So a lot has been written about what the return to the office will, and won’t, be like. Most older tech companies have wanted folks back to the way things were before. Most startups have gone distributed. And top-tier office space in San Francisco is hard to get again.
But I haven’t seen an employee survey as balanced and nuanced as Mailchimp’s — and I learned a lot. Mailchimp surveyed its 1,250+ employees and what it found was interesting;
- 39% wanted to continue fully working from home
- 37% wanted to primarily work from home, but come in the office sometimes
- 27% wanted to primarily work from the office, but work from home sometimes. (They’ll get a dedicated desk in return)
- only 2% wanted to work 5 days a week in the office!
I guess we all sort of knew the latter statistic, but it’s very visceral to see it this way. No one wants to work in the office 5 days a week anymore. No one. But 61% of folks still want an office experience of some sort.
That’s your job as CEO and founders. Make that work in many cases. You can stay distributed, and you’ll find a way. But for most of us that are bigger, with experienced teams, a 40:40:18:2 ratio is about right (there is overlap in Mailchimp data). Folks do want to go back to the office. But only a minority want to do it 3 days a week. And no one wants to do it 5 days a week.
(new Mailchimp office going up)
