Each week Dr Kirstin Ferguson tackles questions on workplace, career and leadership in her advice column Got a Minute? This week: questioning the need to return to the office, showing support for the boss, and when colleagues treat you differently because of your job title.
If you spend your work day in virtual meetings, is there any point in going into the office?Credit: Dionne Gain
Our company mandates three days in the office for “collaboration”, yet most of those days I sit on Teams calls with colleagues in other states, wearing noise-cancelling headphones. It’s costing me time and money to commute, and everyone in my team is quietly fuming. How do I raise that coming into the office seems to be just about box-ticking, not culture? I seriously don’t know why they want us back in the office at all.
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It sounds like your organisation hasn’t thought through a strategy on how to make coming into the office a value-add for employees, not just a different desk to sit at. Can you join with other colleagues who feel the same way to come up with ways to make these days more impactful? It may be a matter of speaking to your boss about ideas, like only holding virtual meetings on days out of the office, or having fewer days in the office during those work periods when less face-to-face collaboration is needed.
Before you speak with your boss, gather as much data as you can. Spend a month mapping out how you spend your time in the office when you come in. How much of it is in online meetings? How much of it is spent in face-to-face collaboration or strategy sessions? Once you have the data it will not only be interesting for you to reflect on but also to show your boss that there may be better ways to ensure the time you do spend together is productive. These days could be used well, but that takes planning as well as valuable feedback from employees like you.
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I work in a niche governance role in a small company of about 200 people. My boss used to be on the senior management team but was removed a few months ago – officially for “operational reasons”, though I suspect it was because they didn’t fit the new groupthink. While they were on leave, the team was restructured, our head count cut, and key decisions made without their input. Now, months later, upper management has brought up old “action items” they claim my boss agreed to – but she’s never seen the list. It feels like gaslighting. I’m frustrated by how unfairly they’re treating her, and it’s affecting my morale too. How can I support my boss and protect myself in this situation?
You need to be cautious about not being tarred with the same brush as your boss, or being seen as an acolyte who cannot move on. Either scenario may put you at risk of also being “removed”. While your loyalty to your boss is admirable, it is probably not all that helpful. I don’t think you need to protect her, but instead you need to focus on what you can control, which is how you respond to these changes.
Focus on the list of action items and consider them on their merits, not whether your boss did, or did not, sign off on them. I do understand the lack of trust you must be feeling, and I am sure you are now questioning who and what you can believe. But if you want to stay in the role and with your company, you will need to find a way to get on in this new environment. Speak to your boss about any concerns you have with the list of action items and then, together, agree on which of them you are to focus on. At this point, you are either on board and moving forward, or, if your morale has been impacted too much, you may need to move somewhere new.
