The Best Days to Work from the Office
Many companies have adopted a hybrid working model where employees are required to come to the office a certain number of times per week and are allowed the flexibility to work from home on the remaining days. Every employee and company is going to have a different balance of FaceTime and remote productivity that works for them. Today, we are going to discuss some common themes I've seen across multiple companies. In terms of what days are the best to go into the office on a hybrid schedule. Let's jump in!
Coordinated Days with Your Team
For most people, the primary benefit of working in an office environment is the ability to work face-to-face with their co-workers. If everyone is going in on different days, no one is going to see this upside. Many companies with a hybrid working model will set an expectation that most people will be in the office on specific days of the week (like Tuesday and Thursday) and that employees can come on other days as they prefer. This type of arrangement is very popular because it aims to extract the benefit of being in the office by concentrating it to a specific day or days of the week. This concentration allows for flexibility on the remaining days of the week.
Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday
For many, a commute into the office can have a significant impact on day-to-day scheduling. Depending on how far you live from the office, it could be a 15-minute drive or an hour-long combination of personal and public transportation. For this reason, it's important that you’re in office days are scheduled consistently on a week-to-week basis. Any day that I'm going into the office, I need to plan out everything for the entire day including my meals, workouts, and personal time to align with my location and commuting time. The reason why Tuesday and Wednesday and Thursday are great for this purpose is because your schedule is less likely to change on these days every week. Going on a trip? Take Friday off! Coming back from a trip? Take Monday off! Having that day or days that you consistently go into the office that can be planned for is essential for a healthy hybrid working arrangement.
Company events
As long as your company has enough space to keep everyone productive, it's a great idea to have everybody in the office when there's a coordinated company event. Whether it's a catered lunch, happy hour, or retirement party, getting everyone together in the office for both the event and regular operations is a great way to build relationships. Personally, events like these are my favorite days to go into the office because most work related things can be done from home with today's technology, but lunches and happy hours can never be replaced with zoom calls.
Essentially, your days in the office need to be purposeful and productive while fitting into your personal schedule. The primary driving force behind that purpose and productivity is face-to-face interaction with your co-workers. If they aren't there and ready to interact what's the point of going in? If you're a CEO or an office manager reading this and thinking that the way to solve that problem is to make everyone go into the office 100% of the time, it would be wise to ask your employees if they feel the same way. Hybrid schedules are great for balancing the productivity increases that come from remote work and retaining the benefits of relationship building with co-workers. Every company is going to look different, and it's important to understand what model works best for your company. It might be a couple times per week, A couple times per month, or even just once a quarter. No matter the frequency, pick the days that make the most sense!