- Key insight: Return-to-office mandates are chosen stress, and it's an unworthy choice because banking is a very difficult business.
- What's at stake: Those preaching most fervently from the pulpit of in-office mandates are also those who sacrifice least to abide by them.
- Supporting data: Today, banks earn 35% less in net interest margin than they did in 1994.
Six years ago, the credit union I work for owned two office buildings, occupying most of one for our corporate headquarters and hanging onto the second in the anticipation that we'd eventually expand into it. We've since sold the second building and renovated the first to occupy only a portion of one floor, leasing out the rest to tenants. Why? Because despite the rest of our industry
Do you remember those early days emerging from the pandemic, when we'd cautiously peek our heads out to attend small gatherings and all anyone could talk about was their company's situation with employees? I do, and I picked up on a few patterns.
I often encountered executives who were adamant we needed to get employees
I also picked up on another pattern. Everyone I heard express these hard-and-fast views fit the same profile. They were not primary caregivers to anyone at home (either children or elders). Their residence was 30 minutes or less from their workplace. Their jobs entailed significant time out of the office on a routine basis. And, especially, they personally didn't enjoy remote work.
That profile probably describes most executives you know. In fact, it describes me. And yet, there's one group it's unlikely to describe: everyone else in your organization.
Sure, most people in your C-suite probably fit that definition, and even a handful of folks at other levels. However, once you move below the vice president level, the numbers dwindle quickly. Why does that matter? Because those preaching most fervently from the pulpit of in-office mandates are also those who sacrifice least to abide by them.
Their commutes are reasonable because they can afford to live in neighborhoods close to centers of employment. They're not stretching single incomes to pay for childcare for multiple kids or stringing together expensive summer camps. They're also not enduring compromised care for elders because they can't find or afford home healthcare. Most troubling, for all of the "we need everyone in the office" bluster, they're least likely to actually be there because their work occurs largely elsewhere (at meetings around town, on business trips, etc.).
That reality — that those who feel most strongly that others should make sacrifices are often unwilling to make those same sacrifices themselves, all in service of a poorly supported notion that office attendance is important to the organization — feels, at the very least, unfair. It's also a bad business strategy.
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Every organization has those who are driving it forward. Much as I might like to think it's people like me who are sitting in executive seats, it's not. It's the people doing the selling, implementing and serving. It's people on the front lines. Those are the people who sacrifice the most for arbitrary return-to-office mandates and who are served least by them.
The work they do isn't about water cooler conversation. The work they do is about productivity and customer connection. That doesn't happen because someone knows Stacy's favorite cocktail is made with bourbon (which is it, and cheers). It happens because they're well equipped to do the job you need them to do; they have quality communication with leadership about why they're doing it; and their contributions are visible and understood beyond who happens to see them at the coffee machine each day.
I won't claim that satisfying each of those conditions is easy. In fact, it's incredibly hard. However, every minute wasted on counting badge swipes or debating whether three days a week in the office is best, or should it be four, is time not spent on creating those conditions.
Return-to-office mandates are chosen stress, and it's an unworthy choice because banking is a very difficult business. Margins have done nothing but shrink for 30 years. Today, banks earn 35% less in net interest margin than they did in 1994. Meanwhile, compliance costs have skyrocketed and consumer expectations for digital delivery have only grown. Those are long-term dynamics. Now, add the near-term challenges of markets whipsawing from one social media post to the next, and "unprecedented" conditions occurring so often the word has lost all meaning.
That's stressful. Stress that is happening to us, not by us. In that environment, why would a financial institution choose the stress created by return-to-office mandates? If you're not convinced by the equity argument, you should be compelled by the financial one.
Don't you need the individuals who are driving you forward to be engaged and stick with you? I know I do, and I know better than to confuse badge swipes with employee engagement. I hope you do too because everyone deserves a working environment that respects equity and rewards strong performance. And fair warning, if you don't deliver that to them, I will. Consider yourself warned.
