.

Many of our team members have obligations of care, whether—like me—toward young children, or for elderly or ailing family members. And, for them, having the flexibility in their schedule to pick up their kids from school, or take a relative to hospital, is golden. Were I to insist they return to the office full-time, it would force them to make a very difficult decision, and I would run the risk of losing talented, committed people for negligible benefits—a situation that is playing out all around the world right now.

The Other Side of the Coin

But of course, everyone is built differently, and one size most definitely does not fit all. Using the Attuned dashboard I can see that, while several colleagues also have Autonomy as a top motivator, many others do not. Some, for example, are highly motivated by Social Relationships and Altruism—two needs that are generally better satisfied by in-person interactions.

And while I don’t think people are necessarily more productive in the office, it’s hard to deny that there are real, meaningful, and important things that only happen when we connect face to face.

There are, for example, conversations that only tend to happen when we share the same space. Conversations that are too light (or too personal) for Slack or a video call. These conversations may not seem critical, but they are invaluable in building trust and rapport. And, of course, there’s the body language aspect to consider, too.

Similarly, it’s much easier to air half-baked ideas or ask a ‘stupid’ question in person, without the fear of the curt response you might get from someone frayed by too many video calls. These micro-communications are the building blocks of Psychological Safety, and it’s important they are voiced for the cumulative culture of trust they build.

In short, without in-person meetings, work relationships can quickly become purely transactional, and the company culture and bonds between people can suffer as a result.

Further muddying the waters is the question of life stage. Our younger team members, for example, should probably be in the office more. The benefits they gain from learning the trade by watching others and building their professional network, to forming friendships and learning about humans generally, are real and tangible.

Using Data to Find the Right Balance

While I am dead against a wholesale return to the office, as a leader I do feel that it’s my duty not to let my own preferences completely override the wishes of my team, and to remain mindful that other people have needs and working styles that are different (and, in some cases, completely opposite) to my own.

So what is the right amount of time for people to be back in the office? Is it every couple of weeks? One day a week? A few days a week? More?

In many ways, it depends what kind of organization you want to create. If you want it to be simpler and easier to control, then it makes sense to have everyone doing the same thing, whether that’s in the office full-time, or fully remote. The outcome, however, is that you’ll get employees who don’t buy into that and will leave. You’ll also likely have a more homogenous, less diverse workforce—whether due to their life stage, practical necessities, or motivational needs.

But for organizations that can strike the right balance between the two, there’s a clear opportunity to become the kind of company that great people really want to work for.

And the key to striking this balance is embracing personalization in the employee experience.

Ultimately, it’s absolutely crucial that leaders consider their team’s individual motivational needs, as well as their life stage requirements, when making decisions. This is where tools like Attuned’s Intrinsic Motivation Assessment, as well as our new Psychological Safety Assessment, prove invaluable, providing the data that allows leaders to make better-informed decisions and take the most effective actions—even (or perhaps especially) when that means going against your gut.