By Marny Lifshin, Author & Speaker
Nike, DELL, Tesla and JPMorgan are only a few of the employers enforcing their return to office policies, or TRO, in 2025. Many plan to implement a hybrid model, requiring employees to be at the office 3 days per week. Others are in favor of 5 days in the office. Employers list issues like productivity, culture, collaboration and innovation as the driving factors for this shift.
Most surveys show that a majority of employees do not want RTO, and value the flexibility they've had for the past few years. Staff concerns include work/life balance, the commute to work, office politics and disruption to their daily routine.
While there is certainly different opinions regarding RTO, everyone can agree that there is a fundamental difference in the way we handle relationship and communication with colleagues remotely and in-person.
If you are going to be working with colleagues in-person more often there are things you can do to ensure a successful transition.
I suggest you being by answering these 3 questions:
1. Who do you need to have good working relationships with? Which relationships are critical?
2. What problem do you often encounter? Is there a pattern?
3. How would positive, effective professional relationships help you? Your answer points to why "soft skills" are actually "essential skills"- it directly effects your job satisfaction.
Here are 3 strategies to improve your in-office relationships
1. Find a way to connect. Expand your relationships beyond the transaction-oriented, "gettin stuff done" mode. This often starts with just making the time to get to know them as a person and discover what you have in common. This is how you can build rapport, and then trust, and when you have trust you have a truly valuable relationship.
2. Embrace the power of adaptation. You can't use the same approach with everyone and expect to build successful relationships. Be comfortable with tweaking your approach and style, depending on who you are interacting with. For example, some like to be more casual, where others are all business. Thinking about the best approach ahead of time will help them, and you, feel more comfortable.
3. Embrace diversity. Work on welcoming diversity of background, gender, generation, experience and personality. Sometimes it can be challenging to work with someone who is very different than you, but those very differences are crucial to having a versatile and well-rounded organization. Keeping an open mind and validating everyone's perspective is essential.
Here are 3 common mistakes to avoid.
1. Avoid domination. Any relationship where one person completely dominates is unhealthy. If people are being consistently dominated, they do not feel their their contributions or opinions are valuable and are likely to stop trying. One way to determine if there is a major imbalance is by paying attention to conversations. IF you are usually talking more than anyone else, try to encourage others to participate. If your voice is rarely heard, make a real effort to speak up more often.
2. Don't take things too personally. Everyone gets their feelings hurt at work. It is important to realize that just because someone didn't like your idea or agree with your opinion it's not necessarily a personal attack. If we hold grudges when our feelings get hut, that will certainly impact the effectiveness of our relationships. Remember that if a colleague disagrees with you, it's generally not about you as a person, or whether they like you. If, however, someone is extremely rude or demeaning, you may have a toxic work relationship that needs to be addressed.
*Don't limit yourself with cliques. Cliques are by nature exclusive, meaning they exclude other people. While it's natural to spend time with the people we like, it's important to realize that you are missing opportunities to build relationships with other colleagues. By only going to lunch with the same few people you may unknowingly be damaging other professional relationships simply by leaving them out. Expand your circle! Including others for happy hour is a great way to build connections.
If you have any tips for returning to office and making meaningful connections, let us know in the comments, via LinkedIn or by contacting Leslie M. Dill at publicrelations@awtaustin.org.
