Dear J.T. & Dale: I’ve been working remotely since the pandemic. I thought this is what I wanted, but now I’m starting to go a little stir-crazy at home. I want to tell my boss that I’d like to come back into the office a couple of days a week, but my fear is that once I do that, they’re going to force me to come in all the time. How can I approach this conversation to make sure that they don’t pull me all the way back in? — Gabrielle
J.T.: As an at-will employee, your employer could, at any time, force you to come back into the office five days a week, and you would have to do so or quit your job. The fact that they’re letting you work fully remote is becoming less common, as we’re seeing more and more companies requiring people to come in at least several days a week. I would go to your boss and let them know that you would like to come into the office two days a week. Do that for about a month and see if your productivity is improving.
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DALE: Yes, but you need to remember that management, led by human resources, really loves to make policies, and it’s rare that managers embrace a loosey-goosey approach. I can’t blame them. Employees relentlessly push boundaries and ask for exceptions and managers end up in endless debates of what’s fair and who gets to do what. It can be exhausting. My point is this: You never want to be seen as setting a precedent. So, instead of asking to be an exception, just tell your boss that there are certain meetings you feel you should attend in person. Then stay around that day. Make it about helping the team, not about you.
J.T.: Speaking of the team, let’s remember how important networking is. As much as people claim they’re doing a great job networking while working remotely, there’s something extremely valuable about seeing people face-to-face. If your boss does ask you to come in more, you should know that they’ll be asking everybody else to come in, as well. That’s when it’ll be up to you to decide where to go from there.
Jeanine “J.T.” Tanner O’Donnell is a career coach and the founder of the leading career site www.workitdaily.com. Dale Dauten’s latest book is “Experiments Never Fail: A Guide for the Bored, Unappreciated and Underpaid.” Please visit them at jtanddale.com, where you can send questions via email, or write to them in care of King Features Syndicate, 628 Virginia Dr., Orlando, FL 32803.
