In the annals of the return-to-office debate, many companies are taking the middle ground.Applewants employees back in the offices three days a week, once COVID-19 rates stabilize. Citigroup, Google, and American Express are on the same track. A “three days in, two days out” or “two days in, three days out” hybrid model is emerging as a popular workplace plan, as a compromise between managers who want closer tabs on their people, and employees who feel happier and more productive working from home. But like most compromises, the 3-2 model leaves almost everyone feeling dissatisfied, prompting us to call it the “worst return-to-office strategy.”
在表面上，3-2模型感觉权利：它提供了一种自治的衡量标准，使员工可能没有流行前，并且增加了认为需要密切监督员工的领导者的地位，确定性和自主权。此外，许多经理之所以喜欢它，是因为他们觉得当员工共享实体空间时，更容易创建和维护公司文化。3-2计划也分为两个常见偏见：
- 便利偏见，这促使我们采取迅速行动，而不是花时间去完全理解情况
- 经历偏见, which tells us that our perception (work is more efficient from an office）是客观真理
Because the 3-2 model sounds so good on paper, it’s been a shock to company leaders that many employees just aren’t buying it. A最近的调查发现有76％的苹果员工对公司的返程计划不满意，由于办公室的要求，有56％的人正在寻找其他选择。甚至高级高管 - 例如Apple的机器学习总监Ian Goodfellow—are resigning over the requirement that they spend at least a couple of days per week in the office.
So why is the 3-2 model so deeply dissatisfying? It takes away the autonomy that many employees have grown to expect during the past two years: the freedom to set their own hours, integrate work and family life, and avoid stressful and costly commutes. Along with this comes increased control over the rest of one’s life including having better sleep patterns, being able to exercise more, even control your diet better. Taking away this amount of autonomy triggers a threat response in our brains that makes us feel frustrated, anxious, and uncertain. Doing this at a time when many of us arestill emotionally raw可以为火添加燃料。
相比之下，经理在办公室里经常会经历更高的确定性，状态和相关性，但是这些有意义的工作场所感觉被员工经历的更大的威胁响应所掩盖。降低自主权的负面情绪可能是stronger比获得类似的相关性所产生的积极情绪。
Another downside of the 3-2 model is that it could actually harm overall productivity. Many people feel that they’re most efficient when working from home, and estimates indicate that productivity levels of employees working from home have risen anywhere from5%to29%。Meanwhile, others (particularly extroverts) thrive in an office environment. Force either group to spend a proscribed number of days in the office or at home, and生产力受苦。
To be sure, there are real benefits to meeting in person, which include getting to know your coworkers, building social capital, and creating a sense of community and connectedness. Also, some jobs, like lab technicians or aircraft mechanics, simply can’t be done at home.
但是，对于可以远程执行的职位，问题归结为在办公室花费的时间正确。如果3-2模型不是答案，那么公司可以通过尝试这些想法来导航混合工作的波涛汹涌。
实验，然后再次实验
由于没有一定大小的所有模型来管理返回办公室，而且每个人仍然处于相对未知的领域，实验是有意义的。例如，美国国家航空航天局（NASA）正在让可以在家中可以从事工作的人选择每两天的薪水来在办公室里花费任何两天。“We’re trying to be as flexible as we can, and we’re spending the next six months or so experimenting with what works because we don’t know,” says Frank Gonzalez, deputy director for the office of diversity and equal opportunity at NASA.
并非所有实验都是成功的。如果您尝试一种方法并发现员工讨厌它，请不要害怕承认自己的错误，然后重试。Take agrowth mindset方法，您将错误视为变得更好的机会。
Recognize that your culture was never the building
Maybe your company is still paying rent and utilities for a five-story building with a gourmet cafeteria and amazing wellness center. It’s a shame to let all that go towaste, right? So why not force people back to enjoy it all?
事实是，即使有这些特权，许多人仍然喜欢在家工作，他们也不会“享受”被迫做任何事情。好消息是公司文化是由分享日常习惯, not the brick and mortar of a building. A digital culture ismore inclusive因为它允许人们在更广泛的地理区域进行联系。数字工作有许多好处 - 能够短暂和定期与任何人建立联系。这并不意味着您应该出售所有房地产，但是如果您发现其中的大部分未使用，则可能是时候缩小或重新配置实体办公室了。也许尝试将不同的团队团结起来几天，以互相工作，并且每季度一次将所有这些团队同时召集在一起。并让知道自己在家外面更有生产力的人在他们想要的时候来到办公室。
仅当科学表明他们更好时才需要面对面的会议
在您想重新启动面对面的每周团队会议之前，首先询问是否有令人信服的理由这样做。并考虑两者的效果，也考虑将人们带回的弊端。我们对实际上更好的事物了解了什么？建筑关系是一个显而易见的。没有时间来认识午餐的人，很难用Zoom电话代替。
Research also shadows there can be a bump when working on creative tasks. A最近的研究在自然found that face-to-face interactions produced more ideas, and more creative ones, than virtual interactions. But when making decisions as to which ideas to pursue, video calls were just as effective.
A word of caution: Don’t necessarily drag people back to the office to do a workshop. Our research has shown that well designed virtual learning can be50％的效率更高than in-person learning for driving behavior change, not to mention radically faster and more scalable.
Remember, we’re all still searching for the “new normal,” and nobody knows quite what that will look like. In the meantime, giving employees as much autonomy as possible will help you attract and retain talent, as well as increase productivity. Or, as some Apple employees recently wrote in an打开信封指向公司的执行团队。”。。让我们决定如何最好地工作，让我们尽力而为。”
大卫·罗基斯（David Rockis）联合创始人 NeuroLeadership Institute, a cognitive-science consultancy that has advised more than 50% of the Fortune 100, and the author of你的大脑在工作。
Laura Cassiday is a senior science writer at the NeuroLeadership Institute.