How to Overcome the WFH Double Standard

This could be the view from your office, if you telework from an Airbnb in Taormina like Patrick did this summer.

More companies are requiring employees to come back to the office for a few days a week or all the time.  Meanwhile, company executives continue working remotely, popping into an office sparingly, if ever.  In some cases, the same executives who issued return-to-office requirements continue to work from their home offices.

Patrick saw this first-hand when he worked for the Department of Justice.  He was not given the flexibility to telework, and he eventually left his job because of this.  Throughout his time, Patrick was an exceptional employee, and shortly before his last day he was asked to stay on the job, but he still would not have been allowed to work remotely.  Despite this, Patrick learned that some folks in leadership positions rarely showed up to the office and received no reprimand or demands to stop working remotely.

So is remote work only for the rich?  At this point, it is more difficult for us to speak to this because working remotely has made us wealthier.  From cutting out commute costs and prompting Patrick to start this thriving business to enabling the sleep and exercise routines that make Patrick and me more productive, working remotely since March 2020 has propelled us from the middle class to the top 10% of wealth for our ages.  (Notice we use wealth for this measurement, not income.  We are pretty financially savvy, so our wealth is at a higher percentile than our income.)

But we were middle-class remote workers, and I believe there are still paths to working remotely as an employee making $10,000 to $150,000 for a company.  Getting there requires a bit of maneuvering and a lot of stubbornness.

Become an Indispensable Middle-Class Employee

Executives can choose to work from home because the company does not know how they would easily replace them.  If you make yourself an indispensable employee, company policies that masquerade as a requirement become a recommendation.  Everyone would be happier with you if you worked from the office, but you have power if at least one executive stops breathing for a second at the thought of replacing you.

There are a few ways to become an indispensable employee, and most are quite accessible to entry-level employees.  Take on the calendars, the innovative solutions, and the technical fixes for your team.  They will not know how to work without your expertise.  In particular, become indispensable to executives or team leaders.  Helping the individuals who have a greater say in employment decisions gives you power.

Once you become indispensable, return-to-office requirements become a negotiation.  You cannot be replaced tomorrow, so executives are likely to begrudgingly allow you to work remotely.  But making this happen requires some tough conversations in addition to becoming indispensable.

Notifying Your Employer that You Will Work Remotely

The word choice in that heading is intentional.  Do not ask for remote work.  Companies spend time perfecting messaging to call working remotely a privilege rather than an entitlement.  Regain the power by showing your employer that you are entitled to remote work.  It is not a privilege, it is your entitlement.  It is their privilege to have you as an employee, and if they do not let you work remotely, you are happy to bring your expertise to a more appropriate employer who will guarantee the flexibility to work remotely.

Taking this powerful stance implies a crucial backing: You must be willing to leave your job.  To some, that may seem to defeat the whole point of this exercise since you probably like your job at least a little if you are putting forth the effort to keep it and work remotely.  However, while you can ultimately sway sensible executives or those who seek opinions from other leaders, there are some executives who prioritize inflexible standards over retaining the best employees.  (Just ask Patrick!)

I like this approach because it secures you the job and helps you escape a job that would probably become toxic in the long run:

• If an employer values the best employees over inflexible standards, that is likely a more innovative work environment with the possibility for growth and creativity.

• If an employer values inflexible standards over the best employees, they are unlikely to exhibit creative thinking when difficult problems arise, leading to exorbitant stress in the workplace.

With all that in mind, notify your employer that you will be a remote worker, knowing they could accept this conclusion or tell you to leave your job.  Even employers that eventually accept location flexibility may require convincing.  Here are a number of (true!) talking points that I have used in this situation:

• Need for deep work:  If your job requires any deep work, you probably need a few time blocks each week where nobody disturbs your thinking.  Particularly if you work in a space with an open office plan, this alone is cause for a need to work remotely about three days a week.  Many jobs require deep work.  Whether you are writing an article, writing code, analyzing complex data, or analyzing a multidimensional problem, this requires uninterrupted deep work.  If you cannot do your job without some deep work, you probably need to block off at least three 3-4 hour time windows in your schedule each week to add the most value possible.

• Meeting schedule control:  I previously worked as the data analysis and technology help line for a team of more than 20 people.  When I went to the office, people would pop over to my desk for “quick questions.”  Quick questions are never quick questions.  If you are analyzing large data sets and somebody interrupts you mid-thought to ask how to use a VLOOKUP formula, your analysis may take 50% longer as you retrace your steps.  Removing the pop-over-to-your-desk option requires coworkers to be more intentional, organizing meetings in advance to discuss issues.  Working remotely often also encourages them to check your calendar before reaching out, making it less likely that a deep work block will be interrupted.

• Breadth of work:  If you work remotely, you save time and energy that you would spend commuting.  For me, energy is the bigger factor.  I can accomplish more in a day working remotely than working in an office because commutes sour my mood, and being in an office environment sucks energy from me since it takes more work to block out distractions.  If this also describes your reality, give your employer a choice.  You can take responsibility for X, Y, and Z if you work remotely.  If you work in an office, you can only accomplish X due to the distractions and energy loss.  They can decide how important Y and Z are, or if they want to hire another employee to make up for the work you cannot complete in an office.

• Health issues:  While I have never used this one since I do not feel that I have any health issues that prevent commuting to an office and do not recommend abusing this talking point, if you have any medical reasons or concerns not to go to the office, let your employer know!

Your talking points should be your own, but I recommend being as candid as possible without bringing up unsympathetic points like, “I hate wearing a suit.”  Convey the points that are true to your situation and that your employer should care about for overall quality of work.  If they do not care, that indicates that they prioritize controlling employees over quality of work, and you should leave.

Your Formal Agreement

Remote work agreements can have different levels of formality, but if you read this far, you probably need a formal agreement.  For years, I worked remotely without a formal agreement allowing me to avoid the in-office-once-a-week requirement.  The fact that I did my job well, helped coworkers, and solved problems nobody else could meant people left me alone to do my work.  If this describes your situation, just keep producing high-quality work from your home office for as long as possible.

At the point that someone tries to force you to come to the office, you need a formal agreement to work remotely.  A formal agreement does not mean a fancy notarized form, but you should get your supervisor to confirm your remote work agreement in writing.

Asking for your remote work agreement in writing can also show you if your employer is lukewarm about the decision or possibly plans to rescind it at a later date.  When I demanded a remote work agreement in writing at my last job, my division chief only granted it on a provisional basis for 90 days, and I would have to go into the office “as needs arose.”  Since I had been working remotely with that same team for the past four years while consistently producing high-quality work and taking on more complex positions with the team, this felt like a snub to my history with the division.  The squishy language ultimately brought me to the decision to leave a job I loved to stay with my current company that offered clear language about my remote work flexibilities.

The Future of Remote Work

Unfortunately, many employers are moving back to in-office or hybrid schedules that do not allow the opportunity for remote work.  Remote work will continue being easier for executives than lower-level employees.  But increasing your value and forcing your employer to acknowledge it with a simple work location flexibility agreement is a reasonable demand.

Many executives do not recognize the value of individual employees, so it is up to employees to teach these executives the lesson they need.  It takes employees leaving the company and the company suffering to prove the importance of valuing the best employees over inflexible workplace standards.  We know all too well that being one of the first to leave is risky–Patrick was this person in the DOJ Tax Division.

But the example of Patrick shows that remote work will continue growing.  The gig economy continues to expand.  More and more young people have side hustles or cobble together multiple sources of income.  The best employees have an easier time leaving workplaces with inflexible requirements because they can move to more flexible companies that value employees, or they can go into business for themselves.  The ease with which individuals can generate new income streams today will continue opening doors for more employees to leave inflexible companies until those companies are left with only the worst employees.

Over time, having employees producing poor-quality work will catch up with these companies.  When they start to wonder where all the terrific employees they used to have went, they will find them at companies offering remote work or running their own businesses from their home offices.