My employer has a 40% WFH tolerance policy and asked us (team leads) to relay the information and control office presence.

As team lead, I decided to relay this message differently. I instructed my team to do as they wish and come when they want, and to do so with three things in mind:

  1. If they are not coming to the office because something is inadequate, they let me know and I will do my best to fix it.
  2. Those who are younger than 35 should consider the long-term effects of staying at home and not interacting with peers on their professional career.

They trusted me on item 1 and asked for a few things to change. Almost everything was in relation with hardware (better monitors, proper docking stations, good keyboards and mice, and in two cases, new laptops), one asked to clean the toilets more frequently and make some air freshener available, another asked for a water heating option to make tea and make some tea available (it was indeed unfair with the coffee drinkers who have a state-of-the-art coffee machine), they asked for a larger trash bin and a third lamp in the open space (team of 6). That's all I can remember.

Regarding item 2, I don't know how they processed it but all I can say is that the team's WFH ratio is 24% for the last three months.

Overall, I think it is all about creating a working environment people actually enjoy coming to. When I hear about employees who feel conflicted or reluctant to come to the office, I am genuinely convinced it is because one of the following:

  1) They are in conflict with a colleague or their manager is an ass.ole.
  2) Someone is making their life at the office unnecessarily painful or more difficult than it should (and it is most likely something related to a hardware purchase or shared commons). 
  3) There is a tangible constraint on coming to the office that makes their life difficult above a certain threshold (e.g., cost of transportation too elevated, medical/health/healthcare condition or issue at stake, etc.).
  4) It's a wrong hire, and she/he should be laid off.

As a team lead, if I see someone being reluctant to come to the office, I see it as my duty to identify which of the above is at cause and to do my best to resolve it.