ALI ROGIN: 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. like Amazon, Starbucks, even Zoom asked their workers to return to the office at least half of the week.

It's a big shift for millions across the country, many of whom have come to prefer the flexibility of working from home.

I recently sat down with Pamela Eyring, President of the Protocol School of Washington, to learn why back to the office may not immediately mean back to normal.

Pamela, thank you so much for joining us.

Private sector leaders have said that it's important to go back to work in the office because it increases productivity.

What do you make of that?

PAMELA EYRING, President, The Protocol School of Washington: Well, Ali, I believe that there are some merits of going back to work in person.

I mean, think about the benefits of collaborating with your teammates and colleagues for the leaders and your supervisor to see you working, actually working, and being able to go to that supervisor and say, hey, I have this great idea, or brainstorming with colleagues.

ALI ROGIN: What's your advice to employers?

It's been almost five years since we started dealing with remote work, and now workers are, in some cases, going back to an entirely unfamiliar working environment.

How do you advise employers to navigate this phase?

PAMELA EYRING: Well, I think they need to be encouraging, you know, and be not so firm and hardcore about it.

Get them excited.

Use the psychology of, you know, understanding what they've been through.

So psychologically, how do we make it easier for them?

And I think one way is to have a good working environment.

Make sure that they have their desk or a desk or somewhere to work that's theirs.

Make sure all the computers are updated and they have their monitors and they have a setup.

So it's just like when you're onboarding a new employee that you're ready for them, you're welcoming them, maybe even have some fun, you know, maybe some lunch and learns, or even having some team time to make it more fun to be back.

ALI ROGIN: What are some of the challenges that employers are telling you that they're having when welcoming employees back?

PAMELA EYRING: Well, first one that I've been getting a lot of because we've had an increase of need for training is business attire.

Because they've been behind the screen for now five years, and, you know, they don't really know how to dress appropriately in that workspace.

And we want to showcase our professionalism, whether we're on a zoom call or in person.

They can't wear their jammies.

They have to wear shoes.

You know, not that it's that bad, but I think, you know, it's been a long time.

And so they need to refresh.

What is business casual today, for instance?

ALI ROGIN: And to that end, we're navigating a number of generations here.

I mean, space from Gen Z all the way back to baby boomers and everything in between.

So how do you navigate that when people have different generational approaches to these things, different cultural touch points?

How does that all work?

PAMELA EYRING: Well, first I would say is, you know, especially boomer biases.

You know, don't have any biases.

It's a -- it really comes down to communicating expectations and in sharing what is professionalism.

So I think with the generations, I think the young generation should listen and observe and watch the behaviors of their, you know, maybe older generation of colleagues.

And then also they should be listening to them and understand, like have dialogue.

What's the best way to communicate with you?

I'm not a slack person.

I know you slack.

So is there another way we can communicate professionally?

Perhaps I like emails or maybe I like text messages and then collaborate on that and have that discussion what works for you and then come to a compromise.

ALI ROGIN: There was a recent Pew Research center survey that showed nearly half of hybrid workers said that they wouldn't want to work where they work anymore if they had to come into the office again.

What do you think employers and managers can do to help their employees better adjust to coming back to the workplace?

PAMELA EYRING: Ask them.

We think that we know what they want and we don't.

I think by going to them and maybe doing a quick survey, having some discussion about it and say, what can we do to make it more comfortable for you?

Perhaps they're concerned about, you know, the drive, the commute now, you know, I can't get to the office on time and, you know, maybe flex hours are needed now.

They have a child in school and they need to drop them off, sort of compromise a little bit and help those individuals that, you know, now have different needs and ask them.

ALI ROGIN: Pamela Eyring, president of the Protocol School of Washington, thank you so much for joining us.

PAMELA EYRING: Thank you, Ali.