Ask A Manager

It’s now been almost five months since the 50% in-office mandate began, and it has been … an adjustment, but not nearly as difficult as I anticipated. I ended up choosing to spend one work week of the pay period in the office, and the other work week at home. (For context, the work week for our state government agencies is Wednesday through Tuesday, so that means I go in on Wednesday, Thursday, Friday and then the following Monday and Tuesday.) I can’t comment on other divisions at my agency, but mine (human resources) was given the flexibility to decide how the 50% work time would look for each of us.

I also forgot to mention that this mandate only applied to employees who live 50 miles or less from the main office; anyone who lives more than 50 miles away and/or was granted a medical accommodation has been allowed to continue 100% (or close to) telework.

The return to office was also staggered in phases so as not to overwhelm building staff and resources. Human resources was in phase 1 but we were allowed to ramp up to a consistent 50/50 schedule beginning in July, as to allow time to make arrangements for child care, schooling, parking, etc. The final phase has been delayed to allow for renovations of the top floor to continue due to repeated delays in that area. My understanding is that the work should be finished in another month or thereabouts and the final group of employees will begin returning in December. (Which I’m sure they’re not too thrilled about because it’s Minnesota and winter weather/snow will surely impact their commutes!)

Personally, I have found that advance planning with meals and transportation have saved me a lot of stress. I stick to simple food and snacks that don’t require a microwave and I bring them in bulk quantities to last for the work week. That makes getting up half an hour earlier on those days less frantic! I also have my partner drop me off/pick me up which saves money on parking (except for a few days when he was out of town and I had to drive myself).

So overall the 50% return to office has gone relatively well, and we are being given (at least in my division) plenty of flexibility when, you know, life happens (illness, sick kids, family emergencies, etc.) and we don’t have to “make up” days not in office due to sickness, vacation, or otherwise planned time off. My agency has been handling the RTO mandate better than other state agencies, as I’ve been told by my work friends in state government. I know that the rate of medical accommodation requests under the ADA rose significantly when the RTO was first announced and then began but have since leveled off somewhat, based on a conversation I had with the DEI manager. My personal suspicion is that many of them were easy to deny because employees wanted accommodations to care for family or have flexible schedules that allowed them to leave early or come in late, and ADA accommodations are only intended to help the employee perform their job responsibilities with or without an accommodation.

I would like to address a few of the comments which made it sound like I had no clue about office life! Prior to March 2020, I had always worked full-time on-site at every job post-college. So it was not a new work situation; rather, I was asking for help in moving back to a mindset that required me to look and act more professional than was needed during telework. There was a lot of useful advice and I thank everyone who offered suggestions! For those of you readers who have experienced a similar circumstance, regardless of job or industry, or are confronting a RTO situation, I can empathize.

Alison and readers, thank you so much for all the wisdom, advice and hilarious commentary. AAM remains one of my absolute favorite sites!