Will the UPS Return-to-Office Plan Deliver?

When UPS CEO Carol Tomé  ordered staffers at the logistics giant back to their desks five days a week starting in March, she cited reasons that will be familiar to anyone who has read the many return-to-office (RTO) memos penned by corporate chiefs over the past two years.

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“The UPS culture and our success has long been based on our in-person connections with our customers and the partnership forged from personal relationships cultivated day in and day out at work,” the memo read.

Note those oft-cited, yet amorphous, terms: “culture” and “connections.” Along with “collaboration,” they’re mentioned so often by CEOs to justify attendance mandates that Bloomberg’s Matt Boyle has taken to calling them the “Three Magic C’s.”

Many CEOs seem to think that they can conjure up more innovation, productivity and engagement merely by calling everyone back — abracadabra, Boyle writes. And, they reckon, all those performance benefits will surely outweigh the wrenching disruption to workers’ lives and livelihoods.

It doesn’t work that way.

What was missing from Tomé’s missive — and from all RTO marching orders — was any real business rationale behind the move to order thousands of UPS workers back to their desks full time, up from three days previously, while simultaneously jettisoning 12,000 managers. Click Read the full story. 

Readers: Would you want to return to the office five days a week? Tell us by joining the conversation below.

Quick Hits

• Employers are looking for advice on how to find a way to cut jobs — without risking a backlash on social media.
• The latest performance-enhancing drug in fast-paced workplaces like finance and tech is Zyn, a tobacco-free nicotine pouch.
• Chinese students abroad are picking up whatever jobs they can find as they no longer can fully rely on their parents to pay their tuition.
• Workers at German software giant SAP are threatening to quit rather than comply with its new return-to-office policy.
• What happens when the direct report you once hired is now your boss?

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