- As the government has to lighten health protocols, more and more employees or public service workers who telecommute are called back to the office.
- From one day of attendance required to five, presence standards vary from one company to another, according to the testimonies collected by 20 Minutes .
- With the exception of certain companies already experienced in working at a distance, which perpetuate or even amplify the experience, employers urge their employees to return to the site in order to resume normal operation.
Will the unprecedented period of massive teleworking started in March continue in June and July? While the government has announced that it will adapt health constraints to the recovery of the economy, companies and administrations are following suit. And beyond those who have already had or wanted to return to their premises from May 11, the return in the flesh in the workplace is intensifying, as evidenced by Internet users who responded to our call for testimony.
Since May 11, the premises of companies have already started to repopulate, under the effect of the exit of certain employees from partial unemployment and the resumption of activity on non-teleworkable positions. According to Dares, at the end of May, "almost half of the employees work on site, after a third at the end of April and a quarter at the end of March". Teleworking still concerned 23% of employees at the end of May, against 25% at the end of April, according to the statistical institute of the Ministry of Labor.
Five days out of five
“Today, I was asked to return physically to my workplace, I don't know the reasons. Many colleagues seem to have returned. We had no directives for all the staff, it seems that it was each manager who asked or not to come back. Until now, I went back there for half a day a week, in order to process my files in paper version, ”says Alice, administrative assistant in town hall. She apprehends this return to previous uses, that is, a permanent presence at the office. "I got used to the calm, the lack of interaction and therefore the absence of hypocrisy, representation and social adjustment," she says.
Depending on the employer, the requirements vary. "Currently, we still have the choice of teleworking 2 to 3 days a week if we have family constraints, otherwise we are strongly recommended to come to the office," says Amélie. She opted for a full return from June 2, "because alternating telework and office represents more logistical difficulties than reinvesting the office with sanitary measures". In his business, it is planned for next week to reach 80% office occupancy.
Varied rhythms
But there are those who go much more slowly. This is the case with Carl, who will only have to return to the office one day a week. For the time being, in his company, it would be a question of "2 days from July and full time in September". But the risk of accelerating the pace in the event of more pronounced deconfinement is not excluded. What he regrets in advance. “I live in Normandy while I work on two Ile-de-France sites. For me, telework should remain the norm! "
The association that employs Gaëlle allows her "telework during the summer and until September, even after government announcements". Given the small size of the premises, employees can return to their own rhythm of history "to have time to organize, to quietly resume a more conventional rhythm in face-to-face if desired, but with the presence of the team limited so as not to take any risk with regard to the epidemic ”. The idea is to put "no constraints or pressure on employees".
Other companies, finally, opt for alternation. “Half of the workforce will return in week A and the other half will continue teleworking. In week B, we reverse, and then we start again…. It will surely last all summer and we will not necessarily see the colleagues with whom we get on well, ”explains Aurélie.
Employees reluctant to return
Some companies, rather accommodating during the first phase of deconfinement, are preparing to put more pressure now that schools are reopening more widely. And for good reason, the invitations to return to work since May 11 have not always been followed up, explains the sociologist François Dupuy, who is currently following six large companies as part of his research. "At least two of them are deadlocked, and a third has just given up on bringing people back," he reports.
No wonder, according to the author of The Bankruptcy of Managerial Thought (Seuil, 2015), and a keen observer of the corporate world. With confinement, many employees who have tasted telework have come to appreciate it. What make calls to return from businesses more complicated, beyond the fear of the virus. “What characterized containment was the time recovered. By doing without transportation, they saved two hours. The French have rediscovered autonomy, the fact of working when you feel like it. They felt more productive, ”said the sociologist of organizations and professor at Edhec.
“There are as many companies as there are situations. We approached the limits on occupancy rates for a lot of our customers, but it took time. So far, a balance has been found with the volunteers, ”says Cécilia Durieu, director general of Greenworking, a management consultancy that currently monitors around a hundred companies on the subject of telework. She thinks that from June 22, companies will "more heavily" encourage people to return to work.
Back to full speed
On the corporate side, there is the desire to reweave lost or distended links during containment. From this point of view, some employees answer the call, happy to resume part of their social life. A phenomenon that had already been seen during the strikes this winter. "After 2 months of depressed back pain from staying in my bedroom night and day without seeing anyone, I returned to the office with joy! I appreciate the change of atmosphere, to preserve my privacy and to have a place dedicated to work that I can leave, ”explains Aurélie.
If companies are becoming more and more pressing, it is also because from a distance, their activity may have been curbed. "All of them did not operate at full speed during confinement, and some of the employees, for lack of having dematerialized processes, were only able to do their work partially," explains Cécilia Durieu.
The limits of remote work
Beyond practical questions, companies are discovering that their mode of operation is not compatible with telework. "It removes flexibility in companies and places them in sequential rather than simultaneous modes of operation," said François Dupuy. According to him, working at a distance is particularly unsuitable in companies that he describes as "open". That is to say those "which rely much more on relations between members than on rules and processes," he explains.
"100% telework requires a culture of writing," explains Cécilia Durieu. Minutes of meetings, ease with collaborative tools and videoconferences, need to have "written processes" to which everyone can have access ... Not being ready to hold such a discipline, which is built over months or even years when a business is moving towards teleworking, businesses go backwards after months of forced homework. "Either you have to adapt the processes, or you have to go back to the office," explains Cécilia Durieu.
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