Remote Work - Do The Right Thing
I am feeling extremely frustrated right now and as I write this, I know I am preaching to the converted. The feedback I get from my videos and articles tells me that most of you concur with my feeling about the demand for employees to return to the office. Yet the people who need to listen are not listening. Are they so protected n their CEO towers that common sense cannot enter?
This myopic focus on where work gets done is antiquated. The focus should be on how work gets done, that benefits both the employee and employer.
Instead of listening to employees and taking a dose of reality, they are now seeking more subversive tactics to get employees back into the office.
Whilst many are getting it wrong, there are those getting it right.
Getting it wrong
Google updated its hybrid three-day-a-week policy to include badge tracking and attendance will be included in performance reviews. In addition, employees who had received approval to work remotely may now have that status re-evaluated and the “privilege” will be granted “by exception only.”
Chief People Officer Fiona Cicconi stated in a memo viewed by CNBC “There’s just no substitute for coming together in person.”
An internal site called Memegen has been flooded with posts and comments regarding the new policy, with some comparing the new policy to treating the employees like "schoolchildren."
"If you cannot attend the office today, your parents should submit an absence request," one post viewed by CNBC reads. "Check my work, not my badge," says another.
My thoughts
I challenge Fiona Cicconi’s statement about there being no substitute for coming together. She is only partly correct. There is no substitute when the team or individuals decide that they will be more productive, collaborative, innovative, or creative if they were to get together in person. There is absolutely no point in everyone being in the same place when they are all heads down and working on individual-focused work or spending all day on video calls.
And those water cooler and hallway conversations can happen virtually as well as in person.
It is ironic that Google pitches its videoconferencing and cloud services as enabling remote working but pushes its own staff for a return to the office.
Salesforce
Salesforce has been a bit subversive in its latest attempt to get employees back into the office.
For each day an employee shows up at the office, a local charity gets $10. The fundraiser runs until 23 June and is called “Connect For Good.” A senior executive is quoted as saying:
“By showing up in the office (or for events), you're strengthening connections and creating a positive wave of change in your community.”
My thoughts
If you are trying to get me back into the office by appealing to my altruistic impulses, think again.
For every day I do not have to go into the office, I will donate $15 to a local charity. I will save that much by avoiding the commute and I will also get 2 hours back in my day
I will happily go into the office when it makes sense to do so.
I will happily of back into the office if I can say “yes” to this question at the end of the day. “Was it worth the commute?”
How do I strengthen connections and create a positive wave of change by just turning up in the office?
Connections are made intentionally and with purpose. They do not just happen by magic because we are in the proximity of another human being.
Apple
In line with the actions at Google, Apple reportedly is enforcing its three-day-in-the-office-each-week policy by tracking badge records. If employees do not comply, they are given escalating warnings.
According to CEO Tim Cook, this approach enhances the ability to work flexibly, whilst preserving the in-person collaboration that is so essential to the culture at Apple.
My thoughts
Enforcing employee attendance in the office three days a week IS NOT flexibility. Flexibility is choosing to work in the office when it will enable me, and my team, to deliver the best outcomes, not because the CEO demands it.
Tech companies like Apple employ clever adults then treat them like school children by recording their attendance.
Apple did not go under during the pandemic due to a lack of in-person collaboration. If employees and teams determine that in-person collaboration will produce greater results, then they make the choice to do so. If they can effectively collaborate whilst working remotely, then they make the choice to do so.
As the Apple slogan says, “How we come together is how we change the world.” It is not “How we work in an office is how we change the world.”
I wonder how much the $5 billion investment in Apple Park – one of the most expensive buildings in the world – is driving the demand for a return to the office to justify the real estate cost.
Amazon
Amazon’s head of HR dismissed an in-house plea endorsed by nearly 30,000 workers concerning the organisation’s return-to-office policy. Like Apple, employees are required to be in the office three days a week.
GeekWire spoke to Amazon employees who are not happy with the new policy. One employee criticised Amazon’s communication with its workforce, saying the company was not being transparent about the real reason for the return-to-office policy and recent layoffs.
Some employees believe Amazon leaders are using the return-to-office plan as another way to trim headcount, since people may quit instead of coming back to the office.
Amazon web services exec Matt Garman said, “… this shift will strengthen our culture and ultimately benefit us all.”
My thoughts
Culture does not live in an office. Period.
Amazon is clearly not listening to its workforce.
Will a demand to return to the office, really benefit everyone? Many employees moved to more remote locations during the pandemic believing that remote working arrangements would remain. They now have an unsustainable commute, three days a week, to do in an office what they could have done from home.
The demand to return to the office in many organisations including Amazon, leads to a lack of trust between employee and employer.
Why are employees not trusted to do their work and deliver business outcomes and value at a location of their choice? Work is not where we go, it is what we do.
Meta
Meta has also told employees they will need to return to the office three days a week starting in September. This is despite CEO Mark Zuckerberg saying in June 2021 that the company had learned over the course of the year during the height of the COVID pandemic that:
“good work can get done anywhere, and I’m even more optimistic that remote work at scale is possible, particularly as remote video presence and virtual reality continue to improve.”
My thoughts
This is a sharp U-turn for Meta and begs the question “why?” Will this lead to employees believing that is it an underhanded way to reduce headcount, as they are at Amazon?
The rest getting it wrong
There are many other corporate giants demanding a return to the office. These include Starbucks, Disney, Walmart, and Microsoft.
Getting it right
These are the ones to follow – the ones that get it right.
Now, there must be a disclaimer that organisations like Gitllab have been remote since they started so they don’t have the empty real estate to deal with and already have in place the legal necessities. That, however, is no excuse not to look at what they have done, and how they have done it, and adapt to your organisation.
Atlassian on the other hand, has a dozen offices around the world. It is just that you can choose if you want to work in one.
Atlassian
At Atlassian, they are all about flexibility and autonomy. They call it “distributed” work, not “hybrid.”
They explain why on their website:
“Hybrid work means mandating some arbitrary amount of office time. We considered both and said, “Mmmm… nope.”
Founded in 2001, Atlassian launched TEAM Anywhere, a distributed work policy that allows employees to work from (almost) anywhere in 2020.
I cannot describe their approach any better than sharing this from their website.
Where we work
Atlassians have flexibility in where they work – whether in an office, from home, or a combination of the two. That way, Atlassians have more control over supporting their family, personal goals, and other priorities. We can live in any of the 13 countries where we have legal entities. Atlassians can work outside their designated “home base” for short periods of time each year. We want our team members to explore the world or spend time with far-flung family and friends if that’s what keeps them energized and balanced.
How we work
We default to written and asynchronous communication because working hours vary so much from team to team. But that doesn’t mean we never talk in real-time! We use meetings to kick off new projects, brainstorm ideas, and reach decisions. The goal is to preserve as much time as possible for the deep work that is best done asynchronously, like coding, researching, and status updates.
When we connect
We work great together online, but we gather in real life to build personal connections. In fact, there’s a whole team available to help plan. Whether it’s a large team offsite, or an intimate social gathering for locally based Atlassians, our goal is to make gathering in person easier, more equitable, and more epic.
If you are still not convinced, watch the video.
Gitlab
Since its inception, Gitlab has had an all-remote environment. There is a great article from the March-April 2023 edition of Harvard Business Review. In the article “GitLab’s CEO on Building One Of The World’s Largest All-Remote Companies”, Sid Sijbrabndij provides sound advice for other organisations looking to adopt an all-remote workforce.
Gitlab’s 2000 employees are spread across 60 countries. The company neither rents nor owns any corporate office space.
Success depends on measuring output, not input; aligning people on norms and values; ensuring that policies and processes are continually and openly documented; and reinforcing key self-management and people-management skills.
Watch the Why Work Remotely video.
GitLab openly shares what “all-remote” really means, how it works at GitLab and some tips and tricks for remote teams.
GitLab even has a Remote Manifesto.
All-remote work promotes:
Hiring and working from all over the world (instead of from a central location).
Flexible working hours (over set working hours).
Writing down and recording knowledge (over verbal explanations).
Written processes (over on-the-job training).
Public sharing of information (over need-to-know access).
Opening up documents for editing by anyone (over top-down control of documents).
Asynchronous communication (over synchronous communication).
The results of work (over the hours put in).
Formal communication channels (over informal communication channels).
Conclusion
There is plenty of research on the benefits of remote working. The most common benefits are no commute, reduced distraction, work-life balance, and increased work flexibility, creativity and motivation.
The State of Remote Work 2023 report from Buffer findings include:
Remote work continues to be perceived as very positive. 98% of respondents would like to work remotely, at least some of the time, for the rest of their careers,
Flexibility remains the top benefit of remote work. According to respondents, 22% say the biggest benefit to remote work is flexibility in how they spend their time, for 19% it’s flexibility in where they choose to live, and for 13% it’s the flexibility to choose their work location.
When it comes to feeling connected at work, 75% of remote workers feel connected to their colleagues, even though a majority work across time zones.
So why not look at the likes of Atlassian and GitLab and work with your employees to build a working model that works for them and the business?
To see what is right and not to do it is want of courage
~ Confucius