Recently Reader, Amazon CEO Andrew Jassy announced that folks who worked in a traditional physical office before Covid would now be asked to return five days a week, starting in January.

It's not an easy decision to make. As Jassy and other leaders contemplating such a move know, returning to a physical office location marks a big change in routine for those now living a laptop life—a change sometimes welcome, sometimes not.

This week alone, I had two coaching conversations with senior leaders in completely different industries wrestling with the same problems as they decide whether they want more teams back to the office, more often. They're working to figure out:

• Are we clear on why we're doing it, beyond the parental "because I said so" approach?
• Are we making one-off exceptions, and if so, what's our decision-making process? Is it based on performance, role, salary, team, family commitments, distance from home, health exceptions, etc.? And have we given our managers tools and training on how to guide those conversations?
• Do we have a plan and process for capturing engagement and turnover data before our return and three-to-six months afterward so we can learn from it?

And MOST importantly,

• Are we finding ways to make in-person work work BETTER than it did before?

Finding ways to make work better—and not getting stuck in old patterns—is something we all can tackle.

This'll help:

​Read my article, Six Things to Consider as You Return to the Office​

How about you, Reader? Are you returning to an office and/or managing a return for your people? I'd love to hear your experiences, questions, and ideas —just hit REPLY and tell me. As always, your notes are confidential and really help me hear from all corners of the world on issues like these. So don't hesitate to write💌!

My favorite office is wherever YOU are, whether that be in-person inside your meeting rooms or on your stages, or here behind the laptop talking through our keyboards. No matter where you are, I'm glad you're here—our world of work needs YOU, now more than ever.

Always, Darcy

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