From the 1st August, the advice from the UK Government changed from "work from home if can" to providing employer's more discretion.
Many organisations are seeing this move as the Government advising that workers "should return to work if they can" - and while there is a general move to try and head towards "normal" to support the economy, I'd personally see that as an incorrect assessment.
And one that ultimately is not beneficial for the organisations.
There is still, unfortunately, many business leaders that feel that if they can't see their employee's, then they can't be working. They are very much Theory X thinkers - they assume their staff will slack off at every given opportunity and need to be managed via carrot and stick.
And while I'm sure that there are a percentage of people that are that way - that is the minority.
If you have staff that slack off at every given opportunity, then that is a fault of management and leadership - and certainly is not fixed by simply "having a bum on seat" in the office.
So we now have many organisations "asking" staff to return to office - and I put asking in quotes as it is obvious that the employee has no discretion in the decision.
But the office still needs to follow the Covid-19 safety guidance - which places many restrictions on how well an office can operate.
Be it reduced numbers, restricted facilities (kitchen/ toilets) or extra precautions - few organisations will find themselves more productive by returning to the office at this stage.
Don't get me wrong - I'm a great believer in co-located tightly knitted teams working very closely together - I believe that produces great results.
But when the environment doesn't provide that - either because we can't have the whole team onsite at once or they are distributed so far away from each other that virtual is the only method of communication - then really, what benefit is there in "asking" staff to come into the office.
Yes, open offices. Make them available for those that need them.
But forcing people back into the office is not productive for an organisation. In most cases it will simply be costing your organisation money in lost productivity and longer term ill-will.