Goodbye, dear home office?

For Amazon employees, the new year began with a farewell to their beloved home office. Instead of spending a few days a week at home, they now have to return to the office completely. And who doesn't like that? They simply have no future with the US internet giant - as Matt Garman, CEO of Amazon Web Services, put it. Wow. The bold announcement also reverberates in the DACH market, where a heavyweight like Amazon serves as a role model: has the wondrous world of New Work with flexible, mobile working failed? Goodbye, comfortable home office?

Since the coronavirus pandemic at the latest, employees with academic jobs in particular have made themselves comfortable within their own four walls. Shopping in the mornings while the stores are empty and the shelves are still well stocked. Picking up the kids from school at lunchtime, doing laundry in the afternoon and working late in the evening from time to time.

"No reprehensible laissez-faire"

Jean-Victor Alipour does not see this as a reprehensible laissez-faire on the part of employees - but rather the actual "charm of the home office", as the research associate at the Ifo Institute in Munich puts it.

"Many employees succumb to the charm of flexible working time solutions."

Many employees of all ages and genders are succumbing to the charm of such flexible and mobile working time solutions. According to the Ifo Institute, there are therefore more than 20 percent of job vacancies in Germany that enable hybrid working. "A record high," says Alipour. To the delight of applicants, because working from home is equivalent to a salary increase of seven to eight percent, as various studies have found. This clearly shows that virtually nobody wants to go back to their desk in the office. Companies should recognize this - and they certainly do.

Masked job cuts?

The Ifo Institute's most recent economic survey on the topic from summer 2024 shows that a large majority of companies (74%) want to continue working from home. Only twelve percent are planning stricter guidelines, and only four percent want to abolish working from home completely. "Such a return-to-office policy along the lines of Amazon could also be aimed at reducing the number of jobs," Alipour speculates. The Ifo researcher refers to Deutsche Bank, which has reduced its home office offering from 60 to 40 percent, while at the same time cutting jobs. The same scenario - job cuts paired with regulations requiring more presence in the office - can be found at software company SAP. "Compulsory attendance encourages voluntary redundancies. This allows companies to save costs when cutting jobs, for example by eliminating redundancy payments," interprets Alipour.

Officially, of course, companies justify this differently. Productivity would fall by the wayside and innovation could not flourish if employees did not exchange ideas in the office. "Core areas, especially in software development, need to sit together, discuss things and then make changes," explained SAP co-founder and long-standing Chairman of the Supervisory Board Hasso Plattner in an interview with Handelsblatt, explaining why he supports the move back to traditional office working. Plattner believes that video conferencing cannot compensate for this. Is that really the case?

Science: "Productivity not at risk"

Alipour, who is a big proponent of working from home himself, does not believe that hybrid working jeopardizes productivity. "Current research shows neutral to slightly positive productivity effects," he says. What's more, employee satisfaction increases when they don't have to endure long commutes and can spend the time they save on their everyday lives instead. "If employees can decide more freely about what they do, they devote half of the time they save to their job anyway," he analyzes. Resignations are then reduced by a third. Or increase if they have to go back to the company desk.

"Employer market" influences situation

Juliana Wolfsberger is observing the attempt to tighten the reins again and bring employees into the office in the Austrian market. "The economy has weakened in recent months and the economic climate has changed," says the New Work expert at consulting firm Deloitte Austria in Vienna. This means that the employee market, in which employees are wooed, has turned back into an employer market in which companies dictate their ideas. "In many sectors, there is no longer any talk of a shortage of skilled workers," says Wolfsberger. Deloitte's Flexible Working Study from fall 2024 confirms this: While employees have expected flexible working time models since corona, fewer and fewer companies in Austria are offering the option. Almost every tenth management is even in favor of an end to working from home. The four-day week and the workation model are also currently a long way from becoming an integral part of the working world, according to the study. After four years of an upswing in flexible working, disillusionment has now set in.

"The economic climate has changed in recent months."

For the New Work expert, however, the fact that companies are now rowing back and ordering employees back to the office, otherwise even threatening to fire them, is not a solution - and is by no means the end of the tug-of-war over the home office. "When companies force their employees back to the office desk, it's often those who are best trained who leave," says New Work expert Wolfsberger. In the end, companies are harming themselves with these kinds of knee-jerk reactions.

Searching for the optimal balance

For Katharina Vogt, the back and forth of hybrid working does not herald the end of developments. Vogt is a member of the Executive Board & Head of the New Work Academy at Witzig, a provider of modern work solutions based in Zurich. For her, the fluctuations in the market reflect the search for the optimal balance. "Every company has to find out for itself which path it wants to take," she says. While the home office can be the ideal place if employees want to do their work in peace and quiet, the office is a meeting place for social interaction. For Vogt, these functions need to be clearly recognized - and used. And in a more targeted way than before.

Even though there are digital solutions on the market that support virtual brainstorming more and more effectively, for many, on-site exchange remains a particularly valuable factor in terms of communication and innovation, Vogt explains. Companies should create an inspiring environment for this. There has to be something in the office to make employees want to come. This includes attractive premises and joint activities.

According to Vogt, it is also becoming more important for managers to lead by objectives rather than simply demanding presence times. Keyword: culture of trust: "Managers should agree fixed availability in the home office with their team and also take individual preferences into account," advises the New Work expert. For her, one thing is certain: "Working from home is here to stay." What's more, according to figures from the Ifo Institute, eleven percent of the entrepreneurs surveyed want to make the existing regulations even more flexible. In future, technical solutions will make it possible to meet colleagues in a virtual space - without having to move around, Alipour explains: "This could make working from home even more important."

INTERVIEW

"Control is a breach of trust"

Jochen Kalka, Managing Director at the Berlin PR agency Schoesslers, appreciates the benefits of mobile working. According to Kalka, those who want to constantly monitor their employees obviously have a blatant trust problem.

m&k: Home office or presence: What applies at Schoesslers?

Jochen Kalka: There are many bosses who need their people around them like a protective army. Physically. That often has to do with a sense of power. It's different with us: we trust our team, no matter where everyone works from. But there are also teams that live in the same place as Berlin, Hamburg, Würzburg or Cologne and Düsseldorf, and they want to see each other regularly, even at work. And so each team arranges with the respective team leader whether they see each other daily, weekly or sporadically on call.

What are the advantages, what are the disadvantages?

We want our employees to be happy. If they are happy, then so are our customers. The freedom we give the team has huge advantages: We attract the best people from all over the country, employees can also work from their parents' or friends' homes if they need support or care, and with Workation we enable the team to experience unusual everyday situations abroad. How cool is that? Incidentally, anyone can also work from any of our locations, which is often and gladly used.

But what if someone wants to come to the office?

Some employees are not home office people. Some need teams around them and become isolated at home. This should be respected and honored! Those who want to can have a permanent workplace.

"Trust is good, control is better" - what do you think?

If you can't trust your employees, you might as well not bother. After all, we see the results of our team - and they are simply fantastic. Control is a breach of trust.