Return to Work

Last evening, I was watching a Hallmark Movie, “Return to Work” that I had previously taped. The plot concerned a tech company that decided to call all of its employees back to the office. However, they found that they didn’t have enough desks or accommodations for everyone, so they decided to have some employees work Monday and Wednesday and others Tuesday & Thursday.

This reminded me of some articles that I have recently read, concerning companies that had most of their employees working remotely, and decided that they should now come in to the office on a full time basis. Remote work wasn’t all that management had hoped for. It is difficult to create a company culture and a cohesive work force when most of your employees don’t personally interact with their peers.

When remote employees did return to their work premises, management found that there weren’t enough desks. Surprise! As a result, employees had to continue “working remotely.”

This is true within the Federal Government, as well as public organizations. It has been reported that over 40% of government employees have been working remotely. I am not sure what the percentage is for public organizations. What has happened? How could an organization lose sight of their employees? Did they hire a significant number of new employees during the pandemic? Whatever happened, shame on management!

Yesterday I read an article that said that Jamie Dimon, Chairman and CEO of JP Morgan Chase, the large banking organization, had put out an edict that all employees had to return to the office, 5 days a week. Obviously, the remote workers weren’t happy. The other unusual finding was that JP Morgan Chase has 50,000 more employees now, than during the pandemic. How did that happen? Someone took their eye off of the operations.

It appears to me that organizations today have lost sight of the basics. I realize that I am “old,” and probably considered a “dinosaur,” but I believe I still have all of my faculties and “common sense.” Today, I believe they refer to that as “critical thinking.” A course, that is now taught in colleges, per Kumi, my Granddaughter.

During my business career, the work force was a critical factor in our budgeting process, and the accomplishment of our mission. The work force requirements were as critical as other costs, within the organization, if you were to be a successful organization. In the 1960’s and 1970’s, a push was on for organizations to consider “zero based” budgeting/ financial planning within an organization.

It was determined that if a budget was built off of your last period expenditures, there could be huge inefficiencies incorporated into your financial plan. Zero based budgeting made you look at everything fresh, as though you were starting a new operation. All expenses needed to be justified, including your manpower. I am not sure how many organizations still approach financial planning this way, but they should.

In the late 1960’s I was Director of Finance at the Aircraft Division of Fairchild-Hiller Corporation. We had 4,500 employees and were producing aircraft for the regional airlines (FH-227), helicopters (FH-1100), a STOL aircraft (Pilatus Porter) as well as components for Boeing and other aerospace companies.

Monthly financial reports included not just financial results, but manpower statistics. We had direct as well as indirect employees, and there were checks and balances to make sure that the ratio between them remained constant. If not we would see the impact on the program costs and profitability. These manpower reports were by department and were analyzed the same as the financial results.

Obviously, the fact that there are more employees today than can be accommodated, at their work location, would indicate that management has lost control of their operations. What else will we discover as folks come back to the office?

Jess Sweely – Madison, Va.