Why do your employees hate your office move?

On Monday morning, your Managing Director emails you: the lease is ending and the office will move. The lease is ending. The office will move. Options are under review; details are TBD.

Weeks pass. Rumours fill the gap. People start asking questions. Will the new office be farther away? Will there be enough desks? Will there be fewer private spaces? Will hybrid work policies stay in place? No one seems to know.

Two months later, another email arrives. A new office has been found. It is open plan. Quiet rooms will be limited. Some commutes will get longer. Teams are told the business is excited about the next chapter.

Your employees aren’t excited, they’re worried

This is where most go wrong. The problem is less about the move itself and more about how it is handled. When communication is weak, people assume the worst. By the time leaders start sharing details, frustration has already set in. In our own research: “Is it time to kill the open office?” 45% of employees said they are more productive in the office, compared with 25% at home. At the same time, only 41% said they prefer working in the office full-time, while 47% prefer hybrid working. That tells you the office still matters, but people want it to work for them. A move is seen as implicitly putting that under pressure.

Uncertainty makes your people wary

So why this implicit caution? They want to know what is changing and why. They want to know what it means for their working day. They want to know whether anyone has thought about the practical consequences. If those questions sit unanswered, people fill the silence. That pattern is backed by wider research, the American Psychological Association found that employees affected by workplace change were more likely to report chronic stress, less likely to trust their employer, and more likely to consider leaving.

Gallup has also pointed to trust and communication as factors in how employees experience disruption and change. This matters in an office move because the phrase itself sounds simple, but employees hear something much bigger. They hear changes to their commute, their routine, their privacy, their focus, and their flexibility. Ultimately, they think they’re not being talked with about it in any meaningful way!

Our research also found that fewer than a quarter of employees saw their office as extremely successful in supporting productivity and creativity. That matters because a move is sold as an improvement. If you doubt this, ask yourself: When’s the last time you asked employees how they feel, honestly feel, about the place they’re currently working in.

Employees focus on what may get worse

Senior teams discuss office moves in business terms. Cost, efficiency, flexibility, utilisation, growth. This is entirely understandable, it’s a significant outlay. Employees tend to judge them more personally. In our client work and research, they think primarily about noise, privacy, desk space, meeting rooms, storage, travel time, and whether the new place will make it easier or harder to work. That difference in viewpoint, understandably, creates friction.

Research on workplace design has repeatedly found that open and flexible layouts can create problems with noise, privacy, and concentration if they are poorly planned. One study found that moving from a fixed to open plan explicitly “decreased productivity and satisfaction with the office design”, for example.

So when leadership says the new office will support collaboration, some employees hear a different message. They assume private work will become awkward. They assume the trade-offs have already been accepted on their behalf. After all, they’ve never been asked to proffer an opinion on the current office, let alone the new one.

This is where communication has to do real work. You need to explain what is changing in plain terms and why. You also need to admit the trade-offs. If there will be fewer desks, say so. If the layout will change how teams work, say so. If some people will face longer commutes, do not hide it behind silence.

Employees are also not unreasonable here. They are open to spending more time in the office under the right conditions. Referring back to our own research again, 91% said they could be encouraged to spend more time there through changes to the office environment. Improved technology was one of the strongest drivers, cited by 48%. The report also highlights the importance of designated desk areas, personalised setups, and quiet zones. That’s the point, because it shows employees absolutely are not rejecting the concept of the office outright (even if they’re hybrid!)

If you communicate poorly, you’ll never be trusted

Many office moves fail in a very ordinary way. Leaders announce the move, then disappear into the process. Employees receive broad statements, thin updates, and polished language that avoids basic detail. That is what poor communication looks like. It sounds like this: “We are moving in June. The new office will support collaboration and future growth. More details will follow.”

That tells your employees almost nothing. It avoids the questions they actually care about. Where is the new office? How long is the commute? How many desks are there? How many quiet rooms? Will hybrid work policy stay? What will happen to teams that need focus or privacy? Who was consulted? What happens if the new setup does not work?

Outside evidence also backs this up. One study found that employee participation was linked to higher satisfaction with the relocation process, including “satisfaction with information, support, office rules, and overall knowledge of what was happening”.

Of course, moving even with perfect communication can still frustrate people. Some commutes will get worse. Some teams will lose things they valued. Some people will simply prefer the old office. But clear communication changes the tone of the whole process. It shows that leadership understands what employees are giving up and what they need in return.

Handled well, a move can improve how people work. Handled badly, it can damage trust long before anyone walks through the new door.

Are you planning an office move or design? From conceptual design to moving, circular furniture, IT recycling and more, we can handle everything. Get in touch with one of our consultants today.