6
Some firms have simply mandated that their people work in the office either full-time or so many days a week. Rumor has it here in Northwest Arkansas that Walmart – which is building a new corporate headquarters that will rival Apple’s – is telling all of its remote workers they will have to come back. Those who don’t want to do it are supposedly going to be looking for new work. Maybe that’s too draconian for our industry with the labor shortage we are facing. I don’t know what the alternative is. I guess we can ask. We can also sell the benefits. And we can make our offices as nice and as fun to be in as possible. Because the truth is, those who are there and seen, and have relationships with you and the other principals of your firm will be more likely to get ahead. Let me know if you have any creative ideas to get people back to your office. But one way or another, it’s time to get back to the office! Mark Zweig is Zweig Group’s chairman and founder. Contact him at mzweig@zweiggroup.com.
MARK ZWEIG, from page 5
be cut, dishes in the sink that need tending to, a teenager who needs to be picked up and taken for an orthodontist appointment – do you really believe that there are no distractions working from home? Of course there are! They are just different ones than those you would encounter at the office. “While we talk about how great it is to work from home because there are fewer distractions – now that we have all experienced it during COVID – do you really think that is the case?” I think most of us who own and manage AEC firms today would agree that it would be best if we could get our people back to the office. But the question is how? The cat has been let out of the bag. It’s going to be hard to get it back in. People have been able to work from home for so long their lives have been organized around that. And many don’t want to go back.
© Copyright 2024. Zweig Group. All rights reserved.
THE ZWEIG LETTER JUNE 10, 2024, ISSUE 1541
Made with FlippingBook flipbook maker