Microsoft CEO Says Companies Shouldn’t Call Employees To Office; Terms It ‘Short Sightedness’

A day after announcing deferment of reopening offices indefinitely, Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella marked companies determined to restart in-office operations and demanding employees to rejoin offices amid the active Covid-19 pandemic, as ‘short-sighted’.

In an interview with CNBC on September 9, Nadella stated that companies should rely on data for determining whether employees wish to return to the office environment, and how they want to make this shift.

He added that the companies that claim to have known if their employees are indeed comfortable with working from office amid the rising concerns of the Covid-19 delta variant, are being too ‘short-sighted’.

Microsoft earlier had plans to reopen office campuses on September 7, which was last month postponed to October 4. Now, amid the rising concerns about the delta variant, the giant has postponed the reopening of campuses indefinitely.

Regarding this, Jared Spataro, Corporate Vice-President stated in a blog post, “Given the uncertainty of COVID-19, we’ve decided against attempting to forecast a new date for a full reopening of our US worksites.”

Nadella Calls Out on Cos Pushing Towards In-Office Operations

Major tech giants, like Facebook, Amazon, Google and Microsoft have delayed their office openings amid growing concerns of the ongoing pandemic.

However, there are many companies which appear in a hurry to reopen office campuses and demand their employees to shift to in-office operations.

Speaking at an interview with CNBC on Thursday, Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella said that such companies which are pushing to reopen campuses and asking employees to rejoin offices are being ‘short-sighted’.

“I’m looking forward to the entire world overcoming this challenge, because until we do so any particular company, region thinking they’ve found the answer, I think will just be shortsighted”, said the CEO.

He underlines the importance of inculcating data to speak about any particular region being open. 

He also speaks about the company’s recent survey report called the ‘Work Trend Index’, which includes views of 2,500 global Microsoft employees about their plans on returning to offices along with what is working and what is not, while working from home.

Nadella notes that as per the finding of the survey, the feelings of inclusivity and managerial support are high among employees at the company.

While many employees want the flexibility of remote work, they desire in-person connections with colleagues, a phenomenon the company calls the hybrid work paradox.

To quote from the report, ‘There’s no one-size-fits-all approach: some employees cite work-life balance, focus time, and meetings as reasons to go into the office. Others see those as reasons to stay home.’