We are getting the future of work wrong because we are using the wrong language. 

There is still so much being talked about and written about regarding the future of work. We have companies demanding that employees return to the office on a permanent basis; we have companies who are dictating which days employees should be in the office; we have companies dictating how many days employees should be in the office each week; we have companies declaring office-first whilst others declare remote-first.

GitLab has a list of 10 different models of remote and hybrid work to choose from!

There is widespread confusion and uncertainty both for both company executives and employees as the latter push back on executive decrees.

None of those working models are right. Let me explain.

The language we are using is wrong. We all need to speak the same language and understand what it really means. We all need to be on the same page. What remote-first means to one person will be totally different to what it means for another person. We need clarity.

Note: In this newsletter I am talking about the employees who can work from any location effectively.

REMOTE FIRST / OFFICE FIRST

Neither of these “firsts” are right. The only “first” we should have is “PREFERENCE FIRST.”

Organisations and their leadership should work with employees to determine their preferences and work towards fulfilling those preferences. Individual teams and cohorts should work together to determine when it makes sense to physically collocate in the same location.

We read about how most employees want to continue to work remotely post-pandemic but there are also employees who want to return to the office. They may not have a home environment that is conducive to working from home. There may not be the space needed or there may be too many distractions. The preference of these employees is to return to the office on a permanent basis.

When considering working models, organisations need to think about these people too, and provide space for those who prefer to work in the office or need focus space when in the office.

 

We must remember that work is what we do and not where we go. If we thought about the office as just another place to work remotely from, that would change our language and how we describe our working model. Where we may have said “office first” we could now say “remote-first” and the old office is just another remote location to be utilised.

Employees should be given both the flexibility to work from where they want and the autonomy to decide how to use that flexibility.

The dictate to work 3 days in the office dressed in hybrid clothing is not a preference first model. It makes no sense to dictate the number of days. What is the reasoning? Use of office space? Why would I have to attend the office for 3 days each week when I can be far more productive working from home and avoiding a 2-hour commute? The same applies to dictating which days an employee should be in the office. Why? Why would I have to attend the office on Monday when I am working on head-down focused work that I can do far more effectively in the quiet of my home office?

When individuals and teams decide they want to physically collocate, and they are using the “old office” location, they can use a booking system to find the space they need for the task at hand. Just as they would with a co-working space. This manages the use of space and avoids demand exceeding capacity.

New language: PREFERENCE FIRST

HYBRID

The term hybrid was used to describe the initial working model for most people when the pandemic hit in early 2020. There were those employees who had to remain in a certain location to fulfil their roles whilst others were sent to work from home. But that term does not apply anymore.

Here are some definitions of hybrid.

Cambridge English Dictionary – “something that us a mixture of two very different things”

Merriam-Webster – “having two different types of components performing essentially the same function”

The Free Dictionary – “something having two kinds of components that produce the same or similar results”

All these definitions reflect the fact that hybrid has two elements. The future of work model has many elements and working locations. I could work at the “old office” building - now just another remote location; a co-working space; home; café; library; hub; or university. In this article Albert Costill describes 15 different places you can work from.

So, let’s drop the term hybrid as it not a matter of either-or.

Once again work is what we do, not where we go. So rather than saying hybrid, or any of the other terms in use, just call whatever you put in place a “working model.” Make sure it is co-created with employees and that everyone is absolutely clear what it entails.

New language: (OUR) WORKING MODEL

FLEXIBILITY

We refer to flexibility as the ability to work from any location which enables us to be effective.

Flexibility is not just about where we work, but also when we work. One thing we learned during the pandemic was that it was possible to schedule our professional life around our personal life, rather than the other way around that it had been for most people prior to the pandemic. We arranged the kids pick-up and drop-off around work. We scheduled medical appointments around work. We scheduled our care-giving tasks around work.

We should now schedule work around those activities. Of course, there are consideration regarding being available for team activities, but I should be free – most times – to pick up the kids from school – and then work an hour later when I get home to finish off what I was working on. I should not have to make alternative arrangements just because I still required to be “working” from 9 to 5.

Personally, I do my best work in the morning so would rather start my day early and finish early so I can get on the treadmill at 4pm and then “call it a day” at 5pm. If I have a client meeting that has been schedule for 4pm or later, then that is ok. It is a business-driven outcome that I need to attend to but otherwise I can vary my working hours to suit me.

Because we have used the term flexibility to describe where we work and we now need it to also describe when I work, I suggest we use the word “autonomy.” The autonomy to work when you want and where you want whilst achieving business driven outcomes.

New language: AUTONOMY

OFFICE FOR COLLABORATION

Because we have defined hybrid working as at the office or at home, we have assumed that the office has now become the place for people to go to collaborate. The place for team building, high energy brainstorming sessions, or collective brainstorming. Whilst these are activities that the office should facilitate with workspaces matched to the activity, the office (as we called it) still needs to accommodate other types of activities.

Most employees who attend the office to undertake those activities will most likely, at some time during the day, need some focus time. There should be workspaces to accommodate this. There also need to be other types of workspaces.

Breakout spaces – informal workspaces – quick chats, spontaneous one-on-one meetings, workplace socialisation 

Co-working spaces – small meeting rooms equipped for digital presentations and virtual meetings

Conference space – larger meeting room for group discussions, brainstorming activities, war rooms, and planning sessions also equipped for digital presentations, and video conferencing

Creative spaces – rooms that inspire collaboration, innovation

Relaxing spaces – dedicated relaxation and break spaces

Hot desks – single desks or cubicle type spaces

All spaces must have the technology to connect people regardless of locations.

The “office” becomes just another remote workplace that is equipped with activity-based working facilities and the latest and best technology to connect the entire workforce wherever they may be working from. The “office” along with the home, hub, café, library just becomes a workplace of choice.

New language: WORKPLACE OF CHOICE

PRODUCTIVITY

The worst thing that happened throughout the pandemic was the rise in global demand for employee surveillance software.

The increase looked like this:

·       80% in March 2020 compared with the 2019 monthly average. Demand for the software the following month was also 65% higher than in 2019.

·       78% in Jan 2022: the biggest increase in demand compared to 2019 since March 2020.

·       75% in Q1 2022: the biggest three-month increase in demand compared to 2019 since the pandemic began.

·       Sustained demand: 58% higher since the pandemic was declared compared to 2019.

What was considered a knee-jerk reaction by bosses who suddenly did not have line-of-sight of their employees in March 2020, has shown itself to be anything else than reactive. The demand has continued as show on this graph from independent VPN review website TOP10VPN.

Source: https://www.top10vpn.com/research/covid-employee-surveillance/

 

Employers started to monitor keyboard strokes, internet usage, email, browsing history, employee location, and video recordings.

Suddenly employee productivity became synonymous with time spent at the computer. You can read how employees have been responding to this in my newsletter “Leadership- The Horror Movie.”

Managers resorted to or amplified their micromanagement of employees. Rather than regularly checking-in on their wellbeing they checked-up on their activity.

Managers who had previously considered hours spent at the desk as a sign of productivity now had that misconception amplified. They were now not only monitoring keyboard stokes and statuses on communication platforms as an indicator of productivity they were using the hours spent at the desk as a measure of performance.

This was a massive wake-up call to those managers who could not use outcomes-based performance measures and recognise that it is performance not productivity that is a measure for the knowledge worker. Knowledge workers don’t produce widgets that can be counted. They think for a living. They create, solve problems, innovate, develop new products and services. This inability to competently measure employee performance eroded manager and employee trust.

We must measure outputs not inputs. We must measure outcomes not hours at a desk. We must stop talking about productivity measures and talk about outcome measures.

New language: OUTCOME MEASURES

Summary

The language we use can be confusing. It should not be remote-first or office-first, it must be preference-first. A hybrid working model is not two working locations – it is many. Flexibility is not just about where we work but also when we work. The office should become just another remote workspace. Performance is not based on productivity measures it is based on outcome measure. It is time to change the language.