Project managers generally fall into two distinct types: facilitators and demanders. As someone who has worked for project managers as well as having them work for me, I feel confident making this distinction.

Facilitators

Facilitators actively contribute to getting tasks done. They play a hands on role in delivering results and often get involved in the finer details of the project. Their effectiveness is apparent when they go on holiday: productivity may slow or even halt because their direct involvement is crucial to progress.

However, facilitators have a notable weakness—they are often too immersed in the process. This closeness to the “coalface” can make it difficult for them to maintain an overarching view of the project. It can also hinder their ability to transition seamlessly between projects since they are deeply embedded in the operational details.

Demanders

Demanders, on the other hand, take a more removed approach. They don’t do much hands on work themselves; instead, they push, chase, and pressure others to deliver. Their value lies in their ability to maintain momentum, as they often accelerate delivery timelines by holding team members accountable.

Interestingly, when demanders go on holiday, tasks may still get done—albeit at a slower pace—because their presence primarily serves to keep pressure on the team. Their absence gives the team a breather but doesn’t stop progress entirely.

Distinguishing the Two:

At first glance, it can be hard to tell facilitators and demanders apart. However, their behavior and approach reveal key differences:

Facilitators:

• Provide actionable solutions.
• Offer hands on help to overcome obstacles.
• Criticize constructively by identifying steps to resolve issues, e.g., “This can be done if we contact X and Y to address these dependencies.”.

Demanders:

• Focus on dates and deadlines, and how this effects perceptions of the project by the wider company.
• Use corporate jargon like “root cause analysis” often without direct knowledge of the production process.
• Sometimes use blanket statements: “We’re missing deadlines, This isn’t acceptable”.

Ultimately, facilitators are deeply engaged in the delivery process, while demanders rely on oversight and pressure to drive results. Recognising these distinctions can help organisations understand how to better utilise their project managers for different challenges.

As most companies and corporations start pushing everybody slowly back to the office full time ¹. It turns out that there are a couple of hidden and not so hidden costs to this, and moreover, they only effect those that are good at remote working.

1)

If you are an efficient remote worker, you plan your days out, and tend to actually commit the same amount of hours to your day working from home as you would for a full office trip.
To explain that better. Once I have my shirt and tie on, I am in work mode. If I’m in my home office, that means I can use that time for calls, emails or genuine work. From my client office, however, that means I waste the first and last 30 to 90 minutes of that day travelling. ²

On a number of international projects I have been a member of, it has reached the level requiring H.R. involvement for permanent members of staff, as meetings that have been going on successfully for years at the very beginning and end of the day due to time zones, suddenly have terrible attendance because people are travelling during those times.

2)

A far more insidious impact, and one that both helps and harms the delivery of work for corporations but requires a long term view , is the time taken to actually socially collaborate with your fellow office drones.

If I go into an office with a clear list of things I’m going to do and how long I will take to do them, i will have to add about 2 hours to that estimated time because I’m sharing a work place with fellow humans not just loud motivational music.

And if you only think like that, for a full week in the office, I would loose 10 hours worth of delivery just being a paid up member of the human race ³.

But then it starts to get complicated. Sometimes, a quick face to face conversation solves hours of meetings and emails, an over heard chat 2 desks down stops you making a costly blunder or makes you aware of something.

All this variance means that there is no clear absolute winner for the move back to the office and no one size fits all. But the points I take away having to manage it for both clients and team members are:

• Full time in the office hurts the productivity of efficient or hard working people, give the people that plan their days out at least 1 day a week to get their head down and clear backlogs.
• Measuring improvement based on being back in the office is a long term game, as in the short term there is often a drop on what people actually get done.
• Much as it is irritating to some team members, if you have made them come in, then make them sit together as if they all go an hide in little booths and corners you have just made the whole thing pointless. If they state they need that space then let them work from home and move to a more delivery focused measurement of work to try and evaluate that.
• Realize that people are different and just because you as a manager like everyone sitting around you, does not mean that others do and are more productive that way, you are not helping yourself by pulling such people in.

1. .Denials from the powers that this is not the case are not fooling anyone[↩]
2. with a bit of emailing done on my mobile.[↩]
3. .ignoring the lost hours due to travelling from point one[↩]