Spin Sucks 170: Communicating Return-to-Work

I’ve mentioned here before that I have a friend who works for a large conglomeration and their return-to-work policies have been chaotic, at best. At first, they sent an email at the start of July and said, “Everyone get your pets and kids ready! We’re going back to work in two weeks!”

Never mind the fact that it was summertime and many parents didn’t have childcare worked out until the school year began, but there was this small thing called the Delta variant spreading through the U.S.

They ended up pushing back the return to the office until September and then again until January, but it’s been a fascinating look at communications—or the lack thereof. 

Many organizations are working through how/if they safely return to the office, whether or not they require vaccinations, and how they’ll work through their culture and morale issues as they relate to harassment, misogynistic gaslighting, racism, and discrimination.

In many cases, there is a pretty large gap between organizational leaders and employees, as is evidenced by my friend’s company policies (when surveyed, 82% said they wanted to continue working from home).

The good news is that communicators can bridge that gap—if we are allowed. That’s what we’re going to discuss on today’s episode of the Spin Sucks podcast.

Resources Included:

* Universum’s “World’s Most Attractive Employers” Report

* CBS Article: Why Many Black Employees Don’t Want to Return to the Office

* CBS Article: Race discrimination lawsuit says Amazon “de-levels” employees of color

* Spin Sucks Blog Post: The Ins and Outs of Internal Communications

* Employer Brand Video