 |
| Virtual, Live Performance Art. A New Form. Anna Zhilyaeva |
It was good while it lasted. #WFA Deniers.
The #WFA movement is taking hits all over the landscape as the hierarchies struggle for control and begin to inflict 'return to the plantation' mandates.
There are no reasons to force people back to a centralized, physical location to perform tasks in front of a monitor.
With Remote Work:
- Productivity increases
- Employee happiness increases
- Corporate costs are reduced
- Personal financial costs are reduced
- Business processes are organically streamlined and more productive
- Because more parents can attend their kids' school functions, the education industry is happier
- Spouses are happier
- Children are happier
- Dogs are happier
What are the stated reasons for back to the office and what are the real reasons? That is the question all leaders should be pressed.
Why?
For more than two years, employees, thrown into the wilderness of working from home, excelled and company profits swelled.
Still, the cajoling back to the cube persists. From a post on LinkedIn by a CEO, somewhere:
"There really is only one reason why leadership want employees back in the office, face to face, at least a few days a week. Because they believe in-person staff communication will result in better outcomes for customers and therefore the success of the company."
- Wrong.
Two years of remote proves the establishment is Wrong - except for Musk, he is 12 moves ahead and is not inflicting the mandate to increase productivity, he is shedding laggards, dolts, and ne'er-do-wells in order to create something that wasn't there before: productivity.
- It is the commute.
- It is being forced to commune with people one wouldn't hang out with when given a choice.
- Two-day-old tuna fish sandwiches.
- Staged 'employee appreciation' events.
- Mold in the refrigerator.
- It is being a party to a system that rewards people for "coming in early and leaving late".
- It's the realization that Taco Tuesdays and Casual Fridays are manipulative, not motivating.
In the end, the established hierarchies will 'win' this battle, but ultimately lose the War.
Now, get back to your cubiclized Wonderland, print those emails, move paper from one side of the desk to the other, straighten your power tie and get ready for the quarterly meeting up in the executive conference room.
So it is written.
The real question is there any value in locality. Locality to your peers, or to equipment you need to do the work. Or is there no value in it (I can work from anywhere).
ReplyDeleteIf there is no value, then the work you do can be done from anywhere, From San Francisco, or from London, or from Warsaw or from Mumbai.
If I pay a worker 3x to work from San Francisco, and there is no value in that, then I should pay for that remote work anywhere i can get the same skills and expertise for less.
Be careful what you wish for.
Great point! It seems the current 'value' of working in an office is supported by the, "we're paying for the real estate, anyway. We better fill it up to get our money's worth..."
Delete