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Malcolm Gladwell and the Very Bad Remote Work Take

Business Leadership by Christopher J. Dwyer on 08/09/2022

Quick question for you: if you’re working on something critical for organization from your home office, do you think it matters if you’re wearing pajamas or loungewear rather than traditional office attire?

Well, of course not. But Malcolm Gladwell does. Here’s some of his commentary on the Diary of a CEO podcast (and as transcribed by The New York Post):

“It’s not in your best interest to work at home,” he said. “I know it’s a hassle to come into the office, but if you’re just sitting in your pajamas in your bedroom, is that the work life you want to live?”

“Don’t you want to feel part of something?” I’m really getting very frustrated with the inability of people in positions of leadership to explain this effectively to their employees.”

“If we don’t feel like we’re part of something important, what’s the point?” he said. “If it’s just a paycheck, then it’s like what have you reduced your life to?”

Let’s get this out of the way first: Gladwell has been a huge success in the world of innovative business thinking. He’s a trendsetter, a unique thinker, and a talented writer. To be very clear, he also has multiple known and proven conflicts that show his many of opinions may be less genuine than his writing suggests.

When it comes to the viability of remote work, he’s also a hypocrite who has spent 10,000 hours working from home (from a 2005 feature at The Guardian):

By leaving his desk behind, Malcolm says that he’s been able to disassociate writing from work. “It seems like a fun activity now. Kind of casual. It’s been more seamlessly integrated into my life and that’s made it much more pleasurable. I never want to be at a desk again.”

And, also from that feature:

Malcolm says: “I hate desks. Desks are now banished.” He starts the day writing at home, but this is always done from his sofa, using his laptop. “I work better when I’m comfortable,” he says. After a stint on the sofa, it’s out into the world.

I’ve been an admirer of most of Malcolm Gladwell’s work over the past 20 years. He has long been considered a visionary, someone who can look beyond the limitations of business thinking and provide value and innovation to leaders who want their organizations to thrive.

Last week’s take on remote work, to be brutally honest, is Gladwell being a contrarian (or propagandist – see below). By saying “It’s not in your best interest to work from home,” he is literally telling his millions of followers that a critical attribute of their work-life integration over the past two-and-a-half years is not the ideal way to work and operate. And, on top of that, as the workforce continues to traverse even more into the realm of humanity, Gladwell is opposed to talented professionals working in an environment that has proven to improve productivity, enhance talent retention, and increase company revenue. (Note: he says he works better when he’s comfortable,, but just re-read his recent quotes from last week at the top of this article.)

Gladwell says that he believes that not working in an office means we’re not “part of something important.” How can anyone, let alone someone that was once a business visionary, publicly state that working from a home office, no matter the rigor or the hours or the effort or the productivity or the late nights or the weekends spent on a laptop, means there’s nothing important that they’re linked to?

The stubborn frame of mind spouted by Gladwell is the literal antithesis of the Future of Work movement. The Future of Work is based on agility, humanity, flexibility, and purpose. Remote work (and hybrid workspaces) promote every one of those aspects.

Gladwell links home office attire (particularly pajamas) to “work life.” How many of you reading this right now have put together tremendously successful projects while in leggings or sweatpants? How many of you have developed innovative solutions, services, or products late at night while wearing a hoodie and shorts? Is there a cat on your lap when you take a video call?

I wrote most of the recent VMS Technology Advisor, a highly-complex project with thousands of data points and insights, in Under Armor shorts and various mono-colored t-shirts from the Gap. Many of the articles on this site were written in that type of attire. I’ve delivered many presentations on video and no one would know that, while I seemed to be wearing a dress shirt, there were athletic shorts below the camera. Even over video conferences, we can see each other’s faces and feel emotion. We can smile and laugh along with jokes together even if we’re hundreds of miles away from each other.

And, finally, regarding the notion of “being part of something”: I and so many others are already part of something. I’m part of a team of individuals whose talent is outstanding (hi, Ardent Partners family!). I’m part of an industry with so many individuals that I can call friends…most of which I haven’t seen in years in-person yet the distance doesn’t affect our fondness and connections. I am a part of a family with an amazing wife and two kids under 10 years old, who I have the ability to walk to the bus stop, cook dinner, help with homework, and read books.

Honestly, it is no surprise that Gladwell, the well-known author (and lesser known tobacco industry propagandist and longtime cigarette apologist) is pandering to the anti-remote work community. One question worth asking is whether or not he is being compensated (by, say, pension funds and other investors in corporate real estate?) for his contrarian’s take on a core Future of Work attribute? (After all, no less than Adweek once asked, “Was Malcolm Gladwell in the Pocket of Big Tobacco?“) It is absurd to think that Gladwell is being genuine here. He’s been wrong on tobacco, and now, he’s wrong on remote work.

Either way, he is criticizing an accelerant that has literally transformed the way we work, connect, collaborate, etc. And, clearly, the analysis behind his take does not account for the millions of workers across the globe that have experienced a newfound sense of flexibility within their lives that they have never felt before, allowing them to spend more time with family and friends, attend important events that they would have otherwise missed because of awful commutes, and, of course, the malleable schedules that have enabled them to optimize they way they work and live.

It’s in their best interests to work from home, after all.

Why Hybrid Work Works

Business Leadership Technology and Innovation by Featured Contributor on 06/28/2022

[Today’s guest contribution was written by Tim Minahan, EVP Strategy and Chief Marketing Officer at Citrix.]

Employees given the flexibility to work both in an office and at home report higher levels of engagement, productivity and well-being.

Whether businesses like it or not, hybrid work is here to stay, and employees like it. And whether they believe it or not, the model is working. Research shows that hybrid workers – those who work partly in an office and partly remote – are more productive and engaged than employees who are entirely office-based or fully remote. They also report better well-being – both physical and mental – and feel more positive about their organization.

Despite the evidence and clear benefits that hybrid work can deliver, many companies are still grappling with whether and how to implement it. Some business leaders feel that real work can’t get done outside the office. But if implemented properly, flexible work models can lead to a more productive, healthy workforce.

More Productive

As revealed by Work Rebalanced, a poll of 900 business leaders and 1,800 knowledge workers around the world conducted by Citrix, 69 percent of hybrid workers feel productive, compared to 64 percent of remote workers and 59 percent of in-office employees. Further,

69 percent of hybrid workers feel engaged, compared to 56 percent of remote workers and 51 percent of in-office employees.
73 percent of hybrid workers are positive about their personal performance, as compared to 69 percent of remote workers and 65 percent of in-office employees.

More Connected

Hybrid workers also view their jobs and employers more favorably than their peers.

71 percent of hybrid workers surveyed say they have a strong emotional connection to their team and immediate colleagues which motivates them to work harder, compared to 63 percent of in-office employees and 60 percent of remote workers.
70 percent of hybrid workers say they have a strong emotional connection to their organization and leadership team, compared to 60 percent of remote workers and 58 percent of in-office employees.
69 percent of hybrid workers would recommend their employer, compared to 60 percent of remote workers and 56 percent of in-office employees.

More Balanced

The pandemic has upended the way people work and driven stress to record levels. But one thing is universal: when employees experience a state of well-being at work, they can unlock their potential, work purposefully and creatively, and make meaningful contributions to the success of the entire organization. Hybrid workers lead the way here too, with 70 percent of those who participated in Work Rebalanced reporting good well-being, compared to 61 percent of remote workers and 60 percent of in-office employees.

Empowered by Technology

When it comes to enabling hybrid work, technology is a key driver of success. Employees want access to tools that allow them to work where they want and how they need to be their most productive. And they expect their employers to deliver it.

Of critical importance is removing the noise and distractions from work that technology can create. As uncovered by Work Rebalanced, the average employee spends around 54 minutes a day dealing with technology challenges. The typical employee, for instance, needs to navigate four or more applications just to execute a single business process, and accessing them requires remembering multiple passwords and navigating a host of different interfaces.

It’s frustrating and slowing them down. But with the right solutions, IT leaders can simplify and streamline work technology to ensure that employees have the space for ‘deep work’ and focus.

The Hybrid Work Stack

Many organizations are already making efforts to do so, leveraging digital workspace solutions that allow them to:

Unify work – Whether at home, on plane or in an office, employees have consistent and reliable access to all the resources they need to be productive across any work channel, device or location.
Secure work – Contextual access and app security, ensure applications and information remain secure—no matter where work happens.
Simplify work – Intelligence capabilities like machine learning, virtual assistants and simplified workflows personalize, guide, and automate the work experience so employees can work free from noise and perform at their best.

IT departments are now much more focused on really understanding and meeting employee needs with the work technology that they provide and are taking more of an employee-led, design thinking approach when it comes to work tech infrastructure.

And the move is paying off, especially among hybrid workers. According to Work Rebalanced, hybrid workers feel more empowered by their work technology, with 68 percent saying that their work technology enables them to perform effectively, compared to 65 percent of remote workers and 60 percent of in-office employees.

The Future of Work

Hybrid work is the Future of Work. And as Work Rebalanced makes clear, it can create significant, positive outcomes for employees and employers alike. If given the flexibility, trust, and power to choose where and how they work best, employees will thrive. And companies that grant it will accelerate their innovation and growth.

Tim Minahan is the executive vice president, business strategy and chief marketing officer at Citrix, a leading provider of digital workspace solutions.

Elon Musk’s Calculated Gamble on Eliminating Remote Work is “Anti-Future of Work”

Business Leadership by Christopher J. Dwyer on 06/03/2022

As reported by Bloomberg, Elon Musk sent an internal memo to his workforce on Tuesday with this fireball of a quote:

“Everyone at Tesla is required to spend a minimum of 40 hours in the office per week,” Musk wrote in an email titled “To be super clear.” “Moreover, the office must be where your actual colleagues are located, not some remote pseudo-office. If you don’t show up, we will assume you have resigned.”

And, oh, it gets better:

In recent weeks, Musk has praised Tesla China employees for “burning the 3am oil” while saying that Americans are “trying to avoid going to work at all.”

What a way to instill confidence in your staff, Elon. Musk has been both lauded and criticized for his business approaches over the years, and, in recent months, has been on a tear in his quest to acquire social media giant Twitter. As the CEO of Tesla (and founder/CEO of SpaceX), he has transcended the limits of what it is be a well-known (and incredibly wealthy) technology executive; Musk is more celebrity than hardline CEO at this point.

Upcoming FOWX Live keynote speaker John Healy sparked an interesting discussion on LinkedIn this week about the fallout and ramifications of Musk’s mandate. The phrase “challenger brand” was brought up in the comments, and this is surely one of the many reasons why he is going large with his proclamations: it’s in his nature to be like this, and, it’s something he intends on sticking to no matter the criticism he receives from the business world. Musk has made it part of his public persona to challenge things in a rough-edged manner.

Here’s the thing, though: we’re not talking about Musk’s unprofessional criticisms of stay-at-home orders or his public ventures for control of Twitter. Musk is actively shaking up the Future of Work movement is a very negative manner for the sake of valorization of burnout and rigidity. Simply lauding the poor working conditions of Tesla’s overseas factory staff is bad enough (there are numerous reports of illnesses, injuries, and less-than-ideal conditions at these facilities over the past few years); to say that Americans, who have embraced flexible working models in the wake of a global health crisis and consequently reaped the many rewards of doing so, are “trying to avoid work” is even worse (and incredibly, incredibly untrue).

White-collar workers, who are typically enabled with the ability to work from home or inject hybrid days into their work-week, have been revolting against return-to-office plans that wreak of the pre-pandemic world. The Future of Work Exchange, since its launched last year, has been a progressive proponent of flexibility in the workplace, evangelizing the benefits of hybrid workplaces during an era in which a “Talent Revolution” is occurring because workers crave that flexibility.

The other aspect here that needs to be discussed is the calculated risk Musk is taking in proclaiming that remote work isn’t viable. Tesla is sure to lose staff in the wake of his new mandate, and, more critically, it will lose its status as a hotbed of talent in the eyes of candidates now and in the future. Working at Tesla surely has some panache, however, if the environment and culture reflect Musk’s ignorant vision, workers are risking burnout and an extreme lack of flexibility.

The Future of Work revolves around the notions of worker empowerment, flexibility, empathy, and a better alignment between workplace and worker. Elon Musk and Tesla’s approach to remote work is a backwards move that erases the progress the business world has made over the past two years.

Another Potential COVID Wave Should Permanently End Hybrid Work Hesitation

Business Leadership by Christopher J. Dwyer on 03/23/2022

I know, I know; we don’t want to hear it, especially after so many restrictions were loosened over the past several weeks. The more transmissible Omicron subvariant, called BA.2, has been causing a bit of havoc in China, the UK, and other areas that had (even recently) experienced a dramatic down-tick in virus caseloads over the past month or two.

The hard truth here is that, by utilizing wastewater analysis, we can detect increased COVID caseloads before they actually occur…and, as reported in The Wall Street Journal, things aren’t looking so rosy for the United States regarding another Omicron wave.

“The last few days have been a little worrisome,” Larry Madoff, medical director of the bureau of infectious disease and laboratory sciences at the Massachusetts Department of Public Health, said late last week. “It certainly bears careful watching.”

Wastewater sampling here and at hundreds of sites nationwide is once more drawing closer scrutiny from epidemiologists worried the spread of what appears to be a yet-more-contagious version of Omicron, known as BA.2, and rising cases in Europe could soon spoil the latest U.S. recovery. The number of wastewater sites indicating virus increases on a Centers for Disease Control and Prevention dashboard has risen in recent weeks, though the majority of sites still show declining levels.

In Boston and beyond, these systems during the Omicron wave helped quickly detect virus-concentration surges, declines and circulating variants, often before testing and case data. Health authorities believe it will become an increasingly important early-warning tool that can help guide public messaging and other responses, like marshaling resources to surging areas.”

There’s a lot to unpack there: the data shows declining levels, however, there’s more than enough concern to believe that rising cases across the pond predict the same here in America (historically, what happens in the UK is a crystal ball of what will occur in the United States three weeks or so later). “Still, the bottom line is that BA.2 is chiefly dangerous to those people who are not well-protected against the Omicron variant already. If you can’t be personally well-protected, then it is also important to be surrounded by large numbers of people who are. You need to evaluate local protective levels as well as personal immunity and decide on the precautions you want to be taking,” says Dr. John Skylar in his latest “COVID Transmissions” article, which is a must read.

Google and Apple are planning a return to the office early next month (in hybrid form, at least). Dozens of Fortune 500 organizations are doing the same. And then there’s Goldman Sachs, whose CEO David Solomon last year called remote work an “aberration” that needed “to be corrected as quickly as possible.”

I completely understand that business leaders crave normalcy (whatever that is today) and desire some form of in-person collaboration between themselves and their workforce, their workers and each other, etc. However, aren’t we past the back-and-forth now? Haven’t we reached a point when we can firmly say that remote and hybrid work are not only beneficial, productive, and flexible models, but should also be permanent fixtures of the contemporary enterprise?

There are millions of workers that cannot perform their jobs remotely and we need to respect that. However, there are millions more that can, and can do so effectively. We’ve gone through two years of this, particularly the discourse around return-to-office planning, whether it’s actually safe to do so, and how the workforce will react to a switch back to operating in-person.

Solomon said that remote work “is not ideal for us, and it’s not a new normal” at a finance industry conference in February 2021. What Solomon obviously has wrong here is that remote and hybrid work is the new normal, and, any conversations regarding full return-to-office plans are going to be spoiled by a virus that has not yet reached an endemic state. It would be foolhardy, and, to be honest, embarrassing, to mandate workers to return to the office five days a week (as Solomon recently mandated) and then have to re-pivot back to a hybrid model due to a rise in BA.2 cases.

We’re just so past these discussions by now and any CEO, executive leader, etc. that believes returning to the office five days a week is the best path forward is making an absolute miscalculation. The workforce wants to operate remotely. Top-tier candidates crave flexibility and the agility that are ingrained in remote and hybrid work. The Great Resignation, may we reiterate, is happening because workers are leaving jobs that don’t offer these flexible options. In a hyper-competitive, increasingly-globalized, tech-focused candidate market, do business leaders really want to miss out on talent because of their archaic, ignorant thinking?

We don’t know if the Omicron subvariant will cause a similar wave to what we experienced as a country from the 2021 holidays up until just a few weeks ago. What we do know is that even the slightest threat of another surge right now should be a wake-up call that any hesitation around hybrid work should be silenced…permanently.

Yet Another Phase of the Pandemic Sparks More Hybrid Work Debate

Business Leadership by Christopher J. Dwyer on 03/07/2022

It’s actually quite incredible when you really think about it: over the past several months, we’ve gone through several phases of the COVID-19 pandemic:

A Delta variant-led wave of cases and hospitalizations that rivaled last winter’s surge.
A brief lull, in which the Thanksgiving holiday kicked off what should have been a time for families to kickstart holiday plans that looked much different than 2020.
An Omicron variant-fueled surge that saw double and, at times, triple the amount of caseloads of the worst of the previous winter’s wave.

And now, we’re heading into the spring months (in the Northern Hemisphere) with yet another state of optimism that is actively guiding our personal and professional lives. The CDC has new facial covering recommendations based on risk levels predicated on county-level hospitalization rates and caseloads per 100,000 citizens.

If you watched the State of the Union address last week, you may have noticed that very few individuals in the room wore facial coverings during the event. As someone who routinely masks up in grocery stores and other indoor venues (even after three Moderna doses and while living in a heavily vaccinated state), this was something that I figured could bother some people…however, it’s clear that the greater direction of this pandemic is heading into a phase that promotes less restrictions and mandates.

And, speaking of the SOTU address: President Biden did at one point during his speech mention the much-vaunted “return-to-office” plans, stating, “It’s time for America to get back to work and fill our great downtowns again with people. People working from home can feel safe and begin to return to their offices. We’re doing that here in the federal government. The vast majority of federal workers will once again work in person.”

While the President was obviously ecstatic about the direction of the pandemic and wanted to capture this moment in front of a gigantic live audience, I fear that many business leaders will take this as a sign that it’s okay to rush workers back to offices without actually thinking of the flexibility and productivity gains that their talent has experienced over the past two years.

The conversations were due, especially from the moment that the first signs of the Omicron surge were beginning to slow just a few weeks ago. And now, business leaders face an existential question: how do they balance the need for in-person collaboration with the specter of talent retention risk hanging overhead? Is there a fine line between a return-to-office mandate and a softer approach, such as recommended office days? Will a too-quick, sudden “return to the days of old” alienate the workforce?

Future of Work Exchange research found that, on average, upwards of 43% of the typical enterprise’s total workforce operated in a remote or hybrid capacity heading into 2022. That number is probably much higher considering where we are today after the Omicron surge. Asking such a wide swath of the workforce to make such a critical call about their workstyle at this point in the game is, to be very, very blunt, asking too much.

While we don’t need to rehash the benefits, all of the signs are clear: workers enjoy flexibility, they enjoy the enhanced work-life integration, and they are fruitful in how productive they can be when they’re not wasting hours of each day on a commute. Business leaders cannot, and should not, expect total adherence and a willingness to leave what has been working so well over the past two years.

These articles, even though they are optimistic at heart, aren’t helping the situation. What we sometimes forget is that there’s a stark difference between feeling safer in a movie theater or restaurant now versus up and abandoning a workplace structure that has become the norm for the past 24 months. I wasn’t joking last week when I stated that, for real, we weren’t going back.

Being optimistic about the current state of the pandemic is one thing. Transforming that optimism into a reason to bring millions upon millions of workers back into the office when the remote and hybrid infrastructure has revolutionized how work is done? That is something much, much different. The move to remote and hybrid work was a reactive measure when it was first needed in March 2020. Two years later, it’s become a permanent fabric of the Future of Work.

“The Great Resignation” is Not An Economic Trend

Talent by Christopher J. Dwyer on 03/03/2022

Here’s a definition of “The Great Resignation” from old friend Wikipedia:

The Great Resignation, also known as the Big Quit, is an ongoing economic trend in which employees have voluntarily resigned from their jobs en masse, beginning in early 2021, primarily in the United States.

While I understand that Wikipedia is easily editable and can sometimes contain basic misinformation regarding history, politics, etc., what is represented in the above definition is unfortunately a common line of thinking in today’s frenetic world of business.

Even though aspects like “flexibility” and “remote work” are buried in that Wikipedia entry, the focus on economic thinking muddles The Great Resignation into a conversation around employees wanting more financial power as they traverse year three of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Remember, my friends, there’s a much clearer reason for this Big Quit, and it has little to do with money: it’s a “Talent Revolution,” and we’re all witnessing it first-hand as enterprises face staffing shortages, business leaders grapple with new models of working, and workers focus their energy on finding positions that bring value and purpose into their lives.

The Future of Work Exchange has been incredibly bullish about the Talent Revolution over the past few months, and rightfully so: placing the focus for tens of millions of voluntarily resignations squarely on economic factors misses the greater concept at hand…that the modern-day workforce has empowered themselves to transform the symbiotic links between “talent” and “employers,” all in the quest for more flexible, purposeful, and meaningful work.

Does The Great Resignation have economic consequences? Of course, let’s not kid ourselves. Staffing shortages are ravaging the financials of businesses, play a pivotal role in certain aspects of today’s inflation crisis, and, of course, contribute to product and supply chain disruptions across the world. (Also, as a side note: rising energy costs and fuel expenses are another complicated layer to the business arena today, as is the ongoing crisis in the Ukraine and its global financial and supply ramifications, as well.)

But these are consequences of a larger issue, one that has only been exacerbated by a global health crisis that has unfortunately shined a very, very bright light on the inequities and rigidity of today’s workplace and workforce structure. There is an underlying inequity in how workers are treated, how they are paid, how they are provided benefits, and how flexible their roles are considering the tremendous change in the world of talent and work over the last two years.

The Talent Revolution was always on its way; it’s unfortunate that it has resulted in an across-the-board, jarring “Big Quit” that has shaken the way businesses deal with extreme staffing shortages. However, there’s a reason equity, inclusion, better working conditions, and flexibility have become so critical: this is the power the workforce should have.

Every worker deserves a position that serves and aligns with his, her, or their purpose. Every worker deserves the flexibility to attend to personal and private needs and achieve a better work-life integration. And, every worker deserves equitable treatment, safe working conditions, and an inclusive culture that inspires them to thrive, think, speak, and innovate.

The Future of Work Exchange Podcast, Episode 612: A Conversation With Tim Minahan, EVP of Strategy and CMO of Citrix

Podcast by Christopher J. Dwyer on 03/02/2022

This week’s Future of Work Exchange Podcast, sponsored by PRO Unlimited, features a discussion with Tim Minahan, EVP of Strategy and CMO of Citrix. Tim and I discuss the impact of hybrid work on the Future of Work movement, the link between digital workspaces and the extended workforce, and what the future holds for remote work.

Tune into Episode 612 of The Future of Work Exchange Podcast below, or subscribe on Apple Music, Spotify, Stitcher, or iHeartRadio.

No, For Real: We’re Not Going Back

Business Leadership by Christopher J. Dwyer on 02/15/2022

Last summer, I wrote why the business arena was never going back to “normal,” my arguments owed to the fact that the vast majority of enterprises across the world were now operating in a corporate landscape that encouraged flexibility, innovation, and new and strategic ways of getting work done.

That was in the summer, a time when most of us were just a few weeks removed from being fully-vaccinated and ready for some semblance of normalcy in our personal lives. Could we attend a sporting event in-person? Could our kids finally return to school full-time? Would we be able to have dinner with our older relatives?

We now know that the Delta variant of the coronavirus had much different plans. And, shortly on the heels of that surge, Omicron brought its own playbook.

So now we’re within the end of the winter months. Many of the cities and states that experienced horrible caseloads and hospitalizations around the 2021 holidays and into January are now seeing those waves start to subside. And, inevitably, as things gets better, that question makes its return:

When do things get back to normal?

I was struck by this article in The New York Times by Charles M. Blow this past weekend. Blow writes:

All of us, I believe, were simply waiting to see when our lives would reset, and what the new normal would look like. We still believed that if we did the right things — at least if enough of us did them — that the pandemic would pass and things would snap back to the way they were.

But, as each month passed, and then each year, it became more and more clear that COVID would most likely move from pandemic to endemic.

There are many reasons why our personal lives will never return to normal, given the tremendous change we’ve collectively experienced over the past two years. Blow’s article, “There Is No Post-COVID,” illustrates how “COVID has made us reconsider everything, the meaning of home and work, the value of public space, the magnitude and immediacy of death, what it truly means to be a member of a society. We are still finding the answers to those questions, but the America we knew ended in 2019.”

While business itself doesn’t straddle the line between life and death, a novel virus that has upended the lives of billions of people across the world was always likely to bring permanent change to the way we work, how we work, and, of course, why we work. There should not be a single business leader that could honestly ponder when we would return to the “normal” ways of getting work done.

Societal change has dictated that we invest in and prioritize diversity, equity, and inclusion. Technological change has pushed us into new realms of digital transformation and automation. Leadership has transitioned into empathy-led business culture that pushes the “human” side of business into the forefront. Talent has undergone a revolution that has fundamentally altered the relationship between a business and its workforce, resulting in a “Great Resignation” that will forever transform the dynamics of talent engagement and talent acquisition.

We can see, however, how businesses would apply Blow’s quote above to their corporate world. Those early months of the pandemic, well, more like the first year (before the first vaccine campaigns), heavily-dictated just how much we in the business arena yearned for those halcyon days of 2019. No masks, no social distancing, no supply chain disruptions, no economic uncertainty. Instead, we faced layoffs, furloughs, and a veritable rollercoaster ride that seemingly had no end.

But the world has changed tremendously since then, both from personal and professional perspectives. Remote and hybrid workspaces are flourishing, while the power has shifted to the worker in today’s revolutionary war for talent. Businesses now know that the volatility of today’s market can be flipped to become competitive advantages. The economy is thriving. “Adaptation” has become a foundation for the future. Digitization has come full circle and is now driving innovation within the business stratosphere.

And, most important of all: the Future of Work has been realized.

Remote and Hybrid Work May Have Issues, But They’re Undeniably Powerful Future of Work Attributes

Business Leadership by Christopher J. Dwyer on 02/09/2022

I’ve long devoured news and analysis related to the concept of remote and hybrid work…and not just during these crazy pandemic times. I’ve been a hybrid worker for the entirety of my career these past 16 years, and, particularly over the past decade, more “remote” than “hybrid.” I’ve stepped into an office only a handful of times since March 2020. Besides my own experiences with the hybrid work, the Future of Work Exchange is committed to helping businesses and workers better understand the implications of such a model, the benefits, how to structure a hybrid infrastructure, and, of course, how the hybrid workplace factors into the digitization of work.

A recent New York Times article by Elizabeth Spiers, former editor in chief of The New York Observer and the founding editor of Gawker, argues that we, as both leaders and workers, have lost some semblance of “work” with it becoming “too casual” over the past two years. “What We Lose When Work Gets Too Casual” highlights that:

“There are trade-offs, though. The loss of workplace formalities like fixed start and stop times, managerial hierarchies with clear pathways for advancement and professional norms that create boundaries between personal and professionally acceptable behavior only hurt workers. Though the pandemic-era transformation of white-collar work seems empowering at first, we should not be deceived: Many of these changes mostly benefit employers.”

Spiers further writes that employers can take advantage of an environment in which the lack of shift formality means that workers will pump extra hours into their work and projects without the extra pay (for salaried employees, of course). This is, in fact, a common drawback to the hybrid model, in which workers cannot seemingly “unplug” from their work and suffer burnout, anxiety, and stress.

It’s often too easy for those work remotely to get caught up in work, to subconsciously allow personal and professional worlds to collide, and to let “casual work culture” become the foundation of a remote working environment. The office becomes home, and the home becomes the offices, Spiers writes. She’s not wrong, as for those white-collar employees that have been working remotely for a lengthy period of time, there is very little crossover between the personal and professional arenas. We stare at our phones checking email, keep our laptops within reach, and spend late nights toiling away. Working at 11pm is just as common as dialing into a video call at 11am.

Spiers’ points are made with good intentions, and she focuses on the fact that this setup mainly benefits the employers. What she is missing, however, is the inherent flexibility that is baked into the hybrid work model. This is what workers crave, it’s what they desire. They want to be able to do the things they want to do without having the pressure of in-person work, long commutes, and endless in-person meetings.

However, there is one idea, above all else, that needs to be taken into consideration. It’s the one driving factor that separates remote work in 2022 vs. remote work in the early months of the pandemic. Businesses must enable their employees with the necessary strategies, solutions, and tools to succeed. Working remotely (or in a hybrid model) does just that, and it’s the most critical argument here. Too much of a “casual” feel to work doesn’t mean that work is being negatively impacted nor does it mean that all remote workers will succumb to burnout (as Spiers writes: “Their personal needs don’t get met because work has so invaded their personal lives that there is no dedicated time for non-work life.”).

Remote work burnout is an issue, for sure. We’ve written about it here on the Future of Work Exchange (rather recently, too!). And I won’t be a hypocrite here: there are many weeks that I’m hitting 70 or 80 hours (or more), as are many of you reading this article. There are times when I sacrifice my personal or family time for work. However, the flexibility will always outweigh whatever imbalances pop up from time-to-time. The fact that I can make breakfast for my kids in the morning or say hi to them in the afternoon instead of being locked in an office? I would gladly take some of those late nights and long weeks for the ability to do these things. It’s a beneficial trade-off, as is the fact that I gain two hours not spending on commutes everyday; I can take the dog for a walk if I have an hour break, or schedule a doctor’s appointment without having to take an entire day off.

The other big point Spiers made in her article is that employers have the ability to “punt” on advancement conversations due to the “informal” environment of remote and hybrid workplaces. She argues that junior and less experienced employees may take on additional work without a clear path to promotions and advancement. While this may be the case in some organizations, I can confidently say that not all business leaders think this way.

The most glaring omission in Spiers’ article is this: she doesn’t mention the “Talent Revolution” happening today, nor the fact that the so-called “Great Resignation” is occurring because of a lack of flexibility within the workplace. Tens of millions of workers have left their roles because of lack of these dynamic benefits, so much so that business leaders are actively trying to configure new ways to find, engage, and source talent based on the overall culture and flexibility of the enterprise itself.

Work may be becoming more casual, but that’s not a bad thing.

Building the Hybrid Workplace is 2022’s Best Path Towards Digital Transformation

Business Leadership Technology and Innovation by Christopher J. Dwyer on 02/07/2022

As far back as four or five years ago, you couldn’t escape the greater business discussion of “digital transformation.” The discourse around digital transformation was quite simple and straightforward: enhance organizational efficiency, operations, and functional value through the adoption of automated solutions and digital technology. Now, the conversation may be much more stripped down than the concept itself, however, as implementing enough systems, connecting them via intricate architecture, and driving real solution adoption are all much more difficult, of course.

The other side of digital transformation (particularly business agility), too, is the fact that the “digital enterprise” harnesses the power of digitization to boost internal and external experiences (candidate, supplier, user, etc.) and end-to-end business processes. When this is taken into consideration, the goal of becoming a truly digital enterprise is that much harder, given the interconnections required to achieve these technology-led and business goals.

An enterprise’s best path towards digital transformation today is to capitalize on something that had been organically growing since before the pandemic while becoming a standardized way of operating during disruptive times: remote and hybrid work. The “hybrid workplace” requires many of the same measures that end-to-end digital transformation does, up to and including executive buy-in, the necessary software, and the cultural attributes needed to drive adoption and value.

Developing the next great hybrid workplace requires investments and resources akin to a full-scale digital transformation. No one said it was going to be easy, however, if a business had been long willing to invest time, money, and energy into digital transformation, why shy away now? Consider the stakes at hand: the so-called “Great Resignation” is largely occurring because employees desire flexibility, agility, and other aspects not related to compensation. The hybrid workplace is not just a “nice to have” at this juncture but rather a pure business investment that will pay incredible dividends in terms of productivity, engagement, and worker experience. Back in 2016 and 2017, digital transformation was the hottest business topic; let’s take that level of passion for digitization and apply it towards building the next great hybrid workplace.
Removing redundancies means a smoother, end-to-end experience for both traditional and remote workers (as well as other key stakeholders, partners, and suppliers). Digitally transforming the workplace to account for a hybrid infrastructure doesn’t just benefit those that primarily work from home. The digital enterprise is founded on a seamless user experience that allows all stakeholders and employees to access data, automation, intelligence, content, etc. in an on-demand manner. By shoring up technology gaps, removing redundancies for access (i.e., too many access points for stakeholders and workers), and providing a near-limitless experience, the greater business benefits from these digital enhancements.
An operational hybrid workplace translates into a superior employee/worker experience. While it’s true (and stated above) that workers crave flexibility, they also desire an overall “work experience” that allows them to be productive, happy, and collaborative. During the early days of the pandemic, the shift to remote work was borne of necessity, leaving little room to account for hybrid workplace nuances. Today, businesses have had time to plan and implement the best-fit hybrid work infrastructure and can truly develop a digital workspace that not only is operational and efficient, but also enables workers with a more positive overall experience. Most importantly: they will have the tools they need to be productive and effective in their roles…a surefire factor in keeping them from taking their talents to another organization.
Hybrid work technology represents the best of what digitization has to offer, allowing enterprises to set the stage for digital transformation. The simplest reason why developing a hybrid workplace is the easiest pathway to digital transformation? The technology in use is current, modern, and is connected to the core components of the Future of Work movement: it creates accessibility, drives intelligence, and boosts interconnectivity between humans and systems. Digital workspace technology is collaborative in nature and enables communication between functional units, as well as automated, on-demand sharing of data and content. The original foundations of digital transformation, even several years ago, revolved around the concept of real-time connections and superior interconnectivity between workers, leaders, customers, and suppliers. The hybrid workplace of today represents all of the aspects…and more.