For a long time, there was an unwritten agreement between employers and employees.
You showed up. You worked hard. You did your job well. You supported the organization, and in return, you expected the organization to support you.
Nobody necessarily handed you a document explaining the arrangement. It was simply understood.
Stay with the company. Do good work. Take on more responsibility. In return, there would be opportunity, reasonable security, increasing compensation, and perhaps eventually a retirement celebration surrounded by people you had worked with for decades.
That deal was never perfect, and it certainly wasn’t universal. But enough people believed in it that it influenced how organizations operated and how people thought about their careers.
Today, I’m not sure either side knows what the deal is anymore.
When Did the Deal Change?
There probably wasn’t one moment.
Companies reorganized. Industries consolidated. Jobs moved. Pensions disappeared from many workplaces. Layoffs became a regular part of corporate life. Employees watched talented colleagues leave organizations after years of service and recognized that loyalty didn’t necessarily guarantee security.
Employees changed too.
Staying with one company for an entire career became less common. Changing jobs could mean better compensation, a promotion, more interesting work, or greater flexibility. If organizations were going to make business decisions based on what was best for them, employees increasingly became willing to make career decisions based on what was best for them.
Slowly, expectations on both sides changed.
Then COVID arrived.
Then We Ran an Experiment Nobody Planned
Almost overnight, millions of people who had been told their jobs required them to be in an office were working from kitchen tables, spare bedrooms, basements, and wherever else they could open a laptop.
It wasn’t planned as a workplace experiment. But that’s what it became.
Organizations discovered something they may not have expected. A lot of people could work effectively without being physically present in an office every day.
Employees discovered something too. They could eliminate a commute. They could have breakfast with their children. They could sometimes handle a school pickup or be home when the school bus arrived.
For working parents, another issue became impossible to ignore: childcare is expensive.
When both parents are expected to be somewhere else for most of the day, childcare isn’t optional. Add commuting expenses, parking, meals, and the hours spent traveling back and forth, and being required to work from an office carries a very real price.
And this isn’t limited to parents with young children. Many employees are also helping care for aging parents or other family members. The conversation about flexibility has become part of a much bigger question about where work fits into our lives.
Then offices reopened.
Some organizations offered flexibility. Others required people to return several days each week. Still others wanted everyone back five days a week.
Employees started asking a question they might not have asked before:
Why does this work require me to be here?
That’s not the same as asking, “Why should I work?” or “Why should I be accountable?”
There are good reasons for people to be together. Collaboration, mentoring, problem-solving, developing people, and building relationships may all be among them. But “because that’s our policy” doesn’t explain why being together makes the work better.
Leaders should be able to explain the difference.
Loyalty Works Both Ways
There is another side to this conversation, and it’s an important one.
Flexibility doesn’t eliminate responsibility.
An organization still has customers to serve, commitments to meet, teams that need to work together, people who need to be developed, and results that must be delivered. Employers have every right to expect performance, accountability, responsiveness, and work that meets the needs of the organization.
Some work is better when people are together. Some jobs can’t be done remotely at all. Manufacturing employees, nurses, restaurant workers, construction workers, ship’s crews, and countless others have to be where the work is.
Even for jobs that can be performed remotely, there will be times when being together makes sense.
The problem begins when either side believes only its needs matter.
Employees can’t reasonably say, “Give me complete flexibility, regardless of what the organization needs.”
Employers shouldn’t be saying, “You work for us, so arrange your life around whatever schedule we decide.”
Neither sounds much like a relationship.
What Should We Expect From Each Other?
Maybe that’s the conversation we’re missing.
Instead of spending so much time debating office versus remote work, perhaps we should be talking about expectations.
What does the organization need from you? What should you reasonably expect from the organization? Which work requires people to be together, and which doesn’t? How will performance be measured? How much flexibility can be offered while still serving customers and supporting the team?
And when people need to be physically present, can leaders clearly explain why?
These aren’t soft questions. They’re business questions.
The old unwritten deal depended heavily on loyalty and security. The new relationship may depend much more on clarity, trust, flexibility, accountability, and both sides delivering value.
That doesn’t necessarily make the new deal worse. It does mean we need to stop pretending the old one still exists.
Think About This
What do the people in your organization believe they owe you?
Now turn the question around.
What do they believe you owe them?
If the answers are very different from what you would say, the problem may have nothing to do with compensation, remote work, or office attendance.
You may be operating under two different versions of the deal.
To Do
Have one conversation this week with someone on your team about expectations.
Don’t start by explaining company policy. Ask instead:
“What do you believe a good employer should reasonably expect from its people—and what should good employees reasonably expect in return?”
Then listen.
The relationship between employers and employees has changed. The question isn’t whether we can put the old deal back together.
The better question is: What should the new deal be
Wenkroy International LLC is a Professional Advisory company with a main purpose of helping entrepreneurs and business people create the strategy, the plan and the steps necessary to achieve that person’s vision for their business and often their life, while navigating the obstacles which may be blocking them from reaching their goals. The process may involve one on one coaching, advising, laser focus days, personal growth workshops and more. The methods utilized are determined together. The results and value positively impact individuals, teams, divisions and across entire companies. People are now able to focus on what matters most to them, because, they have clarity on where they are heading.
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