Most Companies Plan to Return Employees to Offices; Quiet Cutting in the Workplace

About 90% of companies plan to return their employees to the office by the end of 2024, an August study by Resume Builder finds. 

As HR Dive reports, most of the 1,000 business decision-makers surveyed said they track or will track their employees’ whereabouts to make sure they’re in the office. Moreover, 28% said their organizations would threaten to fire employees who don’t return to the office.

Only 2% of companies surveyed had no plans to mandate in-person work. About 51% already require some or all employees to work on-site, while 39% of the companies surveyed plan to require in-person work by the end of 2024. Another 8% have return-to-office plans for 2025 or later.

Where employees have already returned to the office, respondents reported improvements in revenue, productivity, company culture, employee relationships and retention. However, a separate Conference Board survey of HR executives whose companies require on-site work said they were struggling to bring back and retain employees. 

Are Bosses Living Up to Their Leadership Ideals?

Business leaders might be overestimating how well they embody the leadership characteristics they espouse, new research suggests. A survey by GE finds workplace environments changing, with new expectations and sometimes divergent perspectives on leadership.

At companies surveyed across the country, 95% of C-suite executives and 81% of entry-level employees believe it’s important to foster a “leadership mindset.” Employees at all levels also concur on what constitutes that mindset, citing trustworthiness, intelligence and vision as top leadership traits. Similarly, both senior executives and entry-level employees surveyed said successful companies must provide quality, reliability, integrity and innovation.

In surveys, 85% of C-suite executives feel they clearly communicate their leadership mindsets, but only 60% of entry-level workers agree. While nearly 90% of C-suite respondents say their executive team also embodies the leadership characteristics that they champion, only 59% of entry-level staff see it that way. And as 90% of C-suite executives believe they help develop strong leaders, less than 70% of entry-level employees agree.

Are Job Reassignments ‘Quiet Cutting’?

In a new workplace trend dubbed “quiet cutting,” employees are receiving emails and meeting requests informing them their jobs have been eliminated, but they’re not fired. 

As The Wall Street Journal reports, Adidas, Adobe, IBM and Salesforce are among companies that have reassigned employees in corporate restructurings.

During earnings calls, mentions of reassignments more than tripled in the last year, according to financial research platform AlphaSense. Reassigning workers to new roles can support an organization’s plans while reducing the costs of old strategies, HR executives say.

Companies reported fewer layoffs in July, but reassignments can indirectly eliminate jobs. Workers might decline or soon leave reassigned roles, positions for which they’re unqualified or overqualified. Matt Conrad, a 34-year-old sales specialist at IBM, was reassigned twice in two years. He said management’s unspoken message seemed to be: “Make the best of this or find another job somewhere else.”

In some reassignments, said Roberta Matuson, an executive coach and HR adviser, “They could be putting you out to pasture.”

Why Dreams Spark Productivity at Work

Dreams can inspire awe, a feeling that helps put our lives in perspective and leads to greater productivity at work, a new study says. Research from the University of Notre Dame finds that when people first recall their dreams, they often draw connections to their waking lives, which alter how they think, feel and act at work.

Researchers “found that connecting the dots between dreams and reality gives rise to awe,” said the study’s lead author Casher Belinda, assistant professor of management at Notre Dame’s Mendoza College of Business. “People experience awe when they undergo something … that challenges their understanding or way of thinking about things,” he said. “This makes subsequent work stressors seem less daunting, bolstering resilience and productivity throughout the workday.”

The study suggests that when we recall our dreams, they can set the stage for the rest of our day, “including how productive we are at work,” Belinda said. “Harnessing the benefits of awe may prove invaluable to organizations.”  

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