Stress mounts for Minnesota workers returning to the office

Stephanie Hoepner was so nervous about what to wear her first day back at the office she hired a wardrobe consultant.

She was extremely relieved on a recent day as she twirled in front of a mirror, trying on an outfit at Elite Repeat in St. Paul that Nancy Dilts had picked out.

"People joke about it and say, 'Oh, I'll have to put pants on now.' But it's more than that," said Hoepner, who works at a big financial services firm.

Her whole routine will change — again. She is now used to taking a midafternoon break to pick up her child from school and then finishing her work. She is used to having privacy when she's not in a virtual meeting.

"I'm going to go back to the office, where it's cubicle land. I feel very exposed," Hoepner said. "I worked in that before, but now that seems a little much."

More and more employers are calling office workers back now that COVID-19 cases are low, and it is producing emotional and financial headwinds as people worry about everything from the commute to interpersonal communications and budgeting clothes and lunches.

Tensions are mounting, and more employees are calling employee assistance lines and reaching out to mental health counselors.

"More people are calling ... with higher levels of distress and the need to speak with a counselor immediately," said Barb Veder, the chief clinician who leads LifeWorks global employee-assistance programs for 25,000 corporate clients. "With the return to work, there is a new level of fluctuation and worry."

That's understandable, she said, given the seismic disruptions of the last two years. The pandemic caused fear and isolation and taught people to be cautious.

Then there was George Floyd's murder, the Black Lives Matter movement, a tumultuous election, the Jan. 6 Capitol riot. Now, as people are heading back, there's strife on a global scale.

"If it was as simple as just a pandemic, we might handle it," Veder said. "But it's the other layering of monumental social change and disruption" that is setting workers on edge and making them wonder if they can handle yet another transition.

Results from employee surveys and focus groups at Maplewood-based 3M led management to set aside mandatory return-to-work policies for office employees. Instead, they let workers choose where they want to work — and their schedules — as long as they can fulfill their duties.

The decision was met with relief, said Jeannee Hoppe, 3M director of organization design and change management.

"All of the stresses of COVID hit everybody. And this [back-to-the-office move] was one more thing they didn't have to wrap their head around. Instead it was one thing they could actually control and have a choice with," Hoppe said. "Sometimes it makes people feel good just to have the ability to choose something."

Jewish Family and Children's Service of Minneapolis (JFCS) is easing its staff back to the workplace. They spent one day a week there in March, are spending two days a week there this month and three in May.

"We as staff are going through this [thought process] of 'Oh, gas prices are going up. I have to pay for gas again and figure out schedules.' People have to park in downtown ramps and we have to think how much that costs," said Sheilah Howard, who directs JFCS' career services arm. "If you have been used to two years of not having to pay for these things, all of a sudden it feels like a sticker shock."

Pahoua Yang, vice president of the Amherst H. Wilder Foundation's Community Mental Health and Wellness, said there's apprehension about commuting and other concerns tied to the "great return."

"Two years ago, we completely disrupted everyone's lives by sending them home," she said. "They just figured out how to work from home and developed some sense of normalcy. And now we are disrupting their lives again."

Now, workers need to figure out child care and other caretaking duties, she said. They need to figure out the commute.

"There are emotional and financial costs to all of this," said Yang, who as a mother of five understands firsthand. She headed back to her St. Paul office three weeks ago to lead her 188 team members in person and said she forgot her lunch every day of her first week.

She is relearning how to get ready in the morning while managing her children as they leave to go to three different schools with three different start times. She had to relearn that her 25-minute commute turns into 60 to 90 minutes when there's snow.

"These are all things that pre-pandemic, you just did," Yang said.

Her husband, who is a judge, decided he will continue to conduct hearings remotely. That way, they don't have to resume afterschool programs, which would cost $2,000 a month.

Yang said Wilder is trying to accommodate workers who are having a tough time figuring out all the logistics or who still feel anxious about COVID-19.

"We are finding different ways to mitigate some of that anxiety," including having some employees come in less often than their peers, Yang said. "We want to figure out a solution that works for everyone. We have a great staff that we want to keep."

Still, Yang has asked all of her managers to return to the office to model the new behavior for everyone else. "We have to accept the unexpected," Yang tells her staff. "Once we accept that, we feel less anxious."

In March, the human resource consulting giant Robert Half Inc. reported that 81% of managers surveyed in Minneapolis want their teams to return to the office. At the same time, 65% of surveyed millennial workers nationally and 55% of working parents said they'll consider quitting if forced back to the office.

Even so, the Pew Research Center found that 76% of workers polled in January said they prefer to continue working remotely from home.

Employers are introducing flexibility to alleviate angst. Some have a policy like 3M, allowing workers to choose. Others specify a number of days employees must be in the office. Still others have set hybrid schedules or full-time office hours.

Radisson Hotel Group Americas, for example, is letting its 225 headquarters workers in St. Louis Park choose how they want to work, but dangling free lunches, social hours and other incentives to coax staffers back.

In a recent report by the Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM), experts warned that employers should embrace communication strategies that are "welcoming" to returning employees. SHRM member Mark Codd, the director of labor relations at Publix Super Markets, noted that "In essence, the organization is re-establishing a new covenant with returning employees."

SHRM officials are also coaching human resource pros in corporations to state clearly how their company will address COVID-19 outbreaks, how it will train people to adjust to hybrid work flows or employee absences, and how it will address possible spikes in family medical leave requests or complaints about high commuter costs.

Stacy Brindise, senior director of guest experience for Radisson Hotel Group America, is a mother of two elementary-age children. She decided to come into the office just three days a week. The new schedule will give her a day between office days without the commute time, plus extra time at lunch, to take care of the home front.

"I was definitely a little nervous or just knew it would be an adjustment going back," she said. "What I think the company did really well is giving employees the flexibility to maybe baby-step back into the office."