Return to office can’t build company culture, employees say — but it does create more disruptions

Companies are reinstating in-person work for many reasons, including promoting better company culture. 

However, some tech employees say that an office mandate won’t necessarily lead to bonding between colleagues, and it only adds more disruption to people’s lives. Instead, companies and teams need to find intentional forms of bonding time to create those connections — in person, online or in a hybrid setting, according to Alex Hillman, founder of coworking space Indy Hall. 

“I would love to see more experimentation of, if not entire companies, teams and groups and organizations within them being intentional,” Hillman said during a discussion at BarCamp Philly 2024, an annual unconference in Philly focused on tech, innovation and creativity. “Sit together for a few days and do things different from our normal work day together.”

Hillman, a former freelancer, founded Indy Hall in 2006 because he missed the social aspect of working physically in the same space as other people. At the time, working from home wasn’t as common, and it was harder to find a work community without being in the office, according to Hillman.

That changed in 2020 when many workers stopped going into an office, but companies that switched to remote work during the pandemic are now switching back to a hybrid or completely in-person modality, making it a rare perk once again. 

But just because employees are back, doesn’t mean they’re necessarily building connections with colleagues. Employees are focused on getting their work done and getting back to their lives, attendees said.  

“Working from home means a level of autonomy and its agency and the ability to be independent, to choose where you work, when you work, who you work with, what you work on,” Adam Teterus, director of community at Indy Hall, said. 

Plus, employees don’t want to come to the office if their managers aren’t coming. Half of workers in the United States said they can do their jobs perfectly well from home, according to a study from analytics company Gallup. 

In Philly, large companies and local government lead the push for in-person work. 

The City of Philadelphia required all of its employees to return to the office five days a week this summer. Mayor Cherelle Parker even said she supports return-to-work mandates, saying it will help support the city’s economy. 

Plus, large, private companies like Comcast and Independence Blue Cross also require employees to work in person a few days a week. 

Local startups are also embracing the office, saying that in-person work is great for company culture and team collaboration. 

When workers aren’t onboard with RTO, culture suffers

Employee mandates to work from the office don’t always go hand-in-hand with a stronger company culture, especially when there’s no employee buy-in.

Company culture is built during the time in-between working, and that’s hard to force, one discussion attendee said at the BarCamp session. 

That’s why, Hillman said, companies need to be more intentional about when they are bringing people together in person. 

In-person efforts don’t stop at forcing people to work in the office a few days a week. Planning annual or biannual retreats, for example, where coworkers can spend time together doing things besides work lets people focus on getting to know each other, he said. 

Even virtually, teams can create unstructured time for bonding. One attendee shared that their team takes the last hour of every Friday to hang out in a Zoom and chat before the weekend. 

To replicate that, companies could let their teams experiment with different bonding tactics and structure decisions for in-person and hybrid activities around that, Hillman said. 

In fact, building trust within a team and having a mutual understanding of the team’s values keeps culture going in between retreats and other in-person events, one attendee said. 

“Understanding continuity and how continuity is the key to making sure that things continue to feel good,” Teterus said. “It’s the little things in between, right, not the big, extravagant gestures.”