Summarize the following text in four sentences or less.:
Delta CEO's Response to Companies That Complain They Can't Get Workers to Come Back to the Office Is the Best I've Heard YetThere's a reason they aren't coming back.
BY JASON ATEN, TECH COLUMNIST
@JASONATEN

Ed Bastion.
 Getty Images
One of the things that seems to be true is that the lessons learned from the pandemic are wildly different if you're the CEO of a company, compared with the lessons learned by the people who work for that company. For example, pretty much everyone learned that there are a lot of jobs that don't require sitting in an office all the time. But what they learned from the experience of working from home for three years is very different. 

If you're someone who does one of those jobs at a company that shifted to working remotely because of Covid, you've probably gotten used to being productive outside of an office. On the other hand, if you're managing the people doing those jobs, the lesson seems to be quite different.

It seems like the lesson is something along the lines of "yes, our people can work remotely so we should let them stay home a few days a week, but they need to come back to the office the rest of the time." That disconnect is causing a lot of problems right now. Employees like things as they are. CEOs want things to go back to the way they were--at least, a little. Mostly, they just want people to return to their offices because it's easier to manage them. 

In an interview, Delta Air Lines' CEO, Ed Bastian, told Semafor that those CEOs complain to him about how they're "having a hard time getting their employees in." I guess the logical question is whether that's even the right move. Bastian, however, had a different response:

"I say, 'I know where they are--they're on my airplanes."'

It's a funny response, for sure, but it's also pretty observant. People are working differently, but mostly they're working in different places because they no longer have to be in an office. There are a lot of people who can do their job from anywhere with an internet connection. Many of those people are happy with that.

"New work patterns mean that people are traveling who in the past couldn't because they were in an office Monday through Friday," said Bastian.

For example, last month, Ben Thompson, who writes Stratechery, explained how using Starlink meant he was able to continue to work while staying with friends on a houseboat in a remote part of Canada. And Thompson isn't unique. 

As someone who has worked remotely since long before the pandemic, I get it. Last year, I worked from an RV as we drove across Alaska for two weeks. I've worked from a cabin in the Smoky Mountains. I've worked in different states and in different countries.

One of the reasons it's hard to get people to come back to the office is that they're enjoying working from far more exciting places. And now that work doesn't require sitting at a desk in a cubicle in an office building, those employees are traveling around the country--or  around the world. But that doesn't mean they aren't working. 

On the other hand, I also understand why it's frustrating to CEOs. Managing people remotely is a lot harder. Not only have I worked remotely for years, I've managed people. It takes a very different set of skills. Mostly, though, it takes a different type of trust and relationship to motivate your team and keep them productive and accountable. 

For a lot of leaders, it's a lot easier to just tell everyone to go back to the way things were before. It's easier to just expect everyone to show up to the office, do their work, and then go home. 

Really, there are two lessons here. The first is that you can't just go back to the way things were before. And, in many cases, you shouldn't. If your people can work from anywhere, and they are productive and happy working in a cabin somewhere, it's worth asking whether you're actually gaining anything by fighting to get them back to the office. 

Of course, the bigger lesson is that if you made the office a place people wanted to come, they would. Right? If it's that important to you that your employees come back to the office, try making it a place they think is worth coming to. 

No, I'm not talking about offering free snacks or dry cleaning. I mean making it a place where they feel more productive--a place where there is a real benefit to the way they want to work. Try making it a place where they get something they can't get anywhere else. 

Or you could just keep complaining that people won't come back to the office. 

JUL 28, 2023
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