PSOW Leader Pamela Eyring Joins PBS NewsHour for Timely Discussion on How to Prepare for the Change to Work Life as Employers Mandate ‘Return to Office’

With the start of 2025, headlines note the five-year mark when “working from home” began across the world and now, the next change employees will experience in their work life as new mandates roll in to return to office. 

The national PBS broadcast, NewsHour recently covered this topic and featured the expert insights discussed frequently in the courses and discussions we have at The Protocol School of Washington. 

The PBS NewsHour broadcast highlighted: “The era of the remote worker is winding down. Before a mandate for federal workers to return to the office made national headlines, dozens of major private sector companies across the U.S. implemented hybrid policies. Ali Rogin speaks with Pamela Eyring, president of The Protocol School of Washington, about why back to the office may not immediately mean back to normal.”

To help employers and staff alike prepare for the big shift impacting millions across the country, Pamela discusses with Ali why going back to the office may not immediately mean back to normal.

Over the course of the interview that aired on February 15, Pamela provided insights on the importance of business leaders taking a compassionate, balanced approach to bringing teams back to the office: such as the importance of being encouraging versus firm and hardcore. And, treating the return of each and every staff member as though they’re welcoming a new employee for onboarding and ensuring that the office is truly a welcoming place to come back to with updated technology, ready-to-go workspaces and meeting areas, and ensuring that staff feel connected to the office that workers will spend more time in. 

For employees with challenges to the new requirements to return to office, Pamela advises to be open, transparent and as much as possible, supportive to accommodate employees’ needs. For example, some staff members with young children or who care for aging parents may need to have options like flex time to accommodate the shift since their own life circumstances may have changed in the five years since they were last required to commute and be in-office five days a week.

For staff returning to office who have spent their days behind screens for the past few years, re-engaging with in-person colleagues can be made more positive with fun team-building exercises to help people feel reconnected to their workplace and colleagues around them. Addressing personal everyday decisions like work attire and business etiquette are also important for employers to re-establish a standard for “business casual” in the office since many employees worked in “at home casual” attire over the last five years. Lunch and learns can also be an opportunity to get everyone around a table and build skills to facilitate interpersonal relationships and interactions to start on the right foot for the era of return-to-office that is upon us. 

Watch the full interview here and reach out to us if we can help your business re-engage employees meaningfully in the workplace as more of us return to work in person in 2025!