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A survey finds that flexibility is key to happy teams and forcing people back to the office exacerbates disengagement.
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Worker disconnect to ‘skyrocket’ with back-to-office mandates
30 January 2024
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A growing number of workers feel like they are being forced back to the office and are mentally checking out to replicate their preferred WFH conditions, a survey by office product supplier COS says.
Over one in three workers who returned to the office said they preferred working by themselves without interacting with co-workers or wider company activities, COS said.
CEO Amie Lyone called the trend “desk engagement” and said it mirrored what workers would be doing in a work-from-home environment.
“This research highlights that even if workers are physically in the office, it doesn’t mean they are necessarily more engaged than those who are working remotely,” she said.
“The concept of workers physically being in the workplace but not mentally being engaged, is predicted to skyrocket,” the survey said, as more companies made it mandatory for employees to return to the office full time in 2024.
Nearly 40 per cent of survey respondents said the disconnect was due to feeling “forced back into the office” when they preferred the WFH style of working and 34 per cent said it was because they wanted to “just do their job and then go home these days”.
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To achieve an experience similar to when working from home, 28 per cent said they tended to wear headphones while at their desk and the same proportion emailed colleagues next to them instead of speaking face-to-face.
Additionally, 17 per cent used paid work hours to complete personal tasks like paying their bills and ordering groceries.
The trend comes after workers embraced terms like “quiet quitting” and “bare minimum Monday” in recent years, reflecting a growing desire to expend the least effort possible at work.
Younger workers were more likely to disconnect at the office compared to older workers. According to COS’ survey, Gen Z workers aged between 18-24 reported the highest level of “desk engagement” at 43 per cent, followed by workers between 25-34 (38 per cent).
Workers based in NSW (38 per cent), Queensland (39 per cent) and Tasmania (41.5 per cent) were also more likely to display “desk engagement”.
“Often when employees feel forced into methods that are detrimental to their wider life, like returning to the office full time when this means less time with their family and more time commuting, this is when they start feeling resentful towards the business and their ability to produce high quality work slips to a subpar standard,” Ms Lyone said.
“As 2024 begins, flexibility is still going to be key to having a high performing and happy team.”
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