What is office peacocking, the latest trend to lure employees back to work?

It’s been four years now that employees began the Work from Home practice, owing to the COVID-19 pandemic. And many still seem to be reluctant to return to the workplace.

As CEO of Owl Labs, Frank Weishaupt told Forbes: “We just passed the fourth year anniversary of the pandemic and many employers still haven’t yet given up on trying to return to pre-pandemic policies.”

It is this very reluctance of employees to return to the workspace that has spawned a not-so-new trend called ‘office peacocking’. Let’s take a closer look at what this office term means and why it’s trending all over social media.

What is office peacocking?

Office peacocking is simply the practice of jazzing up the workplace with stylish decor, trendy furniture, well-stocked pantries, and various amenities so that employees, who are used to working in cosy places, feel comfortable working from their traditional workplaces.

While this trend can prove to be heavy on wallets, it does transform a typical corporate cubicle setting into a lively lounge-style setting as it involves creating recreational rooms, implementing a relaxed dress code, and even napping rooms.

“We found that it might be a good time to kill the dress code, as one in four employees (24 per cent) said they would be enticed to go to the office if they were able to wear whatever they wanted,” Weishaupt said highlighting Owl Labs 2023 State of Hybrid Work report.

What are the returning employees demanding?

While for many fresh graduates, an attractive workplace is a lucrative offer, Weishaupt said the report highlights issues such as commute and personal space, that matter the most to the employees when it comes to returning to office.

“Companies paying for commuting costs 38 per cent is at the top of the list, followed by greater privacy at the office (dedicated offices, more phone booths) (34 per cent), and having a way to know when people they want to see will be there (33 per cent)” stated the Owl Labs CEO.

While some employees have adopted the return-to-office policy, there’s a growing tribe of workers who are willing to make sacrifices to achieve a more hybrid and flexible work culture in the long run.

The data gathered by the Owl suggests at least 62 per cent of employees are willing to take a 10 per cent pay cut to stay remote, while four per cent are okay with quitting the company to avoid the hustle of work-from-office.

Weishaupt also pointed out that “one in three workers (31 per cent) said they would start to look for a new job if their employer mandated them to return to the office”.

While some have the option to quit, other employees who don’t are joining the office and are now actively seeking ways to escape from the artificial trappings of office peacocking.

What are some other workplace trends?

Another workplace trend called ‘coffee badging’ became popular last year, in which employees who are resistant to returning to work, go to the office just for a short period to grab a cup of coffee and make their presence felt and leave, giving an impression that they are working on-site.

Weishaupt said some employees are even following a concept called “polyworking”, where employees have two or more jobs as a “ side hustle ”. It found that almost half of employees have at least one additional job outside of their main full-time job, and 68 per cent of them are full-time in-office workers.

These trends, Wishaupt says, are not just a “remote thing” as full-time office workers, he said, are over twice as likely to hold a second job compared to hybrid and remote workers.

What these trends underscore is that return-to-office mandates “clearly don’t work” and are not the way to get people back to the office, he said.

With inputs from agencies