I run a $1.6B government agency and were staying hybrid for more than our employees

Marissa Madrigal, Chief Operating Officer, Metro

Marissa Madrigal, Chief Operating Officer, Metro

Springtime 2022 is turning into social bloom. In-person events are filling up calendars. Happy hours are coming back. At many organizations, I’m seeing executives make a strong push to get every one back in-person full-time in the office too. Not me.

As the chief operating officer of a 1,600-employee government agency, I’ve decided that for people who can work remotely, generally they should have the choice to do so. This goes beyond the clear benefits of remote work for our productivity, employee engagement, and equity goals.Its peaks directly to how we value the environmentbeyond our office walls.

At Metro, we are entrusted by our region’s 2 million people to plan for the long run, to preserve the quality of life and natural spaces that are hallmarks of the Pacific Northwest. Our transportation plans, in coordination with our region’s 24 cities and three counties, look a generation out. Where many elected bodies struggle to see beyond a four-year window, we’re telescoping beyond 2050, and our elected and appointed leadership’s long view in this regard puts climate action front and center.

Climate change is not theoretical for us Northwesterners. We’ve lived and worked through a deadly heat dome, toxic wildfire smoke, and surprise April snowstorms. Bold stances for climate justice mean that we don’t just plan for a more equitable, climate-friendly transportation future: we lead by example as an employer everyday. We know one of the easiest ways to reduce carbon emissions is to reduce commuter travel,and the last two years have proven that not all business needs have to be met in-person.

Stay Home, Go Green

When remote work was forced on us by the pandemic, we saw the difference. Remote work in 2020 led to a 15 percent decrease in transportation-related carbon emissions in the United States that year. With COVID-19 now in an endemic state, it’s on us as employers to make the (easy) decision to continue remote work as an option to cutcarbon emissions.

Our commitment to reducing vehicle emissions started long beforemy arrival at Metro. For more than 20 years Metro has offered our employees full-fare transit cards on the regional transit system, TriMet. Our on-site showers have made life that much easier for bike commuters. Today, even our garbage trucks are making a difference. Switching our trucks to renewable diesel has decreased greenhouse gas emissions by 65 percent, improving air quality and reducing impacts on the environment.

I understand why organizational leaders want to bring people back to their offices. I myself have been going in Tuesdays and Thursdays since February and enjoy the connection and the mutual energy that comes from hallway conversations and in-person interaction. But as I’ve told my leadership team all year, there can no longer be a one-size-fits-all where-we-work plan. Supervisors need to establish a business need for why they’re requiring their staff to report to the office, so that we’re “spending” our commutes on in-person work when it matters most. On top of our environmental values, this approach squarely supports our efforts around improving productivity, workplace equity, and employee engagement.

Less Pollution, More Productivity

We all love a good joke about the remote work mullet (button down on top, pajamas on the bottom), but it turns out that whether it is the fuzzy slippers or the ability to focus without interruption, remote work is more productive. Remote workers generally put in more hours, even when on vacation or under the weather (not suggesting they should!).

And as for those old commuting days, they add up to thirty days a year sitting in our cars (based on an average commute of 27 minutes). That alone shows how remote work is really a gift. Not just to our employees, but to employers, too.

Metro’s 2021 Employee Engagement survey showed that remote workers are more engaged across the board. But just because they like it, does it really mean they are any more motivated? To me, this comes down to trust and autonomy, intrinsic motivators. Remote workers are physically left alone to do their job – no over-the-shoulder second guessing, just straight-up trust that their managers know they are going to succeed.

Remote as a Reboot for Workplace Equity

Changing where we work on a more permanent basis gives workplace leaders a chance to reexamine how we work. There are some national reports that people working from home experience fewer micro and macro-aggressions and feel safer from other prior workplace hostilities.

But remote work does more than prevent some negative experiences. It produces an opportunity to recruit in a more equitable manner, attracting and retaining people from different socioeconomic and geographic backgrounds who, in the past, may have otherwise not considered a job in the city center because of the cost of the commute in time and money. While Portland’s cost of living has risen among the fastest in the nation, recruiting in an already tight labor market is challenging to say the least. Our commitment to remote work is one more way we can drawthe best candidates to our mission-driven work.

So, if you want to improve productivity, engage your employees, build trust, strengthen equity in hiring and retention, and protect our environment, reconsider those mandatory back to work days you may have been planning, and think about all the good you could do by telling your employees they are free to work fromhome.

Marissa Madrigal serves as the chief operating officer for Metro, the regional government based in Portland, Ore., that manages long-range transportation and economic planning, housing, parks and nature, garbage and recycling, and visitor venues across three counties and 24 cities.