Something is missing in the ‘return to office’ conversation, according to Bill Bennett, CEO of flexible office company, Expansive.
That something is productivity.
“For the first time in United States history, business and professional services productivity is down year-over-year. That has never happened since we started recording the statistics in the mid-1940s,” Bennett says. “It’s clear that the pendulum has swung too far away from productivity.”
That one-year loss in productivity is equivalent to the gross domestic product of the entire metropolitan area of Chicago, he points out. “This is a big deal, and it impacts everyone’s standard of living, that of our children, and our communities,” Bennett adds.
And that’s only half the story. Unlike the business service sector, the manufacturing sector’s productivity is up significantly for the same period. The difference, Bennett says, is that while manufacturing depends on workers being at a factory or similar facility, many employees in the professional services sector continue to work from home since the pandemic sent them there.
“We have record levels of employee disengagement,” he says. “We have the worst productivity we’ve ever had in U.S. history. So, it’s clear to me, while people say they prefer working from home, it’s just not working.”
Make productivity our North Star
The word ‘prefer’ is key.
“The debate has become about preferences, not productivity,” says Bennett, pointing to the effort it takes to commute and be ‘office presentable.’
— Bill Bennett CEO, Expansive coworking share
He explains, “For many people, the office is like the gym. We know it’s good for us. We know we should be there. Just like it’s easy not to go to the gym, it’s easy not to take a train or drive your car and commute. It’s easy and comfortable to be at home.”
He concedes that individuals can be productive at home on any given day, maybe even more than in an office, but that over time, people aren’t as productive, and their skills and relationships erode.
This shift to doing what we prefer doesn’t lead to the best decisions for society, business and humans over the mid-to-long run, according to Bennett.
He says, “We should be asking, ‘What is the long-term productivity of a human being, of society and of companies?’ Because when humans are productive, we’re our best selves, and we grow and learn and stay on the trajectory to our highest potential.”
Aware that a return to the office helps his coworking space business, the YPO member urges, “Forget my business, forget coworking. What we’re trying to do as leaders in society is figure out how we create the most we can with what we’ve got. Productivity is that North Star. When we don’t have it, our standard of living goes down.”
And the office, he says, is the “greatest productivity tool ever created in business.”
A cheated generation
Future productivity is threatened, too, because, as Bennett says, younger millennials and the Gen Zers are being cheated by not working in an office among peers and mentors.
“They’re not progressing at their careers like they could be,” he says. “They’re not being trained; they’re not collaborating and engaging and developing as fast as past generations have.”
He suggests that a professional new to the workforce should be in the office more than a seasoned employee – the rainmaker crowd, he calls them – who can be productive anywhere.
“A senior salesperson or a partner at a firm may be fine being in the office one or two days a week because their network extends far outside of the office,” he says.
Bennett also points to the current mental health epidemic. “Nobody’s talking about it, but the work-from-home crowd is where the biggest mental health issues are. Much of this can be blamed on a lack of belonging, a lack of productivity and a lack of engagement.”
He adds that still, the office may not be the right fit for everyone. The office is suited best for when you need employee engagement and teamwork.
“Teamwork is really important because teams outperform individuals on almost every complex task that’s been tested,” Bennett adds.
