Understanding human connection in an RTO world

Amazon recently made waves by initiating a return-to-office policy, effective January 2025. It led to the usual spate of hand-wringing and earnest arguments about the productivity of remote work. But it also got some people thinking. What if working in person, together — like in the olden days before 2020 — wasn’t such a bad thing? What if there were actually some benefits to having human connection in the workplace?

Here, University of Phoenix Career Advisor Lisa Severy, PhD, CCC, weighs in.

Some of that will be informed by personality, some by experience. If you’re a millennial or older, you’ve likely had a decent amount of in-person work experience. You may recall the good (brainstorming sessions that led to ideas rather than awkward silences in off-camera group chats). You may recall the bad (the commute!). You very likely recall the ugly (toxic managers, office politics).

Gen Z, however, has no such memories. Or, if they do, not very many. Perhaps that’s why they’ve been accused of romanticizing the idea of in-person workplaces.

Whatever the reason, the result has been a lot of clamoring for hybrid work environments. It’s the workplace version of splitting a pizza with a friend. You want pepperoni; she wants mushrooms. Naturally, you each get a little of what you want.

But Severy warns that the choice may be more akin to the judgment of Solomon than modern compromise. Hybrid setups require a certain amount of intentionality on the part of management, she says. Otherwise, you miss out on the benefits of human connection.

So, if your company downsized its office space and has the workforce coming in in shifts, you may be working alongside but not actually with different team members.

Plus, maintaining two office setups for every employee can incur financial costs for the company and emotional costs for employees who may feel like they’re always on.

While Severy thinks RTO mandates do more harm than good, she doesn’t necessarily think hybrid is the best response. “In my mind, I feel like it’s probably best to go all or nothing,” she says.

At UOPX, Severy works with a population that tends to be relatively experienced when it comes to their careers and, after attending school online, relatively comfortable with technology. Not surprisingly then, most midlevel or senior professionals who come to Severy for guidance have a pretty clear idea about what they want, and that’s a remote role.

“I just had a meeting with a person who’s 66 and re-careering,” Severy says. “She’s finishing her degree so she can do something completely different. I asked, ‘So, what are you looking for in a job?’

“‘Remote,’ she said. It’s the very first thing most people say.”

The reasons for this are varied. Maybe they’re working in a job desert — someplace rural or where the predominant industry isn’t theirs. Maybe they have a mental health concern, like ADHD, so working from home makes it easier to limit distractions. Maybe they’ve experienced work trauma and feel a remote role gives them better boundaries.

Or maybe their managers are as adept at team-building as Severy’s: Her manager organizes regular meetings among the team for peer-to-peer connections and mentoring.

Still, if the world of work is poised to go the way of Amazon, Tesla and other major companies with return-to-office mandates, it may be a good idea to take stock of what an in-person workplace can offer that remote companies can’t. 

“Building trust happens naturally in person,” Severy says. “You bump into each other in the elevator or at lunch, you strike up conversations.”

Severy currently works remotely, but she has devoted years of her career to in-person roles. Still, even she was surprised by the effects of attending an in-person conference with her team.

“Being in-person changed everything,” she says. Meeting for breakfast, processing workshops together and in real time — those experiences simply don’t happen the same way over a virtual platform, no matter how sophisticated the technology or well-intentioned the participants.

Trust, as it turns out, blooms when people have the opportunity to connect, face-to-face, in the right professional setting. It can happen virtually, but it may happen faster and more organically in person.

Some of the most compelling arguments for retaining a work-from-home or hybrid model have been the surveys and studies that maintain productivity doesn’t depend on going into the office.

There’s fine print attached to those studies, of course. As with any study, the answers depend on what kind of questions are being asked (e.g., “How do you feel?” versus “What are your numbers?”) and to whom.

From a lived-experience perspective, Severy points out that innovation has a better chance of flourishing when employees see each other every day. After building relationships (see the point above about trust), workers can leverage more and organic opportunities to brainstorm and create when they’re with each other every day as opposed to “grabbing time” to meet virtually.

The “informal, unstructured” meetings and group discussions that arise over lunch or around a co-worker’s desk can lead to innovation, Severy says.

Of course, the flipside to such spontaneity are the time-killing meetings that are just as likely to pop up. Getting pulled into a meeting that should’ve been an email? It’s harder to say no when that request is made face-to-face.

Feeling valued may be one of the most powerful benefits of human connection that can happen within an office.

Of course, managers can and do value remote employees. They may even be successful in conveying it. But, as with trust and productivity, being together creates more opportunities to express it in meaningful ways.

Consider these examples from Severy:

• A manager or co-worker can express, “Great job on that project,” while making eye contact and having a longer, authentic conversation.
• You can celebrate a co-worker’s birthday with cake instead of virtual cards and emojis.
• You can get (or receive) a coffee as a token of recognition for a job well done.

“Those kinds of things add up, especially when promotions and raises aren’t available,” Severy says. “That can happen in any kind of environment, but it seems to me that it maybe happens more naturally in person.” 

In the end, the choice may be out of an individual’s hands. Companies will do what their boards and leaders deem best for the organization and, for the most part, workers will likely fall in line.

But if your company goes the way of Amazon, take heart. There may be some advantages you just can’t get at home. Like frosting. (Literally and metaphorically speaking, of course.)

In the meantime, explore these career resources at University of Phoenix:

• Career Services for Life® commitment: Available to UOPX students and graduates, this offering comprises complimentary career coaching, including guidance on how to build a personal brand and write a resumé.
• Free career resources: Browse a range of downloadable guides and templates to help you optimize your LinkedIn® profile, get ready for a job interview and write a resumé and cover letter.
• Career With Confidence™ newsletter: Get career insights every week via UOPX’s LinkedIn newsletter.

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