According to collaboration expert Dr. Heidi K. Gardner, the latest development in Meta’s return-to-office saga will breed a “huge amount of distrust.”
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The tech giant Meta has reportedly introduced a slew of changes for full-time employees that will go into effect September 5. For example, these individuals will be required to go into the office three days a week, swipe their badges for attendance tracking, and display their physical location at all times.
While people can still apply for full-time remote status, Dr. Heidi K. Gardner believes that the multitude of policy changes in such a short period of time is likely to cause a large amount of distrust in leadership and the larger company. According to Dr. Gardner:
“Leaders must make sure that they’re practicing transparency, and that their actions match their words. Establishing trustworthiness is an essential part of being a leader, and it takes empathy to create that trust.”
She added that the current results-first mindset in the tech industry is making it harder for bosses to put themselves in employees’ shoes. They aren’t necessarily getting to the root cause of why people might not want to give up their work-from-home privileges, or communicating the policy changes in an effective way.
For more on Dr. Gardner’s insights, see the article from CNBC.