Intro
Hello, how are you doing? It has been quite a while, hasn’t it.
After 8 editions of this newsletter my working life took over. I had 9 more editions in draft but, after a little over a year, I’ve decided to re-start it afresh with something new and topical.
Two-thirds of CEOs think staff will return to office five days a week
According to KPMG1, most CEOs believe that we’ll all be back in the office 5 days a week by 2026. I am very intrigued by this for lots of reasons, not least because whichever side of this debate you’re on - there are nuances and complications.
If you’re in the camp that thinks we should all be back and chained to desks then you’ll likely lean into the fact that it’s much easier to teach and learn the social and soft skills required at work in person.
And I’d agree. I think if you’re in the early stages of your career, then being around people and learning how ‘the game’ works is vital. It’s really hard to stand out from behind a screen. Even if you’re great at your job, it’s the human connection that makes the fact that we have to sell our labour, whether we want to or not, more fun and interesting.
You may also say that bringing people together increases creativity and collaboration. Well, I think this is debatable. I know from working with teams scattered around the globe that it is much easier to solve problems, answer questions, and explore ideas in person, informally. Jumping on a call just isn’t the same. But, I’d also argue that you probably don’t need to be in the office all the time for that though. And, being back in the office for that reason full-time is actually detrimental.
Another argument goes along the lines of ‘it’s good to foster company culture’ for people to be around each other. Again, I don’t fully disagree but I would say culture can be terrible in person too. I know plenty of remote workers who feel really connected to their company and plenty of in person ones who feel completely disconnected. Culture is a more complicated animal than just sitting in the same room.
So what about the arguments against?
You might, like me, say “I get more work done at home.” And I do. I never get any ‘deep work’2 done in the office. Too many distractions and noise. I like to walk around when I think and booking out an entire meeting room to do that feels selfish and, with modern meeting rooms being goldfish bowls, like you’re performing in an Es Devlin glass box. That being said, the modern hybrid working cadence of endless messages and meetings can make deep work tricky from any location.
Perhaps you have better work-life balance now, without a 2 hour daily commute? I think this quite key for a lot of people, young and old. If you’ve been in the workforce a while then you feel like you’re getting some time back, and if you’re young in your career then you don’t know any different than shutting down your laptop at 5.30pm and getting on with your life. I’m not sure there’s a job or enough money in the world that could make me want to commute 5 days per week.
I think there’s also an underlying conversation where, through the pandemic, companies needed people to compress their working and home lives in a way that we haven’t fully dealt with yet. The messages “you now work from home” followed by “now you’re back in the office” psychologically removes choice and autonomy and I wonder if people, pushed from pillar to post, feel a little raw about that.
The global pandemic was a very particular event but I know a company that was actively against letting people work from home beforehand and then very quickly rolled out the technology and freedom necessary when it struck. Obviously, needs must, but to then be told ‘thanks, you worked at your dining table, with your kids being homeschooled with no work/life separation, now come back because we own you’ is a likely a brusque message to receive.
So what’s the answer?
Truthfully, I don’t know. My sense and experience would suggest that a regular office cadence is good for team connection, culture, enjoyment, collaboration and creativity but what is that cadence? 2 days per week. Sometimes 1. Sometimes 3. I think departments and teams need flexibility to achieve what they need to in a way that suits them. There will always be people that prefer working in an office and people that would like to be fully remote, the key is finding the balance in this. And I think that it probably ebbs and flows and shifts over time.
The other question to answer is that if this ebbs and flows and teams have autonomy, what does hybrid working look like? Is there anything worse than travelling to an office to sit on Zoom meetings all day? I suspect that some of the challenges related to hybrid/remote working are actually much more closely tied to modern working culture: too many meetings, no agendas, no clear goals, 24 hour Slack messaging etc.
Although I’m in favour of hybrid working for reasons other than cold productivity, some of the data doesn’t look particularly attractive.
Interesting things this week
I’m currently reading The Experience Machine and you may want to too.
Ken Loach’s final film (probably) The Old Oak is uneven, heavy-handed but filled with hope and quite moving.
The Champions League returned to St. James’s Park after 20 years.
Thanks for reading and sharing you want to agree or disagree then feel free to leave a comment or hit reply and say hello. I’m always interested in what you think.
Onward!