Employers who force their staff to come into the office five days a week have been called the “dinosaurs of our time” by one of the world’s leading experts, who coined the term “presenteeism.”
Sir Cary Cooper, professor of organisational psychology and health at the University of Manchester’s Alliance Manchester Business School, said employers who impose strict requirements on their staff’s presence in the office risk driving talented workers away, damaging employee wellbeing and undermining their financial performance.
This comes after Amazon announced on Monday that all of its staff must work in the office five days a week from January 2, becoming the latest major global employer to demand a strict return to pre-pandemic practices.
“Unfortunately, some organisations and companies are thinking about forcing people back into the workplace five days a week. I think they are the dinosaurs of our time. The old command and control style of management,” Cooper told the Guardian.
“Amazon says they want people back five days a week, and some investment banks. But that’s contrary to the evidence,” he said. Amazon did not respond to a request for comment.
“If you value people and trust them to do their job, and give them autonomy – and flexible working is one of those – then they will perform better, you will retain them and they will be less likely to develop a stress-related illness.
“If you micromanage, you will not achieve productivity gains and you will not attract the next generation.”
Cooper is widely regarded as one of the world’s leading authorities on organization, health and well-being in the workplace. In the 1980s, he coined the term presenteeism, which describes situations in which employees are at work but are not performing optimally due to health problems.
He previously advised the government on work and welfare in the 2000s and conducted research that led to an extension of flexible working legislation under the Conservative-Liberal Democrat coalition in 2014.
The Labour Party is preparing to introduce sweeping changes to workers’ rights legislation within weeks, including measures to make flexible working the default option for workers from day one and a ban on exploitative zero-hours contracts.
Some business leaders have expressed concern about the scale of the changes, saying they could harm jobs and the economy. However, Business Secretary Jonathan Reynolds told the Times on Monday that he wanted to end a “culture of presenteeism” that was holding back the economy.
“It contributes to productivity, it contributes to the resilience of the workforce, their ability to stay with an employer,” he said.
Cooper said the evidence was “overwhelming” that flexible working led to higher levels of job satisfaction, improved staff retention and could help increase workplace productivity.
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“Reynolds is absolutely right,” he said. “Working longer does not lead to productivity, it leads to more ill health.”
Working from home soared at the height of the Covid pandemic, leading some experts to predict a permanent shift in work practices. However, many companies have introduced return-to-office policies that have since been tightened. Some, including Amazon, Boots and Goldman Sachs, have required employees to return to a five-day, office-based work routine.
Amazon CEO Andy Jassy wrote in a letter to employees on Monday that the company believes the “benefits of being in the office together are significant.”
However, Amazon has different arrangements for warehouse workers, including in the UK, where flexible part-time contracts and four-day working weeks are available.
Last month, Amazon UK published the results of a survey it commissioned, which found that half of all British employees want more flexibility at work, with the majority of respondents citing a better work-life balance as the main reason.
In a press release highlighting Labour’s manifesto promises on flexible working, Amazon’s country manager for the UK and Ireland, John Boumphrey, said at the time that the company was “delighted” to offer flexible contracts to warehouse workers.
“These findings clearly demonstrate the importance of workplace flexibility and why it matters so much to UK workers,” he said.