Sir, since you intend to focus on the front line, let me iterate the point of your lower-level managers in a way that you can visualize.
Imagine it is the beginning of a work day. The sun is rising over a dilapidated field office. Thirty technicians are lined up along the length of the parking lot, ready and anxious to get out into the world and serve our customers.
They got here early - extra early. Why? There are only thirteen vans, but we have thirty techs. The clock strikes eight. They run as fast as they can to jump in the driver’s seat so they can be the productive employee they desire to be! Hands get slammed in doors! Fights break out over the vans! The thirteen winning drivers take off swiftly, with other techs dangling off the back and hood of the van, desperately hoping to cling on long enough to make it close enough to walk the rest of the way to their first customer’s house.
The walkers run between houses. Some buy their own bicycle, or call an Uber - just to get it done.
All thirty techs return to the garage at the end of the day. The ones with scratches, sweat stains and bruises, exhausted and dehydrated from all that running are told that they should be grateful for the privilege of the day they just survived, and they should give grace and empathy to others, because they are spoiled. And the metrics said they failed because they underperformed on time between jobs due to their lack of a vehicle at the behest of the company.
This isn’t about having to go back to an office. It’s about not having an office environment to go to. It’s about failing metrics that are not accurate and hurting your people. It’s about fairness and equality even on one’s own team. It’s about busting out all you have to give in spite of the odds for all the right reasons and being told you aren’t good enough and you don’t even matter. It’s about being told that your voice is useless and you don’t care about your first line peers or your customers when you break out that laptop and save the freaking day and no one even knows because you SAVED THE FREAKING DAY.
You hurt us, man. Please try to understand it isn’t about staying home and going to Costco, Sir. Please.