With COVID-19 cases declining in several parts of the world, companies are calling workers back to the office after work-from-home measures. However, employees appear to be losing faith in their management that they are able to handle the pandemic situation in the workplace.

According to a weekly survey published by pollster Morning Consult, the number of remote workers trusting their employer to ensure the right decision on returning to the office hit the lowest point in 12 months. A little over half of those surveyed agreed, down from about two-thirds who had previously expressed trust in their employers in recent months.

The report found that Bank of America, Citigroup and Credit Suisse Group are among the big companies seeking their employees to return back to US offices in the coming weeks as the COVID-19 situation improves in the country.

The announcements have come only weeks after several companies allowed their employees to work from home in view of the impact of the Omicron variant of COVID-19.

Meanwhile, there are a number of employers, like Apple, who have postponed their office returns indefinitely. Amid the prevailing global COVID-19 situation, experts point out that making firm plans at workplaces can be in vain.

Speaking in this regard, Joanna Piacenza, head of industry intelligence at Morning Consult, noted that companies are constantly changing their plans to resume work from office and it is making many employees uncomfortable due to such uncertain changes. 

“Employers are currently facing a near-impossible balancing act of following through on the reopening timelines they announced back in 2021 while also being mindful of their employees’ comfort levels and health," the official said.

This increasing disconnect between employees and their managers is impacting other areas of work as well. While the report says nearly three out of four executives affirm that they are being “very transparent” about remote working policies, less than half of employees are agreeing with that. The recent survey saw the participation of more than 10,000 white-collar workers.

Evidently, employees' distrust in their managers has consequences. Workers have expressed concerns over the lack of transparency from their managers. As a result, a majority of employees are likely to be looking for a new job, a survey conducted by Slack Technologies-led research consortium Future Forum found.

Another reason for growing distrust could be lack of communication between employees and their bosses. For instance, last week, 42 percent of companies workplace consultant and researcher Gartner that they had not interacted with their employees about the January 13 ruling of the Supreme Court rejecting US President Joe Biden’s vaccine mandate or periodic testing requirement for large companies.

Brian Kropp, head of HR research at Gartner, underlined that the indecision could be emerging from almost two years of changing policies which has resulted in the exhaustion of both employers and employees.