#BackToTheCube movement has nothing to do with culture, productivity, or promotions - those excuses are red herrings.
Supporting what I've been saying for weeks, the Governor himself proves my point,
"Remember, we have to get people back and we have to get people back in volume. If you were to see a 15% decline of people coming back to New York City, that would have a devastating impact on the commercial market,” Cuomo said.
“We need people coming back,” he reiterated later on. “Say to your workforce, ‘By Labor Day, everyone is back in the office.’”
“We need that volume to support the restaurants and the shops, the services,” Cuomo continued. “It’s not just about your business. It’s about all the spinoff effect *affect* (my correction) economic activity that your workers bring to the surrounding community.”
"Workers" = field hands
"Volume" = taxes
It's even worse.
Not only do city officials worry, but middle and upper management are either oblivious to or terrified by the possibility of pure #WFH strategies. Consider this: when folks were sent home and told to work from home, we did this with little or no direction from HQ.
Granted, this had never been done before so there were no chapters on "Work from home" in the corporate handbook, so we had to make it up on our own as individual 'workers'. Productivity skyrocketed. The businesses that remained open, thrived. Office work, from H/R, Marketing, and accounting continued. All this WITHOUT BEING MANAGED.
For decades, at least since the 70's, sales reps have been posing their products as "solutions to problems". From Wiki:
"Frank Watts developed the sales process dubbed "solution selling" in 1975. Watts perfected his method at Wang Laboratories. He began teaching solution selling as an independent consultant in 1982."
This was big through the '80s, 90's and still stands today. Yet, "Solution sales" has become little more than a slogan. Closer to the truth, "Solution Sales: As long as the solution is my product or services."
Don't get me wrong, solution selling was a great advancement in the field of B2B sales. Solution selling is foundational in professional selling. Billions of dollars have traded hands based on this approach. Anything I promote rests on the shoulders of people greater than I.
Evolution happens. I believe an enhancement to solution selling is Business Acumen Selling. (BAS)
BAS is not about working leads through the selling cycle, understanding your leasing strategies, building good cases and presentations. It does not refer to a salesperson's ability to demonstrate a device or piece of software nor does BAS have anything to do with how well you update the CRM or forecast the next 90 days.
Business Acumen for Selling is:
Understanding - Recognizing the business model your prospects work within, understanding if you have and exactly where your place in their model resides, and the impact of your presence.
Comparative Analysis - Consistently acquiring knowledge, building acumen across commercial industries, vertical markets, and niches, and utilizing that knowledge.
Deep Conversations - Conveying your understanding of the existing environment and articulating your value within their ecosystem.
Most seasoned professionals have a sense of BAS honed through years of fieldwork and thousands of appointments. My goal is to formalize and shorten the timeline required to learn and apply BAS; especially for the new sales representative.
Our courses are designed to give selling professionals the tools necessary to gain knowledge, distill knowledge into acumen and articulate both an understanding of prospects' environment and the impact of adding the sales reps offering into the client's business model.
One of the arguments for a "back-to-the-cube" is corporate culture will be negatively affected when employees are not in close physical proximity.
This is false and manipulative.
Corporate Culture supports company ideals, values, and mission. I have yet to see a mission statement that includes "a place where all employees can work together under one roof, for 12 hours a day"
Instead of vilifying the work from anyway movement, better organizations will renegotiate property leases, redesign the promotion process,
Organizations with a #WFH culture will CERTAINLY create ways to 'promote' and build careers within the organization.
But wait...perhaps we're thinking of this completely wrong.
#WFH changes everything.
Perhaps the 'new' career path is yet to be created yet. Maybe, we don't know how the new culture will evolve.
"hybrid" and corporate culture claims are lies and trojan horses. The establishment, the old skool, the status quo, will cease to exist when #WFH becomes the norm.
If you don't want to work in a cube, report to an office at 7:30 AM after a 45-minute commute, sit in on empty meetings, listen to know-nothing middle managers pontificate company dogma, engage in another commute home at 6:00 PM to cold dinners, and missed Little League games, seek out organizations who feel the same way. Find companies that understand office space leases are not as important as employee wellbeing.
Be patient, don't let your current bosses know you're looking, tow the corporate line, feign loyalty (like they have for decades) and keep your eyes open.
The New Way of Work is still evolving. Look for them better organizations to rise, slowly, above the fray.
Do you know how much the corporate BBQ, Christmas parties, and other events cost your company?
Sure, it's nice to go see a baseball game or get to sit in the corporate suite for a basketball game...yet...consider this:
Would you rather get dressed up, hear a band, eat good food and listen to an executive pontificate with a bunch of co-workers or receive a check for the amount your company paid for the event? (divided among employees) Maybe use that money to take your significant other out on a date.
Does your company sponsor a minor league baseball team? Why?
Do you see your company's logo all over your "free" swag? How many copiers do you need to sell, in order to buy 14,000 logo'd coffee mugs? Sure, vendors kick down funds in support - what's in it for them?
We've been trained to believe these events are acts of kindness or perks from our benevolent employers, and for the most part, we're all appreciative.
But that was the old model, the pre-Fear of Covid way. Today is different. Today, you are different.
I dare you to ask for the company's internal "entertainment" budget.
The point is this: you are a 'Resource'(go ask Human Resources) and resources are meant to be used to the maximum for minimum cost.
There is nothing wrong with this model, it is revenue-cost=profit and what we sign up for when we work to support somebody else's dream. (No shame)
It's just that now we can recognize the manipulation - this is a "Red Pill, Blue Pill" situation.
Blue Pill: Buying into the dogma and believing the narrative you’ve been lead to believe is the truth.
I received this message in my LinkedIn box, a few weeks ago:
"Thank you for pressing the #WorkFromHome influencing messaging. Many of us out here can't say it and don't react to your posts because we're afraid our companies will see us advocating for something that can be construed as self-interest rather than company interest. Makes us targets if we do. You're blazing the trail for all of us. KEEP IT UP PLEASE”
Pretty cool, eh? I've been remote for just over a decade, outside sales is conducive to working at Starbucks, and parking lots - it was the beginning of work from anywhere. Indeed, I was cold calling businesses, on my Nextel, from the beach in SoCali back in 2003.
Consider this rudimentary timeline:
Data(files) were always at the office; everyone had to be under one roof just to be 'on the same page'
Fax machines allowed us to send copies around the world
Email helped us share bigger documents with prospects and clients
Laptops made us more mobile; I could now bring my files home to work on over the weekend
Pink phone message notes were the standard until numeric and alpha-numeric pagers became the rage
Cell phones replaced pagers
Smartphones let us connect to email from the palm of our hand
Ubiquitous WiFi gave us the ability to conduct online meetings from hotel lobbies and poolsides
Today, with data in the cloud and apps on phones, the CEO can track revenue, sales reps can monitor delivery schedules from the 9th tee or pontoon.
Who wouldn't want to be free to work from anywhere?
Here's why the establishment doesn't want you working from home:
You figured it out, and built office space in your kitchen, second room, or closet, with no guidance from HQ.
You learned Zoom.
You became more 'self-managed.
You weren't considered 'essential'. That high standing was reserved for the antiquated accounting department and even more old-fashioned mailroom.
And now, today, the taskmaster wants to look out upon a sea of workers toiling away in the cotton fields of the 21st century - the cube farm.
Managers hope we don't figure out how obsolete they've become - they fear for their jobs.
The most fearful are in the C-Suite. Those "Killers of Passion" who command their complacent, easily replaceable, and 'loyal' chattel back to the stalls.
It's worse. Upon return to the office, everything you learned and did 'for the company' during Covid is to be forgotten or suppressed - the hierarchical, top-down rules of management must be enforced to maintain order.
They entice and seduce:
Friday is blue jean day.
Group outings to the baseball game.
Free cappuccinos in the luxury kitchen; beer.
Catered breakfasts, corporate BBQs, and Christmas Parties.
401k's, healthcare, and 2.5% yearly pay increases.
Ignore the 45-minute commutes, and missed recitals.
Enjoy the useless, mundane, and mindless 4PM meetings that inevitably and predictably run over by 60 minutes - "this could have been an email."
Don't forget co-worker personalities and hostile environments - HR is not your friend.
"Some simply refuse to schlep back and forth to an office, taking two-plus hours a day commuting into a crowded, dirty and crime-ridden city. Insurance and financial services giant Prudential conducted a study that found “one in three American workers would not want to work for an employer that required them to be onsite full time.” - Forbes
Here's the nasty and silver lining: Covid19 and remote working opened our eyes to bigger possibilities. We can pursue our passions and our passion is not a 9 to 5 prison. Sure, there are great advantages to working for somebody else from anywhere. The big, huge transformation will not be technology-driven, it will be powered by passion your passion, unleashed.
This is a great fear the establishment denies - workers, once unshackled, will move away from the establishment and towards their personal, unique dreams. Maybe that dream is to be the best Events Manager in the industry - why would the best work for one company? Better yet, why wouldn't she work for herself instead of Big Brother?
Fascinating...the possibilities are endless.
Gambling man rolls the dice, working man pays the bill
I’ve been saying for almost 12 months that virtual selling and remote work is the wave of the future. I’ve also predicted that few people will go back to the office to work — which as you know will greatly affect your ability to sell copiers.
Well, ladies and gentlemen, I’m prepared to say that I was wrong with my prediction on how few people will come back to the office because some major corporations have announced a back-to–the-office policy. Companies like Bank of America, Wells Fargo and T. Rowe Price are announcing policies, and predictably, so are large commercial property firms. Any company with an interest in commercial real estate, office space and financing encourages everyone to come back to the cubicle.
This is counter to what happened over the last 12 months. Revenues for companies that operated during the pandemic went through the roof. Productivity for work-from-home employees increased by double digits. Employees were happier, reconnected with their family, ate fewer cold dinners, and never missed a soccer game.
However, this didn’t bode well for people who make a living renting office space, running parking lots, or selling copiers.
People will be coming back to the office, but does this mean they will be buying more copiers?
