Help Your Employees Who Are Anxious About Returning to the Office

As vaccines roll out across the globe, more and more offices are opening up — or making plans to in the near future. That’s good news for people who are eager to get back to their desks. But what about people who are anxious about returning to in-person work, or (like me) feel conflicted? Maybe they have health issues that would put them at risk (even with broad vaccine adoption). Or they’ve got caretaking responsibilities that prevent them from going in. Perhaps they’ve found that they’re happier and more productive working at home, or they had a long commute they’re content to no longer endure.

As a manager how do you help people manage their return-to-work anxiety? Should you be nudging them to return if that’s what your company’s leadership wants? And if they’re worried that their career will be impacted if they need to keep working from home, should you assure them it won’t?

This is uncharted territory for all us, especially managers. So I reached out to several experts who study the role of middle managers and compassion at work to ask what they’d advise.

They all agree that there are, of course, upsides and downsides for everyone. As Jane Dutton, a professor at the University of Michigan’s Ross School of Business and coauthor of Awakening Compassion at Work, says, “For some people, the return to routines and seeing colleagues can be very healing.” And for others, they just aren’t ready.

As a manager, you may feel stuck. As Jacob Hirsh, an associate professor at University of Toronto, explains, “The challenge of a middle manager is to manage employee concerns about directions from upper management,” so you may not be making the call about if, when, how often your team members come in, which makes the situation even trickier.

Fortunately, there are several things you can do.

Find out how people are feeling — anonymously, if necessary.

It’ll be far easier to navigate all of this and help those who are worried if you know how people on your team feel. You can’t assume that your employees will tell you if they’re feeling anxious about reentry, warns Linda Hill, a professor at Harvard Business School and author of Being the Boss. “People are fearful of looking weak or not living up to expectations,” she says. Therefore, you need to make it safe for people to speak up. Hill suggests using anonymous surveys (assuming your team is big enough) to ask how employees view the return.

Then use the insights you glean to address people’s concerns. For example, if several people mentioned health considerations in your surveys, you can make sure that the team knows precisely what precautions the company is taking to keep staff safe or you can lobby senior leaders to put more preparations in place. As Hill says, “Help them understand as best as you can what you’ve done to make it safe — based on science.” Or say there are employees who prefer working from home because they find they’re able to focus better without interruptions. Talk directly to your team about how to minimize distractions no matter where they’re working.

The point, Dutton says, is to “make them feel heard.” If you ask people to share what they’re nervous about, respond directly to whatever they raise so they know you’re listening and taking their preferences and anxieties seriously.

Allow for ambivalence about returning.

When people share their concerns — either openly or anonymously — make sure you allow for people to have mixed and complex feelings. It’s tempting to be positive about the upcoming changes as a way to assuage worries, but you risk making people feel dismissed, or you might inadvertently pressure them to hide their negative feelings.

Brianna Caza, an associate professor University of North Carolina at Greensboro, studies emotional ambivalence and how managers can use it to help people build resilience. “We all have positive and negative emotions — usually at the same time,” says Caza. Managers often feel pressure to respond to these emotions, and even help people resolve them — they might encourage people who are struggling to “look on the bright side,” for example. Or they may inadvertently dismiss negative emotions as complaining. But Caza’s research with Lehigh University’s Naomi Rothman and UNC’s Shimul Melwani has shown that a better path might be for managers to lean into the emotional ambivalence, making it okay to have mixed feelings. “Leaders who model ambivalence can create a culture where people adapt and pivot more easily,” Caza told me.

This may be especially true of the anxieties your team members feel about coming back. It’s unlikely each person feels absolutely thrilled or completely despondent so encourage people to express both positive and negative emotions and don’t force a tidy resolution to those feelings.

Offer flexibility, if possible.

If at all possible, at least at the beginning of your office’s reopening, give people some options about when and how often they come in. As Dutton says, “The message should be one of flexibility, flexibility, flexibility,” especially given what everyone has been through over the past year. “There have been many sources of pain, not just the pandemic but also the struggle around racial justice and politics,” she says. “We can’t assume we know how traumatizing it’s been for people.”

Being flexible isn’t just about being kind and compassionate; it’s also about maintaining productivity and retaining people. “The psychological contract with people is fragile right now,” Dutton says, “If you’re too forceful, you risk breaking that contract and engagement could plummet.” A recent survey found that 58% of people say they would “absolutely look for a new job if they weren’t allowed to continue working remotely in their current position.” Of the more than 2,000 respondents, 65% wanted to work remotely full-time post-pandemic, and another 33% prefer a hybrid work arrangement.

Mandates may have the opposite effect than intended. “You’re not going to get what you want if you’re basically roping people into the office,” says Hirsh. “A rush to establish the old normal doesn’t make sense and is going to cause friction.” The resulting loss of psychological safety and increase in stress will take a hit on productivity and team camaraderie — which is likely one of the motivations to get people back in anyway.

Explain the “why.”

When people have to do something they feel anxious about, it can help to know there’s a good reason behind it. If the senior leaders at your company haven’t clearly articulated why it’s important people come back to the office, you may need to fill that gap. “Communicate the vision from upper management so employees see it as reasonable and can get out on board. If they don’t buy in, it’s going to feel like coercion,” says Hirsh. “What’s the value proposition for going back in? What is in it for the employees? Will they strengthen their relationships with their coworkers? Will it lessen work-life conflicts if there are clearer boundaries? It can be perceived as a loss so reframe it as to what they will gain.”

You also want to make sure that your team knows this wasn’t a decision made haphazardly. “They need to see that there’s a competent and well-thought-out plan,” Hirsh says. And that plan should consider their needs. Make the connection between the expectations for the return and the concerns they’ve shared with you, for example saying something like, “We understand that some of you have reservations and those make sense. To address those, we’ve….” Again, you want people to feel heard and considered.

Consider experiments and pilot programs.

Some people may be hesitant because they’re just not sure what to expect or how they’ll feel. And a transition back to five days a week at the office may feel sudden, like turning on a light switch. To avoid overwhelming employees, and to help them ease into a different way of working, consider running pilot programs or letting people experiment individually. As Hirsh says, “Baby steps are a good idea,” especially for those who have concerns. The message may be: “We’re going to try this out and see what we learn.” Then make sure you ask for feedback along the way so you can understand what’s working and what isn’t.

This approach can be used on an individual basis too for an employee who is particularly anxious. You might suggest they try going in one day a week for several weeks and then you can check in to see how it went and troubleshoot issues they still have. Whenever possible, give the accommodations people need to do their best work. That is the ultimate goal, after all.

Don’t make promises you can’t keep.  

In navigating all of this, you may be tempted to tell hesitant employees that the office is completely safe or reassure those who aren’t ready to come back in that their careers won’t be affected, but be careful not to make promises you can’t keep. As Hill points out, it’s unlikely that you can say with 100% certainty that coming to the office has “zero risk” from a health perspective for every employee. And you want to be realistic about the career impacts for those who continue to work from home, especially if the majority of staff are back at work. Be honest about the potential drawbacks, especially given your company’s unique culture. “Will employees have fewer opportunities to network? Will their work be less visible? That’s possible and you shouldn’t pretend otherwise,” says Hill. “You can’t always guarantee that it won’t have an impact on their career.”

Similarly, don’t tell people on your team that you’ll be able to make accommodations without confirming with senior leaders and HR first. As we’ve all learned over the past year, circumstances are likely to evolve and while it may be okay for someone to choose to work from home right now, that may change later. In an attempt to retain key staff, you may be tempted to guarantee that they can work from home as long as they want, but that simply may not be true. So be realistic and straightforward with your team.

Be compassionate.

No matter what messages you have to deliver, what accommodations you can and can’t make, and what policies you may have to enforce, do it all with compassion. It’s often an antidote to anxiety. Dutton points to research done in health care settings that showed that a compassionate interaction between a doctor and a patient lasting as little as 40 seconds had a measurable effect on patient anxiety and health outcomes.

“Find small ways to be present for your people,” Dutton says. Continue to ask about how they’re doing and what else they have going on besides work. Talk about what you’re going through to make it okay for them to do the same. Keep an eye out for signs of burnout and stress, especially as their work schedule changes.

Let’s be honest: Most good managers have been doing this since the pandemic started and are likely exhausted from the additional responsibility of caring for their team members’ wellbeing during such an intense time. “Compassion fatigue is real,” says Dutton. That’s why it’s critical that you are taking care of yourself — not just your team members. Watch yourself for symptoms of burnout and take mental health breaks when you need them. One upside to this aspect of your job, says Dutton, is that research has shown that being compassionate also “lifts up the giver” so “you may both be strengthened through this way of being.”

One of the small silver linings of the pandemic is that it’s become more acceptable — in many places — to talk about mental health at work. Just because many of us are going back to the office shouldn’t mean that the conversation and compassion around this topic should stop. As a manager, it’s important to remember that you may not know or appreciate the full picture of what your employees have been through or continue to go through. As a friend recently told me, “No vaccine is going to take away the grief and trauma that we’ve all experienced.” Keep that in mind when helping your employees make their way back into the office.

Key Takeaways

Do:

• Ask — anonymously, if necessary — how people are feeling about returning to the office so you can respond directly to their concerns.
• Allow people to experiment with different ways of working so the shift to in-person or hybrid work doesn’t feel sudden.
• Continue to be compassionate — to your team members, and to yourself.

Don’t:

• Assume people are going to tell you that they’re feeling anxious
• Neglect to make clear why in-person or hybrid work is beneficial to employees (not just to the company)
• Make promises you can’t keep, such as assuring people their careers won’t be impacted by working from home or that they can do so indefinitely

Editor’s note (7/6/21): The article was updated to include Shimul Melwani as co-author of the research on emotional ambivalence.