City Work-At-Home Might Not Work: BENN

Published 10/07/2025 · Updated 10/07/2025

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I am prepared to cut city manager Wendy Stephanson some slack on the return-to-office issue. Consider these possibilities.

Over the course of the last five years the senior city managers might have noticed that departmental productivity has diminished. They might have been able to isolate the diminished productivity to specific individuals. While some staff members might believe that their personal productivity has improved, that measure is fraught with self-interest. Let’s just call it a difference of opinion. In any event, the senior managers might have tried different steps or techniques to correct the problem. With no success.

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Over the course of the last five years, perhaps senior management has noted that team work, including mentorship, has diminished. That the work from those who have embraced the home culture has become more comfortable not collaborating with others with the result being-lower quality outcomes.

Over the course of the last five years, as noted by Stephanson, there have been a lot of retirements. Not a surprise because that ties into the middle of the baby-boom generation reaching their mid-60s. Also not surprising is that retirement is on the horizon for the second half of that generation. Senior managers might have noted that their ability to accurately identify the individuals who merit a promotion has had a lower success rate than prior to the pandemic. Some individuals whose contributions have not been highly visible due to their work from home setting might believe that they were unfairly overlooked. Perhaps they have.

In summary, perhaps after the course of five years, senior management has determined that despite its best efforts to make the work-from-home or hybrid-culture work, it hasn’t. Perhaps it’s time to shake things up. To see if a return to a full work at the office week generates better results.

Just perhaps.

Ron Benn, a finance executive, has been a member of the Centrepointe Community Association for the better part of three decades.